Matthew 7 : 26-27 “And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.”
Carpenters sometimes use the term “stick framing” to describe a type of residential construction. Stick framing utilizes dimensional softwood lumber (spruce, pine, fir) to construct the skeletal/framing system of a house.
The cases of tornados and hurricanes destroying entire communities have exceeded any foreseeing of such events. We could not have imagined just a few years ago that such massive damage could occur.
As of May 28 th , 2025, 1018 touchdowns of tornados had been reported in the continental United States according to a major news network.
Things change, and that includes weather patterns. Shifts in atmospheric conditions are an anomaly that even the most knowledgeable of meteorological prognosticators could not have foreseen.
Excuses have been offered such as the burning of fossil fuels, for these changes. The arrogance of mankind to think we could alter God’s creation is almost humorous. When we begin to think/believe we are in control, disasters are looming on the horizon.
Spanish fishermen began to notice the warming waters in the Pacific we know as El Nino in the 1600’s, nearly 300 years before man began to burn fossil fuels. No one then had anything to offer as an excuse.
It was and continues to be a natural phenomenon that makes it appear the climate is changing every few years.
The massive evaporation of Pacific waters due to the El Nino effect, created levels of flooding in North America, Europe and in September of 2023, Libya in North Africa. Resulting snow accumulations in mountainous areas also were much greater than normal.
To use such natural occurrences as political footballs speaks volumes about those that pervert information to meet their own agenda.
The weather anomalies causing the excessive wind storms and destruction like our current generations have never seen will likely continue. One obvious solution is to change our building techniques.
My first mission assignment to Kenya left me with many memories. One of those memories was watching a construction crew place hand cut stones into a building wall. Four very strong young men were required to place the large rectangular stones in place.
That wall will be standing a thousand years from now. If a wind comes to blow it down, our entire planet will be blown away. Built long ago, many buildings such as that one are still standing and as strong as ever.
Traveling in Europe we notice buildings, especially the castles and cathedrals that were build millennia ago, still in use and showing very little sign of wear and tear.
On a construction job in Spain, I asked a member of the church, “Why are you building a church for a congregation of 120 that will hold 3000? His response, “In a hundred years, it will be full.” Some are gifted and hopeful to see far into the future. I had not witnessed such rock-solid building materials and techniques as I saw there.
In Gochina, Russia I helped build a church wall of brick laid in pure Portland cement one half meter (about 19 ½ inches) thick.
We slept in a house in Wales that was built in 1595. On Orkney Island, Scotland we prayed in St. Magnus cathedral. The foundation was laid in 1137 and took 300 years to complete. St Peter’s Basilica in Rome was built beginning in 1506 and completed in 1626 replacing the Basilica built by Emperor Constantine in the fourth century.
In Greenock, Scotland we visited the church in which Margie’s great-great grandparents worshipped before sailing to the New World in the 1830’s.
It certainly appears we in America build structures to last a few years, tear them down and build new. Perhaps this is a practice of capitalism but the lives lost in stick built houses and manufactured housing cannot be justified with economic pursuits.
Temporary is not an acceptable word in road or bridge construction. Highways in many countries fail because of inadequate foundations. There’s a lesson in that!
Jesus told His believerfollowers to tell the world about Him and the eternal salvation He offered by a faith-based belief in Him crucified for the remission of sin and resurrected.
Have we become as negligent in our obedience of His word as we have in our techniques of building construction? We build houses that will blow away in a tornado or hurricane and those are becoming more and more frequent and destructive. Are we reinforcing the faith in ways that will be dismissed as easily and quickly?
We have become a people that seem to have the attitude “we can do no wrong.” The opposite appears to be the case when our actions and techniques obviously fail. Perhaps storm shelters would be a reasonable addition to any new house build.
The aftermath scenes of a tornado path appeared as scattered toothpicks. This stick framing technique that has been used for years no longer works. It is unsafe in today’s world just as our old methods of evangelism are not working.
The church has become a stick-framed house in tornado alley. It is time to re-evaluate. To see homes reduced to rubble in seconds is alarming and only those affected are noticing. When the church focus is on entertainment and feel-good preaching, the stick-frame house effect is sure to follow.
Who knows? You or I may be next to die in a storm. Who will die without the saving knowledge of our Jesus because our evangelism no longer works? We must see every person as someone Jesus died for. Will we begin to build houses with stone and concrete or continue with the vulnerable methods of the past? At times we have to realize, change is necessary because the old is no longer effective.
Van Yandell is a retired Industrial Arts teacher and framing carpenter, an ordained gospel evangelist and commissioned missionary. His email is vmy3451@gmail.com