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I realise there is often a lot of negativity on this board about religion, and I often participate in it because the matters that come up for discussion are inevitably the bad things. And that's not necessarily a criticism - the bad things should be identified and discussed and opposed.
But I wanted to share with you a religious initiative that I really, really like - and one that I think should be a model for other religious outreach in our society. The Red Frogs Crew:
www.redfrogs.com.au
It's an initiative founded by a guy called Andy Gourley who is a new-agey sort of Christian and was bothered by the excessive drinking and dangerous behaviour at Schoolies Week on the Gold Coast. One night he bought a whole stack of Red Frogs with his mates and went wandering around the Gold Coast haunts and handing them out and making sure people were okay.
Since then it's grown into an international phenomenon - he gets a huge amount of sponsorship from various organisations (it must be noted that most of them have Christian ties) and now involves huge numbers of volunteers. At the behest of event organisers they set up hydration stations with free drinks and food at events involving alcohol. They help organise coffee crawls to be run as an alternative to pub crawls by university colleges, to ensure non drinking students don't get left out. And they wander around handing out the eponymous red frogs.
Now I'll admit that this whole thing is something that naturally makes me highly skeptical. Huge amounts of manpower and expense goes into this organisation - where's the quid pro quo? But at the time there were three very important things that impressed me about the approach (I am not sure if they still hold true several years later):
1) They never involved themselves with anything to do with the secular government education of children
2) There was no religious branding on anything used at an event to indicate that it was a religious organisation
3) Volunteers were expressly forbidden from mentioning their religiosity or that of the organisation unless specifically asked
The upshot is that most people at the event never even knew they were a religious group.
I mean sure, I wasn't born yesterday. There's obviously and ultimately a degree of 'conversion by example' going on here. It's a patently religious organisation - their official name is, after all, "Red Frogs Chaplaincy". They do good things, people find out they're Christian, Christianity gets good press.
But fundamentally, I have no problem with conversion by example as long as it doesn't intrude into certain areas (e.g. schools). And the restrictions imposed by the organisations on itself were in order to enable it to most effectively achieve its main purpose - to improve safety and conditions at events involving alcohol and young people, with religion not being an issue.
Now I'm sure there are people who will still have reservations in a religious organisation being involved like this. But for me, this is an excellent example for how a Christian organisation can fulfil its own mission of outreach and serving community welfare, and cater to people of all philosophies without specifically making religion an issue.
Anyone else have any thoughts or experiences, either on the organisation in question or religious outreach generally? I realise it's a sensitive issue but I think it is an interesting one.
*Disclaimer: I do know Andy Gourley personally (or used to), and have dealt with his organisation on a number of occassions. I met him when organising social events whilst living on campus at a university college. I swear I'm not getting paid for this thread.
But I wanted to share with you a religious initiative that I really, really like - and one that I think should be a model for other religious outreach in our society. The Red Frogs Crew:
www.redfrogs.com.au
It's an initiative founded by a guy called Andy Gourley who is a new-agey sort of Christian and was bothered by the excessive drinking and dangerous behaviour at Schoolies Week on the Gold Coast. One night he bought a whole stack of Red Frogs with his mates and went wandering around the Gold Coast haunts and handing them out and making sure people were okay.
Since then it's grown into an international phenomenon - he gets a huge amount of sponsorship from various organisations (it must be noted that most of them have Christian ties) and now involves huge numbers of volunteers. At the behest of event organisers they set up hydration stations with free drinks and food at events involving alcohol. They help organise coffee crawls to be run as an alternative to pub crawls by university colleges, to ensure non drinking students don't get left out. And they wander around handing out the eponymous red frogs.
Now I'll admit that this whole thing is something that naturally makes me highly skeptical. Huge amounts of manpower and expense goes into this organisation - where's the quid pro quo? But at the time there were three very important things that impressed me about the approach (I am not sure if they still hold true several years later):
1) They never involved themselves with anything to do with the secular government education of children
2) There was no religious branding on anything used at an event to indicate that it was a religious organisation
3) Volunteers were expressly forbidden from mentioning their religiosity or that of the organisation unless specifically asked
The upshot is that most people at the event never even knew they were a religious group.
I mean sure, I wasn't born yesterday. There's obviously and ultimately a degree of 'conversion by example' going on here. It's a patently religious organisation - their official name is, after all, "Red Frogs Chaplaincy". They do good things, people find out they're Christian, Christianity gets good press.
But fundamentally, I have no problem with conversion by example as long as it doesn't intrude into certain areas (e.g. schools). And the restrictions imposed by the organisations on itself were in order to enable it to most effectively achieve its main purpose - to improve safety and conditions at events involving alcohol and young people, with religion not being an issue.
Now I'm sure there are people who will still have reservations in a religious organisation being involved like this. But for me, this is an excellent example for how a Christian organisation can fulfil its own mission of outreach and serving community welfare, and cater to people of all philosophies without specifically making religion an issue.
Anyone else have any thoughts or experiences, either on the organisation in question or religious outreach generally? I realise it's a sensitive issue but I think it is an interesting one.
*Disclaimer: I do know Andy Gourley personally (or used to), and have dealt with his organisation on a number of occassions. I met him when organising social events whilst living on campus at a university college. I swear I'm not getting paid for this thread.
