Hello all.........
I have done a lot of thinking (and praying) about Socks and Gloves and this might not be the best place for this discussion but I love transparency so I am going to roll with this. I recently had someone ask me... What is your vision for Socks and Gloves? I must say it really made me stop and think. All of us have our own reasons for why we are involved in this but do we have a clear collective vision for where we see this group going into the future? We have touched on this subject a few times but I feel we have not made this clear to ourselves collectively and to people who have been involved. I can hear you thinking and I know that we all have hearts for sharing with people who have less and for those who are broken and we would all love to connect others with resources to help move them off the street.
I really Like what Ann wrote.. I have attached it below
[The central focus of Socks and Gloves homeless outreach work is to connect personally with the people we work with in a way that helps them to engage more fully in relationship with God and others via their gifts and talents. The socks, gloves, and other items we give away are really just catalysts to help us break the ice in relationship while meeting practical needs. Our goal is not to just give things away. Rather, we want to give away the love of Christ in a contagious and lasting ways.]
I would whole heartily agree this is our central focus but is this our vision as well?
I not trying to say that we need a vision statement. What I would say is that a clear vision of where we see Socks and Gloves going / headed might not be a bad thing.
I also like what Ann wrote here and I feel this really fits my vision for us.
[Socks and Gloves is a place where we hope everyone will be challenged to rethink what they believe about God and how their beliefs impact the way they interact with the people around them.]
I couldn't of said it better. Wish I wrote it!
How do you feel about it? [anybody]
Why don't we wrestle and engage this subject more often?
3 comments:
Always a good topic for us to regularly revisit - thanks for raising this Mike & Kellie!
I've been wrestling with my inner longings and with God on this idea again over the last few months. Ironically, today I finally sensed that I was getting back in step with more of God's will than my own on this. A lot of me would like to see us big, growing and producing a very visible/tangible fruit. A believe a lot of God's heart for what we do with this is quite different. Does he want us fruitful - absolutely yes; but, I have a strong sense that he defines fruitfulness very differently from my logically driven, strategically motivated western business ideologies.
I'll write more on this later; but, in a nutshell, I think a lot of our vision for S&G needs to include the goal of seeing the Jesus in each other even when we come from very different social/financial backgrounds. I want the homeless man to see Jesus in my eyes; and I want to see Jesus in the eyes of the homeless.
More later on this.... I gotta run; but, I'm eager to ready the toughts of others on this topic, too! Ann
Been thinking about this one for a bit.
It seems like a bunch of us ran out of steam right after our first core group meeting - we had a vision for the year, and a lot of enthusiasm, but it seems like we lost a bunch of energy then.
I do want to get my excitement for S & G back, and I think our upcoming Hot Dog event will do it - those are always a blast. I suspect that if I hadn't bailed on the last outing, just having so many people from Flood show up might have gotten the adrenaline flowing again.
I have other (hopefully more helpful) thoughts about all this, but I just ran out of time, so I'll post more later.
The vision sounds great. I can relate to what Tyson said, but for me it is more about knowing my priorities and specific roles that I must subscribe too. If I spread myself too thin, then I can run the danger of becoming ineffective across the board rather than effective in what I am supposed to be doing.
Ryan
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