shoulders Established: Feb 20, 1998		10 max hits 25 max hits 50 max hits 100 max hits 250 max hits 500 max hits
Group Information
"Shoulder To Shoulder" is a weekly newsletter for individuals in Christian ministry, either vocational or volunteer. Its singular purpose is to bring encouragement to those who are in positions of leadership and ministry in the work of Christian service. Unlike other newsletters designed to provide needed resource information and sermon ideas, or offer opportunities to "debate" certain issues, "Shoulder To Shoulder" focuses entirely on being a "Barnabas" to fellow servants in God's work, bearing burdens, providing prayer support, and "lifting up the hands that hang down".

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Recent News: THE UNAVOIDABLE Jo Ann and I are blessed to have the unexpected blessing of satellite television in our apartment here in Kiev.  We get a vast array of Christian programming from a half dozen Christian networks.  We can watch Charles Stanley, Benny Hinn, T. D. Jakes, Crefflo Dollar, Jack Graham, James Robison, Robert Schuler, Ed Young, Greg Laurie, David Jeremiah, and dozens of others.  Sometimes we stay up late at night to watch some of these programs.  We have our favorites, and God blesses us immeasurably here in this far away place. Sometimes my heart is lifted so that I can hardly contain myself.  Other times I get so grieved that I can't stand it.  The contrast between the soulish and the spiritual is dramatic.  It is heart wrenching.  How my heart breaks over the people who sit under the preaching of those who talk about nothing except getting blessed, getting healed, and getting rich.  It's all about "us"!.  It's never about the seas of lost humanity.  I praise God that we can enter into His presence to worship, honor, and adore Him with all that we are and all that we have.  I'm forever grateful for the blessings He pours out upon us as He meets our needs and more, and as He continually shapes us into the likeness of His Son with great faithfulness.  I wouldn't want to change any of that. But, I am so fearful that the bulk of the Church has forgotten the reason God lets us worship Him and the reason He blesses us. It's not all about Him, and it's certainly not about us.  It's about them . . . out there . . . . those people who have never yet heard. Knowing the certainty of what lies ahead according to scripture, do you ever get an uncomfortable feeling about how you've been responding to such a destiny?  I do.  And, frankly, when I think about it, I get such a conglomeration of feelings that I often end up just trying to ignore the whole thing.  I sense a new awareness of my aging, and my diminishing strength and endurance.  I feel overwhelmed at the size of the harvest fields and the smallness of the team of harvesters.  I feel angry toward the fat churches who have become so materially obese that they have become a grotesque flabby distortion of what the true Church is to be.  I can tell you this . . . it is clearly Not the image of Christ. Oh, my dear friend!  Don't we understand? . . . . we are long past the days of praise and worship alone.  We are long past the days of in depth Bible study and expository preaching for their sakes alone.  We are long past the days of "giving to get", of "name it and claim it", of "blab it and grab it".  The days of receiving are over.  Why, in heaven's name do you think God has blessed us so in the past?  Just so we can keep it all and enjoy it all?  Why do you think He taught the church again how to worship?  Why do you think He taught us again how to understand His Word?  Why do you think He taught us to pray in power and authority? It' wasn't so He could bless us.  It wasn't so we would be happy.  It wasn't so we could just grow up. It was so He could equip us . . . and then Send us!!! Where have we missed this point???  Go back again and read the Gospels.  Read the message of Jesus.  Read the epistles.  It's all about the Great Commission.  The whole point of discipleship is to become constantly learning doers.  The whole point of stewardship is to manage and distribute what belongs to the Master, and do it according to His intentions.  The whole purpose of giving is not to get, but to be able to give.