Is anyone out there?

I don't know if anyone is checking our blog, but I am so excited you are all coming to St. Paul's UMC in Williamsburg. I hope that everyone has been having a wonderful Easter Season and I can't wait to hear how everyone is doing! I better get reading our book, since it's almost a week away. Has anyone finished it yet?
Praying for you all! Blessings, Helen

Fruit

So I am thinking a lot about the connection between being faithful and seeing fruit in your ministry. I mean we talk about fruit a lot don't we? Should we focus on numbers or should we focus on discipleship? If don't see numbers does it a ministry is not viable? Etc, etc, etc. Thinking about the Biblical prophets has only added to this issue. Look at Ezekiel (one of my favorites.) He did some extremely strange things because God asked him too, and what was his fruit? Did the people listen at all? Not that I can find recorded... Then there is Jonah. He was practically pushed through the city of Nineveh and the entire metropolis converted. *Sigh* I have to confess, I don't understand God. What is the secret? There is no secret is there? Why are some ministries seeing explosive growth? Why aren't others? Why does one minister in one location see not only amazing growth in numbers, but also deepening faith...then move them somewhere else and they struggle? It doesn't even seem connected to the Holy Spirit. Or maybe it's connected to how open the congregation is to the Holy Spirit and has little to do with the minister's connection. Who knows?

I should also confess that I am struggling with this for selfish reasons. I'm on fire with the Holy Spirit. I'm reading the Bible and praying more than I ever have in my entire life. I am putting myself out there, meeting people, which is huge because, believe it or not, I'm really shy. But I've given my personal shyness over to God in order to be bold. And nothing. No fruit. The church service I am so passionate about is dying. The young adult group completely tanked and I am floundering with how to re-launch. My fear is that it's me. It's funny, I've worked so hard on my confidence in who I am in God. But this last major stronghold remains steadfast. No fruit, or very little fruit, causes great doubt in my soul. To be honest I probably need to just remain faithful and keep at it. I'm just afraid it'll all die before it really gets a chance. 

Thanks

It was good to get back in touch with everyone after Christmas. I also wanted to let you all know that Jody and I very much appreciate your prayers and support. God has been very good to us through an abundance of Christian friends. In an effort to keep everyone posted I would ask for your prayers next week as we will be going to Iowa City for our first consult down there. The primary reason is to begin the process of being put on the bone marrow donor list. (We will find out more next week) Also, I am sure most of you have found our blog at this point, but I wanted to make it available to you again.

jflivingvictouriouly.blogspot.com

Book Recommendation

Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto For the Church in Exile
by Rob Bell and Don Golden

I'm about half way thru. Good stuff. Especially if you like Rob Bell.

Scroll Stuff

A further word on "eating the scroll." It was Gregory the Great who observed: We ought to transform what we read into our very selves, so that when our mind is stirred by what it hears, our life may concur by practicing what has been heard.

I grabbed this from some notes I had on this "eat the scroll stuff." Margaret Hess (a Baptist pastor) writing in the Christian Century, June 18-25, 1997: "He (Ezekiel) is not to measure the effectiveness of his preaching by the response of the people. The heart of his ability to preach with integrity and authenticity lies in his ability to take the word of God inside himself, and to root his proclamation in the word as it transforms him, Ezekiel, from the inside out. Do we dare to take preaching seriously enough to allow ourselves to be changed by the word we ingest?

"Some of my most authentic sermons emerge from a total immersion in the scripture passage. I read it. I shout it. I think about the passage when I lie down and when I get up. I imagine myself in the biblical story, feeling the sun on my face and the earth beneath my feet, hearing the voices of ancient characters whisper in my ear. I insert myself into the story, searching for movement and stillness, inviting myself to smell, touch, taste, see and hear what is going on in the text. I pace my study like a caged lion as the word has its way with my heart. I become so completely saturated and filled with the word that I no longer care if it is heard or not. I care passionately that I have eaten the word of God and am a changed woman. Only then can I speak the unspeakable and name the unnamable. Only then will the people know that a prophet has been among them."

Thanks, Alexis, for the good word about eating the scroll. There's enough to go around for us all.

And for those who don't know - IHOP–KC is a 24-hour-a-day ministry of “worship with intercession” that has continued non-stop since September 19, 1999, and is led by 25 different worship teams comprised primarily of young adults. Approximately 1,500 people (staff members, students, interns, musicians, intercessors and worship leaders) serve full- and part-time investing 25 to 50 hours/week in the prayer room, classroom and ministry outreaches.

IHOP (the one that doesn't include pancakes) would be a good field trip for your church!

Eating the Scroll

Hola!! So I am sleep-deprived, heavily caffinated, and completely on fire for the Lord. What does all this equal? A completely ADHD Alexis who feels like blogging!!! Yippee!!!

For those of you who don't know me very well that first paragraph may seem extremely disturbing but please don't be concerned. I tend to intentionally get this way because then I am open to the leadings of the Lord and I get a lot done. Anyway...

Well I went to a conference called Onething down in KC hosted by an org called the International House of Prayer (yes, IHOP...but no pancakes.) The primary speaker kept talking about eating the scroll. Obviously this is drawn from the references in Jeremiah and Ezekiel where the prophets were told to eat the scroll so that they could go forth and proclaim the truth. He was saying that we are all meant to eat the scroll, to live off the Word of God and proclaim its truth. He went so far as to say you couldn't really be a faithful witness unless you eat the scroll. I confess at the time that although this idea seemed interesting at the time it didn't actually hit me 'til I got home that I wanted to eat the scroll!

I'm about half way thru the book Needs-Based Evangelism and the author is telling us his wonderful methodologies. I'm sure you all are enjoying it as much as I am. Anyway. It has hit me. If we are eating the scroll; if we are buried in, excited about, filled up with, on fire for the Word of God won't evangelism just flow from us? If we are living for something won't we just tell everyone cuz we can't help it? I can't remember the last time I talked to a pastor in the UMC that was fired up about the Word of God. Hell, I can't remember the last time I was fired up about the Word.

The point of this rant? I am eating the scroll. I want God's Word to become a fire in my belly so that I must speak as He directs. I am praying hard for revival amoung our communities and especially in our clergy. And I am completely scaring my staff in the process! :-)

See you guys soon!!

Blessings,
Alexis

Hi!

So I'm looking for some feedback on several items.

First of all my church is looking to start adult mission work. Anyone have any experience with that? I'm looking for organizational tips and who you've been involved with, i.e. UMCOR or VIM or someone else. This is coming from some laity so I want to nurture them with as much information as possible.

Second, are you all addressing the current global economic crisis in your churches? If so, how? Is anybody doing anything special with your budget to reflect this? I feel as if my church is currently focused on other matters and we have not given this series of events its proper consideration. I'm extremely nervous to think that we're going to really feel the crunch this winter as heating costs go up and people's expendable income goes down. Also I'm interested to see how people are responding to the increasing needs of the community. I don't know about you but we have more people coming in asking for money than ever before...and the demand on our local soup kitchen has increased. I can imagine it will only get worse this winter.

And finally, how do you all deal with ineffective staff? I find myself stuck between knowing the work that needs to be done with some staff that doesn't get it done, and being told the as a church we can't hire and fire as regular businesses do. This is mostly for my information as I have little say in staffing being the young associate (sometimes playing this card pays off!).

Oh and by the way. I found The Divine Conspiracy difficult to begin with but the more I get into it the better I enjoy it. Just words of hope for anyone who might be struggling with the beginning.

Blessings,
Alexis