Give a Dress - Change a Life

Following on the Servolution book and the interview with Pastor Dino Rizzo, I wanted to share this story:

It was around 1991-2. The time is a little fuzzy to me. I was 21 or so. My Mom, sister and I were in the local Christian bookstore in my East Tennessee hometown. A lady was in who had recently given birth to a daughter with a cleft lip and some other issues. The lady was unmarried and a new Christian. She was discouraged and seemed somewhat sad. She lacked hope and was asking for prayer.

My Mom asked if she would be in the store for a few minutes. Racing home, my Mom dug into the closet and pulled out a brand new, frilly baby dress she had recently acquired from a friend. Hurrying back to the store she presented the dress to the lady. The lady thanked my Mom, maybe hugs were exchanged, I can't recall. We left. End of story.

Or so we thought!

3 years ago....14-15 years after this event, My mom was in the doctors office and was approached by this same lady. She remembered my Mom and all of our names. She reminded my Mom of the events stated above and in the words of Paul Harvey (an American radio host who recently passed) she began to tell us the rest of the story.

After receiving the dress from my Mom she realized God did care about her situation if He would prod a complete stranger to display a "random" act of kindness. She took baby pics with her daughter in the new dress. Hope being restored, she went back to school where she earned her degree. She found a nice man and got married. She had a couple more kids and got a good job. She told my Mom that this dress changed her whole life.

Matthew 7:12 says, "Always do for other people everything you want them to do for you. That is the meaning of Moses' Teachings and the Prophets."

1 Peter 3:8 says, "Finally, everyone must live in harmony, be sympathetic, love each other, have compassion, and be humble."

Compassion, care and love do not always come easy. Sometimes the last thing we want to do is to go out of our way for a complete stranger. We were lucky enough, in this instance, to hear the results of a random (to us not God) act of kindness.

Every person you meet can be impacted for eternity by your actions, words and attitudes. That is both scary and awe inspiring.

Of course we have to have a basis for our actions. We can only truly love one another if we are firmly planted and rooted in Christ.

When that love is there, it is watered and we let it bloom.....it can change the world!

5 Questions with Dino Rizzo

Welcome to 5 Questions With.....

Today's guest is Pastor Dino Rizzo. He is the founding pastor of Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana - a church with over 7,000 people in 11 campuses and 18 weekend services. HPC has been named one of America’s Top 25 Most Innovative Churches - a reflection of his overwhelming drive to reach the unreachable and to engage with others to show God’s love to the poor and hurting - wherever they are. His book, SERVOLUTION, exposes his passion to see believers join together in a revolution of serving others - Jesus style. Dino and his wife DeLynn have three incredible children. Dino also co-founded the Association of Related Churches, which has planted 63 churches across the country, and Go Global Missions, a group designed to develop missionaries and connect and support missions organizations. Visit his blog at to learn more.

This interview is one part of a massive multi-blog tour Pastor Rizzo is conducting today. More details will follow the interview. And now without further delay, on to the questions:

Hi Pastor, Question 1: Pastor Rizzo what one word would describe your current relationship with the Lord?

"More." I'm not dissatisfied with Him, but rather my seeking Him. I want to do whatever it takes to know Him greater, and for Him to be fully alive in my life.

Question 2: A book, an event. What exactly is Servolution?

Servolution is not just a book or an event - it is both, but it is much more. For us, it is who we are - it is our culture.

Question 3: When reading your book, I came away impressed with how simple acts of kindness can change a life. Do you have a favorite story/experience?

It's hard to say one story is a "favorite" over another, but there is one that stands out to me right now as I'm working through these questions. We gave out Tootsie Pops at the LSU campus a few weeks ago, and one student who got one decided to check out a young adult gathering at our church that was mentioned by whoever gave it to him. When he came, he heard about a men's conference we were hosting that coming weekend, with Paul Cole, Mike Haman and Shawn Alexander speaking. He came, and decided there to give his life to Christ and make Jesus his Savior. It started with a Tootsie Pop. You just never know.

Question 4: Your new book is filled with resources and practical tips for reaching out to the community as a whole. It also contains numerous stories of your own acts of Servolution. How long did this book take to write?

A lifetime. I'm not intending to be dramatic with that, but seriously, this book couldn't have been written without going through the things we've gone through and learning stuff the hard way and seeing God's faithfulness come through for us time after time.

Question 5: Your church recently launched Servolution as a world wide event. Our church was glad to be a part of that but how did this event go overall?

Thank you for participating in the 7 days of Servolution, and for helping with the blog tour for the book. Both have far exceeded our hopes. God used the 7 days of Servolution event to help a lot of churches see that working together we can do more - 240 churches in all. Together, we helped a lot of people in communities around the world. Thanks for the part your church played in that - only God knows the extent of impact it will have on our churches and communities.

Thank you Pastor Rizzo! You can see the other blogs participating in the Servolution blog tour at: Pastor Dino's blog.

There you have it. I would encourage you, if you haven't already, to buy Servolution today!

To see past 5 Question guests, check out the rotating interview links on the sidebar.