Author Archives: Kim Reisman

At World Methodist Evangelism, we engage with the world in ways which feel current and timely. Often, I travel to wonderful places around the world where I witness to and participate in God’s inbreaking Kingdom. It is amazing to see the same Spirit of God at work in different cultures, through different languages. 

Yet the church is not just what we can see here and now. When we participate together in worship, we not only allow God to form and shape our hearts, we allow other Christians to serve as channels of God’s grace in our lives. Even further, we allow ourselves to be shaped and molded by other Christians long gone who came before us – sisters and brothers who wrote prayers, hymns and established worship practices many centuries before we were born. 

Last week, many Christians observed All Saints’ Day, and yesterday congregations set aside time to remember the saints from local churches who died in the past year. These times often are marked by gratitude for their lives and examples, grief at their loss, and hope for ultimate reunion and restoration. Honoring All Saints’ Day can point us to three simple truths about the universal church. 

First, the church is bigger than we can imagine. Not only is it difficult to remember how many Christians are living and worshiping around the world, it can also be a challenge to recall, along with the writer of the book of Hebrews, that we are surrounded by a “great cloud of witnesses.” It is hard to feel isolated or alone when we read about the lives of Christians who have come before us. 

Second, the church existed before easy international travel was possible. Now, one can fly from one side of the globe to the other in 24 hours or less. But technology does not make the church possible: the church was birthed in a simple room where people were gathered praying to receive the Holy Spirit. Throughout the centuries, the church was never extinguished. Certainly, technological advancements helped certain movements of God, like the invention of the printing press or ships built to cross oceans. They are tools that can be used, but the church is not dependent on these tools: the church is only dependent on God. 

Third, the church outlasts kingdoms, nations, empires, and leaders. Dynasties rose and fell, kings lived and died, nations conquered and diminished. Whatever the local context, the church has always outlasted it, because it is founded on Jesus Christ, not on any nation’s values or goals. No tyrant can destroy the church, and no hero can save it: it is the Body of Christ enlivened by the Holy Spirit, beyond eradication. We can steward it well through the insights of scripture and the examples of the saints and the empowering of the Holy Spirit, but no one owns it. 

How do you picture the church? Have you fostered an awareness of the great communion of saints in which you participate? What are your hopes for the Body of Christ this year? 

Recently I visited Rome for a meeting of the Steering Committee of the World Methodist Council. Our meeting coincided with the 50th anniversary of the launch of the Roman Catholic-Methodist Dialogue. To mark that jubilee event, we had a private audience with Pope Francis and several lectures on the details of the dialogue process over these past 50 years. It was an incredible experience. 

There were several things that I expected about this trip – to be wide-eyed at the beauty of the city. To be star-struck by Pope Francis. To be nervous amid the pomp and protocol of the Vatican and the Swiss Guards. 

What I didn’t expect was to learn much about evangelism. I was wrong. My experience in the Eternal City taught me three important things about evangelism. 

1) The importance of patience. The dialogue between the Methodist family of Christians and the Roman Catholic family of Christians has been going on for 50 years. It began with a commitment simply to talk. To learn about the other. Slowly, a depth of commonality emerged – shared theological understandings of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Of baptism, justification, and holiness. With each new discovery came a desire to continue talking and walking together, a commitment that is moving with joyful anticipation into the next 50 years. 

Fifty years of conversation. Fifty more to come. Patience was, is, and will be crucial. 

The same can be said of evangelism. We must be willing to walk with others for a long time, patiently nurturing a desire to continue talking, sharing, and learning. Patiently praying for the Holy Spirit to move within us, and between us, and through us. 

If we are patient, as we walk and talk with others, we will uncover a depth of commonality and shared need. Why should it be otherwise? We are all human. 

If we are patient, as we walk and talk with others, we will discover that God arrived long before we did – prepared the soil, planted seeds, watered and weeded and pruned in ways that we could never imagine or predict. 

If we are patient, as we walk and talk with others, we will realize that the Holy Spirit works in two directions, transforming us, not just others. If we are patient, the Holy Spirit will open our eyes to the ways our story, and another’s story, and God’s story all intersect and intertwine. And if we are patient, those intersections can become opportunities to share our own experience of faith and point others to the center of that faith – Jesus Christ. 

2) The power of imagery. This week culminates the wide-ranging celebrations that have marked 500 years since the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. The Reformation was a powerful movement that opened a new chapter of spiritual growth and exploration. And yet, for all the wonderful things gained through this break with the Roman Catholic Church, I believe (at least) one significant thing was lost (or forgotten): the power of imagery. In our zeal for reform, we abandoned statues and imagery and focused on The Word to convey the profound spiritual truths of the Christian faith. But spiritual truth is always laden with mystery, and the Holy Spirit moves in ways that are often deeper than words alone can describe.  

While in Rome I visited the Sistine Chapel, adorned with Michelangelo’s stunning frescoes. On the end wall is his vision of the Last Judgment taken from John’s Revelation. It is a powerful piece of art, almost overwhelming in its detail. And yet, at the center is the resurrected Christ. The entire scene revolves around him. You can see the holes in his feet from the nails of the cross, and the cut in his side from the spear of the Roman guard. 

As I focused, I realized this Christ looked completely different from other renderings I had seen. This Christ was full-bodied and strong. He was muscular and his posture exuded power and authority. His sheer physicality was remarkable. 

I have always emphasized the whole-creation nature of salvation. When God’s kingdom comes in its fullness, it will be amidst the physical universe – not in some far away spiritual realm. And yet, gazing at this robust embodiment of God, the tangible and earthly nature of God’s future hit me in a new way. Seeing, rather than reading or hearing, heightened my spiritual awareness. 

In evangelism, we can never limit God to words. This may seem counterintuitive given the age-old association of evangelism with preaching. But God is bigger than words alone can contain. And God reveals Godself to the whole of who we are – not just to our minds, but to our senses, our emotions, our intuitions, our passions. If we are to become channels of Holy Spirit transformation, we must be willing to discover or rediscover the power of images to convey truths much deeper than words alone can convey. 

3) The significance of space. The steady growth in conversation between Methodists and Roman Catholics required space. Each had to create space for the other to inhabit. Each had to “make room” for the other before thoughts and ideas could be exchanged. 

Though we may not describe it this way, at the heart of the Christian understanding of God is an understanding of space. When God created the universe from nothing, God first had to create space for it to inhabit. When God became human in Jesus, his open arms on the cross signaled that God had created space for humanity to return to fellowship. In all of God’s seeking and searching, God creates space within God’s very self, for each of us and for all creation. 

Evangelism is about creating space – making room. We will never be able to share the gospel with others if we have not first made space for them in our lives and in our hearts. That space frees the Holy Spirit to do her* work so that lives can be transformed and God’s kingdom more fully realized.  

How has travel expanded your perspective on faith-sharing? What have you learned when you are in a new setting? How have you practiced patience, valued the arts, or created space in your own posture towards others? 

*It was common for some early church fathers especially in the East, including Aphraates, to refer not to the whole Godhead but individually to the Holy Spirit with feminine pronouns, such as in “The Fifty Homilies of Makarios,” a church father who influenced Count Zinzendorf and John Wesley. 

Last week, as can be read about more extensively here, Dr. Kimberly Reisman, Executive Director of World Methodist Evangelism, joined the World Methodist Council delegation visiting the Vatican for ecumenical dialogue and an audience with Pope Francis. 

The meeting celebrated 50 years of Methodist-Catholic dialogue that was initiated following the sweeping changes of the Second Vatican Council.  

The delegation included the World Methodist Council Steering Committee, Pastor Mirella Manocchio – President of L’Opera per le Chiese Evangeliche Metodiste in Italia (OPCEMI), and members of the Methodist Roman Catholic International Commission for dialogue. 

The occasion was marked by Bishop Ivan Abrahams, General Secretary of the World Methodist Council, and Pope Francis, leader of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church, giving remarks celebrating the carefully built camaraderie over the past several decades and observing areas of shared interest, respect, and partnership. 

Later in the evening, an ecumenical prayer service was held, presided over by Secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, His Excellency the Most Reverend Brian Farrell. 

Recently, the World Methodist Evangelism staff met for a time of connection, relationship-building, and vision casting. As our team has expanded and grown, we look forward to new ways of living out our mission to equip church leaders in the Wesleyan Methodist family to share their faith effectively. 

Technology allows flexibility for our team to work, with our Associate Director of Education and Leadership Development Dr. Rob Haynes living in Alabama, our Associate Director of Community and Creative Development Elizabeth Glass Turner located in Ohio, Executive Assistant Shirley Dominick coordinating from Indiana, and our new Director of Development Bonnie Hollabaugh working from Tennessee. We are able to join in weekly video conference calls together, seeing each other’s faces, hearing each other’s voices, and utilizing email and phone apps to stay connected daily. 

Yet there is something irreplaceable about face to face meetings. In these contexts, we are able to stand circled in prayer, eating together, laughing together, and continuing to learn how God has wired each of us uniquely for the work at hand. In those moments, the concept of embrace is embodied: we open our arms, wait, close our arms, and release. 

It can be tempting in an era in which many of us spend chunks of time online to think that a social media post stating our beliefs is sufficient as a way of sharing our faith, or that cleaning out the back of the hall closet for donations is an ample expression of generosity. Yet Christ calls us to be his hands, his feet to those around us in a very physical, tangible way: to be ready to embrace others, not just mentally or emotionally, but to be prepared to physically embrace living, breathing people, who are flawed, or hurting, or growing, or obeying God’s call as best they can. 

Many resources have been published recently on the value of physical proximity and neighboring in our living out of the Christian faith. As we continue to live into digital existence, we stay rooted as communities of Christ followers who give and learn together. People who follow Christ are people who value creation and who value embodiedness, because Jesus took on flesh in the Incarnation, redeeming physical life and raising it from the power of death. As we share communion in congregations around the world, we remember this truth: that we depend on the Body of Christ, broken for us. We taste bread and grape and we know that our senses are speaking to us of God’s love. 

Joining together in fellowship, in physical presence, allows our senses to whisper that among a group of particular people, we belong. We have entered each other’s presence, we have embraced each other as people being shaped more and more into the likeness of Jesus, and we received grace. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Perhaps you’ve heard the familiar story of a peasant who was wearily shifting heavy stones from one spot to another. 

“What are you doing?” a man asked. 

“What does it look like I’m doing?” the peasant replied, frustrated at the backbreaking work. “I’m moving rocks.” 

Meanwhile, a short distance away, another peasant was wearily shifting heavy stones from one spot to another. The man approached that laborer. 

“What are you doing?” asked the man. 

This worker smiled, mopping sweat from his forehead. 

“I’m building a cathedral.” 

Both men were doing laborious work that stretched their muscles, drained their strength, and exhausted their resources. One responded by describing his immediate task. The other responded by describing the big picture toward which he was laboring. 

Is your to-do list full? Is your calendar overflowing? Are you overwhelmed, perhaps not by the number of tasks ahead of you, but by their significance? Sometimes the gravity of the work ahead of us is daunting. 

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians, “So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9) Paul knew what it was to be weary. He didn’t have a quiet life. Paul was arrested, beaten, put in jail; he was shipwrecked on an island; he was lowered over a town wall in a basket to make a safe getaway. But he knew he wasn’t just moving rocks: the picture was much bigger than that. Paul was preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ at any cost. 

When Paul traveled around the Mediterranean, he walked one mile at a time; he sailed from one wave to the next. There were no shortcuts. Sometimes, he intended to visit one place, and the Holy Spirit would upend his travel plans and direct him somewhere else. The former zealot sometimes supported himself by making tents while he trained new believers in the beliefs and practices of the Christian faith. Stitch by stitch, mile by mile, the Kingdom of God continued to flourish and grow. 

Your ministry happens brick by brick. You can only build one rock at a time. But your labor is not wasted or fruitless. Rather, God is building new realities you can only glimpse. Don’t grow weary in doing what is right: if you do not give up, you will get to see the effects of your labor. 

With many branches of the Wesleyan Methodist family tree stretching around the globe, we hope to keep you connected to ongoing activities, celebrations, and challenges that about 80 million of our sisters and brothers from about 80 Methodist denominations are encountering. 

*In Great Britain, the Methodist Church has issued congratulations to ICAN, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, on its receiving the Nobel Peace prize. Vice President of the Methodist Conference Jill Baker stated,  

This recognition of the important work of ICAN with the Nobel Peace prize could not be more appropriate. Through this campaign, peace activists, lawyers, city mayors, faith leaders, survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and many others are speaking with one voice. The message is clear: there can be no moral or legal justification for threatening whole populations with devastating and indiscriminate nuclear weapons. 

*As just one sample of the devastation in the Caribbean. The Wesleyan Church reports on the scale of damage inflicted by Hurricane Maria on Wesleyan churches and educational institutions in Puerto Rico. According to this report, the communities most affected are Aguas Buenas, Dorado, Humacao, Levittown, and Vega Alta.

*The Methodist Church in Brazil has been probing the responsibility of the church towards refugees. Learn more about Pastor Roberto Lugon as “he shared the experience of welcoming a Syrian family in the Methodist Church in Carlos Prates, Belo Horizonte.” 

*The World Methodist Council has published a statement expressing grave concern at the persecution of Rohingya people in Myanmar. It reads, in part,  

We condemn the violence, persecution and human rights abuses of the Rohingya by Rakhine Buddhists and government personnel, and we appeal to State Counsellor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and her government to stop the abuse and to ensure that the rights of minorities are protected. We call on the United Nations, Amnesty International and other agencies to assist in halting the atrocities against Rohingya’s Muslims and to provide relief for those who fled the violence. 

We call upon the World Methodist family and all persons of good will to pray for these people who have not been given the dignity of a home and citizenship, and we pray for an end to these abuses of human rights. 

*Recently Church of the Nazarene members living in refugee camps took up collections to aid the relief of those in Sierra Leone suffering the effects of devastating mudslides. “Church members in refugee camps in the Horn of Africa, where there is severe famine, sold their maize allocation so they could donate to help survivors in Sierra Leone.” 

*The Korean Methodist Church is marking the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation with a special exhibition, “The Reformation and the Bible.”  

These snapshots are a brief glimpse of just a few dynamics among Wesleyan Methodists around our world.  

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There is a great deal of tumult in our world. Among the tragedy, disaster, violence, and disputes, however, we are called to prophetically, proactively embody peace. This is part of our Kingdom calling, part of how we live as we follow the Jesus way – a “man of sorrows, acquainted with grief;” but he is also “prince of peace.” 

Peace is not simply the absence of threat, danger, or conflict. It is also the abundant presence of well-being, in which we breathe flourishing. When we practice Sabbath rhythms, we invite peace to reorder our thoughts, feelings, and creativity. When we promote others’ well-being, we invite peace to pervade our communities and regions. When we pursue justice, we invite peace to have the last word. 

Can you be described as someone who is accompanied by the peace of Christ – the peace that surpasses understanding?  

As famous Brother Lawrence – a monk consigned to kitchen duty – put so clearly, “In the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees in the Chapel.” 

The Good Shepherd left the 99 sheep to search for the one missing – to rescue it from whatever danger it found itself in and return it carefully to its home, where it would be protected, looked after, safe – at peace. How might we so diligently pursue peace for wandering sheep far from home?