Stay In Touch

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Deuteronomy6:5-7NIV

One of the things which sets us apart from the other parts of creation, is that we can communicate by language. We are now finding that some other animals can make sounds which are interpreted in some way by others in their species. For our Creator God to give us this gift, suggests that He sees it as important. God gives us instructions to talk to our families, especially as we convey the commandments and love of God.

Since communication is important, why do we resist the many ways we have available to do just that? It seems that some don’t want to talk unless it is face to face. Ok, I hear you saying that this verse is only speaking about a face to face conversation, but in that day this was the only way to communicate! Is that really a reason for us to avoid any of the modern means of communication? I have come across those who would use the landline phone, but don’t ask them to use a mobile phone, or forbid even send a text! Given that attitude, there is no chance of them adopting any of the other social media methods of being in touch. Yes, it’s also about staying in touch as well as just talking.

Now, before you start to shout at me, I know that social media usage does not come naturally to some people, but then I can remember the first party line dial phones in our street, and they were a mystery to many too, and avoided by some at the beginning. There were even pastors who preached against their place in our homes and lives along with the advent of Television. We have moved on since then, and just about everyone has a landline phone, and a TV. Is it possible that the same thing will happen to the acceptance and use of the smartphone, and with it the general embrace of better communications through social media? Why would we all not want to have the best and fastest way to be in touch with those we love, and those we need? Like family and friends, doctors, hospitals, emergency services, pastors, and others you could add. Here’s a wee thought: Why not learn to accept this benefit and instead of resisting and complaining about it, use it for good? As I often say, “just thinking out loud!”

Smart Move

It is nothing to look at from the outside, just a shop front, in a poor neighbourhood, with faded looking curtains framing a window, and a door. A very welcoming door. I had not been in that part of town for many years, even though it is the town of my birth. It had, and may still have, a reputation of being a tough place, housing some tough characters.

I was asked to meet someone there to discuss the launch of a town wide, one stop website for some twelve places of worship. It was a vision explained with some passion, and it was not difficult to see the worth of the venture. There are towns up and down our country where churches seem to always be on the back foot, frantically trying to keep up with falling interest, and matching income. It becomes a spiral of survival. Fewer worshippers means smaller offerings, which in turn means doing less with the little you have.

The vision is spearheaded by an enthusiastic lady who, by her own confession, knows little of the website business, but that has not stopped her from charging ahead with a dream she believes in, and it is contagious. Unwittingly, it also goes by another name, ‘leadership’. My meeting lasted an hour, some 30 minutes longer than planned, and I was only one of twelve volunteers who had to be met and fed the vision. I left with a belief that this vision could be realised, and maybe even used by people outwith our own local church group, to let us know we are not alone in the town. There are others who share this same gospel of Jesus Christ and also want to spread the good news.

On my way from the office meeting, I met two others who didn’t seem to be very busy. I asked what they did there, and with smiles they said they were there to all hours, just being available to the youth in the area if and when they were needed. No pressure, no hard sell, just a faith looking for an outlet and maybe, just maybe, making a difference in some young person’s choices. Who knows, but that one encounter might make an eternal difference. They were not ministers or professional social workers, only volunteers saved by grace, and making themselves available if they should be needed. And they make a good cup of coffee.

I left the little shop feeling a lot different than when I got there an hour before. I felt stirred that there are others ‘out there’ in the community, willing and able to help share their faith, not in a nice cosy church setting, but where the need was. It was, and is, a Smart Move and we should be grateful it is there, tucked away in that part of town where no one except the residents want to enter. I left with a fresh idea of evangelism at work. It wasn’t fancy, just real and sometimes effective between making cups of coffee and tea, and providing a listening ear with Godly advice. Smart Move indeed, and may God Bless the work in this little part of God’s Kingdom!