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.