Dirtbag Church

A few of my church members have asked about being dirtbags! Well, when our year-end financial reports were finished and we published the good news to the church, it looks like we are on our way to becoming dirtbags. Lonnie Watts, who is trying hard to be a dirtbag, challenged us a few years ago (and I have not forgotten) that 40% of our giving should go out of the church. We need to look into it and see where we are on that. That sounds like a pretty good measurement of being a dirtbag church!

One thing we can say for sure is that Trinity Hill is a generous church! The amount we gave to special offerings and missions is pretty amazing. It might seem like bragging if I give the number, but man, I was blown away. What we have seen is that leaving the United Methodist Church gave a lot of impetus to giving. We knew where we stood, and people trusted that since the money was not going to a bloated bureaucracy with no accountability and all too often acting against our principles, the floodgates of generosity opened.

I believe that what we will see over the next few years as we work on implementing our vision, is that there will be more money and time and effort going out into mission and also into the critical work of church planting. The most important work we have is evangelistic disciple-making.

There is another mark of a dirtbag church that is on the rise: ministry ideas are welling up from the grassroots. I try to create a culture of giving permission. You have an idea? Go for it. If it is not illegal or immoral, we’ll get behind it. It’s not our job as a staff to make it happen. It is our job to help the lay people make the ministry happen that God has laid on their hearts. So, the mom who started MOPS— good job! The home group that is looking to minister to the homeless, rock on! And Dude-With-The-Worst-Idea-I-Ever-Heard, I am still waiting for you to get after it! People are getting sent out into ministry, into chaplaincy, into the pastorate.

Dirtbag churches hold on loosely— to money and people and projects. They let em go, knowing they are making room for the next thing. And the Kingdom grows. I am not sure how this church has had that attitude for so long. Honestly, they were a bunch of dirtbags before I got here.

Can I tell you a dream I have had for years? Promise not to tell my Finance Committee. I want to give the Easter offering away. The whole thing. Like Monday morning. To work done locally and to unreached people groups around the world. What a dirtbag move.