Risk

You just never know what you might be able to "pull off"... until you actually try something.

Well... we had one of those moments yesterday afternoon in our Weekend Design Team meeting. Dwight had shared with our creative team that he would like to use a story from last month's People magazine in the middle of his message this weekend. It is an amazing story about a man from California who makes $200,000 a year... but only lives on $38,000. He gives the rest away to charities! Again... it is just an amazing story. You can read it here (scroll down to the post called "Missional Living. Earn 200k. Live on 38k."). Dwight wanted us to brainstorm some ideas of how we might be able to tell the story with creative support. Immediately... we all started saying "It would be great if he could tell the story himself." Great idea... 6 days out... huh? It would have been easy to just say "Let's put a few photos up on the screens and just let Dwight tell the story". As a matter of fact... we had already started sort of planning that way.

Lee Ann on the phone with Tom
Well... Lee Ann Miller is on our creative team... and she just happens to have the greatest "git-er-dun" attitude that I have ever seen. I just love her spunk & spirit! She grabbed her cell phone and just started dialing a number. John Bunn stopped her and said "What are you going to ask him, if you do get him on the phone?" Well... she didn't know... she had not gotten that far yet. She was just determined to talk to this man. I love that!!! WOW! With a little faith... a "Nothing's gonna stop us now" attitude... and God opening doors... we really can do anything big for Christ. Well... we decided that the what we could feasibly pull off for this weekend was a LIVE phone interview of some sort. That was good enough for Lee Ann. She was back on her phone... dialing away. Next thing we knew... she was actually on the phone with Tom Hsieh... the guy from the story in People Magazine! Is that cool... or what? We were all just blown away! She was blown away.

Tim Hsieh and family
Eventually... we all talked to him on a conference call to explore the possibilities of this LIVE phone interview idea. What a humble and very "real" man Tom is. I was just blown away by his stories... his faith... his heart... and his incredible love for people and for Jesus Christ.

Well... Tom is praying about sharing his story with NewPointe this weekend. Trust me... if he agrees to do this... it will have an amazing impact on our people. Please keep Tom and his family in your prayers this week.

Thanks, Lee Ann for demonstrating the benefits of risk taking in the process of creativity. You're amazing!