Happy Thanksgiving

Is It God's Garden?

Bill Gothard tells a story about a missionary in New Guinea who had a unique experience at Harvest Time:

Otto Koning worked among a native tribe whose accepted village practices included stealing from others. When Otto and his wife arrived and moved into a hut, the natives often came by to visit.
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The Konings would notice that after the natives left the missionaries' home, various household items had disappeared.  They saw these items again when they went to preach in the natives village.  The only fruit Otto could grow in the island was pineapples and he was very proud of his crop.

However, whenever the pineapples began to ripen, the natives stole them. Otto could never keep a ripe pineapple for himself. This was a frustration, and he became angry with the natives. All during the seven-year period in which this took place, Otto preached the gospel to these natives, but never had a conversion.  The more the natives stole, the angrier Otto became. Finally, one day Otto had a German Shepherd dog flown in from another missionary to protect his pineapple garden after other frustrated efforts failed. This only further alienated the natives from him.

Otto took a furlough to the United States and attended a conference on personal rights. At this conference, he discovered that he was frustrated over this situation because he had taken personal ownership of his pineapple garden. After much soul searching, he gave his garden to God. Soon the natives started having problems among their tribe. They discovered that Otto was the reason for their problems because he gave his garden to his God. The natives saw a correlation between what Otto had done and their own lives being affected by calamities in their village. When Otto gave his garden to God, he no longer got angry and was free from worry. The natives started bringing him fruit from the garden because they didn't want any more calamities to come into their village.

The light came on one day when a native said to Otto, "You must have become a Christian, Otto. You don't get angry anymore. We always wondered if we would ever meet a Christian." They had never associated Otto with the kind of person he was preaching about because his message did not line up with his life. Otto was broken in spirit when he realized he had been such a failure.

At the end of seven years, he witnessed his first conversion, and many began coming to Christ once he fully gave his garden to God. The fruit grew so abundant that Otto began exporting it and growing other types of fruit, such as bananas. His village became the most evangelized in the whole region, yet for seven years he had not one convert.

Otto realized something each of us must realize: To gain your life you must lose it, along with your possessions. It was only when he gave all his possessions to God that he became free from them. God measured back to him manifold once He had complete ownership.

Do you have a Garden that you need to give to God?  Tell me about it.

"Then Jesus went to work on his disciples. "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat; I am." Matthew 16:24 the Msg

A Tribute To All The Dads Out There!

Second Time Guests

How Many of Your Participants Come Back?

Whether we run a business, a church or a OneHarvest partner site, we all have one goal in common.  Getting first time participants to come back.  Have you ever considered what is the greatest motivation for return customers.  Most businesses know.  The biggest motivator for a return visit is not price and it's not quality of the product although those things are important.  Rather, its the level of comfort of the participant.

Why would someone drive by 12 churches to go to your church?  Because the first experience was comfortable for them.  Why does someone shop at a particular retail outlet over and over?  Comfort.  Why will your One Harvest friends keep coming back to your site?  You guessed it! Comfort.

Let me challenge you to take a hard look at your ordering process, your menu communication process and your distribution process. 

Are you doing everything to demonstrate to your participants that you value them highly?  

What about your volunteers?  Is the process easy and fun for them?

Ask yourself these questions as well ~ How many people ordered from our site last month AND this month?  How many volunteers are returning to help out?  If you are struggling to get dedicated volunteers, then most likely there is something about your system that is uncomfortable for them.  Maybe they don't feel highly valued or maybe they don't know what to do.  If you have a lot of first time participants, but few return participants then maybe something about the menu distribution, the ordering process or the distribution is uncomfortable to them.

Let me offer some points for consideration:

1) Evaluate the ordering experience.  Ask your customers if the experience is comfortable or awkward and adjust as needed.

2) Poll your volunteers - especially those that came once and didn't come back.

3) Call any participants that haven't ordered this month.  Look for hints and suggestions that they may give you that would make the experience better.  This is also a great way to increase outreach.  Everyone likes a personal touch.

4) Ask yourself, "Do I really love and care for these people."  If so, then what do I need to do to communicate this message to them.

5) Do everything to the best of your ability.  Strive for excellence.

6) Stress the convenience of ordering online and pickup.  Communicate to your audience the time saving element as well as the money saving element of your food ministry.

7) Make an email distribution list and remind your customers to order again each month.

8) Love The People.

How about you? What's working for your site?

Are we ready to sacrifice for the Gospel?

"The freedom of this city is not negotiable.."    ~ John F. Kennedy, Berlin, 1961

"We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty..."
     ~ John F. Kennedy, Inaugural address, January 20, 1961

"Greater things have yet to come and greater things are still to be done in this city! There is no one like our God!" ~ Chris Tomlin, God of This City, 2008.

One of the greatest sacrifices the church seems to be making is the sacrifice of forgoing the Gospel.  There seems to be a rush of pastors leaving the pulpit of the traditional church at an alarming rate in the western hemisphere.  Thankfully, the majority of those who are leaving are doing so with honorable intentions, having become fed up with a congregation of unsalty Christians who seem to have forgotten that men and women are enslaved to sin.  What our world needs is not more organs, pews and summer youth vacations.  What our world needs is freedom; freedom that only Christ can bring.  Freedom from the bondage of slavery to evil.  Freedom from being destined to eternity away from God, suffering His wrath.

We need brave men and women, young men and girls who are willing to pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship in order to take the message of Jesus Christ into our schools, our workplace, our community clubs and into the world.  We can rest assured that we will be successful, because God is the God of the city! 

I am saddened at the rate of decline in our mainline denominations and churches; I am saddened by the shrinking pool of pastors in established, evangelical churches.  But I am thrilled at the number of men and women who have faced the ridicule of others, who have bet against the odds, who have stepped out in faith to start a new movement that I believe might very well be greater than The Great Reformation in scope.  All this in an effort to take Christ to the masses.  I pray that our generation will be the start of Revolution.  So let it be Lord, so let it be!

Great Book!

My mentor has given me an unusual assignment.  I am reading Nelson Searcy's book Fusion. My task? To figure it out.  It is a must read for church planters/pastors.  Fusion is a very strategized method of helping first time guests become active, fully engaged members of your church.  For the strategist, it may also hold the key to outreach for ministries such as http://www.angelfoodministries.com/.  The guidance can be adapted to facilitate a positive experience for the community that you serve through these ministries.  Outreach has occured until you have touched the stranger and made him or her your friend, demonstrated the message of Christ and offered them a place to belong. 


Another set of great complimentary reads are The Purpose Driven Church by Rick Warren and Good to Great by Jim Collins.  Both shed light on multiple problems that keep churches "and organizations" from being effective and excelling.  Rick Warren has incredible insight into a deadly flaw that creeps into every church - loss of purpose.
Jim Collins book is a secular book that brings clarity to the leader of good organizations that just can't seem to make a leap to greatness.  Though secular by definition, the principles you will discover herein are both modern and ancient.  Just read the gospels and see how Jesus led a group of religious leftovers to transform the world through Christianity.

While you are trying to keep those you reach, read Why Small Groups by Mahaney.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Missional Living in a Pluralistic Society

Last night, I sat in our churches Ash Wednesday service and pondered the cross that our God placed Himself on to ransom me. It was a wonderful service led by my pastor, Gary Combs.
I was most thrilled by his challenge as he took us to Luke 5 and shared with us what the Holy Spirit has been speaking to his heart through the Holy Scriptures. Jesus told Peter to go back out into the deep water and let down his net. When Peter obeyed, he caught so many fish that he had to call for partners from the shore to come help him.
I see clearly a spiritual typology here. I have been mending the nets after a season of fishing. Now its time to set out into the deep for a great catch. We must enlist partners into this great endeavor.
Join me as we pray for a great harvest. At Wilson Community Church, that prayer is for 50 new members through salvation and baptism, 300 present for Easter Service, excellence in worship and 1 new work in Wilson. Also, join me as we set out to share our story of spiritual rescue through our personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Give your neighbors, associates, relatives and friends a chance to respond to the transformational work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. Tell them about Jesus!
In Christ,
Tony