Trinity United Methodist Church of Gainesville, Florida, United States for Tuesday, 27 January 2015 "For Good Works"

Trinity United Methodist Church of Gainesville, Florida, United States for Tuesday, 27 January 2015 "For Good Works"
"Created in Christ Jesus for good works."  (Ephesians 2:10).
I'm going to be a little critical today; forgive me in advance, please.  Wesley believed rightly that while one's personal relationship with Jesus is of utmost importance, he also believed - rightly - that focusing solely on one's personal relationship with Jesus makes for an incomplete faith - narcissism masquerading as Christian spirituality.  
I was recently talking with the regional director of "Family Promise" (formerly IHN or Interfaith Hospitality Network) about the progress being made here in Gainesville.  The one significant challenge we're still having is finding enough (13) churches to be host churches for 4 times a year.  With over 130 churches in Gainesville, how can that be so hard?!  I asked him this:  "Nationally, which churches are most involved and which are least involved."  His answer:  United Methodists are most, with 20% of all the churches, Roman Catholics are in at 10%, Presbyterians and Lutherans at 10%, etc.  The least:  the independent, community churches, which, he said, tend to be focused more on themselves.  
I had suspected this.  Here are a couple of observations:
1.  It's in the DNA of United Methodists to want to engage in acts of mercy; they were a part of our origin, going back not only to John Wesley, but also to Jesus and further back to Micah and Amos!
2.  In fairness, as churches start out, they often are self focused, but hopefully, they grow out of it, but not always.
3.  There is more that we can and should be doing - and with God's help and our determination we will!
4.  We must be careful we don't focus more on works of mercy than on personal relationship with Jesus - both - not either/or!!
5.  Pray for our ministry through the new Faith Mission and other outreach ministries!
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Dan Johnson. 352-317-4409
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