Comments (2)

By Andy, June 21, 2009 9:37 pm

“Hi there…we’d like to give you this gift card today as a simple way of showing that God loves you.”

With those few words on Saturday, a neighborhood in our coastal town was blessed as folks received Starbucks cards, Shell gas cards, Chevron gas cards, and gift cards to the local Dollar Tree store.  A few other folks received $2 bags of quarters for their wash at laundromats throughout our city.

Men from our Thursday morning small group, and a few others, met for breakfast at our local Denny’s on Saturday morning, as we typically do each week.  Over pancakes, bacon, sausage, eggs and coffee, we plotted out our strategy.  A couple of us brought our kids along, too, and around 10 am on Saturday, we simply showed God’s love to our community - a big deal to a couple of these guys, as it was their first time as servolutionaries.

What is a Servolution?

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.”

From Servolution.org

After completing our breakfasts, we headed out to the strip mall where the servolution was to take place. We met in front of Starbucks, passed out the cards to the members of our Servolution team, and prayed…for boldness in our actions, for lives to be touched, for seeds to be planted, for God to be present.

And present He was.  The cards for the dollar store ($5 each) were passed out quickly.  The Starbucks cards ($5) moved a little more slowly as we waited for additional foot traffic.  The gas cards, for the nearby Chevron station and Shell station, went more quickly - and at each station, customers who received the cards, especially those who were about to pay at the pump, were blown away at the gift of $25 towards their gas purchase.  In the case of one man to whom I handed a card, he grabbed me as I walked by after handing out a subsequent card, just to shake my hand and thank me as he intently read the business card we gave with the gas card…”This is our simple way of showing that God loves you…let us know if we can be of service.”

Two other men headed out to the laundromats around the city.  Armed with 30 bags of $2 in quarters, they actually had a difficult time finding people to give money to…not that folks weren’t accepting the money, but Saturday morning isn’t exactly “rush hour” at the local laundromats.  One of our gents shared that he only had one instance in which the money was rejected…it was a woman who told him that she owned the laundromat!

But she said she would take several bags of the quarters, and pass them onto her customers.  As he shared with us, “We didn’t pray for workers - but God gave us workers!”  He also still has 13 bags of quarters to hand out, and shared that he will be handing them out this week to unsuspecting customers at our local laundromats.

And finally, at original Starbucks location, when all the cards had been distributed, one of our guys went in to buy a mocha.  The worker at the counter said, “Hey…you’re one of them…one of the guys handing out the cards out front!”

“Yeah, I am…”

“Well, that’s a really cool thing that you guys did.  Are you with a church?”

“That’s right…we’re with New Life.”

“Awesome…what’ll you have?  It’s on me.”

My fellow brother got a free mocha simply because he had listened to Jesus’ call for service on Saturday.

All this is just the start to something more as we reach out to our community.  Ideas are forming as to what we’ll do next.  How can we reach the elderly in our community?  Who are the struggling families in our city and how can we help them?  Where can we find the single mothers?

How can we continue to love our neighbor and to show Jesus’ love for them in a practical way - and make it part of the DNA of our church community?

We took a few simple steps forward yesterday.  And we’re going to keep going.

Comments (5)

By Andy, June 9, 2009 11:15 pm

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?