1. The Nehemiah Process Retreat September 14 & 15, 2016
Leadership in Scripture
Transforming Grace in Jesus
“Putting Jesus First in Who We Are and What We Do”

2. A Period of Silence
Intentional Prayer

3. A Collect Transforming Grace in Jesus
O God, in Jesus Christ you revealed the face of your love, and called us to new life in you. Transform our lives in your grace that we may know your purpose. So bind our lives to Jesus that we joyfully go out showing your love and grace to all, trusting that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us, accomplishing greater things for us than we could either ask or imagine; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

4. Leadership in Scripture
John 9:14-16
“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep fold. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.”

5. Jesus is Our Authority
Matthew 28: 18-20
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

6. Transforming Grace in Jesus Theological Foundation
Experiencing God Bible Study
Henry & Richard Blackaby and Claude King

7. The Premise God is at work in the world around us.
Through our intimate relationship with God, in Jesus…
We join God where God is working, accomplishing His purpose and ways.
This will be the focus of our time together. *

8. “The Jesus Movement” Presiding Bishop Michael Curry
Excerpts from Various Conversations
21st Global Episcopal Mission Network Conference
May 17, 2016
Executive Council June 8, 2016
Joint Standing Committee on Program, Budget and Finance
June 29, 2016

9. The Church’s Response to the Gospel
I really believe that the Gospel of Jesus Christ matters, and that its presentation by the Episcopal Church matters, profoundly and critically, in these times in which we’re living.
The Anglican way of being Christian has its origin in the way of Jesus, in the movement of Jesus, that is who we are, as Anglicans, as Episcopalians, as Christian.
We are the Jesus Movement, and when we reclaim that, oh stay with me, church, when we reclaim that, we will find ourselves in the midst of a great revolution.
But to be part of the movement also means that Episcopalians need to know Jesus of Nazareth. *

10. Knowing Jesus That’s what we’re really talking about.
We’re really talking about reclaiming the heritage of the Acts of the Apostles.
The heritage of the movement of people who were profoundly convicted by this Jesus of Nazareth because this dude really did have something to say and really did help folks get closer to God and each other.
And in the run we will find our true strength, vitality, and integrity for faithful, authentic and effective witness to the way of Jesus in our time. *

11. Fulfilling Our Baptismal Covenant
The final vow of Holy Baptism is the promise to follow and obey Jesus as Lord.
The core of the baptismal covenant is pointing both to our belief in the Triune God and how we live out our relationship with God by following the way of Jesus in our lives.
That’s the core.
We are followers of Jesus of Nazareth, people who seek to love and serve in His spirit and in His way. *

12. Being a Witness We need a witness to a way of being Christian.
A witness by a church like The Episcopal Church to a way of being Christian that is not complicit in the culture, but committed to following Jesus…
And, looking like Jesus of Nazareth, loving and caring, and serving in the way that we see Jesus doing it in the New Testament. *

13. Q& A 21st Global Episcopal Mission Network Conference
The first question focused on how to talk about Jesus without “turning people off” and whether it was simply okay to talk about the Christian way of life rather than specifically about Jesus.
Curry’s answer: Yes, Jesus has to be part of the conversation. *

14. Jesus Defines Love
The Jesus of the Gospels, no matter how you cut it, defines love as the core, the center, it is the be all and the end all, it is the beginning and the end, the way of love of God and love of neighbor, is the sum total of the entire spiritual and religious enterprise.
That Jesus (of the Gospels) consistently calls us to a higher self and is a consistent challenge to our way of being…
That Jesus is very often not simply ‘Good News’ but often ‘new news’ cause I’m not sure that that Jesus is really known, and because that Jesus isn’t really known, not really grasped and known, for us not to mention him is for him not to be in the conversation at all… *

15. Jesus The Game Changer
This Jesus is a game changer who can show us the way away from the nightmare and into something close to God’s dream for all of us.
This Jesus Movement is about some Jesus people emerging, people who actually look and sound and talk and walk like Jesus. *

16. Jesus Up Front! Put Jesus up front.
Put sharing that good news in front.
Put forming our people as followers of Jesus – as disciples for real – at the front of it.
And then put inspiring and enabling them to serve in their personal lives, and for us to witness in the public square in the front.
That’s the church; that’s the movement! *

17. It’s about the relationship
First and Foremost…
It’s about the relationship
With Jesus!

18. Silently Reflect on the Following

19. Who Is Jesus?
For Me?

20. How do I share my understanding of Jesus…
With my family?
With my friends?
With my parish?
With my community?

21. Do I really feel comfortable talking about…
Jesus?

22. My Story of Putting “Bernie” First Not So Much Jesus
A valid call to priesthood from youth
Climbing the ecclesiastical ladder of success within DIOSEF
Fr. Bernie building up St. Martin to be a diamond in the diocese
Other such “bizzzy” work
My personal low….
“Bernie, sit down. Shut up. Listen to me!” Jesus
Personal transformation begun
A journey from Doing to Being (unpack this in a few moments) *

23. My Spiritual Director Cautioned Me
“Bernie, what you are asking your parish to do is a very hard thing.
People are more into doing than being!”

24. From Doing To Being Church

25. Let’s Be Honest…. (come to Jesus time) Do You Most Often Think:
“God tells me what to do and then sends me off by my self, or with a select group, to attempt to do it?”
“That’s a great idea for a ministry project… It will help others and maybe even bring more people to my church. Let’s try it!”
“Let’s do a survey, or a demographic study, before we begin a major ministry initiative.” *

26. Current Patterns for Doing Ministry
Rush from our busy worlds to make a ministry meeting on time?
Come to a ministry initiative meeting stressed out from previous concerns of the day to discuss and plan the work of Christ’s church?
The Group Leader usually, not always, begins the meeting with a quick personal prayer, or prayer from the BCP?
People gather to participate in a ministry initiative ready to do the work, but not so much spiritually centered in the purposes for doing it? *

27. Just because a ministry plan is successful
Remember….
Just because a ministry plan is successful
does not mean
it’s from God!

28. Also Remember…
Just because a ministry plan works for the “Church of It’s Happening Here”…
Doesn’t mean it will work for “St. We’re Doing it for Jesus”
God calls each church uniquely to accomplish His purposes! *

29. The Reason the World is Passing Us By
They see what we are doing and say, “That’s nice, but I can do that same thing without having to join a church.”
What their not often seeing is our parishes accomplishing those things only God can do
Our Episcopal Church has been given great tools for evangelism
Let us allow God to determine how to best utilize them for the benefit of God’s people
Then the Church will more purposefully bring others to God’s knowledge, love and worship *

30. “Don’t Just Do Something Stand There!”
Could Jesus be saying to we the Church..?
“Stop working for me and focus on your love relationship with me.”
“Through your love relationship with me discover where I am working and join me there.”
“Get to know me. Adjust your life to me. Let me love you and give my life to you to a watching and waiting world.”
“A time will come when doing will be called for, but not at the cost of your relationship with me. The relationship must come first.” Blackaby *

31. We Cannot Skip the Relationship
God’s desire is for us to have a personal relationship with Him
Through Jesus (in baptism) we are intimately connected with God
When God invites us to join Him in His work to accomplish His purposes and ways He calls us through the love relationship
When we hear God’s voice we need to make a decision to join Him
This will require a change from what we have been doing to doing what God is inviting us to accomplish
This will cause a crisis of belief
When we join God where God is working we grow in our love relationship as we accomplish those things only God can do *

32. Focusing on God’s Will…
Gets God-sized ministry accomplished!

33. Keeping Jesus First (up front)
Will accomplish Godly purposes with lasting results!

34. Knowing and Doing the Will of God Is a Process of Transformation
It is not about a program
It is about a relationship
It is a spiritual relationship which is built upon the desires of individuals and the parish to better know the love and will of God so to accomplish God’s purposes
And, it requires discipline *

35. With Current and Future Initiatives
Putting Jesus Up Front
With Current and Future Initiatives

36. Small Ministry Groups

37. A Guide for Current Ministry Groups to Know and Do the Will of God
Are we prayerfully seeking Christ’s purpose for our ministry?
Is our Ministry Initiative bringing persons to a more intimate experience of Jesus?
If it is not doing so, how can it be transformed?
Eventually, if it cannot bring persons to Jesus, stop doing it
Future Ministry Initiatives will be intentionally designed to accomplish this objective *

38. Spiritual Aides New Initiatives Know and Do the Will of God
Are we prayerfully seeking Christ's purpose for our ministry?
Is the initiative in agreement with Scripture?
Placing the Initiative before the small group/parish for prayer and discernment
Discussion with the Rector/Vicar and prayer & discernment
Once the small group/parish believes God is calling them to join God in His work initiate the plan *

39. Spiritual Aides for Ministry Group Gatherings
Intentional prayer before and after each meeting or event
Reflection on scripture, or a bible study
Small group sharing of specific encounters with the Lord since your last meeting-based on the Cursillo Fourth Day Reunion
Holy Communion when possible
Other
Helps keep Jesus up front! *

40. Working the Process of Transformation St. Martin Ministry Initiatives
Agape Café
Parish Building and Ministry Transformation
Being here with you today and offering this presentation

41. The TGiJ Purpose
Enable persons to better grow in their love relationship with Jesus, that is real and personal
Through this love relationship we hear God’s invitation and in faith step forward joining God where God is already at work
Therefore………
No longer do ministry for the sake of doing ministry
No longer do for God but join God accomplishing what only God can do*

42. The Jesus Movement/TGiJ Are Not a New Thing
Their roots of evangelism are centered in the Jesus of the Gospels
Lived out by the early Apostolic Community of faith *

43. From Doing to Being Church
“What you are asking your parish to do is a very hard thing.
People are more into doing than being!”
John Tidy+

44. A Period of Intentional Prayer
Begin in Silence
Members offer Intentional Prayer

45. “It is important that whatever we do and wherever we go, we remain in the Name of Jesus, who sent us. Outside his Name our ministry will lose its divine energy.” Nouwen