Actually I have more to say, but what an incredible day at church yesterday. For a couple of weeks I’ve been sensing this thing on faith, answered prayers, unanswered prayers and the fact that the foundation of faith is trusting in a person – Jesus… I’ve been sensing the Lord wanting to touch people and did He ever. Showed the video below at the close of the talk… Video starts, Holy Spirit begins to move, people start crying, standing, hands raised in surrender… we open the service up for prayer and the front of the auditorium is flooded with people, tears, people praying with one another… absolutely incredible. God is so very good, and even though we may not understand or get all that He’s doing, even though prayers sometimes seem to go unanswered, He’s still there. He can still be trusted. Wow!
Perhaps I’m flogging a dead horse at this point but my experience with Rice to Riches (notice I called it an experience) started because I was attracted to the environment they created both outside and inside the store. I was drawn in to taste the rice because of the ascetic and context they’d work to create. If it had have been a plain old, normal hole in the wall restaurant I probably wouldn’t have given it a second look. Once again environment matters. (Rice to Riches also did a great job focusing in on what they were “called” to serve – there wasn’t ice cream, yogurt, pies or cakes just rice pudding (further reading: explore the Hedgehog Concept in Good to Great by Jim Collins). They took there core business – the thing they could be best at, the thing they were most passionate about and then meshed it together with the concept of taking the usual and normal and making it remarkable (everything from signage, the serving dishes, the tables we sat at went into making it remarkable – it wasn’t what you would expect in a very positive sense). Who would have thought that rice pudding could have been this much of a hit. (enjoy the pictures below).
If you’re a pastor or ministry leader,if you’re a business owner your environment matters. It doesn’t have to cost $1000’s, but can you paint, rearrange the future, create spaces for people to connect…
So the saga continues… 21 restaurants in 29 hours. It’s an Italian thing. Got to say though I did experience two incredible places. Rice to Riches and Pinkberry. Both incredible experiences that teach us about environment, passion and execution of the purple cow. Anyhow enough of the moral lessons and back to the food. Incredible and healthy – okay somewhat healthy.
Just a quick update from my iphone. We’ve been NYC for 20 hours. One scavenger hunt, worked with the Mob to get some tickets delivered in a mystery journey throughout the city, and visited 13 eating establishments… all in the first 20 hours. I guess that’s what you do when you travel with Italians.
Been meditating on a couple of verses out of Acts 2 over the past couple of days – thought they might encourage you too:
I saw God before me for all time.
Nothing can shake me; he’s right by my side.
I’m glad from the inside out, ecstatic;
I’ve pitched my tent in the land of hope.
I know you’ll never dump me in Hades;
I’ll never even smell the stench of death.
You’ve got my feet on the life-path,
with your face shining sun-joy all around.
I serve as the campus pastor at Cornerstone in Albany, NY. While I'm the campus pastor, I'm not immune to an occasional "oops should I have said that?". Cornerstone doesn't pay for or approve this message. My thoughts are my thoughts, but don't let that scare you.
