SPARK: Too Much Stuff

I’m at the point in my life when I can honestly say, “I have too much stuff.” I have way too many books, and my wife Bridget has even more. I love woodworking and have a garage full of tools. Bridget is a quilter with an insane amount of fabric. We are empty nesters still in a four-bedroom house, and we feel crowded.

I reveal this to you because as we approach the holidays, I want to tell people that I don’t need more stuff. However, I know this makes it difficult for the people who want to get me Christmas presents. I bet you have some people in your church who are feeling this tension. I’m betting you know someone in a similar situation, or perhaps you are thinking that you also have too much stuff. What is the answer?

How could we (as churches) facilitate gift-giving in a way that gets “stuff” to people who need it instead of to those of us recipients who already have too much? Could we arrange to give the donors something they could wrap and put under the tree? Here are just a couple of ideas:

• What if you got a case of green beans and made a label to wrap around each can with the church name that said, “Merry Christmas! This can represents the gift of a case of canned vegetables that will help our food pantry feed twelve families”? You could give those in exchange for a $20 donation (or some other appropriate amount). Each donor could take a can home, wrap it beautifully, and put it under the tree.
• Buy a bunch of inexpensive luggage tags. In the little windows usually used for name and address, write, “Merry Christmas! For your gift, I have filled a backpack with food for a child to take home on the weekend.”The gift-giver donates the amount needed to fill the backpack and leaves with a tag to take home and wrap.

These are just two ideas, but if you put some creative, mission-minded persons in your church on the task, they will no doubt come up with some that better fit your context and support projects that get your congregation excited,

An important ingredient is to make the “token” gift nice enough so your donors will be excited to wrap it and give it. The bonus is the church receives a donation that will help meet a crucial need, donors receive something tangible that they can wrap and give as gifts, and the end recipients feel they are a part of the mission! And the gift recipients don’t have to find space for more stuff.

One year in my ministry, we raised money for blankets for disaster victims through Church World Service. We offered people handmade Valentine's Day cards in return for the donations (we glued a heart-shaped piece of blanket in each card). The cards had no calories, and they didn’t wilt. And our church provided a lot of blankets to disaster victims.

With just a bit of creativity, your church can find a creative way to support missions and help those who already feeling “I have too much stuff!”