Jesus Tour Summer 2016!
Where will you take Jesus this week?
By Susan Kipper
How is it with your soul? Methodist founder John Wesley encouraged believers to regularly ask one another about their experience of God’s grace and presence in their lives. For many, however, that can be a tough question to ask and even more difficult to answer.
At Kent UMC, when the Administrative Council set a church-wide goal to “improve and increase our comfort level for talking about our faith individually and as a congregation,” the question quickly became, how do we begin those conversations? What will get us talking about God’s presence in our lives? Answer? “Jesus Tour Summer 2016”—a creative place to start.
Last summer the young adults took our big Warner Sallman “Head of Christ” painting out of the building to visit different places in Kent. They had a great time and definitely made an impression! This summer, we are inviting everyone to pick up a copy of the Jesus painting and intentionally take Jesus with them when they leave the building. If they have a different image of Jesus that they prefer then they can use that instead…whatever will help them connect with others.
We have asked that, sometime during the week, people take a photo of where Jesus went with them and email it to the office. The point of the Jesus Tour is to start conversations, and it has definitely gotten the ball rolling! In the first few weeks we already have a number of wonderful photos and stories of how, just by asking people to join in or take the photo, people have had the opportunity to share “a little bit of Jesus.”
Each week the photos are hung in the Narthex next to the full-sized painting. Some are also put in the bulletin, newsletter, or on our Facebook page. As the collection grows we continue to encourage people to check out where Jesus has gone and ask themselves, “Where will I take Jesus next week?”
Susan Kipper serves as the office assistant for Kent United Methodist Church.
D1058: Faith Out LoudShare my faith? Me? What do I say? My story isn’t exceptional. I don’t know what to say. My life is my witness…. We all have different experiences of faith; some may be more comfortable sharing their faith verbally than others. This DVD encourages all of us to realize that we have a faith story and we can share our experience of God with others through our words as well as our actions. If you feel tongue-tied about witnessing, this video may well be a step towards becoming better at witnessing. With an emphasis on supporting our church through our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness, this video can open your heart, mind, and spirit to talk about your faith out loud. This resource contains eleven sessions that are each 10 minutes long.
D1091: Connect With Your Neighbors
This DVD is all about reaching new disciples. There are three presentations on the DVD:
- Discovering the People God has Given Us – explores the resources available to learn about the demography of your surrounding community. Many of these resources are free and available online.
- The Theology of Welcome
- Ways to understand your neighbors better.
For each subject there is a PowerPoint, a narrated presentation recorded by a Lewis Center staff member and an outline of key points which can be printed for distribution. Additional resources on the CD-ROM include a needs-based community outreach plan, information on using social media to reach new people and information on how your website is your church’s welcome mat.
