Invite a Friend to Subscribe

Dear Marketplace Friend,

“I know you; who are you? What’s your name?”

I was standing at Gate C-2 at DFW Airport last week, waiting to board my flight home. The man who walked up to me posed that question, and I answered him. His reply: “That’s it! I read your newsletter every Monday; every word!” He sees my picture in the masthead…

We’d never met. How did he get on the distribution list for the Point of View? A friend from his Convene group had pointed him to our website, and he had subscribed (clarification: not a newsletter; a weekly commentary on what’s happening in our world, written from a biblical point of view).

What is now the Point of View – delivered as a blog post and an outbound email every week – is the current version of what started as the Fax of Encouragement in 1989, going out to a few hundred people. Today, PoV lands in thousands of e-mail inboxes, across North America and assorted countries beyond. Apple Computer used the advertising slogan Think Different from 1997 to 2002. That’s been my objective for the last 25 years, with nothing to sell.

The Christian experience has always been served by leaders whose letters have been broadly circulated. Peter opened his first epistle with that reminder: “ …writing to exiles scattered to the four winds. Not one is missing, not one forgotten. God the Father has his eye on each of you, and has determined by the work of the Spirit to keep you obedient through the sacrifice of Jesus. May everything good from God be yours!” (1 Peter 1:1-2, The Message)

We’re living in a world – and, embedded in a culture – that is message-heavy: the barrage of propaganda from worldviews that are competitive with and contrary to the Truth we have from God is unrelenting. PoV starts the week with a conversation that challenges some hot topic in the headlines… and resetting the table with another perspective can have great value.

That’s our task: Think Different. Like Peter’s audience of exiles, we’re all living in this world on a temporary basis, waiting to be taken home to Heaven – permanently – where we’ll finally fit-in.

Over the last week – in three time zones – I’ve had numerous people cross my path – like the man at the airport in Dallas – to tell me that they appreciate PoV’s challenge to their Christian life.

If you appreciate this time we have together every Monday – and, if you sometimes forward to friends – I’d like to ask you to expand our reach and extend your influence.

The Challenge: forward this edition of PoV to your friends (from the linked page), along with a note explaining that you’ve arranged for them to receive a free subscription to my weekly commentary.

The Point of View can be a fresh perspective on a subject that’s in play in the office this week… or a conversation starter among Christian peers who Think Different, together. Pastors quote from it; friends re-send it to their groups; it’s even published monthly in an evangelical periodical in India. How might it serve your friends as they process life in a world without a biblical moral compass?

This offer has no inherent limits: forward it to 10 – or, 100 – friends you’d like to add to the weekly distribution. Be generous; be strategic: who are the men and women in your world whose influence you’d like to influence?

Next week, I’ll be back in the more normal commentary mode. In 25 years, I’ve never used the Monday platform to recruit recipients. I’ll let you know next week how many new friends we’ve added to the conversation through your efforts!

Think Different,

Bob Shank