FANAFI - it’s an acronym for businesses. Many businesses start out with an honorable and seemingly do-able business plan. But, downturns in the economy, personal missteps, and a whole host of other variables can wreak havoc on the once viable enterprise. When this happens, many entrepreneurs turn to the acronym above - FANAFI - “find a need and fill it.”
Many a struggling business has been saved with the FANAFI credo. There is nothing particularly innovative about FANAFI; the advice is sound and instructive for anyone who wants to be successful in meeting people’s needs and growing an entrepreneurial venture. FANAFI is about as simple as it gets. You find a need (a niche) that no one else is meeting, meet it effectively, and your venture will grow. FANAFI works for business. Maybe, just maybe, it will work for Pilgrim Church.
In the days after Easter, we can begin to see parallels in the first chapter of the book of Acts. As Jesus prepared to depart from his disciples, he gave them instructions on how to FANAFI as his representatives. Using two principles from Steve Gottry’s book, Common Sense Business: Starting, Operating, and Growing Your Small Business in Any Economy, we can begin to see some of Jesus’ and Gottry’s strategy.
Begin with a dream. Gottry says all successful businesses begin with a dream - a dream envisioned by a leader and shared. Jesus indeed had a vision - one that he called the Kingdom of God. His vision was a people restored and brought to new life through the power of God’s saving love. Jesus had instructed them about the kingdom, and even though Jesus saw it as a long process, the disciples, no doubt, looked for short-term solutions. This was a struggle for his early followers.
Implement the plan. Here’s the hard part. Christianity indeed started out as an entrepreneurial venture. But, somewhere along the way, on the way to the corporate model, the basic FANAFI principle went out the stained glass window. A church which prided itself on going into the trenches and into the back corners to seek out those who needed assistance most, turned into highly evolved empires (sometimes called denominations) instead of seekers, witnesses, and martyrs.
You get my (and Steve Gottry’s) point. Businesses which lose sight of their goals often fail. Churches which lose sight of their founding principles often face extinction too. So, what can we do?
What the early Church had was a message of hope, a plan for loving everyone, and a compelling way of life - a FANAFI. Around Pilgrim Church, we are seeing FANAFI. From the hospitality shown to visitors to the proposed acquisition of a Youth Minister, it’s beginning to happen. We are looking at the needs of others, not our own. We are looking for unfulfilled needs. Our intention is to fill them. Maybe it’s tutoring. Maybe it’s job skills training. We do not know yet.
Whatever it is, we are looking for it. Whether it is Jesus and his followers in the first century, or a band of believers in Green Twp., we now have a plan. It is FANAFI. Get on board.
