{"id":3622,"date":"2019-03-13T07:30:14","date_gmt":"2019-03-13T12:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jfbelievers.com\/?p=3622"},"modified":"2019-03-13T07:30:14","modified_gmt":"2019-03-13T12:30:14","slug":"duluth-news-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/13\/duluth-news-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Duluth News"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jesus\nWas Charismatic.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Much of what Jesus did in His earthly ministry was done to bring Him into contact with the masses. He wasn\u2019t 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only was Jesus assertive<\/em>\nin His ministry, He was also attractional<\/em>.\nThe words He spoke and the things He did were impossible to ignore and exciting\nto behold. Everywhere He went Jesus provoked curiosity, offered blessing, and demonstrated\nmatchless hospitality. He healed, fed, and educated, always free of charge, lavishly\nblessing the masses as He went. The average day for Jesus would be enough to\nmake modern newspaper headlines in any given city. There was something about\nHis ministry that left multitudes of people with an uneasy feeling that they\nmight miss whatever came next. And that\u2019s why they followed Him. And that\u2019s the\nway Jesus started His church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re\nnot as Charismatic as Jesus. <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Our capacity to attract the multitudes, as a church, may not match the capacity<\/em> that Jesus had, but our strategy<\/em> can. We can <\/em>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<\/em> 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\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nobody at my church, including myself, has the same healing power or the same measure of intrigue as Jesus did, but we\u2019re not without our own resources, and God still expects us to assert ourselves in this community. And so we will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A\nNew Mission for JFB Duluth.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Seeing this facet of Christ\u2019s ministry more clearly\nthan ever, and being at a stage of church development where we had the\nnecessary resources to give focused attention to this growing need, JFB Duluth\nmade the decision last year to form what we have simply called \u201cCommunity Group\u201d.\nNothing fancy, but it\u2019s a start. We are now rapidly approaching the beginning\nof our second year as a \u201csmall-group\u201d ministry, and we feel that the Lord is\npleased with our work thus far. The members of this Group are few; and intentionally\nso. We are wanting to ensure that this ministry develops according to God\u2019s\ndesires rather than the misguided zeal of its participants. The things being\ndone by this group aren\u2019t heavily advertised to the church. They needn\u2019t be. The\nfocus of this particular small-group ministry isn\u2019t meant to be on the church,\nbut on the community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This does not mean, however, that we want to exclude\nthe church from being involved in our activities from time to time. That is, in\nfact, one of the goals of our Community Group Ministry: To collaborate with the\nentire church, as well as with Street Level Ministries, giving everyone an\nopportunity to cooperate with us in reaching out to the greater community. From\nChristmas Festivities, to the New Year\u2019s Eve celebration, our 10-Year\nAnniversary Party, bi-annual All-Church Rummage Sales, and our most recent \u201cSled-less\nSledding\u201d excursion (all of which were \u2018sponsored\u2019 by our Community Group)\u2026these\nare wonderful opportunities for you to be included in the work of the ministry\nby inviting the community to follow us, as a church, wherever we go next.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’re After Fruit that Lasts.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re blessed by God when we\u2019re on mission, and we\nplan to continue with this work. Our Community Group doesn\u2019t do what it does\nwithout a purpose. As fun as it is to go sledding, there was a greater reason\nfor doing it. As tiring as it may be to pack up each Sunday after church all\nsummer long, and head out to serve the community on the other side of town, we\ndo it in hope. A concert, to us, is more than just a silly concert and a\nrummage sale is always something greater than it appears. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 1st<\/sup> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Recent Community Event; March 8, 2019
Cuckoo Bee’s show at RavenFed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Cuckoo Bee’s; March 8, 2019<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
“Sled-less Sledding” Feb. 17, 2019<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jesus Was Charismatic. Much of what Jesus did in His earthly ministry was done to bring Him into contact with the masses. He wasn\u2019t 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, … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3624,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ministry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}