“Up to You--FANAFI” Acts
1: 1 - 11
Back when I was growing up
in Walnut Creek, we lived not far from one of the Kaisers—not the
Kaisers of Germany, but the Kaisers of Kaiser Permanente. Back
in the 1960’s what I knew about the Kaiser company was simple—it
was a fleet of pink cement trucks emblazoned with this slogan:
“Find a Need and Fill it.”
Now my mom was famous for the
same saying, and it has stuck in my psyche as good advice for much of
life. I’ve been guilty of saying it to my kids too, particularly
when I wanted them to pay attention to the work that needed to be done
around the house. “Find a need and fill it” (FANAFI for short)
is also a guiding principle behind many successful businesses.
There is a story told about one woman who took this slogan to heart:
Bette Clair McMurray Graham, was a secretary working for a small company
who one day had the idea of mixing flour with nail varnish in order
to white out the mistakes she was making in her typing.
Pretty soon, her friends in the same office asked if she could make
some for them. So she began mixing it at her kitchen table. Then people
in other offices started asking for it, and she eventually quit her
business and worked full time creating what is today called Liquid Paper.
Years later, she sold her company to Gillette Corporation for $47 million.
She had found a need and filled it. Hers is a classic rags to
riches story.
There are other stories told
that are riches to rags to riches. Steve Gottry had built a very
successful advertising agency and was enjoying the fruits of his hard
work—a private plane, ski boat, five cars (and not five junk cars!).
He was living high and enjoying it, when the bottom fell out of the
economy, poorly structured debt caught up with him, his house caught
fire and his wife and daughter both developed serious medical problems.
I’m sure he started reading the book of Job and thinking it all sounded
very familiar.
Gottry responded to hitting
bottom by rediscovering the power in that old FANAFI slogan. He not
only built a new business but, like many successful entrepreneurs, proceeded
to write a book about his experiences.
FANAFI is not just good advice
for individuals and businesses. Here in the opening verses of
the book of Acts, we can see this same idea functioning. As Jesus
prepared to depart from his disciples, he gave them instruction on how
to find needs and fill then as his representatives on earth.
Gottry’s book suggests that
all successful ventures begin with a dream—a dream that is
envisioned by the leader and shared with others. Dreaming big,
thinking outside of the box, helps others envision a new reality, a
different future that they can be working towards. That’s the
same exciting process many of us were engaged in yesterday, during the
workshop held here about re-envisioning the future of the church by
becoming aware of and responding to the differing needs of each generation.
Jesus shared his dream, his
vision of the kingdom of God with his disciples. Of course, we
remember that the disciples didn’t fully understand Jesus’ vision
of the future, and they were sure the dream was over when Jesus was
crucified. But with his resurrection, their assumptions about
the future were shattered. A new reality was taking shape:
the kingdom was possible, was being carried forward on the power of
God’s redemptive, tranformative love.
Jesus had taught and preached
about the kingdom during his ministry, and continued to do so in the
forty days after his resurrection. Yet the disciples still didn’t
see the vision clearly. We hear this in today’s scripture lesson
when they ask Jesus, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore
the kingdom of Israel?” They were still looking for short-term,
political achievements—while Jesus saw the kingdom as something outside
of the existing political, social and religious structures. It
was certainly true that the people of Israel had been waiting centuries
for the Messiah, the one who would restore Israel to its former glory
and usher in a new age when God would again dwell with them. The
disciples hoped, even expected the risen Jesus to say, “yes, this
is the time.”
Jesus however takes their hopes
and refocuses them—“It is not for you to know the time.”
He no doubt was disappointed that they really hadn’t listened when
he told them, “The kingdom of God is within you.” He wanted
them to understand that this meant the most important thing was to learn
to live fully in the present, in the presence of God. He wanted
them to focus on how to love, heal and change the lives of those around
them through the power of his living Spirit.
I believe Jesus would find
it totally puzzling that many of those who claim to be his followers
focus their attention on the idea of Christ’s return, searching the
heavens for signs of his immanent arrival rather than seeking ways of
serving him in the here and now. Of course, in that they are little
different from the original disciples—apparently, they too were standing
looking up to heaven in wonder and bewilderment after Jesus’ ascension.
It took two angels saying, “Hey! Why are you looking up to heaven?
It’s time to look around you at the world and get busy.”
One of my commentaries turned
a common phrase on its head—much like Jesus often did. You’ve
heard the phrase “left behind” often I’m sure, connected with
the idea that on judgement day those who are not “saved” will be
“left behind.” Henry Brinton argues that the disciples were
the original “left behind” people—left behind by Jesus
to continue his work on earth rather than pining for their own salvation.
They were to be driven by vision of the kingdom of God breaking in on
the present world rather than merely focusing on “getting to heaven.”
“If we want to meet the needs of the world and once again be relevant,
vibrant and transformational then simply following Jesus would be a
good place to start. That’s what we’ve been left behind to
do!” (Homiletics, May 28th)
We begin with a dream, but
our work doesn’t stop there. We have to plan to achieve the
dream. Once you’ve identified a need, you have to plan on
how you’re going to fill it. Strategy, tactics, intentionality,
a good business plan, a good ministry plan—all these are critical,
absolutely necessary for a dream to become a reality. In our passage
in Acts, Jesus tells the disciples that their next step is to wait for
the resources necessary for the work ahead. Their work will now
require them to change from thinking of their ministry being focused
upon Galilee, and move to thinking globally. The disciples will
change from being students to being teachers. They will be the
ones who must tell the story of Jesus, his life, his ministry, his death
and his resurrection, with the very people who saw him crucified in
Jerusalem. Then they are to tell the story to the rest of the
Jews of Judea, to those they’ve always thought of as their enemies
in Samaria, and then, they are to take their witness on to the ends
of the earth. The Roman Empire might be successful in keeping the peace,
but it was up to the disciples to bring a new vision of hope to the
world. That’s a lot of needs to fill!
We begin with a dream, a vision.
We plan ways to bring that vision into reality—and we often have to
revise, redirect and reorient our plans as we get to the implementation
stage. In a sense that is where we find ourselves today.
Sometimes it seems that Christianity is more into being the dominant
social construct than into the “find a need and fill it” ministry
to which we were called. Turning again the Henry Brinton’s commentary:
“Christianity still seems to be vying for the rule of the empire,
seeking the worldly power of kings and presidents instead of the Holy
Spirit power of witnesses and martyrs who give their lives in the back
corners of the world where the powerful don’t go. Perhaps we
need a simpler vision—a Jesus vision—for transforming the world.”
If what we are to carry to
the world is the “gospel”—the “good news”—then what would
it take to make more good news possible? The needs of the world
are all around us—everything that you see or hear about that breaks
your heart—those are the same things that break the heart of God.
They are the needs that are crying out to you to fill them with good
news—not words, but actions such as Jesus would take.
The bottom line of the early
church entrepreneurial venture is that they had something that people
really needed: a story of hope, a plan for loving everyone, and
a compelling lifestyle of faith in action. Of course, what they
offered was less a product than a person: Jesus Christ.
We are a society drowning in
things, most of which we chase after because we’ve been convinced
that we “want” them, irrespective of whether we actually need them.
What we need, what we’ve always needed—is God. Let’s commit
ourselves and our congregation to plan ways to share that vision, that
hope, that life with the world. It’s up to you and me; let’s find
a need and fill it. Amen.
