Jesus, Bras and Common Grace

This past December our church (The Next Level Church) was displaced from its regular meeting place.  The church where we gather on Tuesdays was having a women's candle light tea, so we got bumped.  Needing a place to go we hatched a crazy idea of renting the music venue right by our new offices.  Seated it would hold 500, standing a 1000.  But instead of just doing our thing at the Gothic Theater, we decided to partner with a charity.  It seemed self serving to do otherwise.  To make a long story short, the night was a great success.  Not because of the number of people, but because we more than triples our goal of raising $5000 for Charity:Water.

Well, in a few weeks we are getting displaced again and guess where we are going?  You got it, the Gothic. Only this time we are partnering with a organization started within our community, Free the Girls.  Although, this time we are not looking to raise any money.  We are collecting bras.  Yes, you read correctly bras!  5000 bras to be exact.  TNL is hosting Denver's Biggest Bra Dive.

So why is TNL doing this?

Are we trying to look edgy and progressive? No.

Is this a desperate attempt of a church community that has been declining for over a decade? No.

Are we hoping to look cool by jumping on the social justice band wagon? No.

The reasons are simple: People.  Both locally and internationally.

We were not hoping to get more people to come to TNL, because our attendance the week after the last Gothic event was one of the lowest in a long time.  We were not hoping people would give money to TNL because the last Gothic event actually cost us money. Not only did we have to pay to rent the theater, but we did not take an offering that night either.  So, the event actually cost us double!

But our community made some amazing relational connections:

• with the owner of the Gothic.  He was SUPER skeptical of a church using his building. A place where Dimmu Borgir, Gwar and Timbaland  have all played.  But now he thinks we are doing some good work.
• with the Gothic staff. As a staff they have "prayed" against another church in the area.  Now they are promoting our event on their marque, website, Facebook page and in their AD for the Westword.
• with the house production manager. He probably thought he got the sucker's end of the job having to host a "Church" group using his building, until we told him we were doing a beer tasting back at our offices!  He come over for the hand crafted beer by indigenous TNL brewers (Bottom Line Brewery) and stayed until we closed the place down just before midnight!
• with our neighbors.  The quasi retired guy who lives across the street from our offices came last time.
• with our friends, coworker and family. After the last Gothic event we heard story after story about people's atheist, agnostic and non-church going friends, coworker and family who came and supported Charity:Water.

In the end, these events common ground to foster common good and common grace.  They are not just charity fundraisers.But a church community sharing the grace Jesus Christ. They are about people living what they believe to be true about God, mercy and jsutice. And that is why we are doing it all over again.