8 Survival Skills for Changing Times – Part 3-5

September 18, 2012 by admin

Combining Resources – Part 5: Combining Resources (continued…)

Combining resources can mean, “I have money. You don’t have a job right now, but you have skills. Help me with some yard jobs I’ve had trouble getting to, and I’ll be more than happy to pay you.”

In Isaiah 58:6-7 God asks, “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen? … To share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?” That last phrase, your own flesh and blood, could mean those in your extended family or the greater family of God.

Maybe combining resources means that a church in a more affluent neighborhood becomes partners with a low-income, inner-city outreach, and together they decide what each has to offer the other.

Or, it could be a congregation in America becoming a sister church to one in Russia or India or Bolivia, for example. They find out what each can give and receive, and then join forces to the glory of God.

One last reason to combine resources is that it is a marvelous testimony to the world. The film Witness, starring Harrison Ford, portrays a glorious barn-raising sequence in Pennsylvania’s Amish Country. The year is 1984 and early in the day we see the horse-drawn carriages converging on the building site. The men arrive with their carpentry tools strapped around their waists, and straw hats on their heads to protect them from the sun. The women immediately begin preparing food. To raise a barn in a day is a big job, but many hands doing many jobs will make it possible.

It’s thrilling to watch as the first huge side frame is ready to be raised into place. Possibly as many as thirty men are involved with the ropes and pulleys. Before long it’s up—careful, yes!—and standing.

Little children stop pounding on their play projects to take iced tea or lemonade to sweaty workers. The barn is slowly taking form. Soon the four side frames are standing and we see a structure that is large and impressive. This is no small project.

The team works with precision. Additional bracing and support pieces are fitted into place. The builders appear to be everywhere—working on the roof, hammering together frame work and siding, fitting floors on the inside.

Now it’s time to stop for lunch. And what a marvelous spread has been laid out by the women—chicken, potato salad, breads, garnishes. The men are hungry and they appreciate this feast.

Afternoon work includes teaching the older boys some basic building skills. The women quilt. The job is going to get done—that’s obvious. Now there’s time for more socializing.

As the sun lowers, the carriages start leaving for home. And there against the sunset stands a magnificent barn that wasn’t there when the day began. That’s combining resources. In spite of the unusual clothes and old-fashioned ways of the Amish, these people made an impression on me as a viewer. I said to myself, “There’s something extremely good here. If a barn burns down, or a young couple gets married, these folks don’t have to face the unexpected all alone. In turn, they will be loyal to the group and help when someone else has a need. This is the way it should be. And it is all done with such ease and grace and joy. How wonderful!”

As we learn from this illustration, combining resources can be attractive and attainable. We won’t start by building a barn in one day, but it’s good to know that a project that big is a possibility once we get adept at working together.

Maybe you’ll begin by sharing a garden plot with someone. Try anything that challenges the mind-set that says, “Whatever I do, I have to own it or control it all by myself.”

If I could guarantee that life will never blindside you, that a mate will never die, that disease will never attack your family, that a business will not fail, nor barns ever burn, we could probably forget about learning to combine resources. But life isn’t that predictable. We need to develop skills to help us survive changing times. And if we can learn to combine resources, we’ll be assured that we won’t have to face the unexpected all alone.

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Sunday’s coming. Do you have your sermon ready? Is it relevant? Will it effectively motivate your congregation to walk more in step with the Master? What about that Sermon Series you’ve been thinking about?

Or, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will preach for your Easter Sermon, your Advent Sermon, your Christmas Sermon?

David Mains and Mainstay Ministries can help. We offer a wide variety of Sermon Starters and Full Sermons that will give you Sermon Ideas to help you prepare for regular Saturday or Sunday sermons, Mid-week Bible Sermons, and Sermons for special occasions.

We also offer assistance as you create Topical Sermons, Sermons Series, and sermons for special times of the year. We have resources available to help you with Advent Celebrations, Advent Sermons, Christmas Sermons, Easter Sunday Sermons, Patriotic Sermons, and more.

For more information on how to create better Bible Sermons and how to turn Sermon Ideas into Sermon Outlines, and then into effective, meaningful Sunday Sermons, please click here to visit David Mains’ website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Just click here.

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8 Survival Skills for Changing Times – Part 3-4

September 17, 2012 by admin

Combining Resources – Part 4: Combining Resources (continued…)

Understanding that some people will have a strong reaction to this survival skill of combining resources, I’m trying to help you adjust to the idea very slowly. We’ll start with little steps. In the long run you’ll find them to be to your benefit.

Here’s one small suggestion. You don’t have to put off entertaining until you can do everything yourself. Call friends and say, “We could eat together Saturday night if you could fix a salad and dessert. I’ll have the Dudley’s bring bread and a vegetable. I’m taking care of the rest.” That’s combining resources.

Another idea would be to say, “Hey, I used to cut hair; you used to teach piano. Could we work out a deal so that our kids can become musicians—but not necessarily the long haired kind?”

Combining resources is having more firewood than you need and offering some of it to a friend you know would enjoy it. And then maybe that person responds, “You’re welcome to use the summer cottage some weekend.”

Here’s another example. “We have some minor plumbing problems. You’re good at fixing things like that. And you’ve mentioned you need some pictures framed. I can do that Why don’t we just solve each other’s problems?”

Combining resources could be as painless as exchanging magazines. “I’ll give you my Time magazine a week after it comes. Why don’t you let me see your copy of Christianity Today?”

Psalm 112:5 reads, “Good will come to him who is generous and lends freely.” This psalm reinforces the truth that we don’t have to fear the unexpected all alone. Verse 7 says that a righteous man (or woman) “will have no fear of bad news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.”

This passage also reminds us that there are always those within our ranks who are needy. In verse 9 we read that the blessed man, who is the focus of the psalm, “has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor.” So another reason to learn to combine resources is that a lot of people are short of funds and need help. Many today are unemployed; some aren’t paid much; others are facing unexpected major expenses. And there are always those who are unskilled in managing money. It doesn’t really matter why a person is financially in need; those who are better off are called to show true compassion.

James, in his epistle, asks, “Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?” (James 2:15-16) How many Christians have never in any substantive way helped a person in need?

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Or, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will preach for your Easter Sermon, your Advent Sermon, your Christmas Sermon?

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Just click here.

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8 Survival Skills for Changing Times – Part 3-3

September 14, 2012 by admin

Combining Resources – Part 3: Combining Resources

It’s exciting to see this starting to happen in many settings. Sure, it means we’ll be stretched in terms of trust. We may find ourselves joining forces with a person whose skin is a different color, or a minister we’d swear was spiritually blind, but love will find a way because we’re talking about survival. Wouldn’t it be something if we could realize that on our own, none of us really have a whole lot to contribute, but that together we can become a powerful team, capable of bringing in a prize-winning harvest?

When I think about combining resources in the church, what I have in mind is not as radical as the Acts 2 and 4 passages where major properties are sold and the proceeds are distributed to those in need. Instead, I’m thinking of simple ideas, such as sharing outgrown children’s clothing or maternity clothes.

I remember the clothes exchanges we had every so often in the church I pastored for ten years in inner-city Chicago. One Sunday after the morning service I saw someone who I thought was my wife, Karen, standing with her back to me, talking with someone. I walked over and put my arm around her, but it wasn’t Karen! It was someone the same size wearing a dress of Karen’s she had gotten in the clothes exchange the week before. No idea is perfect!

Why learn to combine resources? The first reason is that most of us are far too independent. We’re part of a culture where people say, “I don’t want to be a burden to anybody; I don’t want to be dependent on somebody else; I don’t like feeling obligated.” Maybe that’s OK in an era when everyone has adequate resources. But that’s not true of this country as much anymore.

Here’s another reason to learn to combine resources. Jesus said, “Do not tum away from the one who wants to borrow from you” (Matt. 5:42). Such a simple directive can be upsetting for someone who feels, “What’s mine is mine, and you have no right to ask for it. That’s true not just about big things like my car, that’s how I feel about my books and my CD’s and my videos and certainly my clothes. Just leave my stuff alone!”

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Or, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will preach for your Easter Sermon, your Advent Sermon, your Christmas Sermon?

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Just click here.

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8 Survival Skills for Changing Times – Part 3-2

September 13, 2012 by admin

Combining Resources – Part 2: Hard Times

No one should have to go through hard times by herself, or by himself. Adults shouldn’t have to. Certainly children shouldn’t! It’s during tough times that we feel the need for other’s support most intensely.

Christians especially shouldn’t be left in the position of having to face difficult days with little or no help. After all, we belong to what should be the most loving family in the world. God forgive us if that’s true only doctrinally. With the vast resources available throughout the body of Christ, believers should never end up bearing their pain in isolation.

I don’t believe they do, most of the time. I thrill to the many examples I hear about the family of God embracing those of its own who are hurting. These kinds of deeds include:

Preparing meals
Giving money
Meeting transportation needs
Offering temporary shelter
Providing child care or foster homes
Teaching English to immigrants
Finding jobs for the unemployed
Helping hurting people locate trained counselors

And the list goes on and on.

All around the world the church has been exemplary. To overlook that fact would mean we were incredibly naive. Time and again it’s been the body of Christ that has compassionately asked, “Are you OK?” The truth is, “places in the heart” can easily be found among the people of God.

Through the centuries it’s always been this way, even in the early days of the church. Acts 2:44-45, records that “all the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.”

This is another unusual group, isn’t it? It’s much larger than a household of five. The church at this time already had several thousand members.

These verses come two chapters later, in Acts 4: “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had … There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need” (vv. 32, 34-35).

I’m not asking that we in today’s church match what’s described here in Acts. The pressures we’re under in our society don’t even begin to compare to the tornado winds of change ripping through the lives of these New Testament people. The Son of God had recently been crucified. Fifty days later, the Holy Spirit had fallen on the church. The Jewish religious world was in a state of stubborn reaction, and the apostles were literally being beaten. It wouldn’t be long before the Romans would destroy the temple and Jerusalem itself.

This passage in Acts just makes us aware that in the future we may have to come together even more than we have to date. We may need to love each other more, trust each other more, contribute more of what we have to give as individuals, if we want to survive.

I believe that when we learn to combine resources in God’s family, we banish the fear of having to face the unexpected all alone. That may sound attractive to you, but the idea of combining resources may also be a bit scary. Praise the Lord that on a larger scale, church leaders are setting a marvelous example in many communities. They’re saying the power of the enemy will never be challenged unless we learn to stand together more in our towns and cities—Methodists, Baptists, Lutherans, Nazarenes, Presbyterians, Salvation Army, Assemblies of God, and so on. At the very minimum we can pray together.

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Or, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will preach for your Easter Sermon, your Advent Sermon, your Christmas Sermon?

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Just click here.

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