Author Archives: Kim Reisman

By Rev. Dr. Kimberly Reisman

One of the wonderful things we do at WME is to train leaders all over the world to show and share the love of Jesus. We do this through in-person gatherings as well as through virtual gatherings. A few years ago, I was in Kenya teaching about Embrace, an understanding of faith sharing that focuses on six essential values – humility, clarity, prayer, integrity, worship, and urgency.

Early in my visit, I had an interesting conversation with Bishop William Muriuki of the Methodist Church Kenya. Bishop William is on our Africa team – the group of dedicated volunteers that help to guide us in our work. He mentioned that he might have to leave during our teaching session because he had to be a witness in a court case regarding an accident of some kind. Because of his busy schedule, the court official told him he didn’t have to be present for the entire case; they would just call him when it was his time to testify. Sure enough, later that day he received a call and left to testify.

Because I live in the United States, I found this whole scenario surprising. No one called to testify in court in the US would ever be allowed to come and go as they pleased. We would be stuck at the courthouse for the entire day – maybe even longer!

Yet, as I thought about it a bit more, it occurred to me that in this kind of system, Bishop William has to be ready to give his testimony at a moment’s notice. There is no special preparation time, no organizing a big event, no assigning the job to someone else. Bishop William has to be ready to give his testimony at whatever moment he’s called upon.

That, my friends, is the situation of every Christian! We are to be ready, even on a moment’s notice, to give our testimony. Whenever we are called, we have to be ready to be a witness, to testify to what we have seen, heard, and experienced.

That’s what a witness is, actually. It isn’t about being an expert witness. Jesus never said that we would be his expert witnesses. He just said that we would be witnesses – people who tell the truth about that they have seen, heard, and experienced.

As Christians, each of us is in the same position Bishop William was in that day he was called to be a witness. So… the question is, what would you say if someone asked you to testify about how you have experienced the love of Jesus in your life? How would you respond if they asked where you have seen God at work?

I pray that you will be ready to answer – even on a moment’s notice – with confidence and grace.

The Residency In Mission (RIM) program provides opportunities for host ministries to strengthen the work in their local contexts, while offering Residents an environment in which to grow in their ministry service.  In partnership with ministries in the host church, this program helps aspiring residents discern their call to missional service.

Eliza’s placement is best summarized as a youth pastor/worker;  since she was, however, stationed in a church plant, her job definition was quite fluid depending on the church’s needs each day.  She states that, “In many ways, I was like the pastor’s intern doing whatever I could to help people grow closer to God and one another. It was a once in a lifetime experience that taught me invaluable lessons.”

Eliza has recently accepted the position of Director of Programming for Children and Youth Ministries at Trinity United Methodist Church in Conway, SC.  There she will continue her passion and calling and guide members of this church to serve more effectively and to train the next generation to have the hearts of servants.

Be on the lookout for our interview with Eliza about her RIM experience on Real Faith, Real World Podcast in the near future. Listen to Real Faith, Real World wherever you subscribe to podcast or on our website at worldmethodist.org/podcast[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator border_width=”6″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

By Rev. Dr. Kimberly Reisman

When it comes to sharing the love of Christ with the world, the connection between what we say we believe and how we live out those beliefs is crucial. Our integrity is directly related to the strength of that connection. If there is a gap between what we say we believe and the way we live our lives, we lose our credibility. That’s why our integrity – the sense of wholeness that comes when our words are in sync with our actions, is such a vital component in sharing our faith.

Our integrity is a critical because as Christians, we base our faith on the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, the one we call the Christ. This man, Jesus, is someone whose compassion, whose love and care for those on the margins of society, whose teaching about justice, mercy, and forgiveness, and whose story of suffering and death are well known. And not just inside the church. 

That fact that the life and character of Jesus are well known outside the church should give us pause when we think about integrity – connecting our beliefs with how we live them out. It should prompt us to continually check in with ourselves and ask some probing questions.

Do we consistently show love for other people? Even those who may disagree with us? Are we interested in knowing others outside the church? Are we willing to actually learn about their lives or genuinely listen as they relate the challenges and struggles of their past or present? Do we really love people the way we say we do?

These are more than just rhetorical questions. Because when we appear more concerned with what people do or do not do, than with understanding the realities they are experiencing, people take notice. When we seem to be unwilling to place ourselves in someone else’s shoes, the connection between the beliefs we profess and our life in the world is lost, and with it, our integrity.

This is true all the time, but it takes on a particularly painful dimension in polarized times like these when cultures and religions are clashing in so many dramatic ways.

So it’s important to ask again: Do we really love people the way we say we do? Are we willing to place ourselves in someone else’s shoes?

WME’s faith-sharing resource, Embrace: Showing and Sharing the Love of Jesus focuses on understanding the importance of integrity. We believe it’s one of the essential values of sharing our faith. Embrace helps us explore our own faith journey and to deepen our understanding of the value of integrity in faith-sharing.

One of the things we recognize when we explore the meaning of integrity is that it involves reciprocity. Earlier in my ministry I was responsible for a Sunday worship service that met in a local theater. Because it was unconventional, it was attractive to many people who didn’t feel comfortable in a more traditional setting. Many were Christian in name only; many weren’t Christian at all but were interested in exploring faith.

Several years after leaving that position, I ran into a woman who had attended regularly. As we spoke, she recalled that she was in a confused and unhealthy place in her life during those years. She sensed that I knew this about her and in some ways disagreed with or even disapproved of some of the ways she was coping. Thankfully, she said that this was a good thing, because even though we might not have agreed, she felt there was a place for her no matter what. It was the security of that space that had challenged her to seriously reevaluate her life. 

She went on to describe the mutuality that she had experienced. She said that even though she sensed that I disagreed, it was important to her that I took her seriously and was always open to the possibility that she might have something to offer me.

A holistic understanding of integrity is a critical part of showing and sharing the love of Jesus. Mutuality and reciprocity are crucial. When others can see that we really are interested in knowing them and learning about their lives, that we really are willing to genuinely listen as they relate the challenges and struggles of their past or present; they will begin to see that we really do love them the way that we say we do. They will begin to see that the belief in our heart really is in sync with our life in the world.

And when these things come together – our words and our deeds – the belief in our heart and our life in the world – that is when the Holy Spirit begins to move and lives are transformed.

Embrace is a wonderful way to explore your own journey of faith in order to be able to share it with others more confidently and authentically. WME provides workshops on Embrace in fully online, hybrid, and in-person formats as well as in a small group study context. For more information go to our website.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator border_width=”6″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

By Rev. Dr. Kimberly Reisman

One of my favorite Holy Days is Pentecost, partly because (thankfully) it hasn’t been co-opted by western consumerism. Maybe that’s why it comes and goes without too much attention. We don’t have weeks of lead up like we do for Christmas or Easter; and the Holy Spirit definitely doesn’t have the economic punch of Santa or the Easter Bunny.

Pentecost is usually only recognized on a single Sunday and then we move right into “Ordinary Time.” In 2020, it fell on May 31. With everything happening in our world right now, my hunch is not very many of us noticed. 

And yet this one day, and what it marks is integral to understanding Christian faith. This is especially true when it comes to showing and sharing the love of Jesus. Without Pentecost – that miracle of communication – faith-sharing is reduced to a mechanistic step-by-step procedure filled less with love than prescription. But when the Holy Spirit comes, everything mechanical is blown away, and we’re left with the miracle of mouths and ears.

This isn’t new information. Christians celebrate that the Holy Spirit descended on the followers of Jesus, empowering them to speak boldly about his life, death, and resurrection. We celebrate that when the Holy Spirit descended, all the people gathered in Jerusalem for Shavu’ot heard the followers of Jesus speaking in their own language – even though there were Jews from many different lands who spoke many different languages. It was a miracle of communication because it was a miracle of understanding. Everyone was able to understand the good news of Jesus Christ.

Grasping that miracle is an important part of showing and sharing the love of Jesus. When we share the good news of Jesus Christ, we want it to be in a language that other people can understand. We want the words of our mouths to be understandable to the ears of those we hope to reach.

Again, nothing new here, but every now and then it’s important to look at things from a different perspective. What if God isn’t just interested in our mouths, but also in our ears? What if the ongoing Pentecost miracle of communication needs to involve not just what we say, but what we hear as well?

When the Holy Spirit descended that Pentecost morning, it landed on a tiny, frightened, unpopular group of people. They were lying low, staying out of the way, not knowing what the authorities would do next. There weren’t very many of them compared to all the rest of Jews gathered in Jerusalem. They were in the minority, working class Galileans with little power compared to everybody else. These were the mouths the Holy Spirit empowered to speak.

Then there were all the ears that heard on that day. They were from all over. Some were devout Jews who had the means to travel from as far away as Rome. A privileged class. Others lived in Jerusalem – mainstream Jews and maybe even some of the religious elite, like the Pharisees or Sadducees, who had been marking this festival year in and year out with little change. These were the ears that the Holy Spirit empowered to hear.

In these days of crisis and challenge, I’ve begun to wonder who we (at least those of us who identify as white in the global West/North) look like. Are we more like the ragtag group of Jesus followers, with little power, in hiding for fear of what the authorities might do? Or are we more like the visitors from Rome or the other mainstream folks living in Jerusalem, routinely celebrating another religious holiday with little worry or thought of danger? Are we more like the mouths who were empowered to speak or the ears who were empowered to hear? 

The global Christian landscape has been changing for quite some time now – shifting significantly south and eastward. In the face of such dramatic change, perspective is crucial. Does the Holy Spirit desire to loose our stammering tongues, filling us with the courage and boldness necessary to speak? Or, is it possible that the Holy Spirit is leading us to become the ears that hear? Is there a word from the Lord that can only come to us through the power of the Holy Spirit opening our ears to voices we have not noticed or have been unwilling to hear? 

There are many in the Christian family who resemble the mouths empowered to speak on that first Pentecost day. And there are many as well, who think they are the mouths that spoke, but who actually bear a closer resemblance to the ears that heard. How might our witness be strengthened if we opened ourselves to the miracle of mouths and ears embodied in Pentecost? How might the way we follow Jesus change if we were willing at every step, to discern which was most needful of Holy Spirit empowerment – our mouths or our ears?

As we continue to live out our faith in the midst of divisiveness, fear, and the threat of illness and death, I pray for that kind of discernment – that all of us would be open to the Holy Spirit’s ongoing miracle of mouths and ears. 

All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak…and they all heard in their own languages. (Acts 2:4, 6 – paraphrased)[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator border_width=”6″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

By Rev. Dr. Kimberly Reisman

A significant aspect of the Embrace understanding of showing and sharing the love of Jesus is the idea of interdependency – the idea that human beings flourish in the context of relationships with others. Rather than focusing solely on our independence, to truly thrive, we must recognize that we are interdependent – both separate and connected to those around us. 

This interwoven nature of being human stems from the very first moments of creation. From the very beginning God has been about the process of separating and joining. Genesis tells us that God separated the light from the darkness and joined all the waters together in one place so that dry land could appear. Like God’s original creative process, the process of human spiritual and emotional growth is one of separating and joining. As we grow into adulthood, we separate in all kinds of ways, forming healthy boundaries and asserting our unique identities. We also join in all kinds of ways, connecting with others for continued nurture, joy and love.

For a variety of reasons, these days it seems our interdependence has been disrupted. Instead of a healthy balance between separating and joining, the ongoing pandemic and the continued global unrest have imposed a deep, yet artificial separation. COVID19 has forced us to socially distance. Once common greetings like handshakes and hugs are just not done. The global reckoning with the sin of systemic racism and the politics that surround it has drawn sharp lines in the sand between us. Civil conversations have become more and more difficult.

And yet we are profoundly social beings. Whether we realize it, or are willing to admit it, or not, we need one another. We need connection.

A significant part of spiritual maturity is recognizing the importance of interdependency and connection. As we grow in our faith, we look to others to guide us – those who may be a step or two ahead of us on the spiritual journey. In the same way, as we mature in our faith, we realize that we are the ones who are now a step or two ahead, so we find ways to offer a hand to those who are following behind us. 

In these difficult days of artificial separation and false divides, recognizing our interdependency is more important than ever. Our world needs spiritually mature people who reach out to those who are struggling – people who can overcome the challenge of social distancing to make connections and offer nurture and support to others. The world needs to see spiritually mature people living in ways that make it clear that following Jesus transcends the false divide of party politics and societal polarizations. 

In all times and places, but especially now, as we follow Jesus, a couple of questions need to be at the forefront of our minds – who is looking to me in these moments? Who am I encountering on a regular basis that needs of a word of hope or clarity? How can I make that connection?

God has created us as interconnected, interdependent, human beings. My prayer as we continue to navigate the challenges of 2020, is that we would realize that truth. And even more importantly, that the Holy Spirit would empower us to actively live out that truth.

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By Rev. Dr. Kimberly Reisman
August 3, 2020

Recently, I had the honor of preaching at the annual gathering of Aldersgate Renewal Ministries. What a blessing! ARM is an organization in the Wesleyan Methodist family that is committed to enabling followers of Jesus to grow through experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit. They focus their energy on personal renewal, church renewal, and pastoral renewal. It was wonderful to be able to bring the Word of God to over 1200 people despite having to adjust to an online format. God is so good! For the first time, ARM was able to engage an international audience through the wonders of technology. People from as far away as Peru heard the Gospel and joined in prayer and sharing.

In these challenging days of social distancing and the need to adjust to new ways of doing things, it may seem like we are unable to make a difference. But the Holy Spirit is still moving and lives are being transformed! It is clear that God is using WME and organizations like Aldersgate Renewal Ministries to reach people despite the various crises that are unfolding in our world. Our reach is growing beyond what we could imagine in our old ways of working and God is leading us toward new and exciting horizons.

God is good. Yes indeed, all the time![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator border_width=”6″][/vc_column][/vc_row]