Author Archives: elizabeth.turner

Looking Ahead – WME Upcoming Events – June 2020

WME is involved in a variety of ministries and covets your prayers for these upcoming events:

Thursday Evening Prayer ~ Facebook Live – 8pm (Eastern time)

Join us for evening prayer each Thursday on Facebook Live. Led by Kim Reisman, this brief time of guided prayer brings together WME’s global Prayer and Fasting Community as well as many others to pray for our world.

June 4, 2020
June 11, 2020
June 18, 2020
June 25, 2020

Real Faith – Real World ~ A podcast connecting the faith within us to the world around us.

Tune in every other Monday for engaging interviews, discussions, and teaching on a wide variety of issues. RFRW is available on most podcast platforms as well as on the WME website

June 8, 2020 ~ Faith and Science in a Global Pandemic with David Wilkinson

June 22, 2020 ~Ministry to Immigrant Communities with Zach Szmara


June 9, 2020 ~Fanning the FLAME
– facilitated video conversation

Fanning the FLAME facilitated video conversations are offered monthly to members of the Order of the FLAME. These conversations are offered to encourage your spirit and support you in ministry. Second Tuesday of every month at 3pm Eastern time. Links will be sent to FLAME members via email. In June we’ll be talking about Preaching in the current climate–from protest to pandemic.

 

Looking Ahead – WME Upcoming Events – May 2020

WME is involved in a variety of ministries and covets your prayers for these upcoming events:

Thursday Evening Prayer ~ Facebook Live – 8pm (Eastern time)

Join us for evening prayer each Thursday on Facebook Live. Led by Kim Reisman, this brief time of guided prayer brings together WME’s global Prayer and Fasting Community as well as many others to pray for our world.

May 7, 2020
May 14, 2020
May 21, 2020
May 28, 2020

Real Faith – Real World ~ A podcast connecting the faith within us to the world around us.

Tune in every other Monday for engaging interviews, discussions, and teaching on a wide variety of issues. RFRW is available on most podcast platforms as well as on the WME website

May 11, 2020 ~ What is evangelism? Kim Reisman and Rob Haynes

May 25, 2020 ~ The Body of Hope. Rob Haynes and Beth Felker Jones


May 12, 2020 ~Fanning the FLAME
– facilitated video conversation

Fanning the FLAME facilitated video conversations are offered monthly to members of the Order of the FLAME. These conversations are offered to encourage your spirit and support you in ministry. Second Tuesday of every month at 2pm central time. Links will be sent to FLAME members via email. In May we’ll be talking about church planting.

 

Looking Ahead – WME Upcoming Events – April 2020

WME is involved in a variety of ministries and covets your prayers for these upcoming events:

April 14, 2020 ~ Fanning the FLAME – Ministry in the COVID Climate

Fanning the FLAME facilitated video conversations are offered monthly to members of the Order of the FLAME. These conversations are offered to encourage your spirit and support you in ministry. Second Tuesday of every month at 2pm central time. Links will be sent to FLAME members via email.

Coming Soon – Tune in to the Real Faith/Real World Podcast

 

May 28-29, 2020 ~ Upper New York UMC Annual Conference, Syracuse, New York, USA (Kim Reisman teaching)

 

Looking Ahead – WME Upcoming Events – March 2020

WME is involved in a variety of ministries and covets your prayers for these upcoming events:

March 6-8, 2020 ~ Mission Celebration, First Broad Street UMC, Kingsport, Tennessee, USA (Kim Reisman teaching/preaching)

Kim Reisman will provide leadership for First Broad Street UMC’s annual Mission Celebration Weekend and preach during the Sunday worship services.

March 9-13, 2020 ~ Order of the FLAME, St. Simons Island, Georgia, USA

WME’s Order of the FLAME (Faithful Leaders as Mission Evangelists) is an ethnically and culturally diverse covenant community within the Wesleyan Methodist family that equips, nurtures, and encourages young clergy and their spouses in evangelism and mission through an annual gathering, ongoing support, and timely resources.

The 2020 gathering will include preaching and teaching from WME staff along with Jorge Acevedo, Safiyah Fosua, Luigi Penaranda, Joy Moore, and many others.

March 27-29, 2020 ~ Embrace: Showing and Sharing the Love of Jesus, St. Paul’s Chinese Methodist Church, Auckland, New Zealand (Rob Haynes teaching/preaching)

Rob Haynes will provide teaching in Embrace for various churches in the Methodist Wesleyan family in New Zealand. St. Paul’s Chinese Methodist Church will host and Rob will preach in their worship services on Sunday.

Embrace training offers a way to think about faith sharing that empowers people to become comfortable showing and sharing the love of Jesus in a way that is authentic and natural. You can learn more about how your church, district, conference, or other organization can host an Embrace workshop.

Additional Upcoming Events:

April 24-25, 2020 ~ Embrace Training, Christ Church Memphis; Memphis, TN; All are welcome to this community event (Kim Reisman teaching)

May 28-29, 2020 ~ Upper New York UMC Annual Conference, Syracuse, New York, USA (Kim Reisman teaching)[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Honoring History and a Continued Vision

It’s 1971 and the World Methodist Council has decided to proclaim its belief that “preaching the gospel and making disciples of Jesus Christ are the supreme business of the Church.” With that commitment, World Methodist Evangelism was born.

Fast forward to 2020 and WME is still committed to preaching the gospel and making disciples of Jesus Christ by equipping people all over the world to show and share the love of Jesus.

Having grown out of the work of the World Methodist Council (WMC), WME continues to collaborate and partner with the WMC as an affiliate member, working within and beyond the network of 80 Methodist, Wesleyan, and related Uniting and United Churches that make up the global Wesleyan Methodist family. What a blessing it is to be a connection point for the over 80 million Christ followers in 138 countries that make up this amazing family!

Our world has seen many changes since 1971 and WME has been on the forefront of those changes. In the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, we were able to come alongside the people of Eastern Europe as they discovered and rediscovered faith in Jesus Christ. Through our commitment to multiplication, new churches were started in Estonia, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, and Slovakia. WME’s commitment to cultivating leaders led us to send a missionary to Estonia for the sole purpose of founding a seminary. That seminary – the Baltic Methodist Theological Seminary – has now been training Christian leaders for over 25 years. The commitment to multiplication and the cultivation of leaders continues in a variety of ways such as our newest collaboration with the Methodist Church of Cuba for church planting and the strengthening of their seminary.

In the early 1980’s WME began gathering young adults from all over the world to deepen faith and strengthen community. Since 1980, these International Christian Youth Conferences on Evangelism (rebranded Metanoia to emphasize the importance of transformation) have impacted the lives of over 6,650 young adults. Many current leaders across the global Methodist Wesleyan family can point to their experience at Metanoia/ICYCE as a turning point on their journey of faith. Our next Metanoia global gatherings will be in Sweden in August 2021 and in South Africa in 2023. Learn more about Metanoia HERE.  Have you ever attended an ICYCE or Metanoia event? We’d love to hear from you! Email us your experience to info@worldmethodist.org.

Since 1996 WME has been equipping young clergy and their spouses for evangelism through the Order of the FLAME (Faithful Leaders As Mission Evangelists). Through this ethnically and culturally diverse covenant community, young leaders come to see themselves not simply as pastors to their congregations, but as mission evangelists to their entire communities. Over 2500 young leaders have been impacted through this ministry and we’re excited to be able to expand it this year by offering FLAME 2.0 – a mentoring program for a select cohort of young clergy that will launch later this spring.

Throughout our time as a committee of the World Methodist Council and now in our current work as a Council affiliate and autonomous, 501(c)3 organization, WME has been blessed to witness the powerful work of the Holy Spirit. God continues to place new opportunities before us and blesses us with new missional and collaborative relationships for the advancement of the gospel. We are grateful to everyone who has come alongside us for this great work![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator border_width=”6″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Looking Ahead – WME Upcoming Events – Feb 2020

WME is involved in a variety of ministries and covets your prayers for these upcoming events:

February 15-16, 2020 ~ Embrace: Showing and Sharing the Love of Jesus, Chapelwood UMC, Lake Jackson, Texas, USA (Rob Haynes teaching)

Rob Haynes will provide leadership to launch the Embrace small group study at Chapelwood United Methodist Church.

February 19, 2020 ~ Spring 2020 Missiology Seminar, Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, Kentucky, USA  (Kim Reisman and Rob Haynes teaching)

Rob Haynes and Kim Reiman will provide leadership at Asbury’s annual Missiology seminar around the topic of Embrace: Showing and Sharing the Love of Jesus.

March 6-8, 2020 ~ Mission Celebration, First Broad Street UMC, Kingsport, Tennessee, USA (Kim Reisman teaching/preaching)

Kim Reisman will provide leadership for First Broad Street UMC’s annual Mission Celebration Weekend and preach during the Sunday worship services.

March 9-13, 2020 ~ Order of the FLAME, St. Simons Island, Georgia, USA

WME’s Order of the FLAME (Faithful Leaders as Mission Evangelists) is an ethnically and culturally diverse covenant community within the Wesleyan Methodist family that equips, nurtures, and encourages young clergy and their spouses in evangelism and mission through an annual gathering, ongoing support, and timely resources.

The 2020 gathering will include preaching and teaching from WME staff along with Jorge Acevedo, Safiyah Fosua, Joy Moore, and many others. For more information click here.

Additional Upcoming Events:

April 24-25, 2020 Embrace Training, Christ Church Memphis; Memphis, TN; All are welcome to this community event (Kim Reisman teaching)

May 28-29, 2020 ~ Upper New York UMC Annual Conference, Syracuse, New York, USA (Kim Reisman teaching)

Embrace: Showing and Sharing the Love of Jesus

All over the world, people have difficulty sharing their faith. They can share about their love for their children, or their excitement about a new movie or restaurant, but sharing about their faith feels much harder. Yet evangelism, at its core is not a rigid set of techniques to be mastered. Rather, it is simply showing and sharing the love of Jesus.

World Methodist Evangelism recently released a new study book titled, Embrace: Showing and Sharing the Love of Jesus. This book is an evangelism resource written by WME Executive Director Dr. Kimberly Reisman through her PhD work.  Her book offers a way to think about evangelism that can help people become comfortable showing and sharing the love of Jesus in a way that is authentic and natural. It sets out six essential values that are at the heart of authentic faith-sharing: humility, clarity, prayer, integrity, worship, and urgency. These values remain constant no matter where in the world we live. Our practices may change from place to place and time to time, but no matter where we are or what kind of culture we live in, these values form the foundation for everything we do to show and share the love of Jesus.

“I’ve been teaching this format around the world for quite some time now,” Reisman says. “The response has been fantastic. There is such a need for authentic and holistic approaches to evangelism, it’s been really encouraging.”

She says she’s seen Embrace change the trajectory of faith-sharing on three different levels. “First is the personal level – people become more in touch with their own experience of faith, their own story; and more in touch with the way their story intersects with God’s story.” Embrace is not aimed at doctrine or theology but their personal experience and commitments. “So it’s not about having all the answers,” Kim explains. “It’s about a willingness to walk with others as they explore the possibility of faith.”

The second trajectory she names is communal. “People begin to see that the process of showing and sharing the love of Jesus is intertwined with everything else that happens in their congregation – worship, small groups, outreach, mission, everything. And they recognize that following Jesus can’t be done in a vacuum.” Then she adds, “We need each other on this journey.”

A holistic aspect is the third level she mentions. Kim describes it like this. “People realize that evangelism isn’t a one-off thing. It’s a process that involves not just what we preach or communicate verbally – but what we do – how we live – the activity of our lives.” And, most importantly, there’s the involvement of the Holy Spirit. “The Holy Spirit needs space and time to move,” Kim emphasizes. “This third element is probably the thing that has been overlooked the most. Embrace helps people bring all three of those elements together in a fresh and powerful way.”

WME hopes the Embrace training events will be transformational for those who attend. The hope is that people will realize, as the woman at the well did, that no matter where they are coming from, God can work in and through us to share the good news of living water, new life, faith, hope, and love to a suffering world.

Embrace presents humility, clarity, prayer, integrity, worship, and urgency as the essence of authentic evangelism. Reisman concludes, “Such an understanding changes how we share, and I believe moves us closer to being evangelists in the manner of John Wesley.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator border_width=”6″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Upcoming Embrace Training Event:

Brentwood United Methodist Church
February 21 & 22, 2020
Embrace: Showing and Sharing the Love of Jesus
Presented by Rev. Dr. Kimberly Reisman,
Executive Director, World Methodist Evangelism

Embrace evangelism training is available in several formats. In addition to the study book, there is an Embrace Church Resource Kit available to augment the study book experience. It includes a copy of the study book, Scripture passages, sermon series ideas, slide templates, and other resources to coordinate Sunday worship with the small group curriculum.

Embrace can also be taught in a 1½ to 2 day workshop context in congregational, district, conference or other organizational settings.

For additional information or questions about hosting an event at your church, go to https://www.worldmethodist.org/resources/embrace/
or contact WME at info@worldmethodist.org.

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Looking Ahead – WME Upcoming Events – Jan 2020

WME is involved in a variety of ministries and covets your prayers for these upcoming events:

January 9-12, 2020 ~ A Foundation for Theological Education Conference, Dallas, Texas, USA

As a Senior Harry Denman Fellow, Director of Education and Leadership Rob Haynes will participate in this annual gathering of Harry Denman and John Wesley Fellows. A Foundation for Theological Education provides funding for students engaged in doctoral (PhD) work in a variety of theological disciplines.

January 10-11, 2020 ~ Embrace: Showing and Sharing the Love of Jesus, Roselle UMC, Roselle, Illinois, USA (Kim Reisman teaching ~ congregational event)

February 15-16, 2020 ~ Embrace: Showing and Sharing the Love of Jesus, Chapelwood UMC, Lake Jackson, Texas, USA (Rob Haynes teaching)

Rob Haynes will provide leadership to launch the Embrace small group study at Chapelwood United Methodist Church.

February 19, 2020 ~ Spring 2020 Missiology Seminar, Asbury Seminary, Wilmore, Kentucky, USA  (Kim Reisman and Rob Haynes teaching)

Kim Reisman and Rob Haynes will be teaching on  Embrace: Showing and Sharing the Love of Jesus at Asbury Seminary.

February 21-23, 2020 ~ Embrace: Showing and Sharing the Love of Jesus, Brentwood UMC, Brentwood, Tennessee, USA (Kim Reisman teaching)

Embrace evangelism training offers a way to think about evangelism that empowers people to become comfortable showing and sharing the love of Jesus in a way that is authentic and natural. You can learn more about how your church, district, conference, or other organization can host an Embrace workshop here.

This Embrace training event is open to the public. We would also like to invite Order of the FLAME members and folks in the Tennessee Annual Conference of the UMC in particular to attend. For more information, contact Libby Wyatt – libby@worldmethodist.org


Additional Upcoming Events:

March 9-13, 2020 ~ The Order of the FLAME, St. Simons Island, Georgia, USA

March 16, 2020 — North Alabama Conference UMC, Birmingham, AL (Extended Cabinet Training)

April 24-25, 2020 — Christ Church Memphis; Memphis, TN; All are welcome to this community event (Kim Reisman teaching)

May 28-29, 2020 ~ Upper New York UMC Annual Conference, Syracuse, New York, USA (Kim Reisman teaching)

WME Upcoming Events – Dec 2019

WME is involved in a variety of ministries and covets your prayers for these upcoming events:

December 8, 2019 ~ RIM Resident, Annie Kate Leinius, Commissioning Service, Central United Methodist Church, Lenoir City, Tennessee, USA

Director of Education and Leadership Rob Haynes will join WME’s second Resident in Mission, Annie Kate Leinius for her commissioning service at her home church, Central United Methodist Church, in Lenoir City, Tennessee, USA. She will begin her work in New Zealand in January. Please join us in praying for Annie Kate as she takes this important next step in her journey of faith and ministry.

January 9-12, 2020 ~ A Foundation for Theological Education Conference, Dallas, Texas, USA

As a Senior Harry Denman Fellow, Director of Education and Leadership Rob Haynes will participate in this annual gathering of Harry Denman and John Wesley Fellows. A Foundation for Theological Education provides funding for students engaged in doctoral (PhD) work in a variety of theological disciplines.

February 15-16, 2020 ~ Embrace: Showing and Sharing the Love of Jesus, Chapelwood UMC, Lake Jackson, Texas, USA (Rob Haynes teaching)

Rob Haynes will provide leadership to launch the Embrace small group study at Chapelwood United Methodist Church.

February 19, 2020 ~ Spring 2020 Missiology Seminar, Asbury Seminary, Wilmore, Kentucky, USA  (Kim Reisman and Rob Haynes teaching)

Kim Reisman and Rob Haynes will be teaching on  Embrace: Showing and Sharing the Love of Jesus at Asbury Seminary.

February 21-23, 2020 ~ Embrace: Showing and Sharing the Love of Jesus, Brentwood UMC, Brentwood, Tennessee, USA (Kim Reisman teaching)

Embrace evangelism training offers a way to think about evangelism that empowers people to become comfortable showing and sharing the love of Jesus in a way that is authentic and natural. You can learn more about how your church, district, conference, or other organization can host an Embrace workshop here.

All Order of the FLAME members as well as folks in the Tennessee Annual Conference of the UMC are invited to attend this Embrace evangelism training event. For more information, contact Libby Wyatt – libby@worldmethodist.org


Additional Upcoming Events:

March 9-13, 2020 ~ The Order of the FLAME, St. Simons Island, Georgia, USA

May 28-29, 2020 ~ Upper New York UMC Annual Conference, Syracuse, New York, USA (Kim Reisman teaching)