The value in investing

This weekend was unbelievable! A local plant nursery donated 260 plants to our church; each of these plants would normally be sold for about 5-7 dollars a piece. We decided to attach invest and invite cards to the plants and hand them out following each of our services. We asked our members to think of a friend or neighbor that they might give this plant to. I did not know what to expect. It was the first time we had ever done anything like this. The plan was to put out 50 plants per service. We have four services in Palmetto, and we would take 60 to our Homestead campus.
The result: Well, on Saturday we were mobbed… people rushed to pick up plants, and in less than 5 minutes all of the plants were gone! It was a beautiful, but at the same time flustering. If I could have given all 200 plants that night, they would have all been gone! On Sunday we ran into the same problem following our 10:30 service. We even gave away our cardettes (the plastic stakes that go into the plant with an invest and invite card) without plants. The members were excited just to take the stake and planned to buy a plant to accompany it.
There were a few lessons that I learned from this. First, never say no to someone’s gift. Second, never underestimate the power of a free gift. The neighbors and friends that receive this gift do not know that the plant bearer received it for free. Anything that is valuable and pretty will be accepted with gratitude. The third lesson is a little harder to think through. For a long time we have instilled in our members the importance of investing in their neighbors’ lives so that they will get an opportunity to invite them to one of our services. Did our members feel more confident to reach out to their neighbors with this plant than they do with just a card? I think they did! So maybe its through little things like this that will make a big impact in the lives of our community. The last lesson is that you never know when you will learn a new word…like cardette!