By Chris Moon
Sometimes, being generous requires a little imagination.
Christians and churches are called by Christ to share their blessings with those around them. Giving often is pretty straight-forward. See a need and meet it.
But some givers go a little further with their generosity—not perhaps in what they give, but in how they go about doing it. Perhaps there’s a better way to meet a need. Perhaps it is possible to be generous in unlikely times. Perhaps it is possible to meet even the most difficult of needs.
It takes creativity.
“We’re called to think outside the box,” said Ken Tracy, a Cincinnati entrepreneur who has spent his career being generous to others, even as he pursues his vocation. “If you feel you are in a box, try every now and then to try to knock out one of the sides of the box because outside the box, there are people who need help.”
Christian Standard tracked down several individuals and churches within the Restoration Movement who—knowing or unknowingly—have found novel ways to share their blessings with others.
Their stories are below.
Outside the Box
Ken Tracy is the founder of Impacting Tomorrow, a nonprofit organization that helps low-income individuals in the Cincinnati area with food, clothing, and medical needs.
Impacting Tomorrow has all the makings of a food bank. But that’s not what it is—not really. It’s more creative than that.
Food isn’t doled out in bags like a typical food pantry. Rather, the nonprofit’s customers pick up their food in local markets—grocery-store style.
The idea is to give people dignity, even as their needs are met by others.
“Christ treated everyone equally. There was no difference between those who had money and those who didn’t,” Tracy said. “He cared for all of them, and he shared the message with all of them. That’s what we’re trying to do.”
Started in 2022, Impacting Tomorrow already has grown into one of the largest nonprofit organizations in the Cincinnati region. It employs 10 people, has more than 200 volunteers, and serves 2,000 people per week.
The organization sprang out of work Tracy already was doing in one of his companies. He’s made a habit of blending his entrepreneurial vocation with his charitable endeavors.
At one time, Tracy led a large health care staffing firm. Tracy thought it was important to help his employees become great both at their jobs and in their communities.
So he began sending his employees on medical mission trips, all paid for by his company—flying them across the world to serve. Those missions were Christian-based, and some employees began attending church afterward.
When Tracy’s company merged with another one, he and his wife, Libby, felt it important to keep the work going in some form. Impacting Tomorrow was born.
The Tracys are members of River Hills Christian Church in Loveland, Ohio. Ken Tracy is a 1988 graduate of Cincinnati Christian University.
Tracy said the work he’s doing through Impacting Tomorrow is some of the most rewarding of his life.
“I want to do more with what God has given me,” he said.
Making a Difference
Five years ago, Odon (Indiana) Christian Church was looking for a way to serve a hard-to-reach part of its community.
The county just north of the rural Indiana church didn’t have enough Restoration Movement churches to meet its needs.
“We wanted to go be part of something where we are not just existing,” said Micah Stephen, senior minister at Odon Christian Church. “We wanted to be a church that was different, that was active, that was making a difference in some way.”
But what could the small-town church do? Odon Christian Church had an attendance of about 325.
Stephen had heard of other churches that worked to pay off the past-due medical debts of people in their communities. Many people are financially crippled by such debt.
Stephen got connected with a debt relief organization called RIP Medical Debt. The group negotiates with creditors to resolve delinquent medical debt at a greatly reduced cost.
The idea fit perfectly.
“We know what Jesus did for us in canceling our debt,” Stephen said. “How could we go in and wipe their debt clean and give them a new shot at life?”
By early 2020, right at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Odon Christian Church raised $25,000 for the effort. That paid off $2.1 million in medical debt in Greene County, Indiana.
The effort was different from anything Odon Christian Church had done before. Stephen admitted he was nervous about the congregation’s reaction.
But, he concluded, “God has blessed us with a good group of people who just want to do things.”
Stephen said 70 to 80 people attend the church from Greene County now. The church’s attendance is approaching 500.
Odon Christian Church earlier this year completed its second round of medical debt relief, raising $21,000 to pay off $4.1 million in medical debt in seven counties surrounding it.
Other churches can practice creative generosity like this, too, Stephen said.
“We’re just trying to think of ways that would be the most effective,” he said.
Counter-Cultural Ministry
Sometimes, the idea of sharing one’s blessing comes quite naturally—like at Christmas. The creative part comes in figuring out how to make the most of that urge to give.
For more than a decade, the leaders at Madison Park Christian Church in Quincy, Illinois, have been on a crusade to change how their congregation approaches the Christmas season. They want to combat the consumerism that can overwhelm the holiday.
Madison Park’s annual ReThink Christmas campaign first launched in 2011. The church encourages people to redirect money they ordinarily would spend on gifts for their loved ones into donations to charities that help spread the gospel at home and abroad.
“Let’s be counter-cultural. Let’s go against the grain,” said Keith Ehresman, Madison Park’s executive minister. “Instead of giving to somebody, what can we do collectively as a church?”
The church each year identifies local and international causes its congregants can support through ReThink Christmas. Those causes might include the local food pantry, an overseas missionary, or scholarships for church camp.
Parents can replace one gift they might have given to their children with a gift to a ReThink Christmas cause. Parents can send their kids a note letting them know where the gift went.
“Teach your kids to replace,” Ehresman said. “That’s what naturally starts happening because families start rethinking.”
The ReThink Christmas initiative is particularly valuable for older adults—those who may not need gifts at Christmas because their needs largely are met already. Many are thrilled to see gifts made in their honor, Ehresman said.
Since 2011, more than $1 million in ReThink Christmas gifts have been made, Ehresman said.
The church orients its preaching calendar in November around ReThink Christmas, Ehresman said. It takes a lot of focus to get people to see how they can take their ordinary acts of generosity and do something more life-changing with them.
“A lot of people aren’t going to think of that,” Ehresman said. “That’s why we have to be creative.”
A Long Giving Season
Ken Dye has found there is no age limit to generosity.
At 84, the retired pastor continues to do many of the things he’s always done—teaching and pastoring.
He teaches an online class (for free) for NationsUniversity. And he serves as the chaplain for his retirement community in Nashville, Tennessee.
In Dye’s case, creative generosity comes with longevity. Older people can just keep on giving. And retirement creates more time to do so.
“If you have been a giving person in your younger years, you are going to be a giving person in your older years,” Dye said.
Dye’s ministry spanned 50 years in non-instrumental churches of Christ in Texas, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.
Now, he’s giving his time away. Pastors do that a lot. Dye never stopped.
Dye and his wife live a simple life in a duplex in their retirement community. Dye said his wife jokes that “being a chaplain here is like living in the middle of your church.”
Whether that’s good or bad, Dye just keeps pastoring.
“There’s a dilemma in retirement: As you get older, you often are overlooked and forgotten,” he said. “If you choose to stay engaged, you’re not forgotten.”
The class Dye teaches for NationsUniversity is called “Encountering Biblical Spirituality.” It is the first course that master’s-level students take.
NationsUniversity’s mission is to provide tuition-free theological education to students in developing countries. Like Dye, all its professors volunteer their time.
When he was interviewed by Christian Standard, Dye said he had spent the past two days in communication with students from Nairobi, Ghana, Portugal, New Guinea, South Africa, Botswana, and China.
“I feel an honor to be able to invest my time. I’m investing my time in them,” Dye said. “We can make a lot of difference.”
Overwhelming Generosity
Sometimes, generosity just needs to go over the top to hit its mark.
Last year, students in Kentucky Christian University’s nursing program watched as their beloved administrative assistant, Paula Brown, was grieving over the brain cancer diagnosis of her grandson.
Four-year-old Ozzy Brown passed away in September 2023.
The students had to do something to support the family, said Carol Brickey, dean of the Yancey School of Nursing at KCU.
“These were just compassionate individuals,” she said.
Young Ozzy lived in Salem, Oregon.
Before he passed away, the students raised funds to fly his family to KCU to spend time with his grandmother. The students organized a series of events to bless the family.
For instance, Ozzy loved construction equipment. So students arranged a visit to a local construction site, where Ozzy was allowed to take a ride in a dump truck and sit in the cab of an excavator.
After Ozzy died, the KCU nursing students organized a community “Ozzyfest” event. They brought in local food and craft vendors. Student athletes organized games for children. Local bands played Ozzy’s favorite songs.
Ozzy’s parents and siblings were brought back to town for the event. It raised $2,000 for pediatric brain cancer research.
And it served as a celebration of Ozzy’s life—something his grieving family hadn’t yet been able to do, Brickey said.
It was creative and over-the-top generosity, Brickey said, and it brought blessings beyond what anyone expected.
“The students were creative in the way they approached raising the funds and organizing the event. It also was a creative way to love on the family and help them to have a time to heal that really brought together the entire KCU community,” Brickey said. “It touched every single part of our campus, and it reached out to the local community.”
Her advice: Just do something. You might be surprised what happens.
“When you see a need, find a way to try to fill it,” Brickey said. “Don’t let the person in need have to ask. Just take action.”
Chris Moon is a pastor and writer living in Redstone, Colorado.
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