Jesus Was Charismatic.

Much of what Jesus did in His earthly ministry was done to bring Him into contact with the masses. He wasn’t at all stationary. Instead, He and His disciples moved about in a wide swath of missional ventures that put them in the path of both slaves & soldiers, lepers & liars, criminals, kinfolk, and kings. Isolation is no recipe for effective ministry, and no one knew that better than our Lord.

Not only was Jesus assertive in His ministry, He was also attractional. The words He spoke and the things He did were impossible to ignore and exciting to behold. Everywhere He went Jesus provoked curiosity, offered blessing, and demonstrated matchless hospitality. He healed, fed, and educated, always free of charge, lavishly blessing the masses as He went. The average day for Jesus would be enough to make modern newspaper headlines in any given city. There was something about His ministry that left multitudes of people with an uneasy feeling that they might miss whatever came next. And that’s why they followed Him. And that’s the way Jesus started His church.

We’re not as Charismatic as Jesus.

Our capacity to attract the multitudes, as a church, may not match the capacity that Jesus had, but our strategy can. We can practice hospitality and bless visitors in a similar way, even if not to the same degree. In other words, we might not have the same miracle-working power it takes to feed strangers with loaves and fishes that come out of thin air, but we can give people free ice cream that came from the supermarket! And we may not be able to walk on water like Jesus did, but we can most certainly do this…

Nobody at my church, including myself, has the same healing power or the same measure of intrigue as Jesus did, but we’re not without our own resources, and God still expects us to assert ourselves in this community. And so we will.

A New Mission for JFB Duluth.

Seeing this facet of Christ’s ministry more clearly than ever, and being at a stage of church development where we had the necessary resources to give focused attention to this growing need, JFB Duluth made the decision last year to form what we have simply called “Community Group”. Nothing fancy, but it’s a start. We are now rapidly approaching the beginning of our second year as a “small-group” ministry, and we feel that the Lord is pleased with our work thus far. The members of this Group are few; and intentionally so. We are wanting to ensure that this ministry develops according to God’s desires rather than the misguided zeal of its participants. The things being done by this group aren’t heavily advertised to the church. They needn’t be. The focus of this particular small-group ministry isn’t meant to be on the church, but on the community.

This does not mean, however, that we want to exclude the church from being involved in our activities from time to time. That is, in fact, one of the goals of our Community Group Ministry: To collaborate with the entire church, as well as with Street Level Ministries, giving everyone an opportunity to cooperate with us in reaching out to the greater community. From Christmas Festivities, to the New Year’s Eve celebration, our 10-Year Anniversary Party, bi-annual All-Church Rummage Sales, and our most recent “Sled-less Sledding” excursion (all of which were ‘sponsored’ by our Community Group)…these are wonderful opportunities for you to be included in the work of the ministry by inviting the community to follow us, as a church, wherever we go next.  

We’re After Fruit that Lasts.

We’re blessed by God when we’re on mission, and we plan to continue with this work. Our Community Group doesn’t do what it does without a purpose. As fun as it is to go sledding, there was a greater reason for doing it. As tiring as it may be to pack up each Sunday after church all summer long, and head out to serve the community on the other side of town, we do it in hope. A concert, to us, is more than just a silly concert and a rummage sale is always something greater than it appears.

If you remember to pray for us, please do so. We are hopeful for what the Lord will accomplish here in Duluth, not only in the next week or two, but in the next generation or two. If free fish sandwiches in the 1^st century was enough to build a church that would last for the next 2,000 years, pray that free brats might do the same for Duluth in 2019.

Starting in 2019 JFB Duluth will be seeing an interruption to our regularly scheduled programming. This change will be seen in a couple different ways during our Wednesday evening services. The book of Psalms is split into five separate books and for the past several months we have been working our way verse by verse through the second of those books. In that time we have seen God bring David and the other Psalmists to the highest of highs. We have also seen the lowest of lows. We’ve seen times of great joy, satisfaction and comfort but also severe desperation, anxiety and hardship. You can expect all of this when following God’s lead.

Moving forward we will continue to have nights going through scripture, doing as the apostle Paul and “not shrinking from declaring the whole counsel of God.” We will still have times to discuss and put into practice what we are learning. But we will also have some additions in order to change things up a bit.

Unlocking the Mysteries in Genesis

Every third Wednesday in 2019 we will be going through a video series and discussion looking at the start of it all: Genesis. The questions that the book of Genesis answer are some of the biggest questions ever. They are issues with some far reaching implications. These are questions that deserve thought. We must not assume that we are already believing the truth without some actual thought and concern for why we believe what we believe. If we do so, we are doing ourselves a great disservice.

Many Christians believe in creation for the same reason that many atheists believe in evolution. At some point in their lives someone told them that it was the truth. They didn’t think about it and were not convinced of its validity in their own mind. They simply listened and did as they were told. We need to be thinking Christians. Christians with real answers to real questions. This series will help us with that.

Getting out of the Building

Every once in a while there are months with five Wednesdays rather than the usual four. This year, in addition to the Genesis video series, we are going to take every fifth Wednesday as opportunities to be thrown out of our routine.

God commands to “not forsake gathering together.” We are supposed to be together. We are supposed to have church regularly, week after week, month after month. I’d go so far as to say that it should be a routine of ours. But God is greatly concerned that the regular gathering together that we are commanded to do can easily turn into empty religious routine. It can become a full schedule, but void of life and void of real Christianity. Now this is a matter of the heart. This cannot be avoided by a simple change of schedule, but sometimes a change in our routine is just enough to wake us up if we are thoughtlessly engaged in an autopilot routine.

The fifth Wednesday in January we are going to split up into groups and go out for dinner somewhere in the Twin Ports. This not only shakes up the routine but allows us to casually share a meal together while discussing God and what He is doing. It is another opportunity for us to engage in real communion together. And we will get to be out in the community together. (also who doesn’t like a good cheeseburger)

I don’t know if it okay to write or not… but Wednesday nights have always been a favorite for me. They have been ever since the first Wednesday service I came to at JFB Duluth. It was a Dinner and Book Study night. We read “Radical Together” with the whole group around some pushed together tables. I sat by Matt. We ate tacos. I felt like I was at home, like I was where I was supposed to be, and like God was doing something. Let’s see what He will do with these Wednesdays at JFB Duluth throughout 2019. I’m looking forward to it.

-Pastor Jesse

Looking back…

JFB Duluth has had an another eventful year, and our activities in December were a great way to end strong.  We hosted yet another winter rummage sale that was very well attended.  The amount of donations that poured in was amazing as always, and our sanctuary was packed once again.  We opened up the kitchen and served breakfast, bakery, and lunch. I think that I can speak for our group when I say that we all enjoy having these sales. They are a great way to meet people in the community and yet another way for us to support missions work both overseas as well as locally. It was great to see many new faces at “RavenFed” enjoying the space that we have worked hard to create. 

Going Forward… 

Later on this month we will also be having another coffee outreach for the morning commuters who drive by our church.  Every Wednesday morning for the past two summers, a group from the church would get up extra early in order to give away coffee to the morning commuters who drive past our church.  We intend to make contact with them once again on the 19th of this month by baking cookies & brewing fresh coffee for our commuting friends. Our Community Group will be executing this outreach as always, and would appreciate your prayers for our future endeavors. 

Street Level Superior has also had an eventful year. They are continuing to meet at Big Apple Bagels, which is close to the UW-Superior campus on Tuesday nights. They have also been meeting on Sunday nights and cooking dinner together in a dorm, which has been a great way for them to meet students.  Street Level also teamed up with the Community Group to go and cut down a Christmas tree for the church. We all braved the frigid temperatures, and found the perfect tree for the church. They will end the semester by going tubing at Spirit Mountain and having a Christmas party at the church.

Our Service Schedule

Greetings from Duluth!  It’s so awesome to be a part of this.  God is letting us participate in some cool things, indeed.  Our weekly schedule starts early Sunday morning with a class where the group is learning about the Holy Spirit. We’re learning about his work in the world in general, in calling all people to salvation, and in those who are being saved specifically.  Pretty neat stuff.  Next is the Sunday worship service, which consists of singing praise to God and learning from the preaching of his word.  Jumping to Wednesday, our privilege is to gather together in the evening and let our vocal cords loose again in bringing him praise and tune our ears and our minds and hearts to learn from his word as we study the Old Testament.  Can you believe we get to do this?!  Ah, but there’s more…

Street Level – UW-Superior Update

Street Level is the college-age group, which focuses on ministering to UW-Superior in particular, meeting regularly on campus Sunday evenings, and just off campus at Big Apple Bagels every Tuesday for a meal and Bible study.  They recently had a retreat where the topic was Discipleship.  It was a great opportunity to connect with the Street Level members from Stout and River Falls, too.  Most recently, they had a super Halloween bash at the Moss residence, complete with caramel apples, pumpkin carving, and some all-out costumes to boot!

The Community Group

Community Group is a group of not-so-young-anymore 😉 servants at church who still want to do something! Thankfully, church leadership has devised a plan to keep us engaged, serving Christ, his people, and the Duluth community at large.  On a rotating basis, we do seasonally-appropriate tasty treat giveaways at different locations in the city.  Whether it be ice cream in summer or a bowl of hot chili in the fall, it’s a great way to get out and meet our neighbors near and far, and a good opportunity to make at least a few minutes of their day more enjoyable, (but hopefully a much greater impact than that).  On other Sunday afternoons, we’ll meet in someone’s house for a shared meal and video discussion, or head to a local hang-out and beat each other at board games and watch various team beat each other in a good football game.

Other Happenings

Outside of those two specific groups, the church has regular all-church workdays, some volunteers who teach monthly Sunday church to inmates in Superior’s county jail, occasional men’s and women’s Bible studies, and various other goings-on.  Did I mention that for most everything we do, there’s time before and after to hang out, eat food, laugh, pray and cry together?  Praise God that he lets us in on what he’s doing – changing us and changing the world through all these interactions, large and small.

JFB Duluth: End of Summer Wrap Up

Summer has ended, and three weeks from now there will be snow on the ground. Yikes! August was a busy month for us here in the northland. Our big events started with our church bike ride to Lester Park, stopping at the New London Café for lunch in between. Next, we had our church workday, making the church look fresh one coat of paint at a time. To wrap it up, Duluth had a great time camping with the rest of the JFB family in Danbury, WI at Camp Croix. Thanks be to God for keeping the weather nice when we needed it!

Teaching

We just finished up 1 and 2 Peter and are now moving on to the book of John, learning who God is through his son Jesus Christ. For our Wednesday night studies, we are in the book of Psalms, learning how David handles his struggles by putting his faith in God. As for our Dinner and Bible Study nights, we just finished the Great Exchange series and starting Francis Chan’s Forgotten God series.

Street Level Updates

Towards the end of August, Street Level printed 850 copies of Word on the Street with their new (used) printer! The first week of student’s coming back to school has been a great success and have met more students than we have in the past, roasting s’mores, handing out ice-cream, slacklining, and playing multiple games. For the month of September, Street Level is meeting on campus on Sundays from 5-7 pm and for the semester, meeting on Tuesday’s at Big Apple Bagels! Upcoming Street Level events include our canoe trip on the Brule River and still in the works is Open Mic Night at Big Apple Bagels.

God is on the move, and so are we! We can’t wait to see what God has in store for us next!