NEEDnews Christmas

Dear Fellow Deep-Freezers,
Unless you live south of the Equator you have just lived through one of the coldest pre-winters on record. Cold enough for you yet!?! As the temperature outside drops into the teens & the snow continues to fall I want you to picture me sitting in our “fire-room,” feet resting on an ottoman, in front of a glowing wood stove fire. It’s the ONLY way to handle winter’s deep freeze.
We’ve seen a lot of changes around NEED’s ministry over this past year. We have definitely moved deeper into the forest of our postChristian community. No less than one-half of our time is spent challenging, debating, and counseling with people who never have a Christian thought. They find it somewhat curious that a genuine Christian, who actually believes in absolute truth, right and wrong, and a God-Who-Created can even exist in the midst of their society. When I tell them that Christ can give them a life they could never imagine, they usually respond, “You’re right… . I can’t imagine it!”
Therefore, we are re-gearing our efforts to connect with a wider community of Christian and postChristian people. Even NEEDNEWS is giving way to newer forms of communication. Our WEBsite grows it’s audience daily. EmPulse, our weekly brain-teaser designed more for our secular audience, is being referred to people with whom we have no prior contact . What a sur-prise! And my personal relationships in Amherst, MA continue to deepen among those who are definitively NOT Christian. Our levels of conversation about the Christian faith still amazes me. One 31 year old grad-student wonders that I journey with him and don’t judge him. I merely tell him that God is the judge of us all. He’s not sure about that. Yet.
PARADIGM LOST: Christians living in a post Christian culture, is being scrutinized by the cohesiveness editor and near publication…, finally.
One of the purposes of this end-of-year letter is not only to update you on NEED’s minis-try, but also to seek your financial support for our ongoing efforts to make a difference in the emerging field of culturally sensitive evangelism. Simply put, we need to learn the language of the people we are trying to reach with the Gospel. NEED trains believers how to do just that. To continue to do so requires financial supporters like you. Please, in these very difficult times of re-cession, consider a financial gift to this ministry that will make a difference. I promise we will use it with Godly graciousness and New England frugality.