SERVOLUTION: A Moment with Dino Rizzo
- Posted by: Todd
- Posted on: Thu, May 14, 2009
- Viewed 57
- (33) comments so far
Todd - first of all I want to say thank you for all you do for the Church today. You’re a big blessing and it’s an honor to have you as a part of this blog tour.I think the thing that churches need to remember as they move into a culture of serving is that it is not complicated, but it does take time. Be patient, and be willing to start with what you have. Where has God given you favor? What talents or gifts do the people on your team have that can be put toward helping the poor and hurting?
When we first started as a church, we had a few guys who could cook - so we started cooking meals to give away. It wasn’t thousands of meals like our Cooking For Christ team provided people with last fall after a hurricane hit our city, but we blessed a lot of people with free meals and a lot of love. And things grew from there.
Too often we get in the trap of looking at what we don’t have. Elijah asked the widow what she had, and they went to work on her miracle from that point. Look around you and take a little inventory of what God has already given you and start there. You’ll find that everything you need for the job God has for you to do today is right there in front of you.
That’s a great answer! Start small. Where has God given you favor already?
I encourage you to pick up a copy of Dino’s Servolution book today. You can get a copy here! You can also check out the Servolution website here.
I consider Pastor Dino Rizzo a friend, and I'm excited for Dino's brand new book titled "Servolution: Starting a Church Revolution Through Serving". Servolution will make you laugh, make you cry, and above all it will make you ready to serve others like never before. Dino shares some practical ideas and strategies in every chapter!
I recently was asked to be a part of today's Servolution blog tour and I immediately said yes. My question for Dino was: Dino, what would you suggest a small, totally inwardly-focused church do as a first step to becoming a church that serves its community?
Here's Pastor Dino's response...
Comments
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CS on Thu, May 14, 2009
Sorry to break out the dead horse here so I can start beating it again, but for anyone who read this book: does Rizzo actively promote the direct sharing of the Gospel message as a part of the community service that churches should be doing? Does he ever say anything about preaching or witnessing to people whom churches are serving with words?
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CS
Todd Rhoades on Thu, May 14, 2009
I hope that before you beat that dead horse again, you take the time to read the book, CS.
Why would Dino want to share the gospel, or preach or witness? Give me a break. I’m sure he’s totally against that.
Todd
CaroleTurner on Thu, May 14, 2009
HA! Todd. Love that response. Yea, READ IT CS then judge for yourself.
Leonard Lee on Fri, May 15, 2009
From the Healing place web site:
The first thing you must do is PRAY. Next, simply look for someone who doesn’t know Jesus as their Lord. That should be easy. It is always God’s will for you to share Him with people that do not know His love. One of the best ways to share Christ is to simply be a true friend. There should be nothing manipulative, shallow, or tactical about it. Be a transparent and honest friend. Serve them. This is one of the best ways to gain influence in their life. Actions often speak louder than words. Also, realize that sometimes it may take people a while to believe, so don’t give up or grow impatient. Allow God to orchestrate. Never forget the power that prayer has. Continuously pray that the Holy Spirit will work on their heart.
CS on Fri, May 15, 2009
Leonard Lee:
I read through that page, including the paragraph that you cited above. The entire framework of their method of evangelism is commonly called, “friendship evangelism.” This is not a form of evangelism found in the Bible, and it is rife with so many other problems. You can read a good article about the problems with it at http://www.revolutioninchrist.com/RevolutionInChrist/Relationshipeva.html .
Relevant to the context of this post, if this is the preferred means of sharing the Gospel that Rizzo promotes, then I can almost guarantee that a direct sharing of the Gospel message while doing good deeds in the community on a first-time endeavor would be discounted. He would probably say that the continuing good deeds would lead to friendships that would lead to opportunities to share the Gospel, but again, that’s not a model of evangelism prolifically illustrated in the Bible.
Seriously, this is the thing that drives me crazy. If you believe that God has saved you from sin and from Hell, and is willing to offer you eternal life, why wouldn’t you want to shout this as loud as possible to everyone, especially when coupled with good works to offer up as proof for His saving Grace? Why would you want to wait when souls are dying? Why would you try to build up a friendship under potentially false premises, wait for some signal that it’s okay to share, while that person may yet die and go to Hell? The only things I can think of are: (1) you are ignorant of the Bible’s call to evangelize, (2) you do not believe the Bible when it comes to the judgment and wrath of God to come, or (3) you hate people and would rather let them die in their sins than make them uncomfortable with a direct Gospel presentation.
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CS
CS on Fri, May 15, 2009
Todd:
What happened with my post about why I posed the original question, hoping someone could answer? And what happened to Katrina’s responses about her experiences with her former church?
—
CS
Leonard Lee on Fri, May 15, 2009
CS
To discount friendship evangelism as non biblical is to argue from silence and preference. There does however seem to be support for living out your faith in such a way as to have people come to Christ.. I see this in Acts 2, and throughout acts as well as in early church history. This is a church that is committed to reaching people through serving them, sharing Christ with them and has indeed found success.
Heck, Peter even tells us to be ready to answer those who ask us a reason for our hope. He tells us this in the context of people seeing our lives and responding. Knowing Jesus should make me a better person, better friend, father, husband, co-worker… For some knowing Jesus has just made them more critical and vocal.
Todd Rhoades on Fri, May 15, 2009
What do you think happened to them, CS?
Seriously, you dissed Dino and his book without reading it, then said you were just wanting people who had read it to tell you whether your suspicions were true before you decided to read it. Give me a break.
And Katrina clearly has a personal score to settle with Dino because Dino didn’t agree with a tape that was given to him. It’s time to move on.
I guess I feel a little biased here. I have personally been to Healing Place Church and seen first hand some of the things they are doing. Yes, I personally went along with them as they delivered meals to the widows, most all of them homebound, who would never, ever grace the walls of their church.
Oh, and get this. They not only offered these dear ladies food… They also prayed with each one and took the time to talk with them one-on-one about how they were doing in their lives, (both physically and spiritually). It was the only contact some of these ladies would have all day.
It occurred to me during the afternoon… I’ve never cared for an orphan or a widow tangibly. I thought… these people are putting me to shame.
So, from my FIRST-HAND experience, anyone saying that Dino or Healing Place is ONLY giving out water or food, or only doing good deeds and ignoring the gospel is just ludicrous.
No, actually, its beyond ludicrous.
Please… take the time to read the book. Then travel to Baton Rouge, and go out with them on a 110 degree day to serve those who nobody else wants to minister to. Then, let’s talk.
Todd
CS on Fri, May 15, 2009
(I realize that I may be testing Todd’s patience here, so I’ll try to be brief and respectful.)
Leonard:
“There does however seem to be support for living out your faith in such a way as to have people come to Christ.. I see this in Acts 2, and throughout acts as well as in early church history. “
I notice how in Acts 2 Peter does a direct Gospel presentation to the point where in verse 37 people were crying out, “What must we do?” Yes, they were living out their faith, but to give credence to my stance on this, they were forthright in sharing their faith.
Todd:
“Please… take the time to read the book. Then travel to Baton Rouge, and go out with them on a 110 degree day to serve those who nobody else wants to minister to. Then, let’s talk.”
I may indeed take a look at the book to see what he has to say. But as for going out and serving, not to brag, let me qualify my own works in why I have these views.
I have a ministry where I go to parks and visit troubled kids and give them food, water, and a friendly ear for listening. I’ll be going on a mission trip shortly overseas to help with orphans and the homeless in a third-world country. I routinely perform random acts of kindness, from carrying things for people, helping those stranded on the side of the road, in scorching summer heat to blizzards in the winter. And yet I make sure that they know I do these things in the name of Christ by sharing the Gospel, preaching, or giving them a tract wherever I go. Because I care so much about their souls more than anything else.
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CS
Leonard on Fri, May 15, 2009
Thanks Todd, you are correct here.
CS and Katrina, please exercise some humility in the rebuke Todd has given.
Leonard on Fri, May 15, 2009
Acts 2
- there was no one among them that had need…. Good Deeds
- They enjoyed the favor of all people… good will
- And God added daily… Good news.
Why give them water CS? Why give them food… why be friendly? Kindness opens the door.
You are doing friendship evangelism. (gasp) what will Jesus think of that?
Todd Rhoades on Fri, May 15, 2009
First of all, I commend your service, CS. And I appreciate that you do all in the name of Christ.
What I take issue on is the fact that, while you do your service in the name of Christ, you questioned Dino and Healing Place doing their service in the name of Christ. You automatically questioned their sharing the gospel. All I’m saying is that they clearly do. I’ve seen it firsthand.
So some people hand out water for the sake of handing out water. Yeah, probably. Do some people think they are witnessing when they hand out water? I don’t know.
Here’s the premise: Sharing good deeds gives an opportunity to share the good news. Does the good news need to be shared immediately? I’m not sure it has to be instantaneous, but it does need to happen.
That said, sometimes I think it’s good to give a thirsty person some water, or some food to a hungry person, or some shoes to a person with no shoes. You do such things because they are the right things to do. Right?
Is it ok, then, to do your service… say carrying something for someone (on or your examples) WITHOUT saying the name of Jesus?
If I hold a door open for someone, do I need to say, “You know, the reason I’m holding the door for you is because Jesus died for me…”?
You see… I think the pendulum has to be balanced. And I’m willing to give both you AND Dino the benefit of the doubt.
Todd
CS on Fri, May 15, 2009
Leonard:
“Why give them water CS? Why give them food… why be friendly? Kindness opens the door. You are doing friendship evangelism. (gasp) what will Jesus think of that? “
Let me diagram the two ways of doing good deeds with, “friendship,” evangelism and explain the differences. Here is the way I do it:
DEEDS -> GOSPEL -> FRIENDSHIP
or…
GOSPEL -> DEEDS -> FRIENDSHIP
You see, in this way, things come together in harmony. My words are proven by my acts of love. And my acts of love have a definite reason for why I am doing them. And eventually, if the person so chooses and things work out, we can develop a friendship that will persist. This seems to be a biblical model for doing things, with Acts 2 as reference.
Now, let’s compare this to modern, “friendship evangelism.”
DEEDS -> FRIENDSHIP -> GOSPEL
In this system, a person builds up a friendship with someone through the use of works, with a hopeful eventual goal of delivering the Gospel message to them. But, there are so many things that can prevent this from happening.
First, the person could believe that the friendship was under false pretenses to only share the Gospel, leading to resentment. Second, the Gospel may never be shared because the person does not want to risk the integrity of the relationship. And third, the person could die or be removed from the relationship before the Gospel can be shared, which leads to someone potentially dying in their sins. This is the model that was cited on Rizzo’s website, and one I believe is dangerous at best, and unbiblical at worst.
To Todd’s points, while I will do good deeds occasionally without passing out a Gospel tract or taking the time to witness, I make it a standard to do share the name of Christ as often as I can when doing these things. Because if I don’t talk about my faith, (1) the person may instead believe in the wrong idea that people are by nature good, (2) that person may not understand why someone would do something so nice, leaving them confused, and (3) that person may never get another opportunity again to hear about Christ.
But again, are we so ashamed of the Gospel message that we don’t share it directly?
—
CS
Todd Rhoades on Fri, May 15, 2009
But again, are we so ashamed of the Gospel message that we don’t share it directly?
YOU are the only one making this allegation. Oh, well, you and Katrina.
Leonard on Fri, May 15, 2009
CS, how does that work for you? Are you seeing poeple become Christians and are you disciplining them into the local church? Are those whom you share Christ with confessing with their mouth Jesus as Lord and believing in their heart God has raised Him from the dead. Are they then finding a home in God’s church here they are becoming discipled?
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