Return to Your First Love
Luke 16:13 says, “No household servant can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be loyal to the one and have contempt for the other. You cannot serve God and wealth” (CEB).
It’s a call to be faithful to God. Be trustworthy in the true riches, which money cannot buy. I encourage you to take your time and read Luke 16:10–11.
For the prophetic word to be manifested for revival, the word to us is the same. 2 Chronicles 7:14 (CEB) reads:
“If my people who belong to me will humbly pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.”
Prayer
Our prayer, written by Pastor Estelle Martin, is from Psalm 139:23–24 (NKJV):
“Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me and know my anxieties;
And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.”
Our Heavenly Father, we acknowledge You as our faithful provider. We are grateful for Your perfect plan when You gave Your only Son as a ransom for our sins. We can never repay You for what You’ve done for us, and for what You faithfully continue to do. We desperately need You, and we repent and ask for Your forgiveness for our anxious thoughts and actions that don’t always please You. We want to be holy as You are holy. Help us by Your grace and mercy to seek You first and Your kingdom. May we hasten to Your throne room daily out of a deep pure love and awe and reverence of Your greatness. You’ve been so good, so kind, and so patient and loving. It is our heart’s desire to trust and obey You more and to fall more in love with You each and every day You give us breath. We know this world is not our permanent home, and we’re looking forward to spending eternity with You. Make us fit for Your kingdom. We humbly pray this prayer, and we give You thanks and praise in the name of Your risen and exalted Son Jesus’ name, the One who is and is to come, amen and amen.
Healing, Belief, and Faith
“Holy Spirit-Fueled Movement.
Just as we pray for strength, You ask us to strain forward, and You give us strength. As we pray for faith, You ask us to step out in faith, and You give us more faith. When we pray for healing, You ask us to stretch out to You as the woman who was bleeding stretched out to touch the hem of Jesus’ clothes and was healed. We must stretch out to be healed.
The Holy Spirit is here. God is asking us to reach out in belief and meet Him. Meet the Spirit of God here, now, and then step in faith, with His strength, with healing in our touch because of His Spirit — hearing, open, speaking through us!”
As I meditate on this word, I’m focused on this theme of stretching. I’ve exercised all my life, and still I tend to blow past stretching even though I know its benefits. We are creatures who like comfort, and, in pain, we tend to contract further in rather than choose to extend ourselves. I return to the story of the woman told in both Luke 8 and Mark 5 that was referenced here. After years of trying and spending everything, she found nothing that could heal her. There is a real desperation that leads to boldness and a willingness to strain forward, to receive what Jesus has to strengthen us and heal us.
- Are there places where the church/your church needs healing and hasn’t found it? Are we desperate enough to fall down and grasp the hem of His garment? (Mark 5:26–28, 33)
- How is God asking me to reach out in belief, specifically, today?
- Are there people I know with a special gift of faith? How can I encourage their gift for the sake of the church? (1 Corinthians 12:4–10
Prayer
Father, Son and Spirit, You are over all, in all, and through all. We thank You for saving us by grace through faith, which is the gift of God. Remind us that while it is impossible to please You without faith, we don’t have to muster up more faith on our own, but we can ask and receive it by Your Spirit. Increase both our desperation and our faith in You at the same time. Make us desperate to see the works that only You can do, including the reconciliation and healing of humanity beginning with our families, friends, and neighbors. Help me to encourage others and become someone with a special gift of faith for Your church that we might be strong in the Lord and the strength of His might. Jesus, we trust You enough to be stretched, to reach out in belief and boldness for breakthroughs. We pray this in Your mighty name, Jesus. Amen.
Greater Works
Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
As we reflected on this passage and listened to the voice of the Spirit, these are some of the words that emerged:
I am calling you to greater things. Stop settling for lesser things!
All this time I’ve believed that it was “I” who was going to do greater things and failed to see the “we.” Forgive me, Lord, and increase my faith. My ceiling is low, and my dreams are too small for You.
I heard God saying: Pray boldly; expect great things; trust Me. Care about others and their needs. Bring them and their needs to me in prayer and watch what I will do. So much is beyond you and the natural abilities I have gifted you with. Quit trying to do things, fix things, help others in your own strength. Humble yourself before me. Tap into my abundant resources.
The Free Methodist movement is marked by hope in the transformative power of grace. “Greater works” can be seen in the global spread of the gospel, the fruits of sanctified living, and social holiness (revival, justice, mercy). The Methodist movement itself embodies this through its revivalist and reformist spirit.
Jesus’ promise of “greater works” and the gift of the Spirit point to the heart of our theology: grace-empowered discipleship. The Spirit’s coming isn’t just a theological event — it’s an invitation to live holy lives, engage in bold prayer, and participate in God’s redemptive mission in the world.
We are not only saved from sin but saved to serve, emboldened by the Spirit to continue the work of Christ with holiness of heart and life.
Come, Holy Spirit and fill our churches. Move over us. Move over our churches. Move as You will. We want to be a part of Your movement! Holy Spirit, You are welcome in this place.
These questions also arose:
How do we free and unleash the Holy Spirit in us — individually & collectively?
What gets in the way of the Helper doing greater things in us?
Prayer
Father, we hear Your invitation to join You in the greater works You long to do through Your people. We confess that we have settled for less. We have fallen short of giving ourselves fully to the mission Jesus launched and has called and empowered us to continue until He returns.
For some of us, Lord, we simply have not understood all that it means to live on this side of Pentecost and the outpouring of Your Spirit. In fulfillment of Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1:18–19, open the eyes of our hearts that we might “know the hope to which You have called us, the riches of Your glorious inheritance in Your holy people, and Your incomparably great power for us who believe” (NIV/personalized).
Father, others of us are hindered by fear of the unknown and the idol of control. We have chosen to play it safe, to hug the shoreline when You are calling us into the deep. We confess that Your Spirit’s unpredictability can be unsettling at times. Lord, forgive us for believing that control could ever be an adequate substitute for faith that moves us to unshakeable trust in Your perfect love and unfailing goodness.
And Loving Father, some of us have been disappointed by what we have perceived to be unanswered prayer when we dared to believe You for greater things. We know Your ways are higher than our ways, and You see what we cannot see. We know the hope of eternal life far outweighs any suffering we may experience in this world. And yet, it hurts when we don’t understand. We ask You to bind up our broken hearts and deliver us from disappointment that we might be free again to embrace life that is truly life.
Jesus, let Your Spirit move freely in and through us so that we might indeed see the greater works You promised in Your Word.
God Is Always Working
This response was given to the Seeking Together question “Jesus, what are You saying to me?”:
Jesus, help me to recognize Your voice whether it is through spectacular God events or Your still small voice. (I reflected on 1 Kings 19:9–15.)
You are always speaking, acting, and doing as you choose — You are God! Help me recognize Your authentic voice and actions. You are always calling me to live a life of Holy Love. You always want others to see You through my life loving, caring, giving, living selflessly, reaching and loving the least, the hurting, the lost, the dying, the hungry, and those with lifestyles I don’t understand. (I reflected on Matthew 25:31–40).
I believe Jesus is also saying this to our church!
As I reflected on this heart cry to hear the voice of God, I was encouraged by the reminder that is He is always speaking and acting, even when I am oblivious. The Spirit led this person to 1 Kings 19, where the Lord pursues Elijah, who has given up and run away, to meet with him, talk with him, and restore him for action. It brought to my mind a quote attributed to John Stott, “The Bible isn’t the story of people trying to discover God, but God reaching out to find us.”
- Holy Spirit, how have You been speaking to me specifically and differently than I expected?
- What must we do (not just as individuals, but as the church) to posture ourselves to hear the voice of God initiating our healing and restoration?
- How is the Lord preparing me/our church for our next assignment from Him to embody Holy Love — especially to those Jesus referenced in Matthew 25:31–40?
Prayer
Father, we thank You for a love that is active and reaching for us. Holy Spirit, help us to recognize and tune out all the noise, all the seductive voices of this world, and the sound of the enemy, so that we are attuned only to You. Break open the boxes we have created for You, and speak to us through both “miraculous God events and Your still small voice.”
Help us to open our hands along with our ears to receive what You have for us and offer it back to the world. In moments when we are too tired or feel too alone to go on mission or even just to go on, Father, we trust You to find us and minister to our deepest places of need. I pray for the Free Methodist Church: Lord, we want to be made whole and holy, and we want to follow Your voice toward healing and shalom
Father, Son, and Spirit, give us ears to hear and obey.
Listen for His Voice in the Throne Room
The scripture that came to my mind was Exodus 24:12–18 (CEB). “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Come up to me on the mountain and wait there’ … Moses stayed on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.”
And as we read this passage, I encourage you to hear what God is instructing you. What does God want to show you? What does He want to reveal to you personally, for your family, for your local church, and for your ministry assignment?
Wait in prayer and write it down on the tablets of your heart as the Holy Spirit speaks to you. Don’t rush! “Just stay right there in the throne room.”
Hear the prayers of David. Make them your own.
Prayer
Father, I pray the prayers of David in Psalm 5:1–3 (CEB):
Hear my words, Lord!
Consider my groans!
Pay attention to the sound of my cries, my king and my god,
because I am praying to you!
Lord, in the morning you hear my voice.
In the morning I lay it all out before you.
Then I wait expectantly.
I also pray while reflecting on Psalm 27:4, 7–8 (CEB):
I have asked one thing from the Lord—
it’s all I seek:
to live in the Lord’s house all the days of my life,
seeing the Lord’s beauty
and constantly adoring his temple.
Lord, listen to my voice when I cry out—
have mercy on me and answer me!
Come, my heart says, seek God’s face.
Lord, I do seek your face!
And now, Father, we listen. We listen for the whisper of the Holy Spirit. We wait on You. We wait on You in quietness. Speak, Lord, Your servant is listening.
See, I Am Doing a New Thing
I see — I feel — myself huddling, arms over my head as the cathedral walls crumble around me.
Lord, I know I prayed for renovations, but I thought these walls were structural! If You tear them down, then what will be left?
The rubble throws up dust like smoke, and as I look up, what once was beautiful now looks like a ruin, like the ruins of a once great thing.
God, how can this be Your doing? Where — why — is Your hand in this earthquake?
And I hear the Lord answer:
“See, I am doing a new thing!”
This reading from Isaiah 43:16–21 (NIV) followed:
This is what the Lord says—
he who made a way through the sea,
a path through the mighty waters,
who drew out the chariots and horses,
the army and reinforcements together,
And they lay there, never to rise again,
extinguished, snuffed out like a wick:
“Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert
and streams in the wasteland.
The wild animals honor me,
the jackals and the owls,
because I provide water in the desert
and streams in the wasteland,
to give drink to my people, my chosen,
the people I formed for myself,
that they may proclaim my praise.”
As we enter this new year with hope and expectation that God is ready to do a new thing among us, may we give ourselves to deep, united prayer. We do so because Scripture reminds us that every fresh work of the Spirit involves some measure of disruption. The familiar must yield to the unexpected purposes of God. The illusion of control must be surrendered so we can embrace the unpredictable — and sometimes undignified —movement of the Spirit.
Even institutional structures that have served us well are in the process of being reimagined so new life and innovation can emerge. And while we honor the memories of past glory, we choose bold faith that God is ready and able to do something just as glorious in our own day. In this posture of awakened hearts and open hands, let us pray together for God’s transforming work among us.
Prayer
Loving Father, we are grateful that You are living and active in Your world today. Your eyes are always roaming “to and fro over all the earth, to show” Yourself “strong on behalf of those whose hearts are fully devoted to” You (2 Chronicles 16:9 BSB). May we be such a people.
We confess that we do not love the disruption that comes with change. We love the idea of faith, but we confess we tend to opt for ways of living that do not require it. Forgive us and instill in us the courage to turn from nostalgia, to surrender control, and to release our grip on that which is comfortable and familiar so that You might do a new thing among us. We long for life that is truly life. We long to see every Free Methodist Church thriving and bearing good fruit. We long to see multitudes coming to faith and finding new life in Jesus Christ. We long to be the kind of people who demonstrate to a watching world the beauty of a people whose lives are being transformed together by Your perfect love. We long to be salt and light in our world by living in ways that reflect Your heart for holiness, righteousness, and justice.
We long for an uprising of young leaders who would take their place on the front lines of kingdom work and lead us to fresh expressions of faith in community. We long to see new works emerging in towns, cities, and urban centers across the nation. Father, we believe this is what a Spirit-fueled movement looks like, and we pray that You might ignite such a work in and through us.
Bishops Focus on Prayer and Seeking Together
Prayer is key to bringing spiritual growth and change in the church, the Free Methodist Church USA bishops said on a recent episode of “The Light + Life Podcast.”
Host Brett Heintzman — who serves as both the denominational communications director and the co-director of the National Prayer Ministry — asked the bishops, “How would you like to see the culture of the FMC change in regard to prayer?”
In our local churches and our small groups, Bishop Kenny Martin said, “Prayer should be our driving force to guide us in our meetings, and it begins with personal prayer. … If we’re going to see change in prayer, it begins with us as individuals.”
Martin encouraged local church members to pray for one another — including in prayer bands or accountability groups. He pointed to the biblical command to: “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10 NIV).
“A lot of times, I think we make decisions, but we don’t be still and really spend time with God,” said Martin, who encouraged a deeper level of prayer by meditating on God’s Word day and night (Psalm 1:2). He added that spending time in prayer will lead to agreement within the church (Amos 3:3). “Prayer is the highest priority for us to move forward as the church.”
Bishop Kaye Kolde echoed Martin’s call for decision-making to flow from prayer. She said that as bishops spend time in different Free Methodist settings, “we recognize that prayer needs to be more than the cursory beginning of a gathering. It needs to be a time when we really are pausing to listen.”
Kolde said she increasingly hears people teach about listening prayer, “but very rarely do I hear that groups in the church — leadership groups — are practicing group discernment where listening to God is a beginning point.”
It may be uncommon for groups to discern God’s will by coming together to discuss what the Spirit is confirming among the group members, but Kolde said, “I would love that to be really who we are and how we go about pursuing our leadership, and I’m always disturbed when we gather and we’re more of a business meeting than the people of God.”
She said we should be “beginning in prayer, bathing things in prayer, learning to grow in prayer with one another, and also one thing that I hope to see in the culture of the Free Methodist Church is that when we pause and take time to praise God, that we could do that for more than three to four minutes. … We so infrequently just pause and praise God for His character, because very often we’re going right to our needs, and so there are certain ways in which I think our holiness is reflected in how we pray as a larger denomination.”
Some local churches may only give a brief time for prayer near the beginning or end of a worship service, and church board meetings may include a scheduled moment of prayer. In contrast, Bishop Keith Cowart said prayer should be “a part of the culture of everything we do” — not something “we only think of as an agenda item.”
Cowart explained, “Prayer is not simply us lifting up our needs or concerns to God. It truly is seeking the heart of God and seeking the voice of God and what God wants to speak to us.”
God-Given Revelation
Heintzman asked the bishops to share a passage on which they have been meditating and how that passage relates to the church.
“The one passage that has been in my heart is 2 Chronicles 7:14, and it says, ‘If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sins and heal their land,’” Martin said. “It’s about restoration. It’s also evident that we need a healing in our land and around the world. There are a lot of hurting people around the world.”
Cowart referred to John 17 “when Jesus prays for His disciples, but He makes it really clear that He’s not just praying for the Twelve. He’s praying for all who will believe because of their message, which very much includes us, and it is a prayer for the people of God. It’s a prayer for the church, and the heart of it is unity.”
Kolde said she loves “how the worship in the Spirit and in truth through prayer actually strengthens our unity.” She discussed Luke 11:1–13 with its mention of “shameless audacity” (v.8 NIV) and added, “I want to be a person who prays with shameless audacity. I know I can ask the Father for anything — anything in His will — as impossible as it might seem.”
She also prays the Psalms and sometimes does so with the other bishops. She pointed to the reminder in Psalm 145 “that the Lord is righteous in all His ways and faithful in all He does. The Lord is near to all who call on Him.”
Words for the Church
Heintzman asked the bishops if there have been moments in their times of personal prayer where they “heard from the Lord a word, and that word was for the church at large. … How have you been hearing from the Lord, and what is He saying? What words has He given you?”
Cowart replied that he recently sensed the Lord giving him the word boldness: “I heard it more as a word for me, but perhaps it could be for the denomination as a whole. … These are days where we need to be courageous, and we need to be bold. We need to be bold in who we are and what we’re asking God to do, what we believe God wants to do, and bold in leading out of that. … The urgency and the need for boldness that I’m sensing is not one that’s fear-driven. It’s not an urgency that’s coming out of crisis. It’s an urgency that’s coming out of hunger and yearning for a deep, profound move of God — a deep desire for more. … It’s a time for boldness in our leadership and in our prayers.”
Kolde said she “was really struck in prayer one day” with a word for her and “potentially a word for us” regarding the biblical account of the feeding of the 5,000. She noted Matthew’s version of the miracle (Matthew 14:13–21) “says Jesus had compassion on these crowds, and He began healing them. In one of the other versions, the compassion is also tied to the fact that these people are hungry.” She considered that we could decide we don’t have enough resources and answers to help all the hungry people in the world, “but I want to follow the example that Christ gave, which is bring what you do have and bring an offering. … The word for me was: Do not throw up your hands and say, ‘There’s nothing we can do here.’ Instead bring the offering, and ask God to bless it and multiply it.”
Martin said he is reluctant to share a prophetic word unless he clearly hears from the Lord, “but in my heart, for such a time as this, you know we’re called to be people of faith. Especially in this transition [as] we talk about networking of conferences, we have to trust in the Lord.” He added, “When we say that this is a prophetic word from the Lord that has been seasoned in times of prayer and consecration … we’re not just saying it because we’re bishops. We’re saying it because we’ve been with God.”
The bishops have called the church to faithful prayer and “seeking together,” including a monthlong time of prayer and fasting last year.
“It’s my prayer that as we talk about ‘seeking together,’ we will hear a prophetic voice from our Lord,” Martin said. “It’ll come to you individually and maybe in a small group where we are really seeking God.”
Seeking Together Gatherings
This year, the Free Methodist Church USA will host three Seeking Together Gatherings in August: Aug. 7–8 at The Arbor Church in Spring Arbor, Michigan; Aug. 21–22 at Christ Community Church in Columbus, Georgia; and Aug. 28–29 at Commission Church in Rancho Cucamonga, California.
“I am hoping and expecting that we experience the powerful presence of our loving Father, and that there would be breakthroughs for people in that space, and that we might see healings in that space and reconciliation in that space where we seek God together,” Kolde said.
Martin said the bishops do not want the gatherings to just be “another event.” They instead want the gatherings to be “communing with God.” He added, “For me, it’s not this onetime gathering, but it will continue in our local churches.”
Plans for the gathering “began to come together for us as we recognized we’ve been saying now for several years we want to see a Spirit-fueled movement in our denomination, and we are deeply, deeply aware that that’s not something we can create in our own strength,” Cowart said. “We recognize there’s a cost to that. There’s a challenge to that, but we would invite you to really pray about coming to one of these and being physically present. … We believe that these gatherings really could spur activity in the spiritual realm that would reveal areas of where we need to repent, that would expose idols and would give us vision for what God wants to do.”
Click here for more information and to register for the Seeking Together Gatherings.
AHN Gathers for Healthy Leaders, Churches & Communities
The Free Methodist Way serves to inform us of what we stand for as members of the Free Methodist Church. But it also informs the world of our legacy as members of this historic denomination. Nowhere is that more evident than when a group of African American pastors and leaders were assembled in Indianapolis in 1999 to strengthen the presence of leaders of color in the FMC. Over 25 years later, the African Heritage Network (AHN) continues to gather every year for a time of worship, prayer, encouragement and the equipping of one another for the ministries we’ve been called to by God.
This year, the AHN Conference convened in Columbus, Georgia, at Christ Community Church. In attendance were FMC pastors and leaders from all over the United States gathering around the theme, “Healthy Leaders, Healthy Churches & Healthy Communities.” Main speakers addressed areas where we can be more effective as believers by attending to areas of self-care and sabbath, making our churches places where the Holy Spirit can move freely and loving our neighbors in our communities as we are commanded by Jesus.
“You cannot lead well if it isn’t well with your soul,” said Derrick Shields, the lead pastor of Christ Community Church and conference host. During this opening session, Pastor Shields shared his growth journey toward healthy leadership. As he further encouraged us to seek silence, solitude and sabbath as means of taking care of our souls, this session launched us into this year’s conference where we heard from panels discussing how to be healthy leaders and to promote healthy communities.
Also for the first time at our conferences, we heard from Greenville University students who shared from their perspectives how the church can be more effective in reaching younger generations.
For more than 25 years, the African Heritage Network of the FMC has served as a safe space where African American pastors and leaders find support and encouragement and also discover ways to help the church realize its goals of equity and diversity. The vision of the network is to help lead the Free Methodist Church USA to be established in its roots of inclusiveness of all people to know God as revealed in Jesus Christ and to make Him known. From an initial gathering of less than 20 pastors to a conference that is attended by 80–100 pastors and leaders from diverse backgrounds, the AHN serves the FMC to helps us understand the cultural distinctives important with communities of color so that we might truly experience the diversity and multicultural kingdom of God as expressed in Revelation 7.
Across our nation, we are witnessing the dismantling of programs and policies designed to correct the continued harm done by hundreds of years of slavery, segregation and discrimination. Now more than ever, it is important that those of us in the kingdom of God declare the value of all peoples. The FMC has an even greater opportunity today to commit to the inclusion of all in moving forward to be what God desires. We must never forget the importance of every believer and church body for the health of the whole FMC.
What is our part in seeing this vision come to pass? Simply put, we wrap our arms around marginalized groups and boldly declare that the kingdom of God is not healthy, whole and complete without them. In 1 Corinthians, Paul uses the analogy of a physical body to show us the importance of the body operating as a cohesive unit as well as what threatens the health of that unit. In 1 Corinthians 12:21, we see where one body part cannot say to another body part that it’s not valuable. In the body of Christ, we have to value the contributions and gifts of all believers of all backgrounds and experiences.
No one in the FMC is making any statement that we don’t need those who are a part of marginalized groups such as African Americans, Latin Americans, women or others. In fact, we say just the opposite! It’s hardwired into our DNA as a denomination founded by those opposing oppression. However, now is an ideal time to make our voices louder and bolder in our support of those who find themselves under great scrutiny and even persecution.
If we are going to truly see a Spirit-fueled movement flow throughout our FMC churches and communities, we need to value the voice of God as it is revealed through us all.
Fred TenEyck is the lead pastor of The Bridge in Kent, Washington, and the director of the African Heritage Network. He has also served as the church planter in residence at Rainier Avenue Church in Seattle and as the pastor of New Vision Fellowship Church in Forestville, Maryland.
Multiplying followers of Jesus
Multiplying Followers of Jesus
As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him. (Matthew 4:18–20 NIV)
Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. (Mark 3:13–15 NIV)
Then Jesus and his disciples left Jerusalem and went into the Judean countryside. Jesus spent some time with them there, baptizing people. (John 3:22 NLT)
Multiplication often starts with a small group of people — sometimes in out-of-the-way locations. Jesus spent much of His time with the same dozen people. He not only taught them; He built relationships with them.
“Jesus knew a small number of multiplying disciples carried more kingdom potential than the largest crowd He could teach,” according to Larry Walkemeyer, the Free Methodist Church USA’s co-strategic catalyst for multiplication. “Consequently, roughly 75% of His recorded time was spent discipling and empowering those closest to Him.”
Jesus eventually multiplied the number of His followers whom He sent into the harvest field of future followers.
After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” (Luke 10:1–2 NIV)
Jesus commissioned His followers to multiply disciples throughout their communities and regions and into the entire world.
“ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19–20 NIV)
We train and resource multipliers who then “teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others” (2 Timothy 2:2 NLT). We apply the first biblical command — “be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28 NLT) — to our multiplication efforts,
Loving People
Loving People
Jesus had a lot to say to His disciples about loving people.
He “loved His own who were in the world” and told them, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:1, 34–35 NIV). He added, “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:12–13 NIV).
These commands could be interpreted as instructing us to love other believers. Clearly we are to love our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. After all, “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And He has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister (1 John 4:20–21 NIV).
But Jesus also emphasized the Old Testament instruction to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18, Matthew 22:39, Mark 12:31, Luke 10:27). His parable of the Good Samaritan reveals a broad view of who qualifies as a neighbor (Luke 10:25–37). The Apostle Paul reminds us, “Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law” (Romans 13:10 NIV).
Jesus gives His followers an even more radical call to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44 NIV) and again to “love your enemies, do good to those who hate you” (Luke 6:27 NIV). Paul, a persecutor of Christians before his conversion, reminded the early church that love “keeps no record of wrongs” (1 Corinthians 13:5 NIV).
Loving people does not mean we endorse their actions or join them in harmful behavior. “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” (1 Corinthians 13:6–7 NIV).
While we don’t delight in the evil actions of our neighbors and enemies, we still love and forgive them. The Worldwide English translation begins 1 Corinthians 13:7 with the phrase “Love forgives everything.” This may remind us of the request in the Lord’s Prayer for God to “forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us” (Luke 11:4 NLT).
Our Book of Discipline calls Free Methodists to fulfill our mission with “holy love” and “participation with God in bringing holiness and love to bear upon the sins, hurts, and needs of all people.” Instead of doing this through our own strength, we are empowered by the Holy Spirit “to love and serve God and others in joyful obedience.”