Back a few weeks ago I posted a mini-manifesto as we created the Hurting Youth Workers Fund. (Hence the chip-in widget to the left) The last 2-3 weeks since then have been amazing. My friend, Patti Gibbons, has taken to the task of setting up a charitable organization to handle the fund raising and care for youth workers left for dead by their local churches.
What is happening?
Well, in the past two weeks Patti has written the by-laws and dug through hundreds of pages of paperwork to file with the State of New York and the federal government to get 501c3 status for the fund. This means gifts given are tax deductible and it also protects us from getting taxed personally for the funds given. (Phew!) She’s also in the process of assembling a board of directors, teams of people to offer help, places where hurting youth workers can go and rest free of charge, on and on.
Anything for me to look at?
Sure… check out the Raising Lazarus website. This isn’t anything fancy yet. But as Patti gets everything official you’ll see all the basic information about Raising Lazarus plus two incredible features.
- Stories from the hurting: I’ve had the honor of getting a few of these, they will shock you.
- Stories from the recovering: As we help the hurting, we’ll share their success stories.
What about the church?
I am very careful how we go about this since I would never intend to harm the church. (Not the local church I work at, they are great employers… I mean "the church" bigger than that.) At the same time, I think the church should be called to accountability, especially the ones who habitually harm their staff members. We’re not going to be out to attack the church in any way, but it’s our hope that a by-product of helping the hurting will be an attempt to educate and restore churches doing the damage.
Are you for real?
Yes, Raising Lazarus is for real. We realize this isn’t one of those top 10 crisis in the world today… but as people encounter the stories people will see why we felt like we needed to do something. If offering counseling, financial assistance, and a place to rest is all we can do… than we will do that.
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