Campbell U Students Inspired on Inasmuch Day

April 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Campbell University (Buies Creek, NC) conducted its FIFTH Inasmuch Day on April 14, 2012! Over 450 volunteers from five schools within the University participated. Students donned Inasmuch T-shirts with our Compassion Revolution graphic on the back! 

These students are surely moving the Compassion Revolution forward by their service. When we serve, of course, we are blessed, as the following inspiring stories illustrate (thanks to Campbell’s Office of Campus Minister for providing these):

We grabbed lunch at a restaurant in Dunn after we were finished. As we went to pay, our waitress came up and told us that “Good deeds do not go unnoticed”, a couple had seen our shirt and paid for our lunch (all 5 of us) and left before we could thank them or see who they were.

Jessica Robbins, Inasmuch Day Project Leader
PA Student with the College of Pharmacy and Health Services

We were provided with a list of things that needed to be done when we arrived on site [S.A.F.E of Harnett County, a battered women’s shelter] that was very different from what we had discussed prior to our arrival and the staff that was onsite on the weekend were not able to clarify the needs of the projects.

One of the projects that we were asked to do was to spread mulch, but there was no mulch provided.  We went to the hardware store to buy some and the women at the cash register had utilized SAFE’s services in the past and ended up paying for most of the mulch as a way to give back to SAFE, which was very cool.

 Sarah Brainerd, Inasmuch Day Project Leader

 See statistics and links to more photos from this event here.

 

 

Filed Under: News & Press, Stories of the Revolution Tagged With: , ,

Celebrating Compassion

November 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The following article appeared on FayObserver.com (Fayetteville, NC) on October 28, 2011

Church where Operation Inasmuch began celebrates a compassion revolution

David Crocker, national director of Operation Inasmuch and former pastor of Snyder Memorial Baptist Church, shows off a painting that will be donated to the Fayetteville [Area Operation Inasmuch] office.

By Chick Jacobs Staff writer FayObserver.com

In the fall of 1994, Snyder Memorial Baptist Church pastor David Crocker laid a challenge at the feet of his staff: get the congregation out of their seats and into the streets.

Staff photo by Chick Jacobs

This week, as Crocker visited his old church, the challenge had grown from a one-church, one-day mission to a movement reaching nearly half the country.

Operation Inasmuch, he said, has become a “compassion revolution” spreading across America.

“Did anyone here think that our first project would grow into a movement of 1,700 churches in 21 states?” Crocker said.

“During the past five years, the number of churches involved has grown by 700 percent. The number of states has tripled. Operation Inasmuch has been used by God to transform Christians and congregations across the country.

“And it all started here, in Fayetteville,” he added. “The people here understand the movement better than anyone in the world.”

Crocker’s visit was part fundraiser and part reunion. Many of the 75 people attending the celebration held in Snyder’s fellowship hall were there at the church’s inaugural Operation Inasmuch on March 25, 1995.

“It’s good to be home,” said Crocker, who left Snyder to preach in Knoxville, Tenn., nearly 10 years ago. Operation Inasmuch became an independent ministry in 2007, with Crocker as its director.

“Every time a new church holds its first Operation Inasmuch, I think of how it all started right here.”

The ministry’s outreach has grown into a three-prong approach. Churches may choose the traditional “one-day, one-church” and “one-day, many-churches” ministries.

“I always get a kick out of the fact that the preparation book these churches use is the same one I wrote all those years ago for Fayetteville, using the experiences at St. James Lutheran Church as an example,” he said.

“It just shows that whenever God tells you what to do, he always has something more in mind.”

In the past couple of years a new Inasmuch concept has challenged congregations to “live the Inasmuch Life” year-round. The program challenges churches to serve their communities in an ongoing basis. Crocker hopes that the program will expand as rapidly as the rest of the ministry.

“We call it a Compassion Revolution,” he said. “Hundreds of churches across the country are joining those that have discovered the power of serving their community.

“In some cases we may not even hear about it, but that’s OK. God knows, and that’s what matters.”

Staff writer Chick Jacobs can be reached at jacobsc@fayobserver.com or 486-3515.

 

Filed Under: News & Press Tagged With: , , , ,

Pastors Say What’s Important

July 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Do you ever wonder what pastors worry about? What they think is important?

The Columbia Partnership (TCP, an Inasmuch ministry partner – visit www.thecolumbiapartnership.org) hopes to help us learn what pastors are concerned about. TCP is conducting a series of surveys of pastors and church staff to identify the most important issues they face. The first of these surveys asks the leaders to rate each of 10 issues:

  • Building,
  • Technology/Social Media/Marketing,
  • Community Context,
  • Discipleship,
  • Financial,
  • Worship and Music,
  • Conflict and Communication,
  • Governance,
  • Leadership Development,
  • Growth and/or Missional issues.

The runaway “most important issues” were:

  • Growth and/or Missional Issues (92% Significantly or Highly Important) and
  • Discipleship Issues (86% Significantly or Highly Important).

This tells us is that ministry leaders on the front lines are most concerned about how the church is equipping their people to be authentic followers of Jesus in a post-church culture.

It’s encouraging to know that Operation Inasmuch’s ministry “scratches where ministers itch.” That is to say, we provide motivation, education, and structure to help believers do what Jesus did and what He commanded his followers to do.

Increasingly, authenticity is measured not in theological terms or denominational affiliation, but in hands-on demonstrations of  Jesus’ heart in local communities.  Operation Inasmuch has helped hundreds of congregations to be the hands and feet of Jesus for their neighbors in need.

In fact, the best explanation of the astounding growth of the Inasmuch ministry is that it provides proven ways for churches to walk the game they talk.

Based on the TCP survey, it appears that the need addressed by Operation Inasmuch is on the rise: to get church people out of the sanctuary seats and into the streets! Perhaps God put Operation Inasmuch in place to help His people do what He called them to do.

Perhaps A Compassion Revolution really is underway! To God be the glory!!

David Crocker, Executive Director

Filed Under: David's Revolutionary Talk Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,