Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Wow... how time goes by.... it's two months later and I am finally sitting down to write another blog... well, it's not that I haven't been sitting... I just haven't been writing.

The church that I moved to Lincoln to help start is going through some changes. Not bad changes, just changes that needed to happen. We are trying to go back to a biblical style of the concept of "church."

There are different metaphors that have been thrown around in our meetings... for a great one, visit my friend Tim's blog post entitled "Baby Don't Need a Hat."

Alright... on with the blog... (By the way, this is a metaphor I got from a speaker I once heard... I'd just like to share it.)

The Ice Cream Gospel...

There are two different business models... The first is the Wal-Mart business model. You create a big building in the middle of town. You sell everything! From candy, to hats, to DVD players, to Rubik's Cubes, to tires, and so on. Your plan is that since you have everything and are located in the middle of town, everyone will come to you. This is the model that many churches have today. They have a women's ministry, a children's ministry, a youth group, a homeless ministry, a skateboard ministry, a worship team, a multimedia ministry, a greeters ministry... etc. They setup various ministries hoping that if they have everything, then people will start coming because they are attracted to a certain ministry in the church.

There is a second business model. The Ice Cream Man business model. He has ONE product... the best product!! He doesn't sell hats, he doesn't sell DVD players... he sells one thing... Ice Cream. He doesn't just setup shop and hope that people come and buy ice cream... No, he goes to where the people are who want and need ice cream and sells it to them on their turf... This is what Jesus did. He didn't need the instrumental for "Do Your Hears Hang Low" booming out of a speaker to be heard. His presence caused people to want to come to him as he went to different places. This is the mission of Jesus... to go out and bring the good news to the people that need it most. This is how Christians should be doing ministry.

That's all...

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