Well hi there, December.

Note: I started this entry while I was in Wisconsin, and never posted it. So I'm finishing it up and posting it today.

I'm in Wisconsin for a long weekend so I can be with my family. All you need to know is that my family was able to be together for a long weekend and everyone is better now.  We got to celebrate Thanksgiving and sort of Christmas a little early, which was nice. It was fantastic being able to see everyone this weekend.

Since I'm watching from Wisconsin today, chances are that my notes will be more involved than they normally are, since I'm able to take more in depth notes while Andy is speaking.

Psalm 145:8 reads, "The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love."

This week's message was, generally speaking, about the difference between intervention and prevention. Andy started out with telling us that we would probably tell him that "this a'int much of a sermon". He went on to tell us that "you guys have been ridiculous." He was definitely into his "being a proud papa" thing while he was telling us this. Here's where I get to tell you about how awesome North Point is: we were asked to give $500,000. We gave over $2,000,000.  We were asked to serve 8,000 hours, we served over 15,000. We were asked to give 25 tons of food, and we gave 41 tons. This is only one of many reasons why I love my church.

Andy goes on to explain "Giving 1.0". Giving 1.0 is giving directly to something that will help immediately. (this is partly an American thing, partly a Christian thing.) So, we see someone in need or we are asked to give, and so we give. It's emotional giving. This is what Andy referred to as "Intervention Giving". It's giving to someone in crisis-the giving that I got to brag about, it was Giving 1.0. It's emotional and measurable. We can count how many families we're feeding with the food we have given, or the number of patients that the clinics can see because of our monetary donations.

Question: Do you know long it took North Point to raise 1 million dollars in one day?
Assumed answer: It took a day, right?
Real Answer: No. It's taken us 16 years to be able to give that much.

It took that long because of a different kind of giving: it's "Giving 2.0". Giving 2.0 is giving so we can avoid people getting into the situations we're helping them get out of. It's Prevention Giving. It's neither emotional or measurable. Examples of Preventative Giving:
      I'm going to give a % to a church.
      I'm not doing it because of the flash, or the message of the day. I'm giving because I love this church. I'm giving because I want to continue to help my church.

Andy left us with this "motto" to live by: Give, save, live. Give first, save some, and live on the rest.
Many of us would live better lives if we gave more money away. This is something that I'm trying to learn first-hand, and I plan on being a percentage giver in 2012. I've established myself at work, in my apartment, so I can, and plan on, Giving 2.0.

In case you're interested in giving to North Point, this is mostly for me to remember, I can give online at NPMgive.org.

The church is the hope of the world because Jesus is the hope of the world.

Until next time, dear readers.