Hungry?

Come out and support the Wesley Spring Break Team. Come to the Harrisonburg Applebee's tomorrow night (Tuesday 11/10) between 5-9 pm, bring your flyer (which you can download here), and the Spring Break team will receive 15% of your total bill.

You gotta eat dinner, right? So why not eat and support a great, great cause!

the times, they are a changin'

If you haven't been by lately, or haven't heard, Wesley is changing things up a bit. Council has been having conversations about this for a while and we all agreed (to some degree) that Wesley needs to change. We feel that the spirit of Wesley has been lost and that we as a faith community are stuck in a club routine. It also feels like Jesus is not as present at Wesley as he used to be.

Don't get us wrong, we do some amazing things at Wesley and there are somethings that are going really well like Spring Break missions trips, Brother 2 Brother and Sister 2 Sister, plus our new addition of Wesley 2 Wesley. But in other areas we are stuck in the 50 year old Wesley pattern. People aren't showing up to social events, nor to Bible study. Some people aren't feeling the connections and sense of community that use to be present (and some still are).

So our discussion has been about what is it that we are looking for in a faith community and how to we transform Wesley into a better faith community, taking what we have that is going well and making it better. The big pattern that is emerging is a desire for missions and passionate worship. Young adults today are yearning to serve others and figure out where they are heading/what is their calling. And the other big theme is real community, interacting with people on a deeper level.

So what has been proposed is a new Wesley. It's still in an abstract form and there are lots of questions unanswered, but here it is. We want to provide opportunities for service and mission as the door to get young adults into the faith community and combine that with powerful and passionate worship and deep connections within small groups.

So what are your questions? What do you like and what don't you like? What are problems you see and what are potential benefits? Basically, we want to know your thoughts!

What's Your Story?

I recently finished reading the newest book by Don Miller (the author of Blue Like Jazz). It's called A Million Miles in a Thousand Years and discusses the importance of living life as if it's a story. As I was reading it, I just sort of blew through it - you know, to see how fast I could read it - but now that I've finished it and had time to process it, the core idea of it has really hit me. The question we should ask is: What do we want our story to say? If someone were to pick up our story a hundred years after we're gone, would we want that story told? What would it say?

I know that in life, we get caught up with all sorts of minor details... A test tomorrow. A final paper due in a couple weeks. What we're having for lunch...

But what would it mean to stop for just a minute and think about the big picture? How do these little moments fit in to the larger scheme of things?

I encourage you, first, to read this book. And second, I encourage you to think throughout each and every day in every little moment how this - whatever this is - fits into the story you want to tell. Or perhaps more importantly, the story that God wants to tell - through you.

Youth + Responsibility

I traveled this morning to Charlottesville, home of Aldersgate UMC to hear Matt preach. Those of you who haven't heard him are really missing out. Aldersgate was having their Youth Sunday, highlighting the things that their youth group has been up to. Unfortunately, their youth group took a hit from the flu and had a small representation there. Prayers for healing for their youth!

Anyways, here's what I got out of the sermon. Matt talked about the youth having the responsibility to save the church. Not save it as in changing any doctrine, but save it as in bringing life back into the church through membership (and finances, but we won't talk about that part until we have real jobs). It sounds like a big task, and it is, but we shouldn't feel disheartened or inadequate or impatient for the job to get done. Matt's main point was that we have to focus on the small gains that we make, not getting discouraged by the large task at hand. Small gains like bringing a friend to Church on Sunday, getting a friend to sign up for the missions trip (Spring Break 2010- South Carolina- You should come!). By focusing on the positive small gains, the large task doesn't feel so daunting does it?

I was thinking about this relating to school, which we as college students all know (or should know). When you get assigned a big term paper at the beginning of the semester it feels like a huge daunting task right? But what happens if you split it into smaller parts to work on, does that make it seem easier? So you do some research and general background reading on the topic, and then you're able to focus your topic better than when you knew nothing. Then you can start asking questions and finding answers. And finally you write, just getting thoughts on the page, even if they're not well written or grammatically correct. Just thoughts. Once you have some thoughts, then you can go back and edit. But the hardest part always seems to be getting the thoughts in your head transformed to words on the screen (or paper). Can you tell I have a term paper?

The scripture today was 1 Timothy 4-16 and Joshua 1:1-9. In relation to the paper, or the large task, what these two verses tell us is that in order to not become impatient or feel inadequate, you have to persevere, be diligent and do not get discouraged. These three things will help to keep your focus on the positive short term goals and gains rather than freaking out about the long term.

Time to get back to the paper.

Passion-full or Passion-less?

A recurrent theme in my life, and that seems to be showing up a lot at Wesley too is passion. I get the feeling that our generation, and the world in general right now (or at least what I know of the world) is numb. How can we rekindle the fire?

It's really hard to think about what your passions truly are. I want to say "Jesus" because I feel like it's the right thing to say (especially on a campus ministry blog), but I'm not sure that I'm there yet. I do believe that the Wesley House is one of my passions, but then the question is how do you show passion? Do you find yourself talking to friends, family and random strangers about how awesome the Wesley House is? Do you find yourself always wanting more on a Thursday night, or after a Bible study (Tuesdays at 5pm!)? See, it is hard! I'm not sure about the random strangers, but I do find myself thinking about Wesley a lot, and talking to my friends about everything we're doing. But is that really passion?

So here's my challenge to you. Think about what you are passionate about and how you show that passion and comment.

Website

Just in case you were wondering, our website is http://orgs.jmu.edu/wesleyfoundation. We are currently working on a new website, but it's not up yet. We'll let you know when it is. ;o)

when Wesley first spoke

Once upon a time there was a little community at JMU that called itself the Wesley House that really wanted to grow. We're not talking about getting taller, or larger, we're talking about growing in Christ.

I've noticed that our generation seems to be stagnant. The generation of current college students and young professionals are looking for more to life, a way to be happy with what they have amist our materialistic culture. How can you get closer to Christ when society is telling you to live your life differently? I've also noticed that compared to past generations (our parents and grandparents) there's also been a loosening of morals. I'm not sure this is entirely bad, but in the college community it certainly yields more questions. Like how can I go out and party with my friends and still call myself a Christian.

Here at the Wesley House we're trying to find these answers and support each other in our journey to be a living vision of Christ in this world. Come visit us and find out more. ;o)