{"id":4476,"date":"2019-07-13T00:01:12","date_gmt":"2019-07-13T05:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jfbelievers.com\/?p=4476"},"modified":"2025-12-07T21:15:58","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T21:15:58","slug":"walking-with-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/2019\/07\/13\/walking-with-jesus\/","title":{"rendered":"Footsloggers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jesus walked a lot. The only record we have in the gospels where Christ made use of public transit was on His way to Bethlehem (in utero), and again at the end of His life when He rode into Jerusalem in similar equestratorial fashion*. Other than that, He walked. Everywhere<\/em>. From Nazareth to Jerusalem, then to Capernaum, and back to Jerusalem, then again to Galilee, and back again to Jerusalem; back & forth and round & round He went. Some have calculated that Jesus walked over 3,000 miles in His short 3-year ministerial stint. That’s a lot of walking!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are probably some valid reasons for His making such physical exertions. Maybe Jesus didn\u2019t have access to a donkey strong enough to handle that kind of mileage. Perhaps He was a fitness junkie, and liked His exercise. Or maybe (just maybe) He walked everywhere because it was advantageous to the purposes of God. You and I might not assign any ministerial worth to the bothersome chore of getting from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’, but in God’s economy, “All <\/em>things work for good”. And for Jesus, that included walking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simply put, maybe Jesus walked because He wanted to meet people on their level, walk alongside them, and invite folks to come with. Not sure if I\u2019m right, but that\u2019s exactly what ended up happening\u2026\u201cLarge crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him<\/em> (Mt.4:25<\/a>)\u201d; \u201cLarge crowds followed Him<\/em> (Mt.8:1<\/a>); many people followed Him<\/em> (Mt.12:15<\/a>); the crowds followed Him on foot<\/em> (Mt.14:13<\/a>); large crowds followed Him<\/em> (Mt.19:12<\/a>); a great crowd followed Him<\/em> (Mt.20:29<\/a>)\u201d.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Walk At All?  <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Etymologists might call it \u201cfootslogging<\/em>\u201d. Footslogging means “to walk or march for a long distance, typically wearily or with effort”. It’s what happens in the space between destinations. It\u2019s the boring part between two more exciting activities. It’s that aspect of ministry that seems to tire us out the most. People find it hard to see any spiritual value in footslogging. Yet Jesus did lots of it. No less than one thousand hours of it! Six full-time months of it! And He wasn\u2019t at all wasting His time. If He wanted to save <\/em>time He could\u2019ve ridden a race-horse around Palestine, but He didn\u2019t. He walked. Deliberately<\/em>. Because that\u2019s how Jesus met people. And that\u2019s when ministry happened. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We might learn a thing or two by looking at the journeys of Christ as \u201coutreach<\/em>\u201d instead of Him just trying to get somewhere else to do something more important. In truth, His walking made a huge contribution to the overall success of His ministry. After all, Jesus could only be followed insofar as He made Himself available to follow. And by walking all over the place, Jesus did exactly that. And, according to the gospels, it worked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where Have We Been?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The last 4 weeks have seen a lot of activity around the church. Outreach in particular. On Sunday June 9th<\/sup>, we positioned ourselves at the bottom of the North & South bound I-35 exits to offer morning coffee and an invitation to church. The following Friday our Community Group was on the other side of town, partnering with the One Life ministry from Menomonie, for two full days of outreach at a local event. On Sunday, June 30th<\/sup> and Monday, July 1st<\/sup>, our same group was back in West Duluth for two evenings of work at a local coffeehouse, helping them paint & make renovations for their 20-year anniversary. On July 7th<\/sup> we were back to the East end of Duluth giving away ice cream cones to everybody at the park. But really, is this nothing more than a waste of our time? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where Are We Going?     <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In many ways, the outreach activities at our church can be as underestimated in ministerial value as Jesus\u2019 walking. It feels like a lot of effort, with no tangible results to be seen. Has anyone gotten \u2018saved\u2019 with our ice cream? Nope<\/em>. Has anyone even come to church because of our outreach? (Please, don\u2019t ask<\/em>). Sometimes it seems like we\u2019re spending hours upon hours doing what seems to produce very little fruit. We have a hard time seeing the value in it because we aren\u2019t experiencing great spiritual \u2018breakthroughs\u2019 or conversions. From West Duluth to Lester Park, then to a project on the West end, and back to Lester Park, then again to Park Point, and back again to Lester\u2026back & forth and round & round we go. Why all the hassle if it doesn\u2019t feel like we\u2019re accomplishing any \u201creal\u201d ministry?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep On Slogging…<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We certainly don\u2019t give away ice cream because we\u2019ve got nothing better to do. And we don\u2019t hand out coffee because we like standing next to exit 252. We do it because it\u2019s advantageous to the purposes of God and the mission of this church. We want to meet people where they\u2019re at, and invite them to come along with us. It might seem<\/em> like a waste of time, but we can only be followed insofar as we make ourselves available to follow. We are not<\/em> wasting our time. Coffee & ice cream is how we meet people, and meeting people is when ministry happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walking wasn\u2019t the \u2018real\u2019 ministry of Jesus, but real ministry wouldn\u2019t have happened without it. Let\u2019s walk alongside Him, and find out where genuine Christian ministry takes us. Let’s be excited to see who we’ll meet along the way. This is the only road I know of that’ll get us where we\u2019re going…so let’s keep walking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-Pastor Justin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

*  \u201cEquestratorial fashion<\/em>\u201d is not a real term, because \u2018equestratorial<\/em>\u2019 is not even a real word. The use of a fake word was utilized in this case because the author needed a term suitable for helping the reader to remember that Jesus was riding a donkey in both instances. \u201cEquestratorial<\/em>\u201d seemed to satisfactorily** encapsulate the thought, even though the word itself doesn\u2019t mean anything. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

**  The author isn\u2019t entirely sure if \u2018satisfactorily<\/em>\u2019 is a word either.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I-35 coffee outreach; June 9th. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Working at a local coffeehouse; June 30th. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Painting at a local coffeehouse; July 1st.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Working at a local coffeehouse. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jesus walked a lot. The only record we have in the gospels where Christ made use of public transit was on His way to Bethlehem (in utero), and again at the end of His life when He rode into Jerusalem in similar equestratorial fashion*. Other than that, He walked. Everywhere. From Nazareth to Jerusalem, then … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":4545,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pastors-notes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4476","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\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4476"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15802,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4476\/revisions\/15802"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}