Imago Dei Blog

Hosting a booth at an event is an interesting experience. You set up before everyone gets there, and tear down after they leave. You ship large banners, make handouts, bring some candy and do your best to make a metal 10’ by 10’ box look inviting.

I had the privilege of hosting an Advent Conspiracy booth in the social justice area of the Catalyst West event in Southern California this past week. The timing of March is actually ideal – giving pastors time to fully understand the idea and plan how they will lead their people through it in December.

The interesting thing about the Advent Conspiracy booth is that, unlike most other social justice efforts, Advent Conspiracy isn’t an organization – it’s an idea.  An idea for churches to live prophetically during Advent by telling the story of the incarnation of Christ with how we shop, how we give and who we love. That’s it.   It’s a really simple, yet profound, idea.

As I sat behind my table, I had conversation after conversation that, for the most part, went one of three ways:

First: “Advent Conspiracy, you guys are that group with that video someone showed me. This type of thing is great. Keep up the good work.“

Second: “What in the world is the Advent Conspiracy?” Followed by a concise, yet poignant, explanation by yours truly. Followed by: “Wow. That’s really awesome.” They then either walk away after taking one of my seasonally inappropriate candy canes, or they subtly ask for a copy of the Advent Conspiracy book (both of which we give away to pastors at the event.)

The last response goes something like this:

I just wanted to stop by and say we love the Advent Conspiracy.  Our church started doing AC two years ago and it has been such a blessing to both our church, and also to the group that we now bless because of the money we saved from buying gifts. We can’t imagine celebrating Christmas any other way. It’s awesome, keep doing what you’re doing.

That last response was not only one of the most encouraging conversations, but it was also the most frequent conversations. Story after story told of a big church, a small church, a family – all across the board-and how their experience with Advent Conspiracy was meaningful to them. I’d say close to half of my conversations were with churches who were doing Advent Conspiracy and wanted to connect, share notes, and just tell us how it’s blessed them.  Before this week, I didn’t know any of these churches. These churches never registered on the Advent Conspiracy website. They just heard the idea – and ran with it.

I don’t believe we’ll ever know how many churches, families or individuals are participating in Advent Conspiracy. We’ll never know how many villages now how clean water or even how many dollars have been spent to bless the least of these. Some might say there is a way to know and we just need the technology to collect it, but after having the privilege of working with this little grassroots idea called Advent Conspiracy – I’m ok with not knowing the number.

Actually, I think I’d just prefer we keep telling the story to one another one at a time.