I've been thinking over the last couple of months that we need to start having barn raisings again. The Church body would come together to help a person raise a barn. Everyone would work, building, providing food, watching children, etc.
Lately this thought had been brought to the forefront of my consciousness as our pastor has been preaching about the unity and the team dynamics of the church. This thought has been coupled with a youth study out of Ecclesiastes, revealing that two get a better return on their labor than one.
While I realize that most people living in urban/suburban America do not have barns, I was the recipiant of a barnraising this past weekend. Friends came over for a meatfest, but we ended up working on small projects all over my house. Gardening, patching holes, and cleaning were just some of the things accomplished.
I am very grateful to our Lord for giving me this desire of my heart and very grateful for my friends who gave up a day of their weekend to help me. This loving, servant attitude in the midst of fun fellowship while working hard, seems to me to be an essential part of the working of the Body. What a joy to be a participant in such an event!
Comments
Sounds like a good name..
..For a ministry of the body.
I often have thought of the experience of having so many from the church help us move into our new place, 2.5 years ago, in this light. It felt like we had help raising our barn. (I guess we don't really live in a barn). But it gave us the feeling, that right from the start, the church was part of our foundation, part of our family.
I like, as well, that you included the category of entertainment. There was something entertaining about Keith on a 15 foot ladder in your living room dropping slinging spackle around. No, but the truth is, that most forms of entertainment pursued today have nothing to do with communication and interpersonal fun. Someone asked recently, why we don't do House to House anymore. I am so happy that we have friends in the body that enjoy playing table top games and things that aren't always just plugging in to a tv and tuning out. Tuning in to eachother is so much more rewarding.
Which is of course an odd thing to mention, since that day at your house I mainly tuned out by reading a book... and then later encouraged Chris to bring LOTR ROTK so we could all watch it together... oh well :) we did talk a lot during it.
jamesj- JID: hystrix@jabber.g4g.org
It's a Ministry...
that I would love to be a part of! So when's it starting?
My Family
used to have Family Work Weekends. We would all get together and over the course of a week, we would remodel, fix, paint, etc... a family members house. They were some of my more memerable experiences when I was a child.
It would be nice. We could do it.