Another Interesting Survey

Here at MPC, we have been teaching a series on witnessing called "Bridging the Gap: Becoming Effective Ambassadors for Christ". Inspired by the book "Selling Swimsuits in the Arctic" by Adam Hamilton, the series has focused on the church being the sales force that God uses to sell Himself to the world. As such, I thought the following statistics were pertinent.

A national sales survey produced these results:

* 80% of all new sales are made after the fifth call to the same prospect.
* 48% of all salespersons make one call then cross off the prospect.
* 25% quit after the second call.
* 12% call three times and then quit.
* 10% keep calling.

It is obvious that those who 'keep calling' are the ones who reap the benefits of the sale! This lines up with Paul's warning to the church, "... be not weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not."

Never give up on souls!!!

A Couple Favorite Poems...

Don't Tell Me

Don't tell me what you will do when you have time to spare;
Tell me what you did today to ease a load of care.
Don't tell me what you will give when your ship comes in from sea;
Tell me what you did today a fettered soul to free.
Don't tell me the dreams you have of conquest still afar;
Don't say what you hope to be, but tell me what you are.
-- Selected

The Few

The easy roads are crowded and the level roads are jammed;
The pleasant little rivers with the drifting folk are crammed.
But off yonder where it's rocky, where you get a better view;
You will find the ranks are thinning and the travelers are few.
But the steps that call for courage and the task that's hard to do;
In the end result in glory for the never-wavering few.
-- Selected

Just Thinkin' 'bout Love...

Love is a friendship that has caught fire.
It is a quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving.
It is loyalty through good and bad.
It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weakness.
Love is content with the present.
It hopes for the future and it doesn't brood over the past.
It's the day-in and day-out chronicle of irritations, problems, compromises, small disappointments, big victories, and working toward common goals.
If you have love in your life, it can make up for a great many things you lack.
If you don't have it, no matter what else there is, it is not enough.
So search for it, ask God for it, and share it!

I John 4:7-11
7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.