The idea of HMA is based on a two part principle.
1. What are the needs of a community.
2. How do we Biblically meet those needs.
These are not two principles. This is one, two part principle. Many are using one part or the other and it is not working. For example: If you want to start a Homeless program in rural Montana.... Go right ahead, but no one is homeless out there except some stray cows or something. If you want to start a drug awareness program in a county that is ranked #873 on the list of counties with the worst drug problems, your efforts are probably going to be better served else where.
It gets even trickier than that. Say you find out that a lot of women are being beat up in your community, so you obviously want to have some sort of help for battered women. A little bit of study by someone who understands the process may quickly find that your area has a very large population of cocaine addicts or prescription drug addicts, and that for some reason the drugs that have been supplied plenteously in that town for years, have bottle necked and they are not coming through fast enough. This could be a sign that it is not necessarily time to start a huge battered women’s work, but rather a time to start a very large scale drug awareness program for local addicts, local churches and the families of local addicts. Thus helping many of the users get delivered from their addiction in a time that they are more responsive because they are running out of choices and ultimately you find out that a bunch of the addicts get saved and delivered before the drug suppliers get there act back together. When it’s all over, you find out that there are hardly any women getting beat up because a lot of those that were beating them up got saved and the other ones that didn’t get saved still stopped beating their women because their drugs came through again. You took advantage of the circumstance and changed many lives in the process, but you did it by following the right principal.
Another reason it is very important to find what the need really is first, is because a lot of well meaning people start a type of outreach that they “LIKE” instead of one that is needed. This generally wastes a lot of time, energy and resources and then people get discouraged and quit. It is good to “Join Forces” with something that you enjoy. But it is not so good to just randomly “Start” things just because you enjoy them. Not when it comes to outreach. Start what is needed or join something that you like that was started because it was needed.
The second part of the principal is just as important and far more destructive if not followed. Once the need is decided upon, the only way to meet it is Biblically. We all see failures everyday of people trying to deal with real problems in ways that ultimately don’t help. Food is good for the hungry, clothes and blankets are good for the cold. But after the immediate needs are met, it is time for the long, slow and delicate process of dealing with the real problems. Drug abuse, rebellion, false religions, abuse, mental problems, devil possessions, physical disabilities, bankruptcy. If you give them food, clothes, money, preaching and or anything else, you have done some good. But the odds of what you did getting that person out of their situation for good are almost NONE! You possibly gave them a new hope, but that hope will probably let them down as did many others before. Leaving that person worse off than you found them.
Offering someone the Love of Christ as shown through yourself, can only help. Love, friendships, instructions, teaching, rules, care and concern, these things as administered by Jesus, through a willing vessel, is hope beyond all hope. They are peace and strength that a sinner or new convert needs to survive, not only in this life, but the longer one, yet up coming.
HMA is based on the principal of spiritual people, educated in specific areas, helping to teach others how to ...
A) Determine the true need
and
B) Meet it Biblically.
More later....
God Bless!
Rev. D. Todd Sloggett
No comments:
Post a Comment