The Revolution (The Most Important Post Thus Far)

In light of tomorrow's surgery laying me up for a few days, I thought I'd go ahead and make a post about the project some friends and I are working on. Please chew on it and give me your thoughts. This is going to be really long, but I don't want to split it into two posts. However, if you read nothing else I write this summer, read this post. This subject is pretty central to my life now.

Okay, background...

Social Entrepreneurship left me feeling several things regarding Christians and service (service = social issues like fair trade, missions, mercy ministry, etc. in this context):

1. At UF/in gainesville, non-Christians are much more well-known for being supportive of social causes and actually getting things done. Examples: the huge Greek system's philanthropy, FAB, FACE, Students Making Trade Fair (which made some significant progress this year), etc. etc. It's very rare to hear anyone say, "Oh, RUF? Yeah didn't they hold that big event for the homeless?" Homeless Council (on friday nights) is actually getting some press these days, but that's almost it.
2. Christians have no idea what each other are doing in terms of service. Examples: What on earth does Crusade do for service? What about GCL? What about even my friends?

I think two factors contribute to the general unawareness described in the first two parts:

A. Hopefully Jesus' command to do good in secret.
B. Christians really aren't doing that much at UF.

Next part of background: people.

At UF I generally find three groups of Christians:

1. A small group of Christians who don't give a rip about helping others in any way (whose Christianity is debatable).
2. A medium sized group of Christians who are doing a lot but not many people know them. They are quite well known outside of the Christian community...they are the group of experts who are the bridge between the non-Christian and Christian service communities.
3. A large group of Christians who are dying to do something but have no idea how to get involved or what it means for a Christian to be involved.

So we've got the problems and the people. Now the proposed solution.

Generally speaking, Christians need to be better equipped to do service both personally and in community -- Christian and non-Christian community (equipped = information about social issues, contacts (the most important probably), ideas, opportunities, etc). Equipped also includes theology to support service, mercy ministry, etc.

Aside from certain elements of theology, I feel that networking is the single most important way to equip Christians. I learned this semester that if i need information about Women's Issues, I should talk to two girls I met in SE. If I am interested in Fair Trade, I need to talk to people from Students Making Trade Fair. Somehow, we need to get all three groups of Christians talking to each other and helping each other. The second group is composed mainly of experts on particular issues who could help the third group get involved by providing them with resources and contacts (both Christian and non-Christian). The third group in turn would help the first group get motivated.

The point is that Christians need to be connected to each other and non-Christians in order to really be able to do anything in Gainesville.

So, now what? Tangibly speaking, the idea we have is called Christian Service Network. CSN is an umbrella network and its first chapter will start at UF.

A main focus of it is a web site. The web site has two parts: a networking database and a serviceblog.

The database is where Christians can create profiles that include their social interests (e.g. Fair Trade, homelessness) and also connect with each other based on these interests (by browsing and searching the database keywords). This way someone from UF can log on and say, "Hey, is there anyone else on campus who might be interested in doing something for immigration rights?" They click on "Immigration" and boom! Ten people show up as listing "Immigration" as one of their interests. The person in question could then message them internally, email them, or (if they provide their numbers) call them.

The serviceblog is where a rep from RUF, FCA, etc. will log in and post service opportunities their group is doing - including who, what, where, who to contact, and whether any help is needed. Even if they don't need help, at least this way there will be a way of knowing who is doing what.

Hopefully we can get Christian groups to assign this simple task to an officer, say the VP (since the VP is usually in charge of service). It would take 2 minutes, times the 2 or 3 service projects a month, so less than 15 minutes a month probably from each group to contribute. If we had 10 groups posting, that would be 20 or 30 projects a month and connecting hundreds of people from each of those groups.

"Okay. what would be an example post -- the whole process?"

I'll use RUF since I know it.

There is a leadership meeting at the campus minister's house. Steve (the campus minister) asks the leadership team -- which includes officers and non-officers -- if they have ideas for service projects. Let's say someone says, "Hey, let's go help out Rebuild Gainesville (a group kind of like Habitat for Humanity). Steve says, "Good idea." It's then the Vice President's responsibility (this is my friend Emily this year) to set that up (VP = in charge of service for RUF). So then Emily would get it all set up with Rebuild Gainesvlle...let's say August 27, 2006 at 4 pm. 20 people are needed.

So once the details are set, Emily logs onto CSN using the RUF name and password to post on the serviceblog. She makes a post including when, where, how many people are needed, and who to contact (which would more than likely be her). It shows up on the service blog as a new post by RUF.

So there you have it. There are lots more details and there is lots to be done. Let me know what you all think and if you're interested in being a part of the revolution.

Peace,
Sam