Loving Christ…Embracing our World. The theme of the Twelfth General Conference of The Wesleyan Church has it in the correct order. We cannot and dare not try to reach our world properly if we do not have God’s love in us first and foremost. In fact, being in a daily, loving relationship with Jesus is the key to attempting anything for Him. How can we represent Him if we do not know Him? Why would we think we could give Jesus’ love away if our love for others is self-manufactured? Loving Christ as a priority is what keeps us going. It inspires us. It compels us. It gets us out of bed to go into a world with the Gospel that desperately needs His forgiveness and discipleship.

How do we expect to publicly love others if we don’t privately and corporately love Jesus?

Yes – some try to love Christ and then keep that love to themselves. Individuals as well as churches both can slip into this dysfunctional mode. His love is not for us to hoard. Jesus’ love has always been intended to be shared. Someone shared His love with us and it’s high time we pass that on in order to multiply His Kingdom. One way I often think about the reality of loving God so that we can in turn love others, is to get into Jesus’ attributes taught through the “I AM” statements in the Gospel of John. One of the seven statements John relays to us is that Jesus is the “Light of the world.” (John 8:12) In turn, in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says, “You are the light of the world.” (Matthew 5:14)  It is the only “I AM” statement about Jesus that Jesus also says, “You are….” It is the only “I AM” about Jesus that He expects us to be for Him in this world.

So, how do we love Christ and embrace our world?

Light in the scriptures is most often associated with the love of Christ or the truth of the Gospel. We are to be God’s grace and truth in a world that is extremely judging and wish-wash. Does the world you live in need any light? Does your community need a gracious dose of God’s plumb line? If so:

• Love God first. We can love others while simultaneously loving God. However, it would be best if we knew why we are to love our neighbor to begin with. We love because He first loved us and we respond by loving Him and others.
• Love others for the right reason. We are to love others because they are all kinds of people like us. Jesus never loved someone while He walked on this earth because they could return a favor to Him someday. He loved everyone because that is what a person of Christ’s character and demeanor does. You’ll be knows as a Christian by your love for Christ and His world.
• Spread Jesus’ light everywhere. Try it tonight in a dark room. When the light is switched on, the darkness has to leave. Is there any darkness in your world? My neighbors across the street need God’s comforting love because their adult son took his life yesterday. Refugees in central Africa desperately need to be embraced and their lives spared because of unthinkable persecution and execution. Leaders need God’s truth in knowing how to lead nations with the standards of biblical behavior. God’s love is needed in our homes, churches, and communities in more ways than we may be aware.

Embrace your world by loving Christ.

Love Christ and embrace your world. Let the love He fills you with ooze out of your head, heart, hands, and habits. Be His light in a world that is seemingly full of darkness. Don’t make it too difficult. Start today. Show the kindness and acceptance of God toward someone next to you as well as someone across the globe this week. Jesus is The Light of the World. Jesus said, You are the light of the world.

– Dr. Jim Dunn, Director of Spiritual Formation

In the prologue to the gospel of John, the apostle summarizes this miracle:  “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).  Eugene Peterson paraphrases this to say that the Word “moved into the neighborhood.”  What is implied here is that Jesus is the self-expression of God, God revealed in a real human life.  God, who had revealed himself to the world in many ways before the coming of Christ, revealed himself perfectly then by being embodied in a particular man, and there was nothing deceptive, unreal, or phony about Jesus’ humanity: he was born, he grew up through childhood to manhood, and he died. And as it was, by the word of the Lord that the universe was created, so Jesus is the divinely appointed agent for bringing the new creation into being, first in human life and then on a universal scale. Undoubtedly, some who have grown up in the church and heard sermons on the incarnation all of their lives will allow this idea to grow stale in their minds.  I confess that has happened to me before.  But each of us, when we look deep down inside, longs for a God who can sit across from us and share a drink of coffee.  We deeply desire the intimacy of friendship with our Maker.

To think of God in such gritty, earthy, human terms seems to demean His holiness, but evidently the God of the Bible doesn’t agree.  Instead we find in Jesus a man who was constantly criticized for his habit of hanging out with what society considered to be losers.  Remember the Pharisees who said: “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is– that she is a sinner” (Luke 7:39).  Remarkably, we find Jesus “infecting” others with his healing and wholeness rather than being “infected” by their filth and sin.  Jesus reversed how the Jews thought of defilement:  the holy doesn’t become dirty by contact with what is unclean; rather the unclean becomes whole and well through contact with the holy!  Sadly, even many Christians today seem to misunderstand this aspect of Jesus’ ministry and, as a result, they seek holiness by barricading themselves from the “wicked” and “evildoers.”  Much of evangelicalism over the decades has devoted itself to creating a “bubble” which is separate from the world for fear of contamination – note, for example, the growth of “Christian” bookstores, businesses, schools, music, etc. – all attempts to create a sub-culture which will shield ourselves from the contamination of the world…

…Pastor Greg Boyd reflects on how the incarnation of Christ impacts those who are poor or hurting:  “My experience regarding street-level understandings of God is that the more marginalized and less organized the people are, the more the people will have internalized the dominant ideology of the official transcript.  Many have not heard an alternative voice expressing good news that was convincing enough to win them over to a God on their side.” And, indeed, the fundamental message of the incarnation is that God is on our side, suffering with us and striving to show us a way of life we’ve never imagined before.  This realization is revolutionary not just for the economically poor, but for all people.

So, Now What?

Take a few moments and make a single word list of words that to you describe your view of Jesus Christ (i.e. Son; Cross; etc.).

Re-read John 1:14.

John 1:14 tells us that “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us…and he came full of grace and truth.” And as Eugene Peterson paraphrases, “the Word (Christ) moved into the neighborhood”.

Now compare your list describing Jesus Christ with the Apostle John’s description.  What are the similarities, differences?

[excerpt taken from “Merge: Divine Chaos” (WPH, 2011) by Greg Coates and Jeremy Summers]

Leaders

The Community Based Ministries of The Wesleyan Church, in relationship with the CCDA (ccda.org), the Indiana Central, Indiana North, and Florida Districts of The Wesleyan Church kicked off two Cafés last month attracting over 175 leaders from across the United States.  The first event was the Midwest Café held in Marion, Indiana with keynote speaker Robert Lupton (FCS Ministries and author of Toxic Charity) and the second, the South Café, held in Rockledge, Florida, with keynote speaker Delia Caderno (D.O.O.R. Network of Miami, FL).

The Wesleyan Community Based Ministry Café is a one-day event for pastors, leaders, and community organizers who are interested in reaching and transforming their communities, and provides a place for networking, training, and sharing of best practices. Thad Spring, Outreach Pastor at College Wesleyan Church witnessed this stating, “To gather with those working in schools, political and government offices, churches, local businesses, and non-profits was such a help and joy.”

As with Deb’s experience, the Café also offers the wonderful space to hear from others who are doing ministry in settings like your own giving opportunity to compare strategies for future ministry. A pastor from Bloomfield, Colorado, Deb Myer shares, “Attending the Café in Rockledge seemed somewhat surreal for me. Being back in Florida and reconnecting with dear friends in Christ’s ministry (going back to seminary days), Dan and Joanne Walker (Love Inc. & the Florida District); meeting Jeremy Summers from The Wesleyan Church; and hearing from speakers including CCDA Board Member Delia Caderno, all seemed to intersect at the point to which God had brought me to hear his call to join him and others in what he is doing in my community to use Christians to, as Arloa Sutter so aptly writes, “reweave the fabric of shalom, to go to those places where the fabric of society has unraveled and do what we can to repair it.”  Now back home in Broomfield, Colorado, I am exploring the possibilities of attend CCDA’s annual conference; looking forward to talking with others about hosting a Wesleyan Café for ministry leaders in the area; and continuing prayerful conversations about developing a network, or hub, whereby Christ’s followers in the area could connect with their neighbors in need to demonstrate God’s love, mercy, and his glory through service together. At this point, I can imagine no greater ministry to the community than for The Wesleyan Church to serve as a connector in loving our neighbors.”

Would you like to know more about the Wesleyan Community Based Ministries Café? Interested in bringing one to your community? Checkout  www.iamformed.com or email the Spiritual Formation Department Office at searsj@wesleyan.org for more information.

One of the biggest fears we had when City Life started in 2005 was that we would be a drive-in church. We were afraid we would be a church full of people who drove from the suburbs to the city core on Sundays, and driving back without making much impact on the neighborhoods surrounding the church. So, we told potential start up team members that they needed to move in to a target neighborhood if they wanted to be part of this new church. Since then, we have raised the stakes again with our commitment to the neighborhood. City Life bought a house that we are using to house a group of ministry-minded single women. Our first ministries at the house were Backyard Bible Clubs, which started about a year ago.

Lauren Gamelin is a twenty-something who lives in the house. “I can stop teaching tomorrow, but I can’t stop ministering to the teenagers in this community.” That’s what Lauren, a third grade teacher and City Life’s youth leader, said when she came to a point in her career where it was one or the other. So even though the school where she worked had her on a fast track to administration, she quit her job. “God has been preparing for me for this. I know the church can’t afford to pay me. I’ll make my own way,” said Lauren. The public schools in Grand Rapids are the second worst in the state, so Lauren has a dream to employ high school students to tutor elementary age kids. While it’s in its beginning stages, we think God honors risk-takers with fruitfulness. We can’t wait to see what God will do as we bring the gospel to bear on these neighborhoods.

Check out more of our story at: http://www.citylifeonline.net/new/dream.html

[Adam and Christy Libscomb are the pastors of City Life Church – Grand Rapids]

Bringing a large group to Follow 12?

Follow 12, this year’s International Wesleyan Youth Convention, is fast approaching. Thousands of students have had their life altered because of their encounter with Jesus at these events. This is why your involvement is crucial. God moves, students respond, and lives are forever changed.

As a former youth pastor, I understand the difficulties of bringing a larger group to these events. The logistics of managing a group of 25 or more can become overwhelming, keeping you from effectively leading because of all the “busy work” involved. It also can discourage you from attending the event entirely. It is my desire to help you get your students to Follow 12. Below is a menu of items we have created to assist you:

Special offers for groups of 25 paid registrations or more:

• For every 25 paid registrations, you will receive one registration free (valued at $185—quad rate).
• For groups of 25+, we will complete the online registration for you when deposit and registration information are received (students fill out the paper registration available online, you send them in along with the deposit, and we will enter the registration information online.)
• For groups of 25+, we will reserve seating for your group in the main rally.
• For groups of 25+, we will reserve an area for your group to during the event.
• For your convenience, $5 meal boxes will be available for purchase on site at the convention center.

How hashtags can be helpful

We recently conducted a survey and asked various children’s ministry questions. About 67 people responded to our survey. I’m sure we’ll talk more about what we discovered in further detail, but one of the questions and its answers was interesting to me. It didn’t surprise me at all, but it was interesting.

We asked the question:

“What are you most likely to do when looking for ideas for your Children’s Ministry Program?”

The options were:

• click on a link in an email
• search the web for ideas
• click on a link on Facebook
• attend children’s conferences
• phone a friend
• contact the Spiritual Formation Department

The overwhelming response was… can you guess?

Search the web for ideas!

Again, this wasn’t surprising to me, but it was interesting. Maybe because when you think something for so long and then you see it in print and proved true, you feel vindicated… sort of.

Blog

Anyway. On my personal blog jeremymavis.com, that’s what I’ve been doing for the past year and a half I’ve been blogging. I wanted a place to curate all the links and videos and curriculum and ideas I came across on the web, and a blog is an easy place to search for stuff, so that medium has been really helpful for me.

Other Blogs

On the side of my blog there are the links of other blogs that I scan and read every week. I’ve got a category for kidmin (kid ministry), stumin (student ministry), family ministry, parenting, and other miscellaneous sites I read. These web resources represent what I’ve found to be the best of the best at the moment, and in the world of the Internet, that could change by tomorrow!

Twitter Hashtags

One resource that I really wanted to highlight is Twitter and the hashtag #kidmin. Most people are familiar with a blog and Facebook, and maybe some other social media sites, but Twitter is one of those services that is difficult to figure out. I call it “sentence blogging” because you are limited to 140 characters in a tweet. A tweet is an online text message sent out to whoever wants to follow you.

You may or may not be interested in using Twitter as a social media service, but you SHOULD be interested in using Twitter to search the web for ideas. One way to use Twitter is to read people’s tweets that are tagged with what is called a “hashtag.” A hashtag is a user-defined category. For instance, I could create a hashtag called #ilikeketchup by sending out a tweet like this:

“I think ketchup is the best thing since… mustard! #ilikeketchup”

When a user places “#ilikeketchup” in the tweet, one can go to twitter.com, sign up for a free Twitter account, and then search for that hashtag.

This is one way to search the web for ideas for your children’s ministry programs. You go to Twitter and search for tweets and links with the following hashtags:

#kidmin (typically children’s ministry-related tweets and links)
#fammin (typically family ministry-related tweets and links)
#stumin (typically student ministry-related tweets and links)

This is a great way to find new people, blogs and resources that Google cannot find. So, don’t be afraid of the Twitter. I know it’s a funny word, but it’s a great way to get connected to great conversations. And don’t worry, I won’t tell your kids that you are searching for tweets on Twitter. They might laugh at you!!

Follow us on twitter:  @wesleyankids

Jeremy Mavis
Connection Coordinator
Spiritual Formation Department
The Wesleyan Church

Participants attended two rallies, a variety of breakouts, and were given the opportunity to network over lunch. Many thanks are extended to Dawn Wilcox for her direction and the crew of volunteers that made this event possible.

The next Atlantic District Huddle is at Presque Isle Wesleyan Church in Presque Isle, ME on September 15, 2012.