But when regular folks serve to show Christ's love, it blows their minds. Over the past twelve years, I have learned some valuable lessons about rejection that will encourage anyone who's gotten their nose stuck between a set of swinging doors. It doesn't take long for us to establish numerous paradigms for how life works. These understandings of life allow us to live efficiently so we don't have to rediscover how things work each day. One of these maps our culture has sees church very differently than we present it through our serving projects.
Church is supposed to be about parenting and fund raising.
When we go into the city to serve and don't even allow the public to give to us, that tilts people. Several times during the past year, I've had store managers deny us permission to serve because they weren't sure about company policy regarding cleaning toilets. Return to that location a week later and see if the response isn't more favorable. If not, shake the Windex off your feet and move on to the next location. I don't know where that one got started, but it flies in the face of all of church history.