Sunday, August 2, 2009

Servolution - Intro & Chapter One

Two books unexpectedly arrived at my door this past week: Servolution by Dino Rizzo and Total Church by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis (they were sent to me from Deets in some sort of thank you circle).

So first up in my reading is Servolution, tag line: Starting a church revolution through serving.

Intro

In the introduction, Dino starts off with explaining his underlying motive to serving: That God values everyone and wants them as his own, not matter the cost. More so, not only does God wants us as his own, those that are his are let in on the mission of pointing others to God.

He calls the church to look beyond themselves, but rather to those not already in on the mission, and the best way to do that is by serving them. It sort of reminds me of JFK's whole "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country" mantra. Don't ask yourself what you're going to get out of the church this day, week, month, etc, but rather how you can serve the people around you.

I'm on board so far; growing up in a youth group that was modeled on the five Purpose Driven(TM) characteristics for a ministry, this make sense as one of those five characteristics is serving others.

Quick background: the five purposes of a church/ministry are (in Rick Warren's vernacular): Worship, Fellowship, Discipleship, Ministry, and Mission. These five aspects are taken from The Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) and The Great Commandment (Matthew 22:37-40). In this case Ministry would constitute service to others ("...love your neighbor...").

In the introduction, Rizzo references Jude 23 with the emphasize seemingly on the idea of "..to others show mercy..."

Jesus taught heavily on ministering to others (especially those in less fortunate positions that would sometimes by overlooked by other religious leaders of the day), the early church is rife with examples of believers coming together and serving one another.

Rizzo is not stating a new idea here (which is good, because the church should always be looking to back what they have done (i.e. serving widows and orphans), and what needs to shift through the times is the how it is done (i.e. providing left over wheat from the harvest in a bygone era to something more practical today's culture, like free to low-cost school supplies for single parent families).

Chapter One: The Beginning of a Servolution - Forty-Five Tons of Tea

I'm simply going to take the definition that is given in the opening section of this chapter word for word and copy it here:
What is Servolution? (surv-uh-loo-shuhn)
1. A complete and radical change if a person's life caused by simple acts of kindness for the glory of God
2. God's kingdom on earth as it is in heaven
3. A church revolution through serving


Personally, I'm not a big fan of the word servolution. Note, I'm a fan of the idea/meaning of the phase, it's the physicality of smashing the word serve and revolution together. The phrase Serve Revolution would have sufficed, though to be honest the word revolution is a pop-culture word that the Christian sub-culture has latched onto a few years after pop-culture and are riding it for all it's worth. Again, this isn't that what the author is saying is wrong, it's just that it's a bit disappointing to see an example of slight culture pirating and I needed to get it out my system.

Oh, I should mention too if the subtitle of the chapter is a bit confusing, it's a reference to the Boston Tea Party, which Rizzo likens to the start of his own revolution - that at the time, no one knew what one seemingly insignificant (OK, filling Boston harbor was too insignificant, but considering what it was only leading up to...) incident could lead up to. His started with an unexpected offering from John Osteen (father of Joel) after pouring out his ideas for ministry. John wrote him a check and told him to start a church for the poor and hurting in Baton Rouge.

As with most starting up church plant's, attendance that first Sunday could be counted on both hands, but Rizzo was not to discouraged. His focus was not on Sunday morning sermons, but rather on helping people in the community.

By performing simple acts of kindness (visiting a widow with terminal cancer) and service (helping a single mom move) the congregation began to grow. After hosting a church wide dinner, he states:
"We were learning that whenever you find something that meets a need and makes people excited about coming to church, it is probably worth doing."


The chapter closes up with a section entitled, "Servolution Strategy" in which the author offers several steps to follow as well as posing some questions. He also emphasizes that when looking for a person or people to serve, to especially consider those on the "bottom" of the list, the types that tend to be overlooked and then identify their needs.

That can be a bit tricky when you think about it. Often we minister to those who are like us because we know what we would like or need, but to brainstorm up something you don't necessarily need yourself, but someone else might, can sometimes be a challenge. I would say that the solution to this is to ask questions. Don't speculate or assume, but rather ask.

It's a good start so far, and very easy read, so hopefully I'll be posting more in the next day or two.