May 2014 Newsletter

From the Pastor's Pen

"Three Vignettes"

#1
There once was a young minister who had assembled quite a following among his constituents.  On a particular day he had been preaching on a hillside for some time when it was brought to his attention that the people were famished; they needed to eat.  Calling his associate ministers together, he inquired as to what plans had been made to feed them.  Not only had no plans been made to feed the throng, there was nothing for the staff.

The minister asked the staff to pull together what they could from those assembled.  Two fish and five loaves of bread was all they could muster.  The minister said, "Great work, guys.  Let's do this."  To his surprise they responded that the allotted amount would not even feed them.  Ignoring their lack of foresight, he blessed the food and proceeded to distribute it.

To the staff's great surprise, everyone was fed and there were so many leftovers every staff member had enough to share with still more hungry people.

#2
A certain shoe company sent two sales representatives to the jungles of Africa many years ago to set up territories for the distribution of shoes.  Within hours of arrival, the first representative sent word back to the home office which read: "STOP.  Send no shoes.  The people here don't even wear shoes!"  The following day, after much thought and prayer, the second representative sent this hopeful missive: "Attention: Manufacturing Department.  Send all available shoes.  No one here has shoes to wear!  The territory is wide open!" The shoe company's sales skyrocketed.

#3
Following the economic downturn of 2008, a certain west side church found itself needing to operate on a greatly reduced amount of revenue.  There was much chatter by church leadership as to what to do about the impending doom.  The church would surely not be able to continue its ministry.  If there was not enough money, they could not continue.  What would they do?  How long could they last?

Then one day the church came across two stories, one about a minister needing to feed his congregation and one about a shoe company.  After much, much prayer the church vowed to see their situation as on opportunity to look at life through the eyes of abundance and not scarcity.  They focused on opportunities for additional ministry right in the midst of economic despair.  What do you suppose happened to the west side congregation?