I have had my bird feeders now for over ten years. What began with one wooden trough and one hummingbird feeder is now that trough plus three hanging feeders and two hummingbird feeders. If you have been with me long, you know all the lessons we have gleaned from all those birds. I keep a list now of every type of bird we have seen and it has grown to 37.
If you had asked me before I would have told you no, we don't have more than a dozen varieties here in the backwoods. Part of that mistake came because all we offered our birds was bird seed. We put out a block of suet after a couple of years, and suddenly we had a couple more kinds. Finally I read that offering them water would increase the number you saw. Not every bird is a seed-eater, but they all need water. Suddenly instead of just cardinals, titmice, chickadees, wrens, sparrows, and catbirds, we had brown thrashers, blue jays, black and white warblers, bluebirds, grosbeaks, ovenbirds, buntings, and a host more.
We need to think of these things in terms of offering our congregations to our friends and neighbors. What are we offering our communities? A place to "worship right"? Or a vibrant, supportive community of believers, growing and active, constantly involved with each other and the work? Which one do you think will inevitably attract more people? Let's be honest. A church that "worships right" won't mean a thing to most unbelievers, but a group that shows their care and devotion to one another and the Lord, and who reaches out to them, even and especially in their need, can break down walls that can eventually, with time and teaching, become an understanding of Truth and the Mission the Lord has left us with. "Worshiping right" will take of itself.
Stop throwing seed at the meat-eaters. Put out some living water and watch them come!
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” (John 4:10-15)
Dene Ward
If you had asked me before I would have told you no, we don't have more than a dozen varieties here in the backwoods. Part of that mistake came because all we offered our birds was bird seed. We put out a block of suet after a couple of years, and suddenly we had a couple more kinds. Finally I read that offering them water would increase the number you saw. Not every bird is a seed-eater, but they all need water. Suddenly instead of just cardinals, titmice, chickadees, wrens, sparrows, and catbirds, we had brown thrashers, blue jays, black and white warblers, bluebirds, grosbeaks, ovenbirds, buntings, and a host more.
We need to think of these things in terms of offering our congregations to our friends and neighbors. What are we offering our communities? A place to "worship right"? Or a vibrant, supportive community of believers, growing and active, constantly involved with each other and the work? Which one do you think will inevitably attract more people? Let's be honest. A church that "worships right" won't mean a thing to most unbelievers, but a group that shows their care and devotion to one another and the Lord, and who reaches out to them, even and especially in their need, can break down walls that can eventually, with time and teaching, become an understanding of Truth and the Mission the Lord has left us with. "Worshiping right" will take of itself.
Stop throwing seed at the meat-eaters. Put out some living water and watch them come!
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” (John 4:10-15)
Dene Ward
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