I Chronicles 12:32 mentions the sons of Issachar as men who “understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do.” This bit of extra commentary in an otherwise ordinary list of armies that served with David reminds me of the great need of our day. Sometimes we say, “times are changing” and indeed they are, and they always have. 

 

Gardening has changed since I was a kid. When I was growing up we didn’t have to deal with Japanese Beetles, tomato leaf blight, army worms or squash bugs and vine borers. Our garden produced all summer. Now my tomatoes are dead by mid-summer, and my squash produce for a couple of weeks and then die from vine borers. Last year, in trying to find a solution to the squash bugs and borers I thought back to a variety of squash we grew when I was a child. When I was eight or nine years old, my father came home from his work with some squash seed that a man from India gave him. We planted those seeds and they produced a vine that grew squash all summer and up until it frosted. This squash far outproduced the yellow squash that we normally grew. The plants produced so much squash that we kids became tired of squash casserole and were glad to see the plants die at first frost. We called them Indian squash. I saw the same sort of squash growing in India where nearly every house had one growing up its wall and onto the roof. Last year I began to wonder if perhaps that variety of squash might do well in the hot summer weather here in east central Georgia since it seemed to grow prolifically in very hot regions in India. Perhaps it would be more pest resistant as well. 

 

After searching the internet to figure out what sort of squash this was, I identified it as Cucuzzi squash and purchased some seed. By late April I had 3 plants growing prolifically and by mid-June they were taking over the fence that surrounds my garden and setting squash. The plant has a pungent smell that I had forgotten about from when we grew them back home and apparently repels pests. Since then, we have had a steady crop of the long skinny squash that this plant produces with no sign of letting up. It looks like we will have an abundance of “Indian squash” until it frosts. The “times” called for a different squash than I was trying to grow. 

 

I believe in church life it is important to recognize the “times” and respond properly. While the message and work of the church do not change, sometimes we need the wisdom to know what to do to carry out that work and carry forward the message. Sometimes we struggle to know what that change looks like. There are several ways that we can find the wisdom to know what to do in this time. Of course, we begin with prayer asking for wisdom. We study the Word carefully and compare what the Bible says to how we are applying it in our context. We can draw from the experiences and resources of others. On August 16th we are hosting a conference that will help you do that. The Spark conference is a conference designed to provide training and exposure to ideas across multiple ministry areas in church life. There is something for everyone as there are 35 different training sessions offered and led by leaders with expertise in these areas.