Make Contact With Your Community

Norman moved to Minneapolis five years ago but still hasn’t found a friend. Surrounded by almost 3.5 million other human beings, Norman was lonely. After work he catches a few beers with some of the guys every now and then, but most of his friends are the changing cast of Survivor, and while he has tried to connect with a girl, only the virtual women in his life really seem to, well – almost care. Norman is alone, and often wonders about his significance, or apparent lack of it. He needs someone some to make contact.

Susan is surrounded by four children all day long. Most of her life is spent providing for these objects of her love. She longs for time with her CEO husband, but it seems the only opportunity she has to interact with him is as his professional accessory at company gatherings. Lately, even as they lay together at night, she’s frighteningly alone. MOPS at church has been good for her kids, but with her law degree – seemingly wasting away in soccer-mom-suburbia – she finds it increasingly difficult to share her heart or dreams with anyone. Maybe she doesn’t dream anymore. Lonely Susan wonders about her purpose in life. She needs someone to make contact.

Fernando and Maria finally made it to the USA. With their four children in a basement apartment near Des Moines they have discovered that America is not always the land of plenty. Fernando and Maria trade shifts for the kids - he works graveyard shift for a local manufacturer while Maria is a teacher’s aid by day. Though they are both legal residents, they feel constantly watched. Fernando and Maria take great joy in their kids and keep in touch with their family in Mexico, supporting them with a large portion from their paycheck. They are grateful to God, but they haven’t made many friends, and still feel like strangers in a strange land. They need someone to make contact.

All around you in every corner of the North Central United States are people surrounded by other people who are alone. The grocery clerk ringing up your vegetables. The doctor examining your tonsils. The teacher complaining that your daughter is an underachiever. The supervisor making life difficult for your unit. The drunk asking for a buck in front of McDonald’s. Maybe even your own wife, or husband, or mom, or child. Loneliness - separation from one another - is pervasive. Lostness - separation from God who formed you - is pervasive.

False relationships are generated to make up for this. Virtual friends replace flesh and blood relationships. Social networking programs feel like friendships and fill a vacuum of love but can offer little in terms of real support, real nurture, and no eternal hope. Come to Annual Conference 2010 at Sky Lodge in Wisconsin this year and be part of a group of churches and leaders seeking to make contact with the lonely and lost in their community. Jesus called that love.

Invite a Norman to the church softball game. Ask a Susan over for a cup of Starbucks VIA. Go to yoga class with Maria. Play soccer with Fernando. Make contact. Love starts with contact. Contact leads to conversation. Conversation leads to conversion. Conversion leads to more lives that will make contact with the lonely and lost and the cycle of love begins again...

Annual Conference 2010 - coming right up!!

Annual Conference Update

AC2010 is all about “MAKING CONTACT!”  Explore life-giving understanding of your community to more effectively “Bring Jesus” to the hearts of people.

AC2010 is June 11 & 12 @ Sky Lodge Camp in Montello, WI.  Registration forms have been mailed to every church, pastors are to communicate with their delegates and congregations regarding registration.  The mailing included registration forms but people may also register online either via nccfmc.org or skylodge.org.

Stay current on AC2010 events via the nccfmc.org web page.  This is very important.  All church reports will be placed on the web, and not reproduced at the conference.  All reports from NCC boards and committees will be placed on the web for review PRIOR to the conference.

Ballots for the NCC Board of Administration, Ministerial Appointments Committee, and General Conference Delegates will be placed on the web at least two weeks prior to the conference for review so that delegates and pastors may make prayerful and well considered selection of leaders.

At least two unusual and very important decisions will be made at the Annual Conference.  1) General Conference delegates will be elected, which occurs only once every four years.  These delegates become your representatives to the ongoing work of listening the Word and the Spirit as God continually shapes the Free Methodist Church to impact and bless the world for Christ.   2) The Superintendent and Ministerial Education and Guidance Board are recommending a very significant MEG restructuring,  creating regional MEG boards to provide more direct oversight and guidance through the geographic expanse that is the NCC.  Documents providing detailed information will soon be available on the Annual Conference web page, so check often and pray daily!

The Agenda (still under formation) is posted online.

Breakout Training Session to help us MAKE CONTACT include:
Contact with Strangers – Olive Branch Mission
Contact with Children – Hannah Handle, Fillmore FMC
Contact with Elderly – Woodstock Christian Life Services
Contact with Community – Dr. Mark Davenport, Church Plant Director
Contact with Youth – Paul Alf and Monee FMC
Contact with Hispanics – Juan Cordova, Assistant Superintendent

Growing the North Central Conference

God’s garden called the North Central Conference grows.


Jesus said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A farmer scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, wether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself it produces grain – first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts a sickle to it, because the harvest has come” (Mark 4:26-29).


Friends who labor in the Lord’s vineyard through the Free Methodist churches in the North Central United States, you were planting some seeds. God made them grow.

NCC statistical summary (2008) 2009 -- %

Members  (2,900) 3,200 -- 10%
Worshipers (3,900) 4,206 -- 8%
Average Attendance (55) 65 --18%
Conversions  (850) 1,130 -- 33%

The upper Midwest is not a high growth region in America, and with a few exceptions, most of our churches are not located in high growth areas. The largest metropolitan statistical region in the NCC is Chicagoland, which is losing close to 2% of its population annually at present, but the overall growth rate of the NCC regionally is +/- 1%. It is encouraging to see church growth outpace population growth. This indicates that many NCC congregations are intentionally scattering the good seed of the gospel – through both word and deed – in their communities. That’s bringing Jesus to the North Central United States!


Some of the growth shift has occurred through part of the natural life cycle of local churches. The Kingdom of God endures forever, and the Church of Christ is as indestructible as her Founder. However, local groups or cells of Christ-followers come and go, live and die, prosper and suffer, transform communities and are persecuted, come and go and constantly give birth to new communities of Christ-followers who carry the torch of love and holiness into the uncharted waters of tomorrow.


It is always very sad to see a local congregation that had been strong and fruitful for many years find their continuing ministry waning and viability diminish. Over the past several years the conference has seen congregations in Loyal, WI, Iowa City, IA, Wheaton, IL and Sioux Falls, SD transition from viability to contributing to the next generation of Free Methodist growth and life. The result, however, is the birth of new churches, such as LifePointe and CrossRoads in IA, Betel and the Loop in MN, Resolution in IL (and plans are underway for a church plant in Sioux Falls, SD 2010/11). The church plants in 2009 saw over 100 new conversions, and two of the new churches (LifePointe and Resolution) are both averaging near 100 in attendance apiece.

Several congregations have had some real bust-out growth and show long-term, sustained growth through bold, apostolic leadership and a truck-load of love and care for the community. The Betel FMC (which saw 42% growth in 2009) led by Federico Rivera celebrated it’s 1 year anniversary with Bethlehem FMC (Austin, MN) and had over 200 people worshiping and celebrating. Despite severe weather in Fargo, ND the church is seeing new members join. Seniors social gatherings are solid opportunities to connect with the community in Toddville, IA. Foothills Bible Fellowship is raising funds for Haiti in South Dakota. A Super Bowl Sunday outreach was instrumental in leading a soul to Jesus in Rockford, IL. Marriages are being intentionally strengthened in LaFarge, WI. In January 2010 (without all churches reporting) 22 people made first time commitments to Jesus Christ.


Keep planting seeds NCC! God makes it grow.

2010: The Year We Make Contact

Rocket packs and robot servants. When I was a teenager and thought about the year 2010 I was sure that we would have a moon base and real bionic people. Tech revolutions would end hunger and war. Racism and genocide would be a thing of the past. 2010 seemed to be a time that would mark a turning point in human history, but as Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power, we have guided missiles and misguided men.”

The only real turning point in human history came 2000 years ago. The infant creator of the cosmos infiltrated a world mired in misery and grew to teach a path of love and sacrifice allowing humanity to partake in the divine nature. The barrier separating humanity from its creator shattered forever as the shadow of a blood stained cross fell across an empty tomb and the watershed news was proclaimed, “He is not here, he has risen!” (Luke 24:6).

The world is indeed changing, and many significant events and innovations have altered human history. The printing press, the atomic bomb, birth control, antibiotics, intercontinental flight, space travel, computer technology and global networks held in the palms of our hands. Some have estimated that 90% of all human innovation has occurred since 1984 and now we have an “app” for everything. Yet racism, genocide, slavery, poverty, violent crime, terrorism, greed and corruption still infect the human condition. In 1984, at the turning point of the technology revolution, a less than stellar film released envisioning life in 2010. A sequel to the epic 2001: A Space Odyssey, the film was 2010: The Year We Make Contact.

Long before 2010 Christ made contact, and because of what God has done, we can say, “We love because he first loved us.” The slowly rising tide of love – of looking out for the welfare of others – continues to be the theme of the gospel. Yet in many of our churches we seek self-preservation, focus on our welfare and create protective societies in which we compliment ourselves and often curse or ignore our neighbor. In many of our churches our mission seems to be to avoid contact and save ourselves.

God came to save the world. God calls you to participate in that great mission. May 2010 be the year we make contact. Make contact with the broken and needy in our neighborhoods and communities. Make contact with families in need of hope. Make contact with people of means of and influence, sharing with them the good news of a people infused with the power of God to make the world a better, kinder place – a place of blessing. Make contact with pushers and users, the abused and abusers, and dwell with them long enough for us all to experience respect, care, understanding, truth, righteousness and love. Let us no longer insulate but infiltrate.

There is no “app for that.” There is only a prayerful sacrifice of time and resources, an opening of homes, families, churches, and businesses to become conduits of Jesus’ love. Ask yourself, your church board, your pastor, your denominational leaders – and above all ask God – how we might see 2010 be the year we make contact.

Christmas Eve - Sadness and Redemption

Today is Christmas Eve. Through sleet and frozen rain I drove two hours to receive the remains of my dad from the crematorium. It was a sad drive on the bleakest of days. In a cold, gray, wet and freezing parking lot I exchanged my signature for a small box of what remains on earth of Leroy Adams. I wept.

On the way to the destination I listened to the radio. Commercials urged me to spend more money I don’t have on unnecessary junk I don’t need and I felt stress levels increase. Flipping to talk radio, I heard various versions of how rotten the liberals are or how rotten the conservatives are and got the sense that the world is full of rotten people. News stations unveiled all the reasons to despair over issues economic, environmental, political and military. Music stations pounded out tunes about how promiscuity and vacuous partying would certainly bring happiness but each song sounded gratuitously silly.

I began the journey grieving more deeply over the loss of my dad and with each passing mile found myself feeling more acutely sad.
Then I remembered – it’s Christmas Eve!

I rummaged through my little pile of CD’s and dug out a Christmas CD by a Celtic Christian group called the Crossing. As I heard in song deep and melodious truths about God’s love expressed to humankind through the miracle of incarnation my heart was again strangely warmed. Though I continued the drive to receive the ashes of my father, and the task was not one that brought joy, I felt nonetheless a deep sense of hope. Redemption of the moment came through refocus upon Jesus, through whom all things are created, and who emptied himself of everything to give His life and victorious salvation to all who would receive his gift of love.

Contrary to all the messages of despair and false gaiety a broken world leaks into modern consciousness – mine included – Christ does give real hope. Last Sunday in church my wife and I sang an “O Holy Night” with the church’s rock band and one line of great truth leapt from the song – “His law is love his gospel peace.”

I experienced this “law of love and gospel of peace” deeply on this “O Holy Night” – Christmas Eve in a cold parking lot with a box of sad remains.

Tell a Good Christmas Story

Dear Friends of the North Central Conference,

Tell the Christmas story well – it makes a difference.

People need stories today. We live in an era so full of accessible facts and information and lies and misinformation that discerning between true and false is very difficult. Most people make only a halfhearted attempt to do so. Multiple “truths” are held with little sense of discomfort for Americans. Clutching to the so called “truths” of forwarded email factoids, recycled rumors and cultural myths have taken on a level of misapplied importance. The primary topic of casual conversation among Americans are movies and television shows, with the virtual lives of others taking precedence over the real lives we live. Many of us are tied into social networking via the web and cellular technology to the degree that we know more about our friends and family who live states or nations away than we do about the flesh and blood people with whom we eat, sleep, dwell and maybe with whom we pray.

In such a time as this, the power of story and image speaks to the heart and grabs the mind more than a set of propositions or attempts at establishing an historic or scientific fact. Bishop David Roller during the recent Re-Imagine Church Events challenged Free Methodists everywhere to grasp the power of story-telling – especially the story of God. You know the story of Bethlehem well and do not need me to tell you how to tell the story. But let me encourage you to tell the story of the Most High King who so loved the world that he chose empty himself of everything in order to woo his spiritual bride that had been blind to his passion and care. The story of single teen woman who believed an angel told her the most amazing secret, and how she and the man who open-heartedly became her husband overcame tremendous difficulty in following God’s call on their lives to bring a child of salvation and hope to every human being.

Stories matter when people either have no facts or are so inundated by them that they are virtually meaningless. Let me tell the tale of how a story changed our culture.

Once upon a time, in the high middle ages (1000-1300 AD) a real social problem existed. Nobles were ignoble. Noble violence was the rule of the day. War, rape and pillaging were considered the right and normal practice of the “Lords” at the time. Peasants were target practice. Early “knightly” tournaments were money grabs, in which the death of an opponent was not the goal but it was not bad, either. When an opponent was incapacitated or murdered all of the gold, equipment and sometimes people in his possession were taken as loot. The fights were not held in a sport’s field, but fought in the streets of towns, and taken to the farmland and homes of peasants, which were often burned to force confrontation. The collateral damage to food, property, buildings and lives were part of the daily stress of the “dark ages.”

At the urging of bishops, many kings tried to outlaw the practices and contain the violence, but to no avail. The church attempted many times to create ecclesiastic laws that listed the “do nots” for nobles, but these were ignored. The law and church rules could not change the plague of violence. But the plague did change, and it was the church which created the environment for change.

Priests and clerics decided to tell stories that inspired new behavior instead of listing rules and making threats of damnation. Church leaders began to write about a code of honor called Chivalry. They told stories of nobles and knights who used their power and military prowess to defend the weak, to protect the peasant, to honor and love rather than use women. These stories were told, not read, as most nobles and certainly most peasants did not read. Around campfires, in the courts of nobles, in the churches, in the streets, people began to tell tales of noble Christian behavior.

In 1000 AD to be a noble was to be ignoble, a professional murderer and thief who controlled others through fear and force. By 1300 AD the idea of being noble took on a different meaning, with a majority of knights and nobles – still violent people by nature and trade – seeking to help others as a matter of conscience and pride. Tournaments were outlawed or altered so that weapons were blunted and activity occurred in a defined region to prevent damage to peasants and townsfolk. The idea of true devotion by a man to a woman became not a romantic notion but a reality for many.

The culture had changed because the church learned to tell a story. Does our culture need reform? It will not likely occur through new laws or churches who articulate well lists of do and don’t. What if we began to imagine and tell the story, however, of life grabbed by the purpose and overflow of love and dignity that God initiated in a manger 2000 years ago?

Once upon a time in Bethlehem. . .

North Central Christmas Connections

When the King of Glory incarnated on earth He chose Bethlehem. Angelic pomp mingled with but peasant circumstance to usher in Christmas. The same pomp and circumstance can characterize our celebration today. Free Methodists empowered by the Spirit to proclaim the good news still find modern shepherds to point toward Christ. North Central Conference congregations still identify with the poor and bring the power of presence and presents (gold, frankincense and myrrh?) into their lives. Christian families everywhere might rest in the simple grace of God instead of unaffordable glitz.

Modern shepherds are hard working men and women who barely make a living wage and would tend to believe “the walls of the church would cave in if ever I were to enter.” God cared enough for these people living on the edge that he reserved heavenly pomp for their eyes only that first Christmas. As our churches focus on “Bringing Jesus” to their communities, the Spirit of Christmas would be honored if our best were invested on communicating the hope, peace and joy of Jesus to those outside of the church.

Many NCC congregations do this well. Resolution Church in Naperville, IL (Pastors Mark Davenport, Erick and Bekki Ewaskowitz) has focused its energy on providing high-quality and attractive worship and preaching with modern shepherds in mind and see people coming to Christ for the first time each month. In Austin, Minnesota, intentional invitations to immigrants of many cultures create growth surges for the Bethlehem Free Methodist Church (Pastors David Martin and Mike Cogswell) and the Betel FMC (Pastor Federico Rivera) as people on the edge find a loving, spiritual home. Prisoners are finding freedom in Christ through many Pastors and congregation in our connection who lead and support jail ministries, such as the Heritage FMC in Burlington, IA (Pastors Wayne Ryan and Wendell McCombs), Richland Center FMC, WI (Pastors Jim Berlin and Pedro Gomez), True Worshipers in Madison, WI (Pastor Larry Jackson), St. Charles FMC in IL (Pastor Derin Fowler) and many more.

NCC churches that may desire bring their gold, frankincense and myrrh to Jesus this Christmas can do so in many ways. Jesus said when we do something for the “least of these” we do it to Him. Significant NCC ministries that exist to serve the poor, addicted, elderly and children in need are Olive Branch Mission (Chicago, IL) and Woodstock Christian Life Services (Woodstock, IL). Congregations may want to live in the spirit of Bethlehem through taking an offering for these NCC ministries. You can connect directly with them (or send a contribution to them through the NCC office):

Olive Branch Mission, 773-948-3004, http://www.obmission.org
Woodstock Christian Life Services, 815-334-6200, http://www.wclsil.org

Unaffordable glitz – the mainstay of American Christmas celebrations – can be avoided. Worshiping God and spending time with family and friends trumps wrapping paper around yet another unnecessary item. Still, even as we choose to give as a reflection of the gift God bestowed upon us, you may choose to do so with meaning. Several Free Methodist ministries allow you to purchase great gifts for others while benefiting the poor and needy around the world. You can do so by buying from Jinja Jewelry (connected with Emmanuel FMC in Janesville, WI), SEED and Heavenly Treasures. Check them out:

Jinja Jewelry – www.hopeinstituteuganda.org/jinja.php
SEED – www.fmworldmarket.org
Heavenly Treasures – www.heavenlytreasures.org

When the King of Glory incarnated on earth He chose Bethlehem. We live into this divine decision when we choose as churches and individual believers to love and care for those who live on the edge today. How are we going to live in the spirit of Bethlehem?