Thinking 'bout a Servolution
My latest read is Dino Rizzo’s Servolution, a book that is completely challenging my viewpoint of how to love others unconditionally. From the official website of the book and movement:
A Servolution is not an event; it is a culture. Infusing this culture into the DNA of your church will change the view of the world and your perspective of the needs of those around you. This movement is rumbling throughout the body of Christ - a revolutionary army of people ready to take up this mandate. We are actively pursuing the lost, the forgotten, and the poor to show them a God who is passionately in love with them. We stand ready with one heart, saying, “I will serve others and show them the hope they can have in Jesus.”
I want to be a Servolutionary.
I’ve started to take small steps over the past year, but now that I’m halfway through this book, I’m convinced that I want the attitude of this culture embedded in my everyday life. I want to love as Jesus loved. I want to serve as Jesus served.
The challenge has begun in how I and my brothers in Christ are planning ways to love our community creatively and passionately.
Last summer we washed cars for free. We also handed out $2.00 bags of quarters at a local laundromat, at the local dollar store, and in front of a national coffee shop chain with a green circle in its logo.
About a month ago, we purchased a $50.00 card for that same national coffee shop chain and told the workers at the counter to use that card to pay for the coffee of subsequent visitors early one Thursday morning while our men’s small group met to discuss the prior week’s sermon message. When we left a little after 7 am, the manager came out to tell us that the card had lasted for nearly 2 hours…several customers added funds to the card! Others came in blown away that their coffee that morning was free. One woman had remarked that she didn’t have enough money for coffee that morning (I assume she was planning on charging it) - so the act of kindness had touched her that day.
So what’s on tap?
Likely another free car wash. We’ll probably give away bottles of water to runners and joggers at a nearby trail. We’re going to give away gift cards to the local dollar store, to a national sandwich chain, and to that same national coffee shop as well. Free gas cards are being considered, and you just might see some of us giving away bottles of water and juice to inebriated bar customers as they leave at 2 am.
You see, when Jesus says to love the poor, it isn’t just the economic poor. It’s the emotionally poor. It’s the spiritually poor.
It’s you.
It’s me.
I’m joining this Servolution.
How about you?
5 Responses to “Thinking 'bout a Servolution”
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By David Lamb, June 10, 2009 @ 5:38 am
I love the Starbucks card thing - and that some people added money back on the card. As a frequent Starbucks customer, that brought a tear to my eye :)
I agree that there are many kinds of poverty and that faith in Jesus is a balm for all of them. But I do think that God has a special concern for the economically poor. And I’m not sure it’s their poverty, per se, that is the problem. Economic divisions in society are supported by walls of exclusion and uneven justice. The rule of God seeks to tear down those bariers.
So a servolution should include random acts of kindness, yes, but it should be about more than that. It should seek justice.
By Andy, June 10, 2009 @ 5:42 am
Yes, Dave, you’re absolutely right about that as well. I didn’t mean to imply that those who aren’t economically poor shouldn’t be addressed - I simply made the assumption that we should address them. Indeed…all poverty, economic, spiritual, emotional, etc. should be addressed.
A heart for servolution will encompass all those spheres.
By R. Sherman, June 10, 2009 @ 5:58 am
Serving others for Christ is, by definition, what we as Christians should be doing. What that means is being discerning about opportunities which God places before you. Sometimes, I think that our desire to do something causes us to move in a direction which is completely contrary to God’s will. Such efforts always come to naught, and we find ourselves backtracking to find the fork which God wanted us to take in the first place.
I don’t mean this to sound negative, inasmuch as I agree with the sentiments expressed completely. Rather, as a rule, I’m cautious about mass movements because they quickly acquire a lot of inertia and become less susceptible to the subtleties of God’s direction.
Cheers.
By Andy, June 10, 2009 @ 6:07 am
Randall, agreed - this isn’t about doing an act of kindness just for the sake of doing it - it is about prayerfully considering who the target should be and how to go about blessing that target, no matter what kind of poverty is at play. We need to have the willingness to love as Jesus loved, to serve as Jesus served first. Are we willing to wash others’ feet? Starting there, I believe, will help create a culture of servolution in the local church family.
We also need to keep in mind that all the ideas mentioned above are things we can do - but are they the things God wants us to do on those days?
By Will Robison, June 10, 2009 @ 8:17 am
Serving, first and foremost, is an act that creates bonds of community. God has a sneaky way of getting us to care initially and then challenging us to continue caring. After all, giving someone a fish is great for one day, but teaching them to fish is an act that changes their lives… and also requires that they have a place to fish, that they can afford the equipment, that they have a place to cook the fish and eat it, and that there are people stocking the fishing pond with fish and…
It never ends, because God doesn’t want it to end. HE could snap His finger and put an end to poverty. But if there was no poverty, there would be no need for each of us to care for something other than our own desires. God wants us to care for one another.