For those of us who have been around JFB for any length of time, we have become acquainted with fall as ‘go time’. It’s the time of year when retreats and campus ministry are in full swing on top of the usual weekly ministries. Each year seems to fly by faster and faster such that it can become easy to forget what we’ve been privileged to take part in.
In the realm of college ministry, Street Level kicked off the semester at UW-Superior with various promotional events, a canoe trip, and weekly meetings on Mondays. After years of consideration, we proceeded to reach out to Duluth campuses including St Scholastica, UMD and LSC by offering a weekly Bible discussion at a local coffee shop. Efforts have been made on those respective campuses to promote Street Level Duluth through coffee giveaways, attending student events and distributing flyers. Students from all Street Level campuses had the opportunity to attend a retreat hosted by Duluth this past month. Besides weekly meetings, WOTS publications continue to be distributed into the hands of college students. Duluth WOTS writers have been participating in a writers workshop at St Scholastica these past few weeks to help develop their writing skills and rub shoulders with the community.
The JFB Duluth Community Group has also been active these past few months. We’ve given away ice cream multiple times at Lester Park, once at Enger Park, and most recently a stew giveaway at Chester Park. We’ve fellowshipped by sharing meals and even making delicious homemade apple pies.
Of course, this is not a comprehensive list of events or activities but it shows we’ve been active. If you’re anything like me, it can become so easy to focus on the project or next assignment and forget the effects of what we’re doing as well as lose the joy of it while in the midst of it. So, what good has come of all these calendar occupying things?
Effects
Inwardly and personally, the extensive variety of ministry opportunities has kept me from becoming lackadaisical. It’s one thing to go from handing an ice cream cone to a child at the park to tying down a tent so it doesn’t blow away in frigid temps to rolling pie dough to discussing parables. Sometimes we’re tired and sometimes we’re cold and other times we’re belly laughing, but we’re kept from becoming too comfortable. These ministry venues keep us on our toes reminding us that this world is not our home; they cause me to beg God to come through and accomplish meaningful service. Yet, on the same token, I’ve seen how quickly apathy can take hold in my heart when I forget that service to God isn’t just when the church comes together but is meant to be happening at work and home. I’m reminded of pastor Jesse’s exhortation that the doing and busyness isn’t the main point but rather seeking to be in the presence of God.
Beyond the inward effects, these past few months have helped promote JFB Duluth and Street Level in the Twin Ports. We are achieving greater notoriety in the area: Street Level and WOTS are being branded locally on campuses along with the distribution of church business cards. Collectively we are being forged into deeper relationships with each other as we serve alongside each other and experience the ups and downs of ministry. Outside the Twin Ports, we’ve been able to send our senior pastor and wife overseas to visit a church that was built in part by our finances. Thanks be to God that despite our small size, we here at JFB Duluth have been given much to steward and accomplish.
Let’s continue faithfully serving each other and our community trusting God is at work in both the flashy and mundane. Sometimes that work is exposing issues in our hearts, other times it’s conveying the truth to the community and other times it’s forging deeper relationships with each other but whatever it is it’s always aimed at our goodness and kingdom advancement. May we not forget 1 Corinthians 15:58, “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain”
-Matt
