Dino Rizzo’s new book Servolution

Dino Rizzo, pastor of Healing Place Church (Baton Rouge, LA), conducted a blog tour recently introducing his new book Servolution: Starting a Church Revolution through Serving. Here are excerpts from blogger questions:

Catalystspace:

Dino, there is an idea out there, held by many Christians, that the job of the Church is to meet peoples’ spiritual needs (salvation) and then, if we have extra time or money laying around, meet their physical needs. How do you address this mindset?

I don’t believe we should have to choose between the two. At the end of the day, we want to see people come to Jesus. And serving is a means to that end but it isn’t the end itself. What we really want to do is help the cause of Christ come alive in people’s hearts, but the path to that is serving people where they are. It’s all one package – one goal – seeing people live out God’s plan for their lives. And we need to be willing to do whatever it takes, whenever it is needed.

Greg Atkinson:

What kind of potential does the servolution vision have if it is trully embraced by the Church (capital C)?

In John 13, Jesus was getting ready to hand off the work of the ministry to His disciples, and He wanted to make sure they got serving right. If they were going to be the ones to establish and continue the work after He returned to Heaven, they needed to really grasp the concept of serving. And so He chose to demonstrate it one more time to them through a footwashing lesson. These men would revolutionize the world – and the book of Acts story shows that they got His message. If you want to be great, be the least. Serve each other. And this truth has the same potential today for the Church as it had then.

Serving isn’t a new idea – Jesus launched the Church with a serving lesson. When a serovlution culture gets in a church serving gets in people’s lives, and when that happens, the potential is there for them to live out the story of the book of Acts.

The more we serve others, the more we look like the Church Jesus had in mind.

Solar Crash:

Dino what are your thoughts on inviting those who have yet to stumble into Jesus to serve along side of us? And what are some good ways of doing so without it being too weird as our intentions in serving may not entirely overlap?

If someone wants to serve alongside you in an outreach, there’s a good chance they’re already curious about something they’ve seen in you. Sure, there’s a chance their purpose isn’t the same as yours, but I’d guess the root of their intentions is to find out what in the world is making these people want to get out on a hot day and give away free bottles of water – no strings attached. I’m not saying you shouldn’t use wisdom – don’t put someone you don’t know in charge of children’s church.

Leadership carries with it a different requirement than simply joining you on an outreach. But by all means, I’d encourage you to take people with you on an outreach who haven’t made the decision to follow Christ yet. It just might be what draws them all the way across the line.

Eric Bryant:

How have you been able to fight against the tendency Christians have to look for churches to serve them rather than as the church willing to serve the world?

Servolution is largely based on the principles Jesus demonstrated and taught in John 13. He and the disciples were in a borrowed room for a meal, which meant that one of them would need to take the towel and basin and wash the others’ feet – the role of the lowest-ranked servant. Each of them passed up the opportunity – until Jesus, their leader, took on himself the towel and began washing their feet. Jesus didn’t sit back and wait to be served. He served others willingly – and this is the example he set for us that we have tried to unpack in the book. Servolution isn’t just doing some cool outreaches. It is a culture to be developed in you, your staff and leaders. And when you serve others, it is amazing the life that will begin to well up inside you.

Since that’s true, I guess we don’t exactly fight against the tendency we all have to just be served. We just serve and when people begin to see the joy and excitement and life that there is in serving, it usually is enough to make them want to be a part.

Rockbridge Seminary students who have completed the online seminary course “The Theology and Purpose of Ministry” may be helped by exploring the Servolution website and reading Servolution: Starting a Church Revolution through Serving.

Ministry responses by churches to economic recession

Leadership Network’s study “How the Economic Slump Is (or Isn’t) Hitting Churches” documents how some churches are responding to the economic recession.

Here are excerpts from the study:

In response to the economic downturn, churches are almost universally budgeting with greater caution and increased transparency. They want their people to know they are exercising great care in financial stewardship. Churches are also doing specific things to help their own people and the surrounding community.

A significant number of churches (85%) are planning at least two initiatives in 2009 to help the people in their congregations learn to manage their finances and giving consistent with Biblical principles. This includes:

• Offering financial classes, groups or seminars
• Preaching a sermon and/or series on finances and/or generosity
• Conducting an annual stewardship drive
• Making financial/generosity pamphlets available
• Having volunteer budget/debt counselors available
• Offering increased online/electronic giving options

Nearly a third of the churches he surveyed indicated they would be increasing their dollars for benevolence ministries to help people in their church and/or communities weather difficult financial times.

A great, specific example is from the Vineyard Church of Columbus, OH, where Rich Nathan is pastor. They created a task force consisting of Vineyard pastors and business people from the church. Ways they are helping people deal with the challenges of the recession include:

• A series of job networking events designed to connect qualified job candidates with employers and HR professionals
• A series of symposiums on subjects such as home foreclosure, accessing unemployment benefits and other public benefits
• On-going classes and programs in areas such as starting your own business, practical job search skills, career coaching, buying a home for the first time, and financial counseling
• Support groups and weekly intercessory prayer meetings for people who have lost jobs
• Provision of free health care at their two health clinics, plus baby clothes, diapers, and formula
• Collaboration with a local immigration services agency to care for the specific needs of international refugees
• A food pantry available for church members and those who live in specific zip codes in Columbus

Another great example of a church responding to the economic downturn comes from Toby Slough, pastor of Cross Timbers Community Church, Argyle, TX . Cross Timbers is continually raising the bar for caring. On March 1, 2009, Toby instructed the congregation, “If you need money today to feed or house your family, please take money out of the offering plate, rather than putting money in.” Two weeks later, the church collected its biggest offering of the year—and Toby responded by announcing that the church would pay the utility bills for any members who had lost their jobs. Notably, by the time of that record-breaking offering, Toby and the other church leaders had already decided to give substantial sums to those in need, but had chosen not to announce their intentions in advance. Toby insisted that he wanted to help people because it was the right thing to do, not because he thought it would spur greater giving. The church has also given out financial gift cards to people in need—and recently decided to donate 100% of its Easter 2009 offering to people in need.

The varieties of creative ways churches are helping their peoples and communities seem endless. Healing Place Church, Baton Rouge, LA, and Celebration Church, Jacksonville, FL, have each done largescale gift card giveaways for WalMart. North Point Community Church, Alpharetta, GA, has developed a support group for people seeking a new job.

Rockbridge Seminary students who have taken the online course “The Theology and Practice of  Ministry” may be helped by reading more or even downloading the full study (Learnings @ Leadership Network).