Jump Start # 500—A Special Post
Romans 11:36 “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.”
Today is a special milestone for our Jump Starts and we want to recognize that and give God the glory and the praise because of this. Today is Jump Start # 500! Amazing! There has been many wonderful things that have happened through this daily writing that I want to share with you and a couple of great lessons that I have witnessed.
Jump Starts began in 2010 as a simple experiment for the members where I preach. I saw that with our busy schedules so many of us were not spending much time in the Bible. The word of God is the link to our faith and our connection to the eternal God. Something I felt had to be done. So Jump Starts started—a simple little devotional to help us get started with the day. The purpose was not to write something very heavy or hard but mostly about our relationship with the Lord. I actually believed after about a month, this project would die. I figured folks would say, “this is nice, but it’s not very useful.” But that didn’t happen. Members started copying them and passing them on to co-workers and family and our email lists started exploding. We quickly had to find better ways to send these out.
I must say personally, that this has been a unbelievable experience for me. The most common question that I am asked, and I’m asked it at least once a week, “How do you come up with all those things to say?” I really don’t know other than I believe what the apostle Paul said, “All Scripture is inspired of God and is profitable…” God has gifted me with seeing little phrases and insights in simple verses that just seem to explode with ideas.
The excitement and growth of our readership encouraged me to continue writing. When we reached 100 I was amazed. Then 200. Then 300. Today, it’s number 500. Most of these are posted on the Jump Start website. The first few are in the process of being put on and soon every one we have sent out will be available on the website. I honestly thought that when we got to 500 it would be time to quit. I thought the well would be dry and I would be repeating myself too often. That’s not happened and our readership continues to grow.
There are two lessons I have witnessed that I want to share. One lesson that you the readers taught me and one lesson I taught myself.
My lesson: sometimes a person never knows what good they can do nor what talent they have until they try it. I am not a polished writer. Most of our Jump Starts are written early in the morning. I realize my grammar and use of “Roger”-isms would make most English teachers shudder. I am just a simple guy who is sharing my thoughts and insights into the powerful word of God. As a writer there are two major fears you face: would anyone read it, and worse, would they think it’s worthwhile. That crossed my mind often. But the opposite happened. We started getting more and more readers. I started receiving emails—almost weekly, from people who I don’t know, saying that something I had written helped them or made a difference in their life. People started telling me that they would read one of my Jump Starts in church bulletins, in Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, Florida and other places. Some told me that they were using a Jump Start for a Wednesday night lesson at church in another city. I just couldn’t believe all that. I was shocked.
I think within each of us God has put some special talent that allows us to glorify Him by helping others. All of us have that. You have that. It may not be writing. It may not be anything big. It may be a mom who just has a knack of connecting with her kid’s friends and without realizing it, she is impacting those neighborhood kids. It may be someone who has that special eye to see that someone needs a hug. The gift of writing, talking, sharing, helping are things God puts in us. Often we don’t know what we can do until we try. Some things may not work, but then you try something like I did, writing a daily devotion, and you find what you didn’t even know about yourself. All of us have that special talent, it’s just taking that risk and trying. I now of several other preachers who are now writing a daily devotion and sending them out. They are gifted writers. I’m glad and I hope it goes well for them.
Your lesson: You, the readers, showed me something that I knew, but didn’t really understand. Our Jump Start readers have exploded in the past few months. Currently there are over 400 on our subscription list. There are four other congregations using them, some even posting them on their website. Many have their own lists of friends that they send these to. All told, there are nearly 1,000 people receiving these every day. Most of this came from word of mouth. One person liked what they read and they shared it with someone else. Very little organized effort went into promoting this. I never saw this going beyond the people of the congregation where I preached. They started all this and it continues.
Isn’t that the same way the ancient gospel went into all the world? There wasn’t some massive organized campaign, with a media blitz and marketing people and flyers and promotions. Just one person liking what he heard and telling another. From village to village, from house to house, from city to city, the gospel spread. This still works. You showed that. We need to be reminded of that. The interesting thing about our Jump Starts is that I have stressed Jesus. I’m not promoting the church were I attend. I don’t even use my last name at the end of the articles. It’s not about me or us, it’s about Jesus. It always has been. That is the message. That is the hope of the word—Jesus Christ.
Two final thoughts: First, a special thanks to the elders where I preach for believing in this and supporting this. They have been fantastic! Thanks especially to one of our deacons, Brian, who figured out how to send these daily emails to this massive list we have. There were a few bugs and we had to jump from one company to another but he was on top of it and did an outstanding job. I don’t understand all that but he was part of a great team that allows me to do what I do. It shows that we are all in this together.
Secondly, where do we go from here? Continue on. More Jump Starts. I have been asked more than once about putting these in a book. I looked seriously at that once, but didn’t like the costs involved and it was just not what I wanted. We have printed some in booklets. Book 1 (Jump Starts 1-30) Starting with Proverbs; Book 2 (Jump Starts 31-60) Starting with Psalms; Book 3 (Jump Starts 61-90) Starting with Jesus. Each of those booklets are free. If you would want one drop me an email (Rogshouse@aol.com). We may put some more in a booklet down the road.
Thank you! Thank you for allowing me to help Jump Start your day. To God be the glory!
Roger