The Vine Time Fellowship at Parkrose United Methodist Church is involved in a conspiracy -- the Advent Conspiracy.
The Advent Conspiracy is a movement to change the way we celebrate Christmas. It's not just about "putting the Christ back in Christmas." The four parts of the Advent Conspiracy are to "Worship Fully, Spend Less, Give More, Love All."
Vine Time is spending their weekly meetings learning about and discussing these four areas. But they're also working on a project for the "Love All" part of the conspiracy. This project is called "Beans of Grace." The group is assembling dried bean soup packets to donate to local food pantries.
The project originates from local charity SnowCap. SnowCap provides bag labels and instructions for making soup packets, and groups or churches can then purchase beans, soup base, and plastic bags and assemble the packets. "They did it at Eastminster [Presbyterian Church] during the Maundy Thursday service," explains Shannon Starr. That's where Vine Time got the idea to take on the project themselves.
They've also been learning things from this project -- like how to cook beans! During a discussion, they found that some members regularly cook with beans and others don't. Some had to learn how, discovering how delicious and economical they are.
According to Pastor Bill Gates, as a follow-up, the church may explore partnering with Crossroads Community Church to provide volunteers for the local food pantry. Meanwhile, they're doing hands-on work assembling the bean soup packets.
