ABOUT US

Several things that happened within the last year of my life have led to the creation of RezList. First of all, I went camping with my in-laws in the Boundary Waters. Each time I plan a camping trip, I get a little bit nervous because I know I'll have to track down a sleeping bag to borrow. Wouldn't it be awesome to release my request into the atmosphere and just wait for someone to contact me with a bag to borrow for the week?

Around this time my husband began his own business as a freelance video producer. How can I get the word out about my availability for work? he's wondered.

And now Spring is here, and I am without a bike seat (mine was stolen) which is - contrary to public opinion - very necessary for bike riding. What I wouldn't give to find a cheap, old bike seat! These tales are just a handful from a whole slew of instances when I've shouted to the sky, "If only we had an online forum within our church on which my question/request/announcement could be made! I'd call it 'ReeeezLiiiiist,'" as my hand swept across the air above my head like a rainbow.

And these instances have made me think: if I've recognized these needs in my own life so consistently, how many needs like these must exist throughout our church body?! I mean, seriously. Just this week we needed help at our place bringing in some furniture. We couldn't do it ourselves; we had to find people to help. I know there exists a wide variety of service needs like this?hence our RezMen Service Saturday and Loaves and Dishes ministries?within our church at any given time. I also know that our church is filled to the brim with people who would jump on the chance to help someone out. RezList would make all sorts of needs known and therefore more promptly met!

One day I shared my vision with my [excitable, generous, tech-savvy] friend, Alan Miller. We sipped lemonade and day dreamed about all the possibilities and potential for such a site. Think about it: there are the obvious benefits, like having the mattress that's been propped up in your attic taken off your hands and put into the bed frame of someone who actually needs it; then there's the less-tangible-but-just-as-important benefit of actually growing in dependence on one another as a church body (as was esteemed highly in the early church); and, where the exchange of skills and money might occur from RezList, paying someone within our church family for doing a job means ultimately more of our money going right back to the church through tithes. I also believe that RezList is a way to combat our tendency to hoard our things, whether time or skills or stuff; it's a way to increase sharing and decrease consumption.

So, after nearly a year of batting ideas around and alluding to an intangible dream, Alan and I, along with Trevor McMaken and Lisa Traylor from the Resurrection staff, have brought this all to life! As we've met together and planned and worked, it's been so awesome to see how necessary each one of us has been in making this site really happen. Just goes to show the truth about the many members and one body. We really do need each other, and we can really help each other out.