Worth getting excited about

Do you get frustrated with the church?

Do you wish we could all focus on those things Jesus calls us to care about more fully?

There's good news. This can happen.

Read on for an example worth getting excited about...

When you read John Wesley's Journal, you get the overwhelming sense that the man never stopped moving. He traveled from London to Bristol to Newcastle, again and again. He'd take time out to go on preaching tours in Cornwall and Wales. By the late 1740s, he had added Ireland to his list of regular destinations. And all the while, he was building Methodist Societies, overseeing his lay preachers, and writing sermons, essays, & letters.

The vision of early Methodism was simple and yet profound: Offer the free grace of Jesus Christ, which can save men and women from the sin and brokenness that keep them from God. Unite them in communities where they can watch over one another in love and travel the path of sanctification. Nurture holiness of heart & life in people, and they will carry it out into the world. Find the hurting and help them to heal. Seek out the lost: those who are poor in either body or spirit (or both).

And above all, show others how the grace of Jesus reshape their lives inside and out.

I'm a big believer in Wesley's vision for Christian life together and for church reform, so I always get excited about encountering people and ministries that are trying to pursue a genuinely Wesleyan mission. My current column in the United Methodist Reporter focuses on one example of that, in both a person and an organization: the Rev. Arthur Jones and the North Carolina-based ZOE Ministry.

ZOE's mission is to "Share Christ and give hope to orphans and vulnerable children in Africa." That takes place through activities as diverse as getting food to hungry children, providing crucial medical care, and training in essential life skills through the Giving Hope Empowerment Project.

Arthur recently graduated from Duke Divinity School and currently serves as the Interim Director for Church Relations at ZOE. I focus on him in the column because he's a young adult, newly commissioned into the clergy, and he offers a compelling example of how exciting ministry in the church can be. ZOE Ministry itself is headed by the Rev. Greg Jenks, an elder in the North Carolina Conference who launched ZOE in 2004 and has since expanded it to the four African countries of Zimbabwe, Zambia, Rwanda, and Kenya.

While ZOE's mission efforts started with simply providing food relief for orphans who had been victimized by the AIDS pandemic and war, it took a leap forward with the development of the Giving Hope Empowerment Project, a program that brings orphans together to train them in vital life skills and job development. The program, conceived by a survivor of the 1994 Rwanda genocide named Epiphanie Mujawimana, offers a glimpse into the reason ZOE is effective:

While the ministry's American operation provides essential resources and coordination, the actual method and implementation of the mission work is almost all led by African leaders who are members of the communities they are serving. This is responsible mission, which cooperates with what God is doing on the ground and treats American and African Christians as true partners who can learn from one another.

From my column writing and blog work, I get all kinds of e-mails from people who are frustrated with the status quo in their local churches. They know deep down that the practice of their faith should be compelling - to themselves and to others. But they live in congregations that have fallen spiritually asleep.

It doesn't have to be this way. Local churches need a missional mindset. And it's high time for all of us to answer God's call faithfully. Check out how ZOE Ministry does it. Consider partnering with them, or with some other organization that is truly committed to walking the way of Jesus.

Together let's answer the Holy Spirit's call to be transformed, so that we might go out and offer the good news of God's transforming grace to the world!

Bonus: Read Arthur's blog from his recent trip to Kenya here.