Why We Need to Party More
Issue 004
MARCH 7, 2018
WRITTEN BY THOMAS BLEVINS
Thomas Blevins is the Connections Minister at Northland Church and Founder and Lead Advocate of THE ZOE PROJECT, a radically diverse community bringing hope to everyone. With a deep passion to include the outsider and tangibly express the love of Jesus Christ, Thomas believes that every one of us has the capacity to be the church everywhere, every day. Thomas is originally from Kalamazoo, Michigan, and currently resides in the metropolis of Oviedo, Florida. He and his beautiful wife, Tyler, are privileged to be deep in the parenthood trenches of craziness with their children, Emma Grace and Ella Jay.
I met Ryan through an employee at the coffeehouse we’re present at throughout the week as we “pastor the plaza.” Ryan is a musclebound giant of a man with tats inked all over his body. He is thirty-four years old and currently lives in a halfway house for parolees, having finished serving a thirteen-year sentence for armed robbery.
The road Ryan faces to becoming a productive and self-sustaining member of society is steep. Statistically, the chances of Ryan ending up back in jail are high. So we at The Zoe Project wanted to change the script for him. We decided to take a page from the prodigal son story and throw a party for Ryan.
We invited our friends to come. We reached out to connections from the justice system and ex-cons who had turned their lives around. Ryan’s sister showed up, and so did one of Ryan’s cousins, whom Ryan was trying to keep from making the same mistakes he had made.
I’m telling you, it was a transcendent time! We had cake and gifts. I asked Ryan to share his dreams with everyone. And then the “tribe” that was present handed Ryan a jar filled with close to $2k that they personally contributed to see his dream begin.
After he had finished sharing and tearing up, he pulled me aside and said, “You know what, Thomas? That was the first time in my life that I felt like anybody has actually ever listened to me.”
“The story of the kingdom is found in a raging fiesta for someone who doesn’t deserve one.”
That night we celebrated a felon who needed a party. We watched an ex-con find hope. Fellow prodigals shared their own stories to help Ryan be not so hopeless. And hope lets us believe that things can be different. It allows us to dream, changes our perspective; it sees the heart of potential. Hope means it's not over yet and opens up doors for everyone!
The story of the kingdom is found in a raging fiesta for someone who doesn’t deserve one. The father says, “We had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again” (Luke 15:32, NIV).
The theology of grace is in the party.
The gospel is in the balloons and piñatas, which is made possible only by death and resurrection—the death and resurrection of Jesus and our own death and second-chance resurrection. So let’s party, celebrating our own acceptance by God and spreading the party to others who need it.
How can you help bring more celebration into your own life and others’ lives?