Most of my friends know by now that I’m a big proponent of using Facebook/Twitter, yet whenever I encourage others to use these services for their non-profit, ministry, or business I get a similar response, “It’s all about self-promotion and self-centered observations about nothing.”

As many times as I’ve heard this response, I’m more convinced than ever that these tools can be used as a good and noble cause.  To this end I wrote a memo several months ago that I distributed internally to the Directors of the Rescue Mission to help guide them as they thought of how to use Facebook and Twitter in their work/programs/ministry.  I thought I’d share it here so that you can see how and why I encourage my team to use these tools often, and during work hours.  Some of this may not be applicable to those who are not in faith-based organizations, yet I think there will be much that everyone could think about.

David Curry

How the Rescue Mission Mission Website/Facebook/Twitter Is a Ministry

(Internal Memo)

For many years our goal at the Tacoma Rescue Mission has been to “help all people become their best through the love of Jesus Christ”.  In the past few years we’ve boiled that down to the very measureable phrase, “Life Transformation”.  In other words, our goal is to see life transformation in the lives of those we come in contact with at the Mission.

This is a great marker by which to measure ourselves and the services we provide.  As a group, we must always ask ourselves if what we are doing will help transform lives, or is just another activity that will keep us busy.  While there are many necessary, mundane tasks in any ministry, we must remain focused on how we are living our purpose to see lives changed.  By measuring current activities against this standard we will most certainly find things that will not measure up and need to be eliminated.

But how about measuring the DEVELOPMENT of new tools, technologies and programs against that same measurement?  Does this work as well? Yes!

Clearly, we must measure potential new developments/technologies/tools by the measuring stick of Life Transformation, in order to fulfill our purpose to the maximum.

One obvious tool/technology that can be used to help to transform lives is Facebook/twitter/and our blogs.  These tools can be used in the same way that other technologies are currently being used at the Tacoma Rescue Mission.  We can use Facebook/Twitter and our Blogs to do the following:

1. Share the words and story of Jesus
2. Encourage those in recovery
3. Connect with those who are tending toward isolation in recovery
4. Distribute information about what God is doing at TRM
5. Multiply the reach of sermons, teachings, and programs that are already in place
6. Show our supporters the stories of victory that they are part of
7. Build and edify the Body of Christ throughout the nation

The challenge is to swim against the current and to use these tools to lift others, not just to talk about yourself.  Most use Facebook/Twitter for the promotion and exaltation of “ME” and not with a purpose toward exalting Jesus.  Don’t let this keep you from seeing the tremendous potential in this tool.

Unfortunately, most people do not see the potential upside of these technologies because they see the self-centered nature of the current use.  But this is true of EVERY tool.  We serve a redeemer and have been redeemed and thus must redeem the tools that are available to reach the lost.

Here are a few questions I use when helping me to use Facebook/twitter/blog:

What is God doing in my community that I can encourage/promote?

Are there hurts that I can uniquely address?

Is there something I am learning that can help others?

Is there a psalm that could heal a hurt in others?

Is there a proverb that could give direction?

How can I build up others?

How can I expand the reach of God’s work here at the Mission?

Is there a biblical truth I can digest and simplify for a confused world?

Can I link and promote other ministries?

Is there a sermon that touched me that I can link to?

Am I building unity in the body of Christ with this tool?

Am I an encouragement to others?

Am I promoting the essentials of the Gospel or my own agenda?

Am I lifting up the name of JESUS?

By asking these questions and using tools that automate and simplify the posting of these updates we can reach hundreds and even thousands more people.  Every day I am getting responses from folks who would otherwise not be edified by our ministry, who are now being blessed and built up in the Lord.

Most of us would never stand for someone telling us that “your life stinks and it’s never getting better”, but we never challenge our own thoughts and affirmations when we accuse ourselves of the very same thing!

One of the consistent messages that our culture pushes is to “be positive”.  Nevertheless, so many people that I have interacted with over the years,  both at the Rescue Mission through our programs and in my ministry of helping and training leaders, are convinced that their lives are terrible and never going to get better.

How can you live a good life if you are caught up in negative thinking and living with a viewpoint that is consistently pessimistic that things will ever change for the better?  Simply put, you can’t!  So much of our thinking is regurgitation.  To regurgitate literally means to pull something up that had been digested, to vomit back up, so that you can review and re-chew it.  This is exactly what negative thinking is, and this regurgitating on the garbage of life holds many people in a negative pattern.  If you are stuck in negativity, think about what you are repeatedly thinking and believing to be true!

You will never achieve happiness waiting for all the circumstances in your life to arrange in perfect order.  The truth is that happiness and positivity are not connected to circumstances.  Neither positive or negative thinking are connected to reality as you know it, instead they both dependent upon faith.  To sustain a negative attitude you need a faith that things will not change, that everyone is out to get you, that you are consistently going to be the victim, that your circumstances are permanently stuck and that you have no control over what happens to you.

In a like manner, but in the exact opposite way, you need faith to be positive.  Here are a few things that, when you focus on them, will help you to replace negative thinking with a faith-filled positive outlook:

God has a plan for my life - god has a plan and purpose for everyone.  Even if you are living less than your potential, caught up in pain, addiction and negative habits, you can always begin to do what’s right and find your God-given purpose.

Great things are coming – So many people wrongly believe that things will never get better, that it’s getting worse.  I don’t believe that.  In the life of a large ministry such as ours, Every generation has believed that they lived in the toughest possible circumstances and that the political and moral foundations were crumbling around them.  I’m not silly enough to ignore reality, but I also know that we are the most blessed generation in the history of the world to this point.  Great things are happening even in the midst of difficulty and challenge.

You have Choices – so often our despair comes from feeling helpless to control our finances, weight, addictions, and relationships.  But you really aren’t helpless, you have choices.  What kind of person do you want to become?  What do you want to eat today to be healthy?  What kind of people do you need to hang around?  You have choices!  Don’t settle for living the same miserable day over and over again.  Make a change.  Act on faith that positive things happen when you focus on what is good.

David Curry

There are few things better in life than watching someone do something, the one thing they LOVE doing, with passion and excellence. Lately I’ve run across a few of these extraordinary people in their place of business and it prompted this new series of blogs on People of Passion.
To be passionate about what you do is a prerequisite for being great and excelling. You can’t serve people well if you don’t love people, you can’t build a great auto repair store if you don’t love cars and making them roar, and the list goes on.
One of these passionate people is part of the husband/wife team that owns the Adriatic Grill in Tacoma, WA. This lady loves people! It’s clear she’s passionate about it and it comes through.

Here’s a video of the Thanksgiving Dinner that the Adriatic Grill did for the homeless families at Tyler Sq. It was a blessing and another example of passionate people doing good things:

My faith tells me that God loves all equally and cares for all without regard to material or societal worth.  He cared for those who were shunned for their past mistakes and restored their futures.  He loves the poor and broken hearted and reminded us to not show favoritism to the ric.  Yet we as a people continue to contextualize these ideas and dumb them down for our own humanly purposes.

For example, professional fundraising techniques will tell you to focus exclusively on those who have capacity to give, to focus on the rich, and slather them with attention.  Yet God has told us directly in scripture not to treat the rich with special favor.

The answer is LOVE!  Love all as Christ loved and challenge the established principles of fundraising by setting one dominate value: To share your love and enthusiasm with ALL those who have expressed an interest and demonstrated a capacity to love and care for the poor – not just those who are rich. Many with resources do love the poor and have demonstrated a concern for others.  In the same way, many who don’t have much will also show a concern for others who have even less than they do. Is one better than another because they have greater capacity? Certainly not!

I will NOT show favoritism to any man because of his wealth, neither will I look poorly on someone because of their current lack of financial resources.  I will trust that if I act in obedience, God will provide.

But the needy will not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the afflicted every perish.  Psalm 9:18

Certainly some leaders must disagree with me, let me know what you think.

David Curry

Recently I was having a conversation with my brother, @deancurry, and he asked me a question that I’d not thought of recently.  ”Who is inspiring you right now?  What Leaders do you admire?”

Honestly, as much as I think about leadership, read and study what other leaders are doing you’d think that I’d have a quick answer for those questions.  Yet I was stumped for quite a few minutes.

After giving it some thought, one of the names I came up with was Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com

If you look at this short video Bezos shot for Zappos employees when Amazon bought the company a few months ago you can see why I like this guy. Honest, transparent, clear communicator with vision.

Who do you admire? What leaders inspire you?

DC

Leadership books are common and often seem to be written for the aspiring leader, lacking serious content for the actual practicioner of leadership in the arena.  The Longview by Roger Parrot  is an outstanding exception.  Filled with great insight for those who lead organizations, it touches on some issues that aren’t often spoken of in off-the-rack leadership books.

1.  Lead as if You’ll be There Forever. My mentor Dr. Fulton Buntain was a big believer in consistency and exampled it by remaining pastor of Life Center church in Tacoma, WA for forty years.  Watching him I saw first hand the power of making decisions with the idea that you’re going to be there to see you’re decisions come to bear fruit.  Obviously however, this isn’t as common as it should be.  Leaders come to see themselves a “turnaround artist” or a “transitional leader” largely because they don’t make decisions with their eye on the longview of history.  Instead they rush it, pushing reforms before the nameplate off their predecessor is taken off the door.

2.  Planning Will Drain Life.  In a well-reasoned chapter, Parrott suggest that typical long term planning is hard to do well because of the unpredictability of the future.  Instead he highlights a few great concepts that allow for planning to be more responsive and meaningful.

3.  Renewal. Clearly this is the backbone of long-lasting leadership.  Parrott shares great clues on how to get emotional and spiritual renewal so that you’ll be effective for years to come.

There are many solid tips for experienced leaders in this book beyond what I’ve mentioned here.  I recommend you give it a look next time you’re thinking about a book on leadership.

DC

YOU’RE SHOCKED THAT I WOULD SAY THAT I LOVE PROSTITUTES, but I’m hoping when I’m done explaining why, you might say you do too.

I want to be like Jesus.  I’m not there, I’m not even close, but I want to love the things he loved and love as he loved.  Jesus loved the forgotten, the broken, the abused, the lonely, the hurting, and the worldly.  He loved them unconditionally, with a love we will never be able to understand perhaps, but one that we can model by following his example.

Strangely, although many Christians want the loving forgiveness of Jesus, they struggle to see the value in those who do not measure up to their standard.  I want to be like Jesus: So I love the hurting, the drug addict, the broken hearted, the prostitute, and whomever Jesus loved.

I also love those that are hurting because I know that I’m in need of unconditional love myself.  To say that “I’m not perfect” would be a cliche.  It’s more than that: it’s that I was lost and am lost without Jesus and I’m no better or worse than anyone else.  To love those that are addicted, selling their bodies, lying, cheating, stealing and committing other sins isn’t an act of pity or charity for the follower of Jesus.  Instead it is an act of obedience and a recognition that this is the condition in which Jesus found me.

Every believer should follow the example of Jesus by:

Loving and caring for the poor

Reaching out to the hurting and lonely

Sharing Love extravagantly instead of measuring it out with judgement

Give and live the message of the hope of forgiveness through Jesus.

I love unconditionally because I was loved unconditionally.

The Rescue Mission is about seeing the lives of the homeless, hurting and lonely transformed into healthy, happy people.  Our New Life Program accepts women seeking to escape drug abuse, physical abuse, prostitution and more.  In addition, here are some great ministries that work in this arena:

Treasures: http://www.iamatreasure.com/

Charisma: http://www.justcharisma.org/

Within the next few months the Rescue Mission is going to be upgrading our technical equipment to be able to stream classes from our Challenge Learning Center at our New Life Sq. Campus in downtown Tacoma to two of our other campus’ on Tyler Sq and Adams St., and vice versa.

These valuable classes cover issues such as Genesis Drug Recovery Classes, Life Skills Classes and basic education classes. We are doing this for a number of reasons.

1. Quality of teaching. Like all Rescue Missions I imagine, We have to teach a number of classes daily to the men and women in our programs, but we do not have a resources to hire enough teachers that would allow for the instructors to go deep in one or two particular subjects. With the ability to stream the classes from one site to another we can use each teacher within their one or two strongest subjects and stream it to the other sites.

2. Quantity of teachers/teaching. Right now we are limited by resource constraints on how many teachers we can have on staff. This new strategy will effectively multiply the quantity of teaching we have available to our students at each location because the classes will be available to them live and saved on our site for future viewing.

3 Better Stewardship. Our plan to stream our classes live will allow us to expand our reach without adding significant more staff positions at our new family campus. Our goal is always to see lives transformed through our work at the Rescue Mission, but in pursuing that goal we make a promise to our donors, that we will be effective and efficient with their charitable investment. This will allow us to fulfill both of those goals.

4. Partnership. While I dont’ know of any other Missions that are streaming their daily classes, as time goes on we will be able to seek partnerships with other Missions, schools and ministries. There are endless possibilities for expanded learning opportunities for those we serve in future use of this technology.

I’m curious what you think. Are there other potential uses, advantages and partnerships that we’ve not yet thought of? Do you know of other missions that are streaming their daily drug rehabilitation classes that would be open to partnership? Give me your feedback.

DC

One of the sites I check regularly is TRENDWATCHING.com  this months issue is particularly interesting as it has some video interviews with consumers that will surprise you.

In particular, I loved the first video of the series on The Next Big Thing and the video on CAR v. PHONE.

Click here to go to the site, the videos are short, but full of powerful insights.