Seth Godin's brilliant blog reminded me of a common occurrence that happens inside outreach... that is de-personalizing. Time and again people come in our office to see if Crosswind can assist them, pay a bill, help them with their trouble, etc. And many times, I have to say, "No I'm sorry, Crosswind cannot help you at all, but there may be some people who can." By the way, I'm not being a smart aleck or trying to make a distinction that doesn't make a difference, it makes all the difference in the world.
Seth Godin rightly said, "No organization cares about you. Organizations aren't capable of this. Your bank, certainly, doesn't care. Neither does your HMO or even your car dealership. It's amazing to me that people are surprised to discover this fact. People, on the other hand, are perfectly capable of caring."
John came in and asked if Crosswind could fill up his gas tank. I said "No, but I will." What transacted for John was critical to outreach.
There must be a relational, personal, community connection before people will fully appreciate what is transacting between you and them. And a pleasant byproduct is they may also quit using you.
People steal from WalMart because it's not personal. Ask those same people if they would steal from their friend and they say "of course not"! Why? Because you just made it personal.
In outreach it is critical to the gospel and to redemption and to truly helping someone to make it personal. When I told that man that I would give him gas he knew that I had worked this week, that I had taken the fruit of my labor and sacrificed it on his account and that in some way he and I had just deepened our relationship. I had loved him personally. That's way different from him getting an organization to buy gas for him.
Friends, Crosswind doesn't care about anyone, but Clifton does, Judy does, Lucky does, Nicole does, and many more who hang out and try to live a missionary lifestyle on behalf of neighbors for the sake of our Lord Jesus do.
Nope, Crosswind doesn't care at all, but we sure do.
BC
1 - read/write comments:
Spot on. Organizations are purposeful but not personal. No amount of good planning will succeed in direct outreach, be it to physically assist or share the gospel, without personal care. Thank you.
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