Why not pick a weekend sometime in January-March (January 22, 2005 is the official Religious Liberty Sabbath this next year) to remind the congregation that religious liberty is a precious and rare privilege? Here is a menu of ideas to strengthen the religious liberty awareness in your congregation and community. Why not try one (or more)?
Menu of Ideas-
1. Elect or appoint a church religious liberty leader (An elder or other recognized spiritual leader is often more helpful than a crisis-oriented person)
2. Invite the church board members to each sponsor a subscription of Liberty magazine if they aren’t currently doing so. Invite the entire congregation to follow their lead.
3. Preach a series of sermons or prayer meeting studies using the last chapters of The Great Controversy as reference material. Laymen can help with the series, too.
4. Announce publicly and in your bulletin & newsletter that members can find help with Sabbath work problems or Labor Union problems at the NPUC Religious Liberty website at http://www.nwreligiousliberty.org/workframe.htm
5. Show one or more video clips from this year’s DVD sent to all North Pacific Union Local Church 1st Elders or Religious Liberty leaders (there are many to choose from including George W. Bush and Hillary Clinton- take your pick!)
6. Also on the DVD is a sermon outline and notes in editable form that could be preached by the pastor or a laymen
7. Invite our NPUC Religious Liberty leader, Greg Hamilton greg.hamilton@nw.npuc.org, or another guest speaker to your district to speak Sabbath morning. Better yet, invite them to come early to also speak on Friday to public high school and college government/history classes and to the Adventist students at the church school/academy. Sabbath afternoon they could have a presentation and Q&A session for area churches. Many speakers’ calendars are full for the next 6-18 months so plan ahead on this one.
8. Invite the congregation to write or e-mail their senators and representatives about important legislation such as the Workplace Religious Freedom Act. To do this very easily just click on this link http://ola.adventist.org/contactingcongress.htm
9. Use other resources in the packet sent to your 1st Elder or Religious Liberty Leader- poster, bulletin inserts, message by Dr. John Graz from the General Conference Religious Liberty Department, etc.
“I have been shown that Satan is stealing a march upon us. The law of God, through the agency of Satan, is to be made void. In our land of boasted freedom, religious liberty will come to an end. The contest will be decided over the Sabbath question, which will agitate the whole world. Our time for work is limited, and God calls us as ministers and people to be minutemen. Teachers as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves must come to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty. There are many who do not understand the prophecies relating to these days, and they must be enlightened.” {Evangelism pp. 236-237}
Dan Serns 