SCRIPTURE: Matthew 25:40
Then the King will
say, 'I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to
someone overlooked or ignored, that was me - you did it to me.'
STORY as told by Peter
Hay:
In
the 1950s, marketing whiz Stanley Arnold was working at Young & Rubicam,
where he was asked to come up with a marketing campaign for Remington Rand. The
company was among the most conservative in America. Its chairman at the time
was retired General Douglas MacArthur. Intimidated at first by a company that
was so much a part of America, Arnold also found in that phrase the first
inspiration for a campaign. After thinking about it, he went to the New York
offices of Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Beane, and placed the ultimate
odd-lot order:
"I
want to purchase," he told the broker, "one share of every single
stock listed on the New York Stock Exchange." After a vice president tried
to talk him out of it, the order was finally placed. It came to more than
$42,000 for one share in each of the 1098 companies listed on the Big Board at
the time. Arnold now took his diversified portfolio into a meeting of Remington
Rand's board of directors, where he argued passionately for a sweepstakes
campaign with the top prize called A Share in America. The conservative old
gentlemen shifted around in their seats and discussed the idea for a while.
"But Mr. Arnold," said one, "we are not in the securities
business." Said another, "We are in the shaver business."
"I
agree that you are not in the securities business," said Arnold, "but
I think you also ought to realize that you are not in the shaver business
either. You are in the people business." The company bought the
idea.
OBSERVATION:
It is often lost within the rank and file of the average
church … we are in the people business. We get caught up with the liturgy, the
music, the programs, the policy-making matters, the staff, the money … and the
people get pushed aside.
Not only are we in the people business, we are in the
disenfranchised of society people business. Oh, the come with various “handles”
hung around them – the poor, the needy, the hungry, the beggars, the dirty, the
lazy, welfare cheats or some other title thrown out to put them down, to pass
judgment, to belittle. They are the disenfranchised. Easy to ignore. Easy to
overlook. Easy to pass-by on the other side.
It is also easy to throw-out the overused and misunderstood
phrase … “let them get a job”. Oh, if it was that easy. After years of working with “these people”
there was a discovery made … the majority are not mentally capable of making
good decisions for their life. This probably would like to be argued by many,
but reality is the reality.
The church is in the people business … the disenfranchised
people business … giving a hand up in this world. Caring for those who cannot
care for themselves. Doing unto the least of society. We are in the people
business.
PRAYER:
We are surrounded by people. Please keep us from ignoring
them or from passing a judgment on them. Make us sensitive and cause us to take
the time to get to know them on a personal basis. Help us to care.
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