John Cicilioni
Assistant Pastor of Peckville A/G
Peckvilleag.org
Tonight we
interviewed John Cicilioni. He is the
assistant pastor of Peckville A/G, and is a VFCC graduate. Overall, I observed that this man had an
incredibly sharp mind and is an effective steward of his responsibilities.
We started the interview process by
talking about weight. Since being at
VFCC (roughly 6 years, he is 28 now), he has lost 70 pounds. His advice was to eat lots of vegetables,
exercise regularly, and mainly eat less calories than you are supposed to have
according to your BMI. His reason for
losing weight was because he wants to live to 85 and still be active in ministry. He said this several times, which I found to
be strange, but interesting nonetheless.
He said this ties into spirituality because you have to manage your
time, talents, and treasures.
ENTREPRENEUR AND BUSINESSMAN
We next
talked about his business, called Super Baby Store. It is an Amazon business run by he and his
brother, Fred. They got into it after
his mother’s book, “Super Baby Food,” got big in 2000. In one year, they sold over 50,000 copies. Because of the book’s success, they decided
to expand the business.
He works 8
hours a day, for only 1 day a week. He gives 35% of his income to charity (mostly
church). He actually invests money funding missions trips. He, his mother and his brother sell products that were based off the
book that were selling well on Amazon.
He gave us a few tips on what he
does. For instance, they look for items
on Amazon that are under #10,000 in baby.
If they are under #10,000, about 3 units will be sold a day. Ideally, you want to produce items that are
under #1,000. However, if the item is
sold (not just shipped) by Amazon, then they stay away from it.
He goes around the world to
different expos, buys in bulk from manufacturers, and resells them on
Amazon. His business philosophy is to
outsource as much as possible. He looks
at something he’s doing and asks three questions: 1) Do you have to do it
yourself? 2) Can you delegate it to someone else? 3) Should you be doing this?
He brought up the principle that
20% of your effort produces 80% of your results. If he feels that something isn’t producing
results, he cuts it out. His philosophy
is to stick with what he’s good at, and not try to do everything. Stick with what works. One website he uses is odesk.com, which you
can pay freelancers around the world to do tasks like run a website, design
work, etc.
PASTOR AND MINISTER
The reason
he has this type of job is to focus on ministry. This church seemed to be quite large (there
were 14 different pastors, 10 of which are under him). He talked about their Fall and Spring series
schedules, and why they do them. First
he explained how there are “felt needs” and “actual needs.” In the Fall, they do an “attractional” sermon
series that talks about “felt needs,” with the Gospel worked into every
message. In the Spring, they focus more
on discipleship and how to get closer to God with their sermon series.
He also
stated that he personally likes having long altar calls. I wondered how that would play into his
ministry, because most churches that I have experienced with a lot of young
people have very little time for an altar call, if any at all. It almost seems like more people would prefer
to get in to church, sit down, and get out of church with almost no time reserved
just for the Holy Spirit.
He also
talked about their connection cards, which is something my church does, but
they take it one step further. They have
a check box for first time, second time, and regular attendees. They also have check boxes for accepting
Jesus, getting involved in ministries, etc.
They do this at the end of the service so that the person filling it out
may have the entire time to contemplate on their decision, and have heard the
Gospel. They also require everyone to
fill them out, and have noticed that most new visitors fill them out because of
this.
He also
talked about giving action steps to both introverts (filling out the card) and
extroverts (come up for the altar call).
He pointed out that there are “feelers” and “thinkers.” The “feelers” want to respond instantly, but
the “thinkers” want to go home and consider it before they make any
decision. He said that there needs to be
an action step/application for both of them.
On their connection cards, they also include these check boxes, which I
thought was amazing:
A – already
a believer
B –
believing today
C –
considering the claim of Christ
D – doubt
I’ll ever believe
He stated
that using language such as “believing today” changes the tone, and doesn’t
make it sound as exclusive. Using the
language “considering the claims of Christ” makes it less intimidating, and
when a person checks it off, in their mind they become committed to this even
if they wouldn’t have been at first. He
also said that they rarely have anyone check off D (maybe 3 a year), and they
usually come back and check off C the next year anyway.
MY CONCLUSION
All in all,
I was awed by this man’s sharp mind. He
was brilliant, on target, knew exactly what he was talking about, had a vision,
and had steps and a plan to see the vision come through. He knows how to think several steps ahead,
and yet I could also tell that this man was very pastoral. He seemed to have it all! He uses his money for ministry purposes
(paying for missions trips, commits 10 hours a week on getting meals with
people for one on one discipleship).
My take
away is that God honors effective stewardship.
This man is faithful in everything God has given him, which is why I
think God continues to give him more. It
was awesome to be able to interview John!
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