The Power of the Big Idea...Continued from page 4
With clarity and simplicity, Jesus challenged him with one Big Idea when he said, "One thing you lack.... Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me" (Mark 10:21). The message was clear. It was a call to action. It was a Big Idea that was simple but not easy.
What would happen if we challenged people in the same way? What if we gave people one clear and simple Big Idea and asked them to put it into action? That is exactly what we have been attempting to do at Community Christian Church and the New Thing Network for the last several years. Every week, we give all of our people of every age and at every location one Big Idea and ask them to put it into action. The challenge is simple and clear ? but never easy. That's the Big Idea.
Recently we were in the middle of a Big Idea series titled "Get in the Game" for the adults and "U Got Game" for our Student Community and Kids' City. Kids' City puts every Big Idea into one concise statement, and this time it was "God uses his teams' offering to change the world." It was a powerful series. I received the following email from a mom in our church:
I just wanted to let you know that my kids really, really got a lot out of this week's large group time in Kids' City. It made such an impact on them to know where their offering money goes every week. Each week when they get their allowance on Saturday, 15 percent automatically goes with them to church, but they've never really understood where that money goes. (I guess I haven't been very effective at explaining what "giving back to God" means!) Anyway, when they came home this week after experiencing the Big Idea, they both went in and emptied their piggy banks into the offering bags they made and said, "We have to give it all to church. There are orphans in Rwanda that don't have homes. We have to help those kids get a home!" Never mind that we talk about "poor people" around this house all the time, but for whatever reason they "got it" in a way they never had, thanks to the way you presented it in Kids' City.
Thanks!
Kirsten
I asked Jen Pedley how the Big Idea impacted her. Here's what she said:
The Big Idea was the first time in my life that God's Word applied to my everyday, ordinary life. It helped me in a practical, "meet you where you are and don't worry, I'll still love you" way. No one had ever spoken so clearly about what it meant to be a Christ follower (I mean, come on, everyone in my hometown claimed to be a "Christian," but I saw firsthand how much that really meant in many people's lives), why you would even want to live this way, and how to do it.
I never heard the Word of God speak to me personally until coming to CCC. I never saw the point until then. Big Idea teaching touches on so many basic truths that even though I had gone to churches my whole life, I had never heard before. When you put God's Word into where people are at today ? whew, I was blown away. I still am.