Last night I experienced the most amazing thing I think has ever graced my taste buds.  Better than a nice home-cooked cheeseburger.  Better than any gourmet meal.  It was popcorn.  But not just any popcorn.  This was Cinnamon Creme DrizzleCorn from Dale and Thomas Popcorn.  The second it hits your mouth, you’re engulfed in an ocean of sumptuous cinnamon-white chocolately goodness.  This is popcorn so good, you just have to share some, but desperately don’t want to do so.  And what do you know, Dale and Thomas’s tagline is even “Share Some”.

But let’s back up a bit.  Let’s hop into our handy-dandy time machine, and go back about two months.  Dale and Thomas (hereafter D&T) was giving away free $20 gift cards.  Little bells were going off somewhere in my head that I had heard D&T was good popcorn, so I signed up and got my code in a matter of seconds in my email inbox.  So it sat there until two weeks ago I got a genius idea.  Wouldn’t popcorn make a great Christmas gift?  I proceeded to buy the 12-pack sampler, with all twelve of D&T’s current flavors.  I then divvied them up and made gifts out of them, while keeping four bags for my family.

Now, back to last night.  I was craving a snack, so I pulled out the case (yes, case) of popcorn.  One bag of D&T is 12-inches long, and serves 2-4 people.  We decided on the Cinnamon Creme.  I do not know that I could ever go back to regular movie theatre-style popcorn again.  It almost seems like a sin.

D&T has not spread by multi-million dollar TV ads, magazine ads, full-page ads in the New York Times, or all-out web blitzes.  No, they’ve spread simply by word of mouth.  It just so happens, their popcorn happened to hit some very famous mouths.  They’ve included Oprah (as one of her “Favorite Things”), People Magazine, the Today Show, CNN, and many others.  D&T has a product so spectacular, so awesome, you can’t help but “Share Some”, just like I’m doing right now.

What do you do or what can you do in your ministry that will simply make it so that people can’t help but sharing it with their friends?  What game can you play, element can you add, media component can you slip in to make your ministry so totally remarkable that no one can stop telling others?  Do your kids tell their friends?  Do your parents tell their friends?

As Ryan has mentioned here before, the power of a personal invitation is paramount to any number of mail flyers, door hangers, or take-home sheets.  What is really effective in spreading the message of hope we have to offer is someone saying, “My church has this really awesome thing we do in Kids’ Church.  You should ask if you can come this Sunday.”  Getting kids (and even adults) to a point at which they can’t help but sharing it is simply remarkable.  And that’s the way I see it.

In the Bible, Jesus was notorious for hanging out with “the wrong crowd”. He could commonly be seen with the drunks,  loose women, and sick that no one else would be seen with. Quite often he was criticized for this. Here’s some examples:

Mark 2:15-17 (ESV): “And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, ‘Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.’”

Luke 4:36-47 (ESV): “One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, ‘If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.’ And Jesus answering said to him, ‘Simon, I have something to say to you.’ And he answered, ‘Say it, Teacher.’
‘A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?’ Simon answered, ‘The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.’ And he said to him, ‘You have judged rightly.’ Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, ‘Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven–for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.’”

Seems not much has changed since Bible times. Two types of people no one likes: tax collectors and sinners. But that’s not my point.
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And no, in this case I’m not talking about God. I’m talking about the Jimmy Dean commercials with the sunshine character in them. Very funny commercials, yes, but I digress.

Here’s the real reason why I’m mentioning him. Over the course of this blog, you’ll learn that I really like quotes from various people. Correction, I really LOVE quotes. But here’s a quote from Jimmy Dean, the man behind the sunshine (Not made in reference to ministry, but still applicable):
“I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.”

Ministry many times may seem ineffective. A few years ago, the “culture winds” were blowing one way, and so you adjusted your sails. But have you adjusted your sails recently, or on a regular basis?