Pastor Dino Rizzo Answers Questions on Starting a Servolution

Pastor Dino Rizzo is a renowned pastor with thirty-five years of ministry experience, including two decades of planting and pastoring a megachurch. Dino's extensive years of experience have allowed him to live, love, and lead with remarkable skill, making him a valuable source of guidance and inspiration for many people.

Dino and his wife, DeLynn Rizzo, founded Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge in 1993. The church began with just twelve people and grew to over 10,000 in weekly attendance across nine locations worldwide, focusing on serving the poor and the hurting. Dino also founded the Servolution movement, encouraging churches to join hands and embark on a revolution of helping others. Dino's passion for outreach and mission work is evident in the numerous outreaches and programs Healing Place Church involves, from offering free medical and dental clinics to helping ex-prisoners re-enter society.

Dino is also the co-founder and Executive Director of the ARC (Association of Related Churches), which has planted over 1000 churches worldwide. Pastor Rizzo also serves on the Senior Leadership Team at Church of the Highlands, leading all areas of outreach, missions, prison ministries, dream centers, and Serve days. Dino is a gifted author who has written several books, including Serve Your City. He and his wife have been married for 34 years and have three adult children.

We’re talking today about serving. You have always been outward-focused and taking care of the hurting. Where did that start in you?

Dino Rizzo: Well, I was reached through outreach. So I was not raised in the church. We were not churchgoing people. It’s not because we were wicked or hateful people; we just didn’t go to church. It wasn’t in our frame of reference.

So a church did an outreach. A church had a creative idea. A church did a serve—what you do, what you guys are all about. They just did a creative way to reach out to people. It caught my eye, it caught my interest. It made me lean in. Because God is searching for everyone, and we’re really just coming alongside His search party and just trying to be the hands and feet of Jesus. That’s what happened to me. You feel indebted to continue to do that for amazing, precious people.

You talked a while back about the title or the towel. The idea of “grabbing a towel and getting to work.” It sounds like that’s the way you’re just living now. Grab a towel. Talk to us about that. How do you switch the mentality from “me” to “them”? How do we get that switch to take place in all of us?

Dino Rizzo: Well, I think everybody wants to walk in joy; everybody wants to have a good life. People wake up, and they want to make a difference. You’re never going to find that living in Me-ville. It’s not going to happen.

Me-ville is the most miserable neighborhood to live in. You got to move from Me-ville to We-ville. So you begin to say, “How can I put my blessing, my resource, my gift, my uniqueness into circulation so that I can help someone and be a blessing?”

I always say that about a paper towel roll—I love paper towels. I love the ones that you could pull up in different sizes. I’m a paper towel guy.

But I don’t think they’re finding their fulfillment sitting there in the roll. I think a paper towel is sitting there saying, “Hey, man, get me in the spill. I was born for a mess. I got a stomach for the suffering. Get me out of this roll and get me into a situation.”

I think that’s the church at its best. Whether it’s a life group, it’s serving on a team, it’s giving of our tithes and offerings, it’s noticing our neighbor, it’s leaning in. I saw someone this week that just pay forward a few people’s bills that they knew were in a vulnerable situation. They just paid it forward for them. If you want to help, there’s a way to help.

After you have served, what do you think the Holy Spirit is saying to people? And what does he say to you? How do you feel God’s love after you’ve served?

Dino Rizzo: Well, it’s in anything. Anything that you’re supposed to do always has a lead-in of fear. It’s like, “God, I’m going to help someone, I’m going to make a call, I’m going to partner, I’m going to give.”

The enemy of our soul never wants us to be a blessing. Never ever, ever. I mean, what’s the source of depression? What’s the source of anxiety? What’s the source of shame and guilt? Me, myself, and I. You live in your own pain, you live in your own trauma.

So to be able to get outside of that is a hurdle. It takes a step. Most of it is internal. I always tell people, “The first person to get over is yourself. You got to get over yourself.” Then it’s amazing when you are able to step out of that.

It doesn’t mean that all of your problems will be solved. I don’t know how many times I’ve been in the middle of stuff. I put my shoulder up under someone else’s load. Maybe my stuff didn’t change, but it totally changes my outlook. Because there is always, always, always, always someone that is less fortunate than you are, and that is a big reminder.

And I think when you have that reminder, then the idea of “It’s more blessed to give than it is to receive” just all of a sudden gets injected into your soul, and you marinate in the fact that you are blessed. That “I know I don’t have everything that I want or need, but I have something.” And you take your focus off of what you don’t have, and you put on what you do have.

I was thinking about a mom this week, a single mom. We found out that she was sick. She had COVID. But her children were with her, of course, as a single mom. Three kids under 10 years old. Ran out of diapers. Nothing. No money for a laundry mat, can’t go to a laundry mat. We were able to partner with her, bring some diapers, take her stuff, and go to a laundry mat. Someone was able to do that in the way that they did it, and went to Walmart, bought all of her kid's new pajamas, new undergarments, all these things. Not a lot of money but just a little bit of time.

And the person who was a part of that sent me a text, and here’s what they said, “I was born for this. I was born for this.”

Yes, you were. You were born for joy, and you were born for peace. You find it so often outside of yourself.

(Devdiscourse's journalists were not involved in the production of this article. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Devdiscourse and Devdiscourse does not claim any responsibility for the same.)