ok yeah, accuse me of doing a full repost of this article from the catalyst groupzine (www.catalystspace.com). i admit it. i think it’s worth posting again here though. pretty cool the dudes at catalyst sent this out leading up to pastor dino rizzo speaking in a session at the upcoming catalyst conference. got some more info on that coming soon, but for now, check out the article:
SERVOLUTION - Original Outreach
By Dino RizzoIf you ask anyone around Healing Place Church what we are about, chances are, you’ll hear them say, “we are a healing place for a hurting world,” and you’ll hear about some type of outreach they’ve been serving with. It’s crazy to see how much of a culture of outreach God has given us here.
It has been God’s mandate on this church since we launched almost 16 years ago to be a healing place for a hurting world. We just wanted to serve those that are not being served – those who are forgotten, rejected, alone, poor and hurting. We really didn’t know much about outreach strategy, we didn’t have some of the great resources available now and had very few relationships with other church planters to help us along the way.
So we just started doing what we could find to do.
The very first outreach we did came one day when I had finished my pastoral duties of cutting the grass, running the trimmer, picking up trash and cleaning the restrooms. It was still only mid-morning and I had nothing left on my to-do list. I had been told by someone in our church about a widow in their family. So I decided to take $7 and I bought some roses, and I just went and knocked on her door and offered her the roses. She was so grateful and kind – she invited me in and we just visited for a while. She seemed to come alive with joy at the simple idea of having someone just to talk to. And before I left, she asked me if I could go visit a couple of her friends who were also widows.
Over the next few weeks, we began visiting widows regularly, and our church grew as a result. Today, our ministry to widows involves hundreds of volunteers serving over 300 widows every week. The heart is the same – just to reach out with love and give a helping hand, a listening ear, a hot meal, or just a big ol’ hug. Our church grew through outreach. Everything we do we tend to see through the eyes of how it affects the poor and hurting.
And now there’s a lot of outreach going on here besides caring for widows – water giveaways, single mothers’ car preps, prison church, mobile medical and dental clinics, food distribution, homeless breakfasts, outreaches in strip clubs, bars, college campuses, local schools, and orphan care in Africa. We have a term for it around here: “Servolution” – a change in the course of history sparked by simple acts of kindness.
Servolution is our culture at HPC. It is 365 days a year for us, but we also have one-day Servolutions where we just blow it all out. Our intent is to blitz our community with such a sudden, overwhelming army of people serving in dozens of ways in every part of our community, showing the love of Christ through serving. And we aren’t the only church with a passion for outreach. A quick look around you and you can see that there’s a ton of ridiculously cool outreach ideas that churches are doing today.
But I’m continually reminded that some of the best outreach ideas are simply what God told us to do in the Bible - pure and simple:
Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
James 1:27There’s another truth in all of this that should not be overlooked. A large part of our strategy for fulfilling the great commission – to go into all the world and make disciples – is to engage new believers in outreach. This is what Jesus did originally with the twelve disciples – much of what He taught them came in settings where they were serving together.
And when people serve together, they grow together. As Christ-followers, we actually need to serve. Serving is not only for those whom we serve. When we are expressing the love of Christ to others, we ourselves are refreshed and strengthened.
What makes an outreach worthwhile in the Kingdom is not whether it is a new idea or not. It isn’t a contest to see who can do the craziest outreach. What is important is how outrageous the love is that is shown in the outreach. The love Jesus shows us is utterly ridiculous. Check out what Paul wrote to the Philippians: “….He gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being….”
Because Jesus loves us with such an outrageous love, how much more should we love the forgotten, rejected, alone, poor and hurting people in our world? And may the God whose creativity gave us the most outrageous outreach strategy of all also give us creativity in our outreaches – so that others will experience the outrageous love of Jesus.
That’s Jesus style serving. That’s original outreach. That’s Servolution.
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