This Advent, a new campaign is being launched called 1gift4good. The concept is easy: in each household, in as many households as we can inspire to do so, families are being asked to place a gift under the tree that was given for good, with no chance of return. Perhaps each family member will want to participate. But when your family opens presents this Christmas, that 1gift4good should also be unwrapped, to remind each of us of the power of a single gift – and even more importantly to inspire that leadership among our own children and loved ones. Too often, parents are giving during the holidays, but they are not demonstrating that spirit to their children.  Wrap up a gift for them that is not about them, but is meant to teach them about generosity, the power of small steps, and about the importance of being a leader in their community.

What should you put in your 1gift4good? Perhaps it’s an actual donation to a charity. Or a good deed that you did intentionally during Advent. It might be as simple as giving a coffee to someone who needs it on the street, or sitting beside a stranger on the bus who looks sad. Or delivering food to a family who needs it. Or dropping off bread for the foodbank.  And why stop there? Is there a limit to the gifts you can give for good?  Jesus would encourage us to give 1gift4good everyday. On the website, you can print off a calendar to make notes of your “gifts.” Or you can create a 1gift4good box to fill up your good deeds and open that on Christmas morning, or sitting around the table for Christmas dinner. There will also be ideas for congregational events that help families give their 1gift4good many times over. Please comment online with your own ideas. You can also tweet any of your 1gift4goods online, or post them to the Facebook page.

The idea of 1gift4good is to teach leadership among our youth: the role of creative action and resourcefulness, the building up of experience that leads to wisdom and the optimism in seeing the results of small deeds. It is a story to inspire our youth and young adults to do great things.  It is an adventure developing within each one of us gifts of loyalty, honour, and a willing heart.  In this way, Christmas is not a zero-sum activity – it becomes invaluable. It is not an exchange of goods, but a spreading of goodwill. This is what leaders do, step by step. It is the Christians way to mirror the reign of Christ on earth.

What if a church just gave their collection plate away – every penny of it? There’s an interesting new book out about a church that tried it. For one year, they gave money to serve needs in their neighborhood, including groceries, and medical bills (the church was in the States.) The minister at the church has written a book called Giving Awayto detail the approach. In the end, the church decided they couldn’t do this every year – bills, after all, still need to get paid. But they decided to do it every seven years, after saving a little bit each year to cover operating costs.

Here’s a link to a story about the book: http://www.churchmarketingsucks.com/2012/08/giving-away-the-collection-plate-by-john-richardson/

PS: I recommend you check out the website that posted the story, Church Marketing Sucks. Not every particular aspect of the site resonates with me, but they do raise some interesting notions about church communcation, the importance of pastors blogging and generally how churches need to do a better job of publicly promoting their mission, both online and in the community. Here’s the home page: http://www.churchmarketingsucks.com/

Looking for a Christmas Pageant for your community of faith.  This is based on an initiative to be more generous this Christmas called 1gift4good.com.

It’s easy and engages youth and young adults in a practical way.

There’s a great story about the seven-year-old boy who called 911 after his Grandpa passed out while driving him to soccer. The little boy, Evan, figured out how to make the call on his cellphone and spoke calmly with the 911 operator for 13 minutes until a police car could arrive. It struck me that this is also a reminder of how we might use our Sunday mornings for practical lessons as well – such as teaching our children how to handle emergencies. (It was important that Evan could give his full name and his grandfather’s as well as a phone number for his father.) A Sunday morning session can be a good time to enforce some of the lessons and even do a 911-cheat sheet poster that families could stick on the fridge. (For example: here’s a 911 cheat sheet.) A big part of teaching our kids how to be leaders, is making sure they have all the skills to do so.

Here’s the story about young Evan: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/boys-911-call-saves-grandfather/article4801732/

Here’s a quick 911 cheat sheet you can build a class around :http://www.onsitefirstaid.ca/resources/onsite_quickguide_kids_cheatsheet.pdf

A quick resource to what to tell them, and how to teach it: http://www.pediatricsafety.net/2010/07/the-importance-of-teaching-kids-to-use-911/