• What a Couple of Months — We’ve had break-ins one after the other. We’ve had the news randomly show up during our service. We’ve had movements of faith where 40 to 60 people came forward to connect with Christ. We have also added several new members, including two by baptism. We are working for the long haul, so we are moving slow and being intentional about the way we lay the foundation for discipleship. God has helped us as we have done what we can to invest in others. We look forward to seeing more of what God is doing.
• Looking Forward — We have some big plans for the summer, and I am asking the Lord to send some teams out to help us accomplish them. We would like to survey the neighborhoods around the church, host the Extreme Tour outreach event and have a targeted food outreach program. Summer is one of the only times we have to connect with lots of neighbors without having some sort of relationship or introduction. Winters are long here, and most people don’t answer the door at that time. But summer is much different. We want to maximize each summer to get as much outreach as possible. Will you pray about coming out to help us with one of our summer outreach program events?
We could use teams all summer for surveys and feeding neighbors and specific targeted groups. The Extreme Tour is set for Aug. 3-4. We need help a few weeks ahead of time taking flyers to our neighbors. The concert itself can use lots of help with cooking, serving, greeting, setup and cleanup. Please pray about joining us this summer and making an eternal impact.
• Becoming a Family — As we grow, we have been intentional about making sure we establish rhythms of life in the body of Christ. We currently have weekly, bi-monthly and monthly events that help us grow together toward God. With our television stolen and a need to replace tons of doors and door handles before we buy another, we are holding Family Potluck and Game Nights. Our people are learning to have fun together while loving and serving each other like Christ. We have monthly business meetings where we address new ideas and teaching on the things that impact our personal, family and church family lives. We also have corporate prayer twice a week and Bible studies that occur weekly and bi-weekly. We have been blessed to see how God is growing love and compassion in our people for each other. The winter was a lot less cold because of it.
• Going Deeper — Each week we follow our services with small group breakout Bible studies. We have a couple of goals — to teach our people the skillset of using the SOAP (Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer) method for Bible study. This can be useful in personal or group settings. The second goal is to grow leaders who become confident in their ability to facilitate SOAP groups. Our people were able to do this on Good Friday, and it yielded great results! We also want our people to see the truth we identify in the sermon in another text that helps them fill out a bit more of the doctrine. Over time, we have seen our people add a lot of doctrinal understanding, though they won’t refer to it by that term. We hope to safeguard them by raising a new generation of “Bereans” at Freedom Missionary Baptist Church (FMBC).
• Praising God with What We Have — The break-ins led to a season of worshipping using hymn books and singing acapella. It was a blessed time. We are now worshipping using hymn books, but God has done a great work in raising up the start of a worship team. We have a new member who desired to serve. He has a background in running a piano lesson business. He is also very good at helping people work together to compose a work or perform together. He has taken initiative to gather with two other members of the church who are also willing to serve our brothers and sisters using their gifts. James plays the recorder. Gail is playing the piano and Sarah is playing the ukulele and singing. It has been so awesome to see how great an impact this group of willing servants has made in just a couple of weeks. They have been a great encouragement to me, personally.
• Having Fun Worshipping God Together — We are serious about what we teach and believe about God and the Bible. That doesn’t mean our services and time together are dry or cold. We have been blessed to really get to enjoy God, each other and His Word. Our worship is moving beyond the boundaries of a weekly service. We are really becoming friends. The group, small as it may be by some standards, is unique. We know the truth about each other. We come to church more and more each week as our authentic selves. Even though we know the truth about each other (the things some people are not usually honest about), we love and receive each other. That is a miracle. The greater miracle is that we really enjoy each other, too! All this flows out of the love and acceptance we have with God because of Jesus’ perfect sacrifice. God is good!
• Your Partnership is Making a Difference — If you are not already a partner, will you prayerfully consider doing so to support this unique ministry God has given us. We serve in a hard part of a hard city. Overcoming the challenges of poverty, broken homes, incarceration, mental illness, physical illness and violent crime keeps some groups and individuals from coming to join us to serve here. I get that. But it doesn’t have to keep us from reaching the people of North Minneapolis together. Thanks for considering partnering with us.