The people of Good Shepherd are pretty good with goals.

Last year, for example, we wanted to raise $150,000 for the International Justice Misison and its ministry of freedom from sexual slavery. The people of the church gave $207,000.
Then on October 30, we hoped to pack 150,000 meals with Stop Hunger Now and its mission of famine relief in Uganda. The people of the church instead packed 193,000.

So yesterday, we hoped to receive 1,000 shoe boxes filled with Christmas gifts and gospel literature for use by our friends at Operation Christmas Child.

Instead, we received 1,200. And counting. If you'd like to be part of what God is doing, you can bring a box by Good Shepherd by 5:00 p.m. Monday.

If you win the Masters, you get a Green Jacket.

If you're nominated for an Oscar, you walk down the red carpet showing off your designer dress.

If you become a famous attorney, people talk about your "power tie."

If you're a rock & roll icon, teenagers wear T-shirts with your likeness on it.

What do all those have in common? They're cool threads.

To discover the coolest thread of all, check out this week of Fashion Statement.

Sunday.

8:30. 10. 11:30.

We are in an unusual season at Good Shepherd in that we are having back to back sprints.

The first sprint was our Radical Impact Project known as Fed Up Sunday. We're still reeling from how good God was to our community that day.

But instead of taking a pause to allow the congregation to breathe, we launched headlong into another sprint: Operation Christmas Child.

To find out more about Operation Christmas Child and its mission of providing both Christmas gifts and the gift of the Savior to children all around the world, check here.

We've set a goal of 1000 boxes for this Sunday, November 20. We've shown the videos, provided the empty boxes complete with instructions, and now the rest is up to you.

The finish line is in sight.

Yesterday we recovered from our Fed Up Sunday by digging deep into Colossians 3:12 again: "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience."

We learned together that biblical kindness -- of the type that comes from stripping off the old self and become re-clothed in Jesus -- can be defined this way:

Kindness is what you do

for people who can't do

for you.

So we asked people to make those words tangible on a piece of fabric (Get it? More fashion!). As an invitation, we made space and time for people to bring their fabric swatches up to our altar area where we had an array of felt tip pens.

We then asked folks to write down the name or initials of someone or a group of people to whom they could show kindness this week knowing there would be nothing coming in return.

I wasn't sure how this invitation would work out.

But it did. People came forward immediately, urgently, and prayerfully.

The picture in this post is the result.

Kindness. It's what you do for people who can't do for you.

It's what you don't say that you could say.

It's making a good impression on people you don't need to impress.

It's making an authentic fashion statement.