On Sunday, May 3, Rev. Johnson Dodla climbed a ladder to the roof of Mount Hope UMC. But he wasn’t assessing water damage or chasing after a rogue dodgeball. He was embarking on an overnight camp out — the culminating event of a creative fundraising campaign playfully dubbed “FundRAISE the Roof”!

As Dodla climbed the ladder, church members looked on from the lawn, laughing, cheering and, of course, documenting the whole thing for social media. (Pics or it didn’t happen.)

The idea behind the fundraiser was simple but clever: if church members raised enough money, Dodla would camp out on the church roof for 24 hours. The funds would go toward the church’s youth mission trip to Gatlinburg, TN where a group of 22 youth and adult leaders from the church would work to repair and renovate homes with TEAMeffort.

The idea for the fundraiser came from one of the church’s youth leaders, Karl Lichtentstein, but it was not entirely novel; it built upon a tradition of Dodla’s willingness to endure a little public embarrassment for a good cause.

A few years ago, he ate a worm at Vacation Bible School (VBS) to raise money for a child with cancer. Last year, the fundraising efforts continued with Dodla receiving a haircut at the hands of the VBS students as motivation. But “FundRAISE the Roof” definitely upped the stakes.

The original plan, shared Dodla, was to do a big reveal at the end of the campaign to announce whether the fundraising target had been achieved. But then someone came up with the brilliant idea of adding extra incentives along the way. For example, people were invited to donate so that Dodla could take various “amenities” up to the roof – a cot, a fan, a pillow, a phone charger, a tent, and so on. The twist? People could also donate for Dodla to lose these amenities. A hundred dollars would even buy the pastor an extra hour on the roof.

“People were excited and people were booing [at church],” said Dodla. “People intentionally started coming and giving towards that as the event went forward.” In the end, Dodla ascended to the roof with a tent, a cot, a pillow, and an increased goal of 37 hours to camp out.

But despite being equipped with these extras, Dodla soon ran into unexpected difficulties. About 10-20 minutes after setting up his tent and weighing down the corners with heavy sandbags, the tent promptly collapsed around him due to heavy winds.

“Wind is no joke. Like, it can knock you out,” said Dodla. “So, when the disciples were in that boat and they were scared, I can see why!” Thankfully, after moving the tent to a lower section of the roof that had some protection from the wind, Dodla’s accommodations seemed to be secure and he settled in.

He was also pelted with two rounds of water balloons that had been purchased towards the fundraiser. In a video posted on Facebook midafternoon, Dodla’s son who was filming from the roof, can be heard coaching his dad to toss the balloons back down at the giggling crowd. “My kids had a blast,” Dodla shared. “They thought it was hilarious.”

Over the course of the day, Dodla’s church family and community members made sure he had frequent company. He had front row seats to the youth group’s “Capture the Flag” style game in the evening and even hosted the confirmation class on the roof. Dinner was delivered and lots of people dropped by with snacks.

Around 8:15pm, the sun started to go down, and it grew colder outside. Nevertheless, Dodla says that he still managed to get a good night’s sleep.

As he documented the experience on Facebook, he thanked people for the donations that continued to roll in – donations that would buy him more hours on the roof, and one that even got him to sing “The Old Rugged Cross.”

“This is a first,” Dodla said in an early morning video from the rooftop. “I never thought I would sleep out on a roof and let the whole world see what is happening. So, on that same note, this is something I’ve never done.” Dodla gave it his best effort, despite forgetting some of the lyrics!

Later that morning, Dodla fielded some earnest questions from little ones who attend the preschool in the church, including: “Who feeds Pastor Johnson while he’s on the roof?” “Are the birds angry with Pastor Johnson because right now he’s living on the roof? Isn’t that their home?” And, importantly, “When Pastor Johnson falls off the roof, who’s going to help him?”

Compassion for Dodla continued to rise when at 8:45 am, a post on the church’s Facebook page read, “We need to take a poll real fast … Someone donated $200 to REMOVE HOURS from Johnson’s time. Are we okay with donations to reduce time?”

The comment section quickly filled with messages cheering on the fundraiser, with one commenter jokingly advocating to “reduce hours to support Christyn [Dodla’s wife].” In the end, the battle between donations to add and reduce time to the camp out kept Dodla on the roof for 30 hours.

By the time Dodla finally climbed down, Mount Hope’s “FundRAISE the Roof” campaign had raised just shy of $5,000 for the church’s youth mission trip to Gatlinburg.

After his rooftop retreat, Dodla reflected on the experience and on the campaign as a whole. Aside from being surprised by the strength of the wind, Dodla, who isn’t on social media himself, was struck by the level of engagement on the church’s Facebook page throughout his time on the roof.

That online enthusiasm translated into in-person connections as well. One person with no previous connection to Mount Hope, but who knew Dodla through his children’s extracurricular activities, stopped by to chat. Even now, when people see him around town, they’ll ask, “Hey! How was that roof thing?”

“It kind of makes you rethink what outreach looks like,” Dodla said.

Beyond helping fund a mission trip, Mount Hope UMC’s “FundRAISE the Roof” campaign gave the church a joyful, lighthearted way to connect with its community.  It turns out that sometimes outreach looks less like implementing one more program and more like a pastor sleeping on a roof.