Up here in the Twin Ports, our February flew by. It came in like a lion with a mean spell of finger-freezing, face-numbing, below-zero temperatures. We’re talking more than -20 degrees below zero, for multiple days in a row (yikes!). We bundled up, muddled through and reminded each other that suffering builds character. Then, just like the sisters sang in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, “You’re about to forget the whole thing, but one day, all at once, it’s Spring!”

Sorry to start a blog post jabbering on about the weather, but it’s what we Midwesterners do best. On top of that, springtime in the North has got to be the most hopeful time of the entire year — it’s hard not to talk about! Our snow is finally melting, the birds are singing and after enduring a year of COVID-19 safety precautions, we’ve been able to be together as a church more than ever (still six feet apart, of course). Here’s what we’ve been up to.

What we’re learning

On Sundays, we’re deep into our Anatomy of a Christian series. Here’s a fun trailer we made to promote it. Throughout this month, we covered the Tongue, the Heart, the Stomach and the Lungs. They’ve all been really helpful, but my personal favorite was the sermon on the Lungs.

In the Lungs sermon, Justin talked about how the Bible describes Christians as being athletes. We’re running on a race course that we didn’t design, like an Ironman race. It’s crucial that we accept what God sends our way as a spiritual workout and let it develop the endurance in us that He intends it to. How else are we going to get the spiritual equivalent of rock-hard abs? It was a great reminder and seemed to be exactly what a lot of us needed to hear that week. I recommend giving it a listen.

On Wednesdays, we rotate between three different topics: Tony Evans’ Horizontal Jesus series, men’s and women’s groups, and the book of Jeremiah. When we split into gender-specific groups, the women are going through a series by Lauren Chandler called Steadfast Love, and the guys are going through a series that draws on the Navy Seal experience to further explore the Christian life.

How we’re getting to serve

With the start of the new year, we were able to start up a few new ways to serve on Sunday afternoons. Throughout February, we continued this and are getting more comfortable with the new schedule.

Some of us are in Community Group. These folks go out into the community, talk to people, give away treats, pass out flyers and more. Others are in Media Ministry. This group produces print materials, hones in our social media game, updates the website, makes videos and works on Burning Dog Radio. Last, but certainly not least, is our Maintenance Crew. These gentlemen fix anything that needs fixing and make sure our church building stays ship shape.

Fun and fellowshipping

Members have been able to reserve RavenFed for hangouts, which has been really helpful. This means we get to do things together indoors (remember, -20 degrees below zero outside!), knowing that everything is disinfected, safe and COVID-free. Recently, we took advantage of this perk and I learned how to play pandemic-friendly rummy with three separate decks. I did very well for a first-timer, thanks for asking.

We’ve continued serving lunch on Sundays after church. It has been nice to have the time to talk to each other without getting hangry. (That’s when you get angry because you’re so hungry, for those of you who don’t know.) We were even able to pick a sunny Sunday and go on a hike together as a church.

On the Street Level front, Monday meetings in the garage continue on. We’ve even been able to meet a few new faces. We hosted a retro video game night, and I found out that Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater is definitively not as fun as it was in the 7th grade. Also, we’ve started having Friday Movie Nights complete with pizza and popcorn in hopes that we can reach more students. Even when nobody shows up besides us, they are a great way to end a week.

Please keep praying for us

If you feel so inclined, we’d love it if you’d pray for us. Particularly for help with staying connected with each other, meeting new people in our community and enduring to the end of this pandemic well. It’s easy to get crabby and ungrateful because things aren’t ‘normal’ yet. But God is still doing very cool things and I don’t want us to miss them. 

Thanks for spending the time to catch up on what we’ve been doing!

-Claire

• 

• 

• 

• 

Bible Studies/Teaching/Preaching:

The core of our time together as a church is teaching and preaching and Bible studies. It’s a huge part of what makes us tick. And lately, there’s been a wide variety. While Pastor Justin was guest-teaching in Menomonie early in January, Pastor Jesse taught on a Wednesday and Sunday about worship and persuasion, asking us to consider: who or what do we worship and are we compelled to share the desperately-needed truth of the gospel with those around us? A few weeks later, Pastor Tim visited from Menomonie and toured through the challenges to Christians found in Colossians 3. Routinely on Sundays, after finishing the ever-intense yet hopeful book of Revelation, Pastor Justin is turning our attention to a series of lectures on the basics of Christianity in the format of “Anatomy of a Christian.” So far, we’ve covered the Head, Mind, Ears, and Eyes and learned of our need for transplants, proper alignment, and barriers to and results of bona fide spiritual seeing and hearing. On Wednesdays, we alternate between the book of Jeremiah, men’s and women’s studies, video discussions around the Horizontal Jesus series, and shorter teachings with small group discussions.

Fellowship:

Bingo night.  After so much relative separation, we got pretty desperate and Bingo was the perfect solution!  The game itself is actually quite dry, but throw in a crowd full of twenty-to-forty-somethings dressed like elderly folk, add a nice meal of fish sticks, potato wedges and peas, and you’ve got yourself a party!  But the real party didn’t start until we decided to live stream the whole thing and invite friends.  Having people join from literally around the world was a special treat and it was a night to remember!

Sunday lunches started.  After a long break, we brought back Sunday lunches – meals that are fast to make and a snap to eat.  This allows us to linger long after the sermon, having communion, discuss with our neighbors what the sermon prompted in us, what’s going on in our lives and what God is doing through it all.

Super Bowl Party. A small group was able to gather the afternoon of the Super Bowl for a sweet time of enjoying one another’s company.  It was bring-your-own-snacks and overall a simple event, but it was a great opportunity to be together and catch up on the goings-on in each others lives.

Service:

Kitchen training.  After some at-home required reading, Matt led kitchen volunteers through the ins and outs of the “Church Lady Law” in a brief in-person meeting.  The training provided very practical help in keeping food and people safe – allowing us to serve one another and guests with the care required to make meals an enjoyable aspect of church life.

Community group and Media Ministry started.  Through posters, online presence, neighborhood events, and more, two new Duluth ministries seek to make sure the community knows we exist. Collectively, we’ve already had several meetings, including crossover between the two groups as these are intended to work hand-in-hand with each other, doing whatever we can to give the Twin Ports area the clear option to say “Yes, I’ll come to that church,” or, “No, I won’t,” rather than the recurring, “Never heard of it.”

Street Level.  A meeting with some SL Menomonie folks just before the start of the new semester rolled into in-person weekly dinners and Bible Studies at the Garage. The Garage, Street Level’s next-to-campus meeting space, was recently re-insulated. It is reportedly toasty warm now, making the space even more welcoming to guests and regulars alike. In a key aspect of both online and local ministry and advertising, the Word on the Street magazine crew has been continuing the development process and recently submitted ideas for the next issue.

Prayer Requests:

It’s exciting to move forward, but each step certainly comes with challenges. Pray for our spiritual integrity, that we wouldn’t be intimidated by what the world or the devil or our Lord sends our way.  That we’d be ready for what’s next, faithful in the not-in-public-sight elements of our lives, open to be helpful and helped by one another, and able to minister to the people around us.

-Karla

• 

• 

• 

The End of 2020

2020 is finally all wrapped up! The snow’s been blanketing us a decent amount and it’s cold and dark as ever up here in the north, but that’s okay as we are continuing to press on! We’ve continued to find new ways to stay in touch through video chat, fellowship together, and we’re looking forward to what God will allow us to do in the new year.

Thoughts of Heaven

December was a monumental month for Duluth as we finished up our study in Revelation. To date, Pastor Justin has taught all the way through the new testament. Finishing the last book of the bible coinciding with the end of a memorable year was a wonderful cap to our pandemic laden time in 2020.

In addition to our Sunday and Wednesday gatherings, we began meeting every Tuesday throughout December to let our ‘thoughts be filled with the things Heaven’. We had an informal dialogue and discussion, all were welcome to attend, where we would talk about, and perhaps speculate a bit, on what Heaven might look like. Meeting for an additional day of the week was a real blessing for this fellowship. It allowed us to connect with each other all while focusing on God’s glory and dreaming about what might be possible in the life to come.

The Old Fold & Staple… and Sticker?

Lastly, we came together to fold and staple Word on The Street Magazine to send out while the semester finished up. This is normally a large undertaking in itself and it helps to have all hands-on deck. This issue, while being one of the largest we’ve ever been a part of producing, had an extra step involved in that after printing, sorting, compiling, stapling, folding, we got to fold another time, and then sticker each copy of WOTS closed to be mailed out to students. The extra time involved was worth it as being mailed reaches a wide audience, as well as showing off the cool intricate design of the back cover, our new sermon series: The Anatomy of
A Christian.

Prayer Requests

Please pray for us to learn and continue to love each other as the body of Christ in the way He intends. Please also pray for God to lead and bless us in our efforts to ramp up service positions and community outreach kicking off real soon. Pastor Justin and Pastor Jesse have a big vision and big plans for Duluth in 2021. Please pray for God’s continued guidance and hand in our attempts to love Him and love our neighbors. Here’s to the new year!

-Seth Tolene

• 

• 

• 

New Adventures

What have us north folk been up to? So we got to set up our stand at Boo at the Zoo! Every October our local zoo hosts trick or treating events with local businesses and organizations. For three Saturdays leading up to Halloween, we got to hand out candy to trick or treaters and church information to the parents. Then, all dressed up, on Halloween, we set up in four different neighborhoods to do the same thing. These ended up being a great way to meet our community. We look forward to hopefully doing it again next year.

While the teams were on the domestic trip, We took a brief pause on revelation and Jeremiah. During that time we were treated to a series on Kings and Kingdoms as well as a study in Joshua. The team came back to some really nice weather (like seriously it was warm), giving us the opportunity to catch up with them on some beautiful days. Now, winter has arrived,  but October was not our last hurrah before it got cold. We’ve got some ideas on how we want to spend it together.

Campus Ministry

Street Level has continued to meet once a week as we go through Galatians. The Garage, Street Level’s meeting place, has been such a nice space and just what we needed. In addition to our Monday study nights, we’ve plans some other fun events. We joined in on the Halloween fun by having a party; complete with costumes, pumpkin carving, and old Halloween movies. Man, there were some intricate pumpkin carvings…they had some crazy skills! Next, we look forward to a retro video game night!

After thanksgiving, many students will not be returning to campus as all classes will be online. But some students will be staying in the area. We will continue to meet after thanksgiving. Also, we hope to print and mail  WOTS to every UWS students very soon. Street Level has been quite blessed this year with not only a neat meeting space and opportunities, but an awesome core group. We are excited for the rest of the semester.

Prayer Requests

Please pray not only opportunity to continue to reach students and our community, but that real strong relationships would be a distinguishing part of who we are; for us to continue to grow in unity and love for one another. Also, please pray for our leaders as they continue to seek God’s direction.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The Great Outdoors 

For us living on an iceberg…I mean Duluth, the joy of summer is not only a sentiment greatly shared by many, but has been a great opportunity this year. Recently, we’ve had some gorgeous days to enjoy outside in fellowship and outreach. With magazines and flyers in hand, we’ve been at the beaches and parks giving away soda and water.

In terms of fellowship, there is something so simple, yet special, about standing outside the church after service just to spend time with one another. So you can imagine that it was quite the treat to hook up the coffee trailer and have dinner together at the park towards the end of July (hot dogs, chips, and soda anyone?). The parks have been a great place for us to meet. Currently, we have been eagerly moving forward to utilize the rest of our summer. 

Study

Around mid-July, we resumed in-person gatherings and church activities. We’ve been continuing our study in Revelations on Sundays and just finished 2 kings. Next Wednesday we will be starting the book of Jeremiah. 

Gearing up

Street level has had the privilege of taking the time this summer to focus on building up its leaders in weekly studies and preparing for the year ahead. We’ve recently got to move from our virtual meeting to talking around a campfire weekly. Currently, we are still in the planning stages for this coming semester at UWS and UMD; as we are slowly gathering new information on new rules and guidelines set by each university. As for WOTs, it’s headed towards its final stages and will soon be ready for print. We look forward to distributing it to local businesses and campuses.

Prayer

It goes without saying that we’re excited to get back out there. However, after time off at the beginning of July, our greatest concern was to be not just a church with a lot of zeal, but one of the right hearts. Please pray that we continue to steward the growth of a healthy church that is pleasing and useable to God. Also, please continue to pray for Street Level for direction and opportunity. 

Bible Study

JFB Duluth had the privilege of meeting back in person during June and early July, which was wonderful after time apart physically. With masked faces and sanitized hands, we gathered for Sunday and Wednesday services. We are continuing to cover the book of Revelation and completed the first three chapters, specifically looking at the letters to the seven churches. Wednesday services have included member meetings, continuing in our study of 2 Kings and we took one Wednesday service to split apart for a men’s and women’s study. However, during the past week, we have moved back to online service only; hopefully for a short period, as we individually learn to take the necessary precautions to ensure safety for our brothers and sisters. Thankfully, our technology upgrades from springtime quarantine remain in place and allow us to stream services via YouTube.

College Ministry

Despite the restrictions due to the covid19 pandemic, we are seeking to be faithful to what opportunities God does allow. Our Street Level leaders have continued to meet virtually as they plan for the next semester. Please pray for the Mosses and the Street Level leaders as they seek to plan for the upcoming semester considering the new challenges at hand in light of covid19 and college campuses.

Moreover, WOTS has continued to work on compiling the next edition to be released online. It has certainly been a challenge for writers to consider articles in light of covid19 and what the fall might look like for student readers. There has also been some landscaping work done on the shrubs around the building, which included putting some rocks and bordering around the shrubbery.

Please pray for our JFB Duluth pastors regarding wisdom as they lead and navigate our church through this pandemic. Additionally, please pray that all of us members would seek to love one another and treasure the church God has and is building here in Duluth.

-Matt