The first results are in from last Sunday's What Child Is This offering in support of the fight against the global slave trade and human trafficking.

And they're pretty spectacular.

When we combine them with the offering we'll receive on Christmas Eve for the same cause, well ... I think we'll all be amazed.

I've had a couple of people mention to me that they had some anxiety about the series -- it's a heavy subject, the appeal for money is overt and unfiltered, and it's so different from our ghosts of Christmas past at Good Shepherd.

Yet I think this project will prove yet again something powerful about the people of this church: when you invite them to "live large," to live a life on behalf of others rather than self, they invariably respond in big, beautiful ways.

It's all about appealing to what is best in people.

Look for more of that on Christmas Eve.

Here's how we led up to our "Big Ask" yesterday.

At the end of the sermon, seven of our young worshippers came out on the platform carrying large photos of children from around the world who have been victims of human trafficking.

We told the stories of the global children through an audio presentation written by Chris Macedo and narrated by Marcy Smith.

As the moment neared its conclusion and the background music gained in intensity, Marcy gave the "reveal": "thanks to the work of the International Justice Mission, the children pictured AND the children holding the pictures now share one precious thing in common -- FREEDOM."


Then our Good Shepherd children turned their photos around to reveal the word FREEDOM spelled out on bold letters.

We moved into "He Reigns" and "Chosen Generation" and people poured up to the altar to offer their financial gifts to our project.

When Chris Macedo welcomed people to worship this past Sunday, he spoke of the ways that our What Child Is This project stokes a "fire" in his "bones."

I'm much the same way.

Here's why this series has changed this Christmas from "oh, another one" to "WOW! I can't wait!":

5. I get to ask people without any subtlety to "give like crazy" because we'll be giving it all away.

4. Our partners with the International Justice Mission are smart, dedicated, and passionate about the cause.

3. It gives the people of Good Shepherd an opportunity to live for something larger than themselves.

2. Its mission is embedded in the mission Jesus proclaims for himself in Luke 4:18-19:

The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

1. Because adolescent girls in Thailand, Cambodia, India, and the U.S. who have been forced into prostitution will be freed for life abundant.