Back to the basics at Christmas

'Advent Conspiracy' draws huge response from Blackhawk Church

Katherine Perreth
Special to The Capital Times  —  12/24/2008 5:47 am

The rampant commercialism associated with Christmas prompted Charlie Brown's cry of the heart: "Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?" And that was in December of 1965.

Just over 40 years later, in a similar vein, a handful of churches in the United States and one in the Bahamas created a grassroots movement called the Advent Conspiracy. The name refers to the church season that precedes Christmas, and the group's goal is to have people rethink their gift-giving patterns and trade superfluous consumption for compassion -- whether it's in the form of money, time or relationship.

That's a standard theme for churches at Christmastime, but the Advent Conspiracy has been unusually successful. It began in 2006 in the U.S. in churches in Houston, St. Louis, Portland, Ore., and Anthem, Ariz., and has spread globally, with 1,000 churches now participating in 17 countries.

Out of the three churches in Wisconsin participating this year, two are located in Dane County. On just one Sunday this month, Blackhawk Church, on Madison's far west side, raised $140,000 for the effort.

How did the movement generate such a massive response?

Church leadership sowed the seeds several months earlier. Beginning in October, the congregation, including children, repeatedly heard the Advent Conspiracy's call to "spend less, give more, worship fully and love all." Officials added a blog to the church Web site (adventconspiracy.wordpress.com) and created a lobby storyboard where churchgoers could share ideas on how to give creative gifts of time and relationship.

Although the Advent Conspiracy encourages people to do more giving in general, it's suggesting in particular that participating churches target at least 25 percent of their donations to help bring clean water to the millions of people around the world who don't have it.

Accordingly, DVD clips were shown to Blackhawk congregations that detailed the cost to provide clean water for the planet. Some $10 billion is required, according to the World Water Council, just a drop in the bucket compared to the $450 billion Americans spent on Christmas last year. Drilling one clean water well for a community, and providing the corresponding health information, costs about $12,750.

Conspiracy founders hope that "the church can serve as the leading movement behind ending the water crisis once and for all." The group has joined forces with Living Water International, a Texas-based charity that drills water wells in developing nations. Founded in 1990, Living Water says water-related diseases are the single largest killer of children -- some 1.8 million each year from diarrhea alone.

Mary Anderson, Blackhawk's director of welcome and connection, said the approximately 3,500 adults attending the church were "hungry for the challenge" to help those in need.

One man who posted on the church's Advent Conspiracy blog wrote about financing five start-up businesses in poor countries, like a one-woman ice cream business in Colombia. Others have been setting aside the same amount of money to give to charity as they spend on Christmas presents.

Stories from the kindergarten-5th grade children's ministries suggest that they were hungry for a challenge, too. In order to raise money to drill water wells in Peru, one enterprising 5-year-old, with her mother's help, created a list of chores she could do for people in her neighborhood.

"We wanted to challenge the people in our community to truly live as Christ-followers by reordering their lives in some way," said Nancy Lindroth, Blackhawk's director of team development. "That, coupled with a growing concern about people living under hardship as we touched the lives of our partners in Kenya, Honduras, Peru and Romania, made Advent Conspiracy seem like a great thing to be a part of. But it's also a challenge because many of us make a living because of consumption at Christmas. In our economy, spending is necessary. We realize that's a tension. But we also know that, for some of us, Christmas buying has gotten out of hand."

Or, as the Rev. Steve Musto half-jokingly told the congregation in November, "When you need a spreadsheet to track Christmas, you know you've lost the meaning".

The response was stunning. On Sunday, Dec. 14, those who attended church gave far beyond what church leadership had hoped for. In addition to their regular weekly giving, congregants donated just over $140,000 for the Advent Conspiracy. Since the church does not use traditional offering plates, the special collection posed a problem. In keeping with the theme of helping to solve the clean water crisis, the church's water pitchers served as collection vessels.

Lindroth said approximately $100,000 of the amount raised will be used for drilling wells in Peruvian villages. The rest of the money will purchase HIV testing equipment for Beacon of Hope Medical Clinic in Kenya, which supports women with HIV/AIDS, and other charitable projects in Honduras and Romania.

Remarkably, the middle and high school students attending Blackhawk will be choosing how the dollars will be spent in Honduras and Romania to give them ownership of the concept. The students have had on-the-ground experience in those countries via summer mission trips, where they have seen the unmet needs.

Donation figures aren't available yet from Watershed, a church in Stoughton that is participating in the Advent Conspiracy for its second year, but the Rev. Jeff Lovell said based on contributions that came in on Dec. 14, "people are being very generous giving far beyond our usual offerings."

Watershed, with 60 members, has fewer resources to draw from than a huge church like Blackhawk, but Advent Conspiracy director Jeanne McKinley said "one of the coolest things we have seen happen with it is the diverse group of churches we have on board with us."

And the degree of diversity is matched by the exponential growth of the movement. In 2006 five churches raised $500,000 for charity. In 2007 Advent Conspiracy "went public" -- 150 churches joined the movement and raised $3 million. According to McKinley, last year's collection was "redistributed all over the world in every conceivable way, given to those who needed it most, from (stopping) human trafficking, to local free stores, to clean water wells for villages."

So why has this particular push to set aside the commercialism of Christmas been so successful?

The Internet explains some of it -- Blackhawk leaders learned about the Advent Conspiracy from the blog of the Rev. Rick McKinley, Jeanne's husband, who is the pastor of the Imago Dei Community in Portland.

No doubt other churches heard about it the same way, but at least some of the conspiracy's attraction seems to come from its emphasis on trading the hustle of Christmas for more profound satisfaction. Repeatedly sprinkled about the Blackhawk blog site are words such as "simplicity," "creativity," "relief," "excitement" and "joy."

One woman on the site described a church cookie-baking effort and the group's plan to give plates of them to people who looked like they needed a lift. One day this month, her son ran a plate of the wrapped cookies out to a dour crossing guard and got a rare smile in return.

"A great morning here -- such a small thing can bring GREAT JOY -- to the crossing guard, to me, and to Luke and our three other children," she wrote.

Katherine Perreth
Special to The Capital Times  —  12/24/2008 5:47 am