{"id":4117,"date":"2013-04-26T18:00:34","date_gmt":"2013-04-27T01:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/?p=4117"},"modified":"2015-04-21T21:48:32","modified_gmt":"2015-04-22T04:48:32","slug":"journeys-ways-we-are-answering-jesus-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/journeys-ways-we-are-answering-jesus-call\/","title":{"rendered":"Journeys: Ways we are answering Jesus&#8217; call"},"content":{"rendered":"<style><!--\np.padding {padding-left:.5cm;}\n--><\/style>\n<p><em>Journeys:<\/em><br \/>\n<strong>Ways we are answering Jesus&#8217; Call<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>By Joan Holms<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Conference Lay Leader Joan Holms shares her experiences visiting various churches in the PNW who are both thriving and struggling while answering Jesus\u2019 call to feed His sheep.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Over the past 10 months, I have visited many churches in the Conference and I always enjoy hearing from members about their church. Quite frequently I hear stories of decline. I hear&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cWe are a small congregation.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cWe are an aging congregation.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Next, I might be told what the church used to look like:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cThere were once many more people in worship.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cThe youth group was active.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cThe Sunday School was thriving.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Only after sharing stories about the past, folks will share the stories of today\u2019s church and more often than not, I hear stories about congregations utilizing their resources to feed the hungry, house the homeless, and care for the vulnerable in society. Not only are they transforming their communities, they, too, are being transformed.<br \/>\n<!--more How are PNW churches answering this call?--><br \/>\nAs I write this, we are approaching the 3rd Sunday of Easter. The lectionary gospel reading from John tells the story of the disciples encountering Jesus while fishing on the sea of Tiberias. At first, they don\u2019t recognize Jesus. Once they do, and have eaten together, Jesus asks Simon Peter if he loves him. Three times the questions is asked and answered. \u201cYes, Lord; you know that I love you.\u201d And three times Jesus tells the disciple what it is he is to do; \u201cFeed my lambs,\u201d \u201cTend my sheep,\u201d \u201cFeed my sheep.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Many of our laity recognize Jesus in the faces of those they encounter and they understand that Jesus calls each of us to \u201cfeed his sheep\u201d. As a result, wonderful and amazing things are happening. Many congregations have heard this call and have responded. And because they responded&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Homeless families have a warm, dry place to sleep at the end of the day at Sand Point Community UMC in Seattle.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>ESL and computer classes are available to those who are new to the community at La Palabra Viviente in the city of Everett, Wash.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Members of the community have a hot meal awaiting them every Saturday afternoon at Moses Lake UMC.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Homeless women can shower, do laundry, receive a hot meal and receive help in finding permanent housing at Renton First UMC.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These stories only scratch the surface of the myriad ways that our congregations around the Conference are answering Jesus\u2019 call. I can\u2019t wait to hear the many untold stories as I visit churches in the months and years ahead. If you have a story of the ways in which your faith community is answering Jesus\u2018 call to \u201cfeed my sheep\u201d you are invited to share them with us on Facebook. Look for the Pacific Northwest Laity Page &#8211; it is open to all laity. Your story may be the one that sparks the imagination of another to find a new way to respond to this call. I hope you will share.<\/p>\n<p>The Journey continues&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><center><em>Joan Holms serves as the Conference Lay Leader for the PNWUMC.<\/em><br \/>\n<em> Holms is a member of Queen Anne UMC (Seattle, Wash.)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rqmweb.com\/results.asp?q=pnwumc&amp;resID=3118&amp;detail=Y\" target=\"_blank\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"In Our Midst (D4810)\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/LINK_RESOURCES_InOurMidst.jpg?w=696\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td>\n<p class=\"padding\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rqmweb.com\/results.asp?q=pnwumc&amp;resID=3118&amp;detail=Y\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>In Our Midst (D4810)<\/strong><\/a><br \/>\nThere is more to a city than meets the eye. Edmonds, 20 miles north of Seattle, has multi-million dollar homes with expansive views of the Puget Sound. Boutiques and expensive restaurants line the streets in the downtown core. It also has people who need the services of the food bank at Edmonds United Methodist Church. See how this church has met the weekly food needs for 248 families.  To reserve this video now, e-mail <a href=\"mailto:ejohanson@pnwumc.org?Subject=Re: In Our Midst (D4810)\">The Regional Media Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Journeys: Ways we are answering Jesus&#8217; Call By Joan Holms Conference Lay Leader Joan Holms shares her experiences visiting various churches in the PNW who are both thriving and struggling while answering Jesus\u2019 call to feed His sheep. Over the past 10 months, I have visited many churches in the Conference and I always enjoy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":4118,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[111,6,37],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4117","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-channels","8":"category-conversation","9":"category-laity"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/COLUMNS_Journeys1.jpg?fit=600%2C308&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-14p","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4117"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10172,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4117\/revisions\/10172"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}