Street Level Twin Ports is now a few weeks into the semester and things have been busy despite a week away from campus due to the frigid temperatures. Getting back into the swing of things after winter break, we have met many new students and reconnected with familiar faces.

Street Level at Lake Superior College

One of the most exciting new things to report is that the Twin Ports branch of Street Level has now expanded to include Lake Superior College. We have been on campus trying to meet people by giving away coffee and attending “Student Success Days.” Our plan is to have a casual open format Bible Discussion right in the middle of the student lounge on Wednesdays during the school day.

Following God’s Lead

The Duluth/Superior area is home to several different colleges. Becoming involved in another one has always been in the back of our minds, but we were waiting to do so until it was clear that God was leading us in that direction. This semester God did so by sovereignly lining up all of the necessary components. It started quite a while ago when we discovered that the LSC campus has a large student population (over 5,000). We also discovered there was very little presence of other Christian Student organizations on campus.

With that in mind we decided to go to campus, give away coffee, and let people know about the church. While there, we met the director of student services who was very excited and encouraging about our involvement at LSC. We also met another staff member who expressed a willingness to be our advisor if we ever desired to pursue official club recognition. With no student to be our representative there was still a piece missing. Shortly after God led a LSC student to make the drive over and become involved at Street Level Superior. With prayer and trusting God’s leading we stepped forward and fulfilled the requirements becoming an official group at LSC.

Street Level UWS

Superior Street Level continues to get on campus in attempt to meet and connect with students by cooking dinners in the dorms and giving away coffee for students on the way to class. (Who can say no to free food and good coffee?) We continue to hold our meetings a Big Apple Bagels. This semester we are taking some time to look at some of the biggest questions in life. Encouraging people to really think about these issues and come to informed final opinions about matters that have great implications. Rather than mindlessly continuing to believe something to be true because someone once said it was.

Prayer Requests

Looking back at all that we have been up to in the last month reminds me that we are a busy group. We have done a lot, and plan to continue to do so in the future. But no matter how hard we work, if done outside of the leading and empowerment of God, it is all for nothing. So please pray that we are meeting the students that He want us to meet, that we are being lead by Him. Pray that right from the start Street Level LSC would become whatever it is that Gods wants it to be. Please pray that we will have hearts for the glory of God, advancing His kingdom and not our own.

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.