START
WITH A HAMMER

Topics: Calling; Caring; Direction; Generosity; Giving; Good Deeds; Guidance; Help; Leadership; Ministry; Needs; Outreach; Service; Testimony; Witnessing

References: Matthew 5:13–16; Acts 20:35; Galatians 6:9–10; Ephesians 2:10; 2 Timothy 4:5; James 2:15–16

Clarence Jordan, a philosopher-farmer in Americus, Georgia, was convinced that poor people living in dilapidated shacks could improve themselves with a little support. “They don’t need charity,” he said to Millard Fuller, who visited Jordan’s church community, Koinonia Farm. “They need a way to help themselves.”

Millard Fuller, thirty, who was nearly a millionaire, was inspired by Jordan to begin what today is a worldwide organization to provide housing for the poor. Habitat for Humanity runs on what he calls “the theology of the hammer.” The group raises money and recruits volunteers to renovate and build homes, which are sold at cost. Mortgages are interest free to qualified recipients. Habitat now builds or renovates twelve houses every day.

—Ward Williams, “Jesus’ Vacation,” PreachingToday.com