Adonaic Strategies

We believe that Psalm 37 is more than an ode to El Shaddai’s provision. We believe that it represents His strategy for overcoming dark days. We use it to establish guidelines for wise stewardship in times of hardship.

Direct points:

1. We will not allow ourselves to be overcome by fear of the future.

2. We will not envy those whose greed will very shortly be their undoing.

3. We will trust the Lord’s commands and do what is right regardless of the consequences.

4. We will dwell in the land – not rape and pillage it. Like King Uzziah, we will be ahavim adamah, lovers of the soil.

5. We will live securely, carefully considering potential threats and dealing with them proactively.

6. We will take delight in the Lord, focusing our lives on the joy of serving the Messiah.

7. We will commit our ways to the Lord and trust Him, not leaning on our own understanding.

8. We will be silent before the Lord and wait on Him, dedicating portions of our lives to prayer, meditation, praise, worship and service.

9. We will not allow our anger over the damage being done to Hashem’s planet to spill over into sin.

10. We will constantly seek new ways to discipline our prideful spirits and develop humility.

11. We will be content with what the Lord has given us and not go deep into debt trying to match the world’s expectations of the conspicuous consumer.

12. We will try to be blameless, constantly seeking the Lord’s face and comparing our lives to His Word. We will turn away from evil and do good.

13. Our lives will be characterized by gracious giving. We will be generous and lend to our neighbors – even those who failed to heed our past warnings.

14. We will school our tongues to utter wisdom. We will constantly speak what is just, telling anyone who will listen of the truths to be found in Hashem’s Word. We will do this by placing as much of the Scriptures into the safekeeping of our memory as possible, realizing that many of our brothers and sisters have lost the privilege of access to the Scriptures due to persecution.

15. We will be a peaceful and quiet people.

Summarizing these points we could say that our strategy will be characterized by:

Foresight rather than shortsighted profligacy. Anticipating future challenges and developing proactive solutions

Setting aside an endowment for the next generation

Tools

Implements

Power sources

Non-perishable goods

Goods exchangeable for food (salt, sugar, alcohol, hand tools, hardware)

Voluntary simplicity rather than unsustainable exploitation. Switching to the future economy before it is forced upon us.

Minimizing the impact of the loss of transportation by switching consumption to locally produced goods.

Minimizing the impact of the loss of fossil fuels by

switching to products that either can be produced without them or will last longer

setting aside unsustainable luxuries

constantly seeking to reduce electrical consumption

Cooperation rather than competition. We want to develop a preservationist rather than a survivalist mentality. Survivalists exist primarily for the benefit of their members. They will naturally be regarded with suspicion and envy and thus be forced into a defensive mindset. In contrast, a preservationist culture will persist through acts of service that will make them indispensible to the regional population. Such a community will teach important skills, provide healing, entertainment, general education, spiritual leadership and counseling, depots for food and other commodities, seed banks, biodiversity refuges and more. Therefore, while survivalist communities will need to protect themselves from the people around them, preservationist communities will be protected by the people they serve.

Elder-led, Scripturally based consensus decision-making rather than autocratic rule. The biblical example of the process used to make large, important decisions is clearly demonstrated in Acts 15. The apostles’ actions indicate that they were convinced that consensus decision making by the elders (and apostles) was the surest means of knowing the mind of Christ. Authoritarian rule has no place in the church. The church must be taught and convinced of the Scriptural position on issues. Imposing decisions without leading the congregation to understand them is unbiblical. They key steps to this type of decision making are:

a. Understand the problem and prioritize the components

b. Pray about solutions and encourage corporate prayer

c. Teach the congregation the applicable scriptural principles

d. Encourage and consider congregational input

e. Propose the wisest solution

f. Encourage the congregation’s agreement and acceptance

g. Oversee church members as they implement the plan

h. Humbly accept responsibility for errors and be willing to make course corrections as we go.

Education and improvement rather than apathetic insularism.

Elder training

Congregational education through

Preaching

Sunday School

Educational materials provided

Short-term classes and seminars

Hands-on examples at church

Permaculture teacher training

Activist leader training