Monday, January 27, 2020

Book Review of Limited Church: Unlimited Kingdom

Book Review of Limited Church: Unlimited Kingdom Aaron Christiansen Rienow, Rob. Limited Church: Unlimited Kingdom. Nashville: Randall House, 2013. 336 pp. $22.99 Biographical Sketch of the Author Dr. Rienow is a husband, father and the pastor at Gospel Fellowship Church. He holds multiple degrees in theology and Christian leadership that prepared him to pastor a church. After spending time in the pastorate Dr. Rienow came to the realization that he was discipling the members of his congregation but not the members of his family. This caused Dr. Rienow to reevaluate how the church is called to do ministry in the Bible. His findings lead to changes in his own ministry as well as the writing of this book.ÂÂ   Pursuing the Great Commission through Biblical family discipleship is now a passion for Dr. Rienow. Summary of Contents Dr. Rob Rienows purpose in writing this book is to challenge your current philosophy of ministry. When planning each aspect of the program is the first reaction to reach for a curriculum, someones advice or tradition? Rienow issues the claim that the Bible is enough to guide leaders of the church in equipping the saints to carry out the Great Commission. Do not expect to sit down and read this book in an afternoon; this book will cause the reader to read and reread sections then stop and rethink each statement that is made. It is highly recommended that this book is not read alone, but instead with a ministry team. Limited Church: Unlimited Kingdom should challenge any team that reads it together in how they do ministry and what their standards are for that ministry. Critical Evaluation Dr. Rienow does an excellent job of challenging the reader to rethink how he does church. This goes much deeper than just the traditions that we have accepted to date and into the place where the Word of God has in our heart and lives. Page by page Rienow builds a case for the sufficiency of scripture in the church and our families even in his own ministry he admitted, The Bible was enough for me when it came to my systematic theology, but not enough when it came to how Gods institutions of the family and the local church should function (13) This is a profound idea which will probably cause anyone reading the book to double check their process when making ministry decisions. The author fully grasps the concept that our first church is our family and we need to ensure their discipleship first and foremost. Rienow states, God created two institutions to build His Kingdom and advance His Gospel, the local church and the family. (39) Why would God allow us to take care of His bride, the church, if we cannot take care of our own family?ÂÂ   This flows perfectly into the argument regarding Biblical jurisdiction. Parents seem to have relegated the responsibility of discipleship to the church and instead of training the parents that this is not correct they have just accepted the role. As Dr. Rienow shows, this presents a problem when the churchs method differ from the parents methods and therefore creates conflict inside the body. We see the Great Commission, and we accept it. Then we carelessly ignore the clear messages God has given us about how the mission is to be carried out and who is responsible for its different faces. (61) Parents want to rely on the church or the school to educate their children about life when the Bible definitively places that responsibility on the parents. Rienow skillfully presents the picture of a Limited Church operating only inside the direction given by God and leaving the rest of the responsibilities to other jurisdictions. The church is challenged to rethink its priorities when Rienow asks, Can we honestly say that our jam-packed church calendar and our dynamic programs for every demographic group are making radical disciples for Jesus Christ? (1) The number of quality of the disciples a church makes is not directly proportional to the number of events on its calendar but according to the author, Nothing is more important in the local church than the preaching of the Bible. (103) The job of the church is given in Ephesians 4:11-13 of training and equipping the saints for ministry. This is done through the preaching of the Bible so that each facet may learn how to do their specific job well. A full third of the book is devoted to the concept of uniting the church and family in ministry. The ideas of caring for the poor, transforming specific ministries, building marriages, discipleship and evangelism are discussed thoroughly. Although family ministry is the new buzz word in churches, Dr. Rienow points out that it has been Gods plan from the beginning. He works from the Old Testament to the New Testament explaining the perfect design God has for families. That perfect design is family discipleship in the home, from the parents. Dr. Rienow exposes the fallacies in the current ministry model of age segregated groups and how it breeds an attitude of moral therapeutic deism that is running rampant through our culture today. Children move from fun childrens ministry to fun youth ministry to fun college ministry into boring church service and do not know how to assimilate into the church body. Dr. Rienow brings up the idea of incorporating children into the corporate body of worship and proposes that the church has been doing it wrong for about a hundred years. Readers are then shown multiple scripture passages showing children commanded to worship with their parents as a part of the faith family. Those who would choose to rebuff this idea are met with the statement, Before we think pragmatically, we need to think theologically. Practice does not drive theology. Theology drives practice. Rienow once again brings back each argument to the authority of scripture and scripture alone to drive our decisions. Using this same logic the reader should be able to determine that youth should also be in corporate worship along with young adults. Critical Evaluation Rienows mission to challenge the way churches address ministry questions with scripture first and only is accomplished throughout the entire book. While not directly stated the book screams out 2 Timothy 3:16 that scripture is sufficient for all our needs and answers. The author challenges readers that, Now is the time to return to the Bible alone for every matter of faith and practice! (45) Grab multiple copies of this book, pass them out to the ministry teams in your church, read through them together and evaluate the way you do ministry against scripture. Where it lines up witch scripture, press on; where it falls short, bring it in line with the Word and see if the fruits of your labor do not increase from Gods blessings. Bibliography Rienow, Rob. Limited Church: Unlimited Kingdom. Nashville: Randall House Publications, 2013.

Sunday, January 19, 2020

Incentive Parameters for Salesmen in Leading FMCG Companies

The Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry is one among the fast growing industries with consumers everywhere. Fast Moving consumer goods or consumer packaged goods are products that are sold quickly at relatively low cost. Though the absolute profit made on FMCG products is relatively small, they are generally sold in large quantities, and so the cumulative profit on such products can be substantial. Salesmen play a critical role in any FMCG industry; and for that matter in any industry, a salesman’s role is critical. The efficiency of the product is useless if the salesmen are inefficient. This calls for energetic salesmen whoare efficient. The average qualification of salesmen are limited to schooling. Most of the salesmen are school dropouts. Unlike the well qualified, with these salesmen the demand for ambiance, infrastructure and a conducive work environment are the least preferred. Monetary benefits are the driving force. The monetary benefits include salary, allowance and incentive. Out of these, only incentive is the most critical and variable factor. The incentive being linked to the salesmen’s performance and the attractive incentive provided by these FMCG giants, is the only reason why most men still stick on to a salesman’s job. The salesmen put in their heart and soul to achieve their targets and thereby get more incentive. At a point, the companies identified that the salesmen are being manipulated either by their company executives or the distributors. To overcome this, to get closer to the salesmen and to give him a sense of belongingness with the company, FMCG companies started making the incentive structure transparent. And to keep track of the salesmen’s performance, the incentives were linked to parameters that help both the salesmen to work efficiently and the company to progress. Various companies use different incentive parameters. These parameters have evolved into a more structured approach. Though the names of the parameters and their weight-age differs, they more or less have the same meaning. Working with a few leading FMCG companies, the following incentive parameters for salesmen are the most commonly practiced. Incentive Parameters 1. Perfect Store All the product lines are highlighted in the palmtop against the particular store have to be placed in the store for it to become a perfect store. 2. Perfect Day When all the stores visited in a day are made perfect, the day becomes a perfect day. The perfect store and perfect day parameters are based on the AC Nielsen survey data. Companies have a tie up with a consulting firm to provide them with data about the stores with regard to their company products 3. Lines Product lines are given as targets depending on the month’s focus product and launch product 4. Must Stock List Must stock list or the MSL compliance is where the salesmen are instructed to compulsorily stock a particular product line at particular stores or all the stores depending on the requirement. As discussed above, the focus products may or may not accompany the ECO parameter. More than one product can be given as a Focus 6. Effective Coverage Effective coverage ensures both the effective outlet coverage and the effective product line coverage. The effective coverage or ECO parameter may or may not contain a focus product/s depending on the month’s objective 7. Distributor Retail Coverage Plan (DRCP) The DRCP or simply the salesmen beat traveled everyday is a parameter that provides for expanding the number of retail outlets. Through this specific parameter the company ensures the addition of new outlets and the retention of the older outlets 8. Value Value targets are fixed based on the value of the month in the previous year plus 25% percent growth 9. Lines Product lines are given as targets depending on the month’s focus product and launch product Apart from these, the companies lay more empahsis on communicating these parameters to the salesmen. Gone were the days where salesmen carried notebooks and pen; as the saying goes, â€Å"you become obsolete f you are not updated†, the companies have sought to palmtops and smart phones / android phones for taking orders, scheme communications and other related functions. With many companies entering into the market everyday, FMCG industry is becoming a very competitive environment. And with the products having a very limited shelf life, the products have to be sold at the earliest. For sales, it is mandatory for the product to be placed in the o utlet. This job falls on the salesmen. And incentives are the key element driving the salesmen. Hence, the companies must constantly evolve new incentive schemes.

Friday, January 10, 2020

Marketing of Packaged Drinking Water

Water is the fountain of all life. Even a toddler knows that it is a commodity with utmost Importance. Nearly 60% of our body weight comprises of water. Water can also be the cause to a great deal of misery specially in India where contaminated water continues to bring down millions with diseases like diarrhea, dysentery, haploid, jaundice and Castro-enteritis.Getting pure drinking water in cities and towns has now become a luxury. At most homes people are forced to either boil water to make it appropriate for drinking or they have to install water purifiers. While traveling or eating at restaurants buying packaged drinking water has become a necessity. This need has seen an explosion of companies marketing â€Å"safe drinking water in bottles across the country. India Is the tenth largest bottled water consumer In the world. The present scenario how's that it is one of the fastest growing industrial sectors.There are nearly 200 brands, of which are local. Most of the small scale pr oducers sell non-branded products and serve small markets. Despite the large number of small sellers, the Industry is dominated by big players like Boilers, Aquifer, Ms Dowels, Pearl Valley and soon. There are two working units of the factory. One at Disarm and the other is at Karl. The unit at Dahlias Is the larger of the two units. It has a huge processing and manufacturing plant. The one at Karl also does the same work of manufacturing and recessing but Is relatively smaller.For the purpose of accounting, both these units are considered as one factory but they both have individual licenses. The factory is one that produces packaged drinking water and according to the Bureau of Indian Standards, such a factory must necessarily have a micro-biologist and a chemist. Both the plants thus have a microbiologist and a chemist who perform timely tests on sample water in order to maintain the quail chemical composition and purity of the water.