January/February 2013 Newsletter
This sounds ridiculous but it is a truth of life.
As Seedtime and Harvest Ministries comes into its 37th year of ministry this year, we are in a time of transition in many ways. Since 1976 when David and Elizabeth Tolman and three of their children left the comforts of their Canadian home to move into the unknown in Mexico, we have moved through many changes. Small churches have grown into larger congregations. A poor struggling country has become more prosperous and life styles have changed. A small teaching ministry within a single Mexican organization has grown into a ministerial fellowship that covers 4 States. The church has changed in these 37 years but it hasn’t changed enough.
The gospel message has not changed nor has the power of the Holy Spirit but all that we do that isn’t in the Bible needs to change. Dress, music, culture and lifestyles have all changed radically. In the church we have had to change too and change is good. The way church was 50 years ago doesn’t work today. In the business world, the company that isn’t in constant change loses out and becomes extinct. The church that doesn’t change will suffer the same fate.
Seedtime and Harvest Ministries has changed through the years. The first years were the learning years (even though we always continue to learn). Then came the teaching years. These were followed by the church planting years and the establishing years. As we now move through the administrative years we come to a new era of change, the electronic age. Web pages, video cam services, facebook and twitter are now part of the church. Lights, video clips and pre-taped video announcements have become a norm. The pastor’s sermon is now projected on a screen and people are reading the bible on their telephones.
As the third generation of ministries takes its place in the ranks in of Seedtime and Harvest Ministries we have to teach them to continue to reach out to the lost. The church is preaching the truth that it has received and at the same time it is living in the reality that it hasn’t reached the fullness of the truth. The world is selling perversion and error, and they are spending all they can to make people believe their message. The Bible words ring loud and clear: “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach, except they be sent?…”
We have a gospel to get out. The truth has to be heard above all the noise, glitter, and distraction that the world throws up. Once again the Bible says: “So belief cometh of hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” Getting the Word out is our job and that is what we are called to do. People that hear the Word will believe.
We have an old time gospel to preach but our means of getting it out is anything but old fashion. We, the church, are the innovators, the head and the blessed. This is the message that Seedtime and Harvest Ministries is preaching in Mexico and where ever else we can reach out to. We invite you to continue to stand along side us and do the same.
Please continue to pray for David and Elizabeth as they are dealing with new health issues and also for ourselves as we help them walk through this new stage of life. Thank you for your prayers and your offerings that make all of this possible. Your monthly support is much needed. Blessings in Jesus name.
Philip, Lucy, Simri & Vanessa Tolman
