by Steve | Jun 18, 2013 | Magazine Articles
Southwick
By John Southwick
A few years ago, a key focus of a trip to England was to do some Wesley heritage touring, which led me to Aldersgate Street. Many reminders of the street can be found in the life of John Wesley, but the most remarkable is the entrance to the Museum of London. Adjacent to the main entrance is a two-story bronze structure complete with a reproduction of the May 24, 1738 page of Wesley’s journal. There, all can read of how his heart was strangely warmed and how he had assurance that he had been saved from the law of sin and death.
Given that Christianity is so far gone in English culture today, the prominence of John Wesley is even more astonishing. London has a long history of large historical figures and yet this founder of Methodism is the only one displayed. Perhaps, as some historians suggest, John and Charles Wesley and the Methodists changed the whole moral climate of that land in the 18th century, and maybe even averted another revolution of the French variety.
Prior to 1738, these very talented brothers were hardly culture shapers. They earnestly applied their best efforts to their Christian discipleship with only ordinary results. Had their ministry remained this way, we may never have heard of them. In 1739, everything changed.
What happened? While we must credit God with the outcome, several factors appear to be in play on the human level, including, of course, Aldersgate.
What is sometimes lost in all this is that Charles had a similar encounter with God just three days prior to his brother’s famous experience, and quite independent of it. On May 21, which happened to be Pentecost, Charles was ill and godly woman prayed a potent and powerful prayer over him. The prayer brought about what has been described as his evangelical conversion.
The extraordinary beginning of 1739 is often forgotten. From John’s journal entry of January 1 we find: “Mr Hall, Kinchin, Ingham, Whitefield, Hutchins, and my brother Charles, were present at our love-feast in Fetter-Lane, with about 60 of our brethren. About 3 in the morning, as we were continuing instant in prayer, the power of God came mightily upon us, insomuch that many cried out for exceeding joy, and many fell to the ground. As soon as we were recovered a little from the awe and amazement at the presence of his Majesty, we broke out with one voice, ‘We praise thee, O God; we acknowledge thee to be the Lord.’”
While many interpretations of these events could be offered, the one point remains clear: The ministry of the Wesleys went from ordinary to extraordinary. What occurred was clearly an act of God, but their own spiritual activity also played a role. This raises the question for modern Methodists: Can the best efforts through our own strength, talents, gifting and efforts be translated into something more that really makes a difference for the kingdom of God?
I believe it can. There is no simple formula for this, however, since nothing can happen without the mighty hand of God. We would do well to seek God for it. We would do well to include a vision of ministry and encourage prayer support. We would do well to hunger more for God’s reality. The United Methodist Church is so used to the ordinary – a dose of the extraordinary is desperately needed. Who is better suited to lead in this way than those whose faith is grounded in Scripture, who love the God of the Bible, and who stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before?
John Southwick is Director of Research, Networking, and Resources at Good News.
by Steve | Jun 18, 2013 | Magazine Articles
By Steve Harper
Every religion has a spirituality, because spirituality simply means our capacity to relate to God through certain established ways for doing that. Moreover, there are varieties of “spiritualities” within religions. For example, we can speak about Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant spiritualities. And we are able to further sub-divide them, with expressions that speak more of their origin (e.g., Reformed) or of their emphasis (e.g., Contemplative). The ability and necessity of speaking about spirituality in precise ways brings us to an exploration of the features of Wesleyan spirituality. In this article we will look at some selected features of it.
First and foremost, we must remember that early Methodism was a movement, not a denomination. Christians who affiliated with Methodism were usually members in other churches. As such, the Wesleys did not want to separate from any legitimate expression of the Body of Christ. When John Wesley wrote “The General Rules of The United Societies” in 1744, he made that very clear. From the beginning, Methodism was an ecumenical movement, as well as a reforming movement within the Church of England.
With respect to Wesleyan spirituality, this means we do not define or describe it with any intent of separating ourselves from the rest of historic, orthodox Christianity. In fact, John Wesley said on multiple occasions that God had raised up the people called Methodist to revive primitive Christianity. Nothing that we will talk about in this article should be used to isolate ourselves from any other Christian. But at the same time, Wesleyan spirituality is not so generic as to be vague or useless in establishing the life of discipleship. Again, as John Wesley put it, the aim of Methodism was to make “real Christians,” not “almost Christians.” What we call Wesleyan spirituality is at the heart of how he and others sought to do that.
We begin with the message of Wesleyan spirituality, which means that we begin with theology, as all valid spiritualities do. Unfortunately, spirituality has been caricatured by some as shallow, experienced-based, and even “touchy-feely.” But that is not true, and it reflects more upon the misperceptions of critics than upon true spirituality itself. On the contrary, Wesleyan spirituality emerges from sound doctrine informed by Scripture, Tradition, Reason, and Experience.
The heart of holiness
At the heart of Wesleyan spirituality is holiness. Wesley’s conscious choice to place Methodism in the historic holy-living tradition is a reflection of his discernment regarding the centrality of holiness in historic Christianity. We cannot go into detail about holiness in an article like this, but there must be no doubt that it is at the core of Wesleyan theology. Wesleyan spirituality is about making disciples who are holy in heart and life—men and women who live in formative community that is developmental in nature (personal holiness) and missional in purpose (social holiness).
Furthermore, Wesleyan spirituality—as a theology of holiness—is also a spirituality of grace. God invites us to be holy as He is holy (Leviticus 19:2). But this can only happen by grace and in response to grace. So, Wesleyan spirituality speaks of prevenient grace, converting grace, sanctifying grace, and glorifying grace. These are not four different kinds of grace, but rather the singular grace of God as it intersects our lives at different points along the human journey. God’s grace comes to us as we are and where we are, and that’s why we are able to speak of it in different terms. But grace is not either imposed or irresistible; we must respond to it and interact with it.
In terms of spiritual formation we can summarize it this way. Through prevenient grace, we “awaken” to God. Through converting grace, we “attach” to God. Through sanctifying grace, we “abandon” to God and “advance” in God. And finally, in glorifying grace, we make the transition from earth to heaven, where we “arrive” in heaven to forever glorify God and experience our final Sabbath rest. Underneath these broad descriptions we go on to describe the grand doctrines of Christianity and are thus enabled to see our life “in Christ” in its detailed manifestations and overall magnificence.
This brings us to the means of Wesleyan spirituality. We have already noted that grace is not given apart from God’s desire for us to respond to it. We do so with what many have called the spiritual disciplines—what John and Charles Wesley called “the means of grace.” Before looking at each of the means, we must emphasize what the Wesleys emphasized, that the stated disciplines are means, not ends. They are never “proofs” of our spirituality, but only the practices in which we engage to receive and nurture it. Many mistakes have been made in Christian history by those who have tried to make their practice of the disciplines “badges of honor” and ways of elevating themselves above others who are not as devoted as they appear to be.
Instead, the means of grace are the usual channels through which God conveys grace to us. The means are not the Water of Life, but only the pipelines through which it flows. But as we drink of that Water, we find that the means promote both personal and social holiness. The Instituted Means of Grace promote personal holiness (piety) and the Prudential Means of Grace promote social holiness (mercy). Taken together, they establish and advance inward and outward holiness, and they do so both with respect to individual formation and life together in community.
Instituted Means of Grace
The Instituted Means of Grace are so named because we can see them firmly established in the life and ministry of Christ himself: prayer, searching the Scriptures, the Lord’s Supper, fasting, and conferencing. These are practiced privately and collectively, and they establish and advance “the mind that was in Christ” (Philippians 2:5)—which was one of John Wesley’s favorite descriptions of true Christianity. Again, it is not possible to go into these five means in detail. I have written more extensively about them in my book, Devotional Life in the Wesleyan Tradition: A Workbook.
Suffice it to say that prayer is the singularly central means of grace. John Wesley called it the “chief means of grace.” He also said that we could not make up for a lack of prayer by using the other means. In every way he could, he showed that the Christian spiritual life is established and maintained by prayer, precisely because it is the means by which we relate to God—and Christianity is, at its heart, a relationship. With that relational base in place, we are then given the additional means of the Bible, the Lord’s Supper, Fasting, and Conferencing to strengthen that relationship, which is essentially described in the two great commandments of loving God and neighbor.
Prudential Means of Grace
This leads directly to the Prudential Means of Grace. The term comes from the emerging belief by the church that inward holiness would lead to outward holiness. The word “prudent” is a word that bespeaks action—putting our faith into practice. And Wesley commended three Prudential means of grace: doing no harm, doing good in every way possible, and attending the ordinances of God. Bishop Rueben Job has revived their practice through his excellent little book, Three Simple Rules. John Wesley would say that the Prudential means of grace are the primary ways we express our love for God and neighbor.
Again, we cannot go into each of these in detail. In “The General Rules of The United Societies” John Wesley gave specific examples for practicing the Prudential means of grace. Some illustrations do not fit life today, but they make the point that spirituality is specific. It does not “dangle in the air,” but rather “puts feet” to its convictions. The conviction to “do no harm” means that we never consciously do anything we know will damage someone else. We make this commitment in both our personal conduct and also in our collective life (e.g. business, industry, politics).
But the Prudential means of grace also remind us that the Christian life is not simply a matter of what we avoid; it is also what we engage ourselves to accomplish. So, we “do all the good” that we can. In our elimination of evil, we move to replace it with goodness. The ethic of elimination becomes one of contribution. As the old saying goes, we leave the world better than we found it. Hence, Wesleyan spirituality is supportive of and engaged in all the efforts to improve life on this planet, and the life of the planet itself.
The “ordinances of God” are those things which enable us to do this. They are the acts which keep us attuned to God, so that the Spirit can speak to us in all the ways we have just described. The ordinances were often thought of as the Instituted means of grace practiced in community, but they could also be more widely described as any of the ways we keep positioned, so that God can get our attention and work through us for the good of others. So, what we have in the means of Wesleyan spirituality is a comprehensive exposure to the grace of God—an exposure which establishes and deepens holiness of heart and life.
The method of Wesleyan spirituality
We come now to the methods of Wesleyan spirituality. After all, John Wesley accepted the name “Methodism” to describe the movement, so there must be a “method” somewhere! And indeed there is. It is a structure which helped to manifest each element of grace and invite a response to grace.
• The United Societies (the largest Methodist meeting) reflected Prevenient grace by inviting people to “flee the wrath to come” and give serious attention to God.
• The Class Meetings (groups of a dozen or so) reflected Converting grace by bringing people to the point of profession of faith and the sustained development of that initial commitment.
• The Band Meetings (groups of three to five) reflected the need for more-personal attention, where the group “watched over one another in love” week after week, advancing sanctifying grace.
Together with the Church, the Methodist movement was present and in ministry to the dying, thus relating to glorifying grace. This is one of the geniuses of early Methodism: there was a ministry structure for each element of grace.
In addition to the formative structures for participants in general, there were two additional groups: one for strugglers and one for those who were experiencing special growth at the moment.
• The Penitent Bands were the place where the discouraged could go for support and hopefully, reactivation of faith.
• The Select Societies were the place where people who were “on fire for God” in particular ways could receive support and counsel commensurate with their experience.
When we apply this to spiritual formation, we see that Wesleyan spirituality had established methods to care for the “day in and day out” development of faith. But it also had structures to care for those who were in decline and those who were making exceptional progress. So, the “highs and lows” were provided for in the larger context of ongoing community formation.
“Ecclesiola en ecclesia”
Before we leave the methods, we must make it clear that Wesleyan spirituality’s highest peak is the church. Again, the Wesleys and the early Methodists have been caricatured as malcontents who were just waiting for the chance to “jump ship” from the church. But an accurate reading of the early Methodist movement reveals just the opposite. Methodism was seen from beginning to end as an “ecclesiola en ecclesia”—a “little church within the big church.” It was intended to develop disciples who would be the finest church members imaginable.
Despite it deficiencies, John Wesley never ceased to call himself “a Church of England man.” He rejected all views of Methodism as a substitute church, and for much of his life he even forbade the Methodists from meeting at times when meetings at the church were held. It was only later, when Methodists were deprived of the sacraments by the Church of England, that he saw “the handwriting on the wall” and began to lay the groundwork for a movement that would eventually become its own denomination in the United States and elsewhere. The point of mentioning this is that Wesleyan spirituality never condones any Christian life that degrades the church or denies the need for it.
The message, means, and methods of Wesleyan spirituality bring us to the final point: the mission. Without this feature, any spirituality becomes consumeristic—what Walter Trobisch described as “spiritually bloated.” The legitimate turning inward in the spiritual life is never the final act. Every turning inward is for the purpose of “re-turning” outward. It is an oversimplification to say what I am about to say, but it makes the point. Membership is lived inside the walls, but discipleship is always for life outside the walls. Membership has to do with the offices and tasks we perform for the good of the church; discipleship has to do with the way we practice our daily vocations for the sake of the world.
Wesley clearly understood the Methodist movement this way. The Class Meetings had not been in existence very long before the leaders were required to go house to house, inquiring about the spiritual wellbeing of the members. But as they did so, they were to collect a penny a week and a shilling a quarter. This money was designated for ministries that would provide relief to the poor and oppressed—missional spirituality. This specific practice was fueled by a larger, threefold vision: the regeneration of the lost, the renewal of the church, and the reform of the nation.
Directed into mission
In other words, every facet of early Methodism was eventually directed into mission. Different Methodists would express their spirituality in one of the three areas more than the others, and there was never a “one size fits all” definition of “a good Methodist.” Variety and specificity always characterized the mission. But every Methodist understood that he or she was commissioned by Christ and sent by him into the world, to witness and to serve in some way. Institutionally we may have a category called “inactive members,” but no such category exists in Wesleyan spirituality.
One of the surest signs that Wesleyan spirituality is taking root in a life or in a community is when we understand that we are not only called to have the mind and heart of Christ, but we are also called to do the work of Christ. To be sure, that work is empowered by the Spirit, but it happens! It is impossible to claim to have the mind of Christ without having the motivation which emerges from that mind. We cannot claim to have the heart of God without having the redemptive and restorative impulses that beat in that heart. When a homemaker does her home-making for Christ, when a teacher teaches for Jesus, when a doctor practices medicine for the Lord, when a farmer grows crops for God—when each of us “fans out” Monday through Saturday to do what we normally do, but do it in Jesus’ Name—that is when we know we have embraced Wesleyan spirituality to the fullest extent.
There are multitudes of Wesleyan Christians who practice the kind of spirituality I’ve described briefly in this article. But there are also multitudes who have yet to embrace it. For more than thirty years, I have described it this way: many of us need to stop studying the journeys of Paul in Sunday school, and start studying our own journeys. In other words, we need to receive the “faith once delivered to the saints” in all the ways we can, but then we need to respond to the singular implication which eventually comes to each of us: live by Christ, in Christ, with Christ, and for Christ! When we do this, we have embraced Wesleyan spirituality.
Steve Harper is Professor of Spiritual Formation and Wesley Studies at the Florida-Dunnam campus of Asbury Theological Seminary in Orlando. He has authored 12 books and co-authored six others. Dr. Harper’s latest book is Talking in the Dark, Praying When Life Doesn’t Make Sense.
by Steve | May 29, 2013 | Uncategorized
By Luke Billman
What would make two young adult United Methodist men move their entire families to one of the “Sexual Tourism” capitals of the world? What would make them leave the comfort of family and convenience in America to live in Brazil? Only a move of God!
Both Nic and I grew up in The United Methodist Church. We were surrounded by great men and women of faith our entire lives. Our father has served in the Eastern Pennsylvania Annual Conference for over 30 years, along with our uncle, grandfather, Nic’s father-in-law and my mother-in-law.
You can imagine the amount of United Methodist activities we were involved with from birth! While we enjoyed growing up in this atmosphere, we felt God moving us in a particular direction outside our comfort zone. Nic was working as a youth pastor at a UM congregation in the Susquehanna Conference and I was working in construction in Philadelphia. Two totally separate career paths, but God had placed a calling on our family line long before we were born.
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations” (Jeremiah 1:5). I can picture the Lord giddy over our spirits before we were born seeing the things that we are going to bring to fulfillment for His kingdom, but I never thought that I was going to play a part the way our families are now.
In October 2008, God spoke to me and touched my heart in a supernatural way in my car on the way home from work. I was left with the overwhelming feeling that we were supposed to move to South America. I called my brother Nic to tell him about the awesome experience I just had and he answered the phone saying, “Dude, I’m in Brazil on a ministry trip, my phone is on airplane mode. I don’t know how you are talking to me now!” I proceeded to tell him what God had just told me and he said, “The Lord just showed up here too and told us to move to Brazil. He showed me all the child prostitutes on the streets and I saw them as my own daughters.”
It was clear to me then what God was calling us to do because what the Lord showed me was an old dilapidated sanctuary filled with mostly children and my arm was stretched out over them declaring freedom, deliverance, and healing. But how were we supposed to do that? How was that supposed to come to fruition?
Human trafficking
Human trafficking is the illegal trade of men, women, and children – mainly for sexual slavery or forced labor. This evil practice takes place all over the globe – even in the United States. After the World Cup and Olympics, the Super Bowl is a close second to bringing in trafficked women and children for the purpose of sex. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott claimed, “The Super Bowl is commonly known as the single largest human trafficking incident in the United States.”
Its atrocious that it happens anywhere but the numbers in Brazil are staggering. The number of homeless children in Brazil is between one and two million. We have encountered more children between the ages of 8 and 12 than any other, and have seen new born babies in cardboard boxes.
Traffickers target the favelas (slums) and attempt to buy children from their parents by convincing them the money could help them provide for their remaining kids. Brazil is also the fourth strongest economic power in the world right now, so these numbers don’t just exist in Africa or India like where I always pictured missionaries serving. It’s so prevalent in Brazil that certain travel agencies in the U.S. and Europe organize “sexual tourism” trips for groups of men to be able to purchase the services these precious children.
Because Brazil is such a sexualized nation they turn a blind eye to these things for the most part. There are even concession stands on the beaches that will direct Westerners to whatever it is they are looking for sexually. We work with investigators on our team that pose as “sexual tourists” asking where we can find underaged children and no one has ever acted disgusted by what they are asking for, and always direct them to a brothel or a corner where they can be found.
Because prostitution is legal here in Brazil it’s accepted culturally as a form of employment. Because the current president is attempting to lower the legal age of prostitution to 15 years old, society doesn’t react to a 14 year old prostituting. And because there are no laws in place to stop trafficking no one knows if the people prostituting are forced into it. We have encountered adults that have told us they started prostituting at 6 years old because an uncle or a father sexually abused them and they ran away.
“Your adversary the devil, prowls around like a lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). I don’t think our adversary is only alert during 9-5 business hours! Truthfully I believe he wants more to destroy the generation of children growing up now so he can, in his mind “weaken” the kingdom of God. We seek out the little ones he is looking to devour.
Have you ever looked at a child in your church and thought “the cure for AIDS could be in there” “The end to abortion is in there” “The cure for cancer is in there”? I know I have. Have you ever looked at a drug addict prostituting herself or himself and thought, “God knitted the cure for AIDS into his spirit before he was born” or “God stitched so much love into that guy he’s going to end the genocide in Africa”? So often what “the world” tells us stops us from seeing that beautiful destiny in a person if they are being devoured by the enemy. God called us to Brazil to see the true destiny and sonship and daughtership in each of the children we encounter.
Our modus operandi is to simply demonstrate the love of our Heavenly Father to the people we encounter on the streets. Our work days are usually from about 10:00 p.m. until around 5:00 a.m. because the people we are trying to save are “working” then.
Our ministry is in Recife, an enormous costal city in northeast Brazil. There is a park that we go to all the time. There are about 20-30 homeless children between 6-14 years old living in this park. Some are victims of trafficking, some ran away from the favela they lived in because it was dangerous, but all of them are precious in our eyes. We bring games and play with them, the girls on our team will paint the girls nails or do their hair, the guys will wrestle around with the boys and we just treat them the way we treat our own children. We show up and love them no matter what they are doing or what lifestyle they are wrapped up in.
Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and the man replied “who is my neighbor”? He was looking to exploit a loop hole. Everyone is your neighbor, including prostitutes, addicts, and transvestites. The church has built a reputation for being interested in hearing a person say a prayer for salvation and then moving on. This has happened so much in Brazil that we’ve encountered children that would kneel when we showed up with food because churches told them they had to ask Jesus into their heart before they were allowed to get the food they had to offer. We feel called to show up and love them just like Jesus did and then that opens the door for them to truly receive a revelation of what God’s love for them is, and that in turn creates a sincere heart change for them to walk out the destiny God has placed inside of them.
The first time Nic and I traveled to Recife, we went to this park. We were just loving the kids. I told them about the restoration home we were going to open there and a young boy around 10 or 11 years old just fell in my arms weeping and said, “Please remember me when you come back and start that house, if I had the chance I would leave living this way, if one person believed in me I would stop.”
That broke my heart. He wanted one person in a nation of 287 million people. He only needed one. In a city of 5 million, he only wanted one! When we came back to the park a couple months later on another trip he saw me from a distance and just ran to us and in a warm embrace he cried in our arms. Feeding “the least of these” is good, caring about their salvation is good too, but being sincerely interested in a heart change is what our Heavenly Father is after!
We have a Restoration Home opened in Recife and are able to receive girls we meet on the streets now. We believe God wants to restore them to more than they ever were here; we believe He wants to restore them to a place of relationship equal to when He “knew them before He knitted them together.” We want to give them the best possible life and treat them like royalty, not hand-me-downs – private schooling and the best medical attention available in Brazil when it’s needed. All of these things are very costly in Brazil, but we serve a bigger God than the almighty dollar and He always provides what we need monthly to make this happen.
Luke Billman is part of the ministry team at Shores of Grace Ministries. He works with his wife Alisan, as well as with his brother Nic and sister-in-law Rachel Billman, directors of the ministry. If you are interested in partnering with their work or would like one of them to speak at your church or annual conference, you can check out their ministry’s website at www.shoresofgrace.com or contact them through Luke@Shoresofgrace.com.
by Steve | May 29, 2013 | Magazine, May-June 2013
By Erin Edgeman
No one really talks about it. Most of us probably don’t even know that there are more slaves now than ever in human history. Depictions of human trafficking are often seen in movies and television shows, but we don’t think of it happening in the United States.
Regan Kramer, a Florida native, didn’t either. That was until she went to a Passion conference (www.268generation.com) that highlighted the topic of domestic human trafficking. From there, Kramer said God led her on the path to bringing awareness of the issue to the campus of Florida International University in Miami, where she serves as the associate director of the Wesley Foundation.
“It really burdened me when I came home,” Kramer said. “I knew I had to do something about it, especially when I realized it was happening in Miami.” She soon learned that Miami has the third-largest number of human trafficking cases in the United States.
Sarah McKay, a US-2 missionary working with FIU’s Wesley Foundation, partnered with Kramer because of her passion for social justice. “[Sex trafficking] is a reality that pains me so deeply when I attempt to understand it,” she said. “Something that I’ve realized is central to caring about an issue — such as sex trafficking, and more importantly the people being exploited through sex trafficking — is having the opportunity to learn about it.” McKay is now speaking out against it.
The facts
The statistics of human trafficking are staggering. The number of adults and children currently in forced labor, bonded labor and forced prostitution is 12.3 million, citing figures from the 2010 U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report. Human trafficking involves sex, labor and organ harvesting, and it’s one of the fastest-growing crimes in the world, according to the U.S. State Department. Only drugs are now a larger criminal enterprise.
UNICEF reports the global market of child trafficking is at more than $12 billion a year, with more than 1.2 million child victims. According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, about 2.8 million U.S. children run away each year, and within 48 hours of hitting the streets, one-third of these children are recruited into prostitution and pornography.
Kramer said girls living in poverty or from abusive households are more likely to be recruited into prostitution. The average age for girls being coerced to perform sex acts is 12 to 14. They are often manipulated by an older man or woman they think loves them, and they are often forced to take drugs. And that is why once in these situations, it is so hard to get girls out of them.
Taking action
After hearing the facts, Kramer knew she had to do something on her college campus. Quickly, FIU 4 Freedom was launched. The group is a network of students and clubs at Florida International University that partnered with organizations in South Florida working to bring awareness and stop “modern-day slavery.”
In less than a year, Kramer said the group has made an impact on the campus and saved lives. To bring awareness, FIU 4 Freedom set up a “Freedom Week” in March and then again in October 2012 in which there were informational events across campus. A mock brothel, of sorts, was set up in the student center to shock students to what is actually going on in this country.
Kramer said students could walk into the display adorned with signs that read “Girls, Girls, Girls” and “All Nationalities” to grab their attention. Inside was a bed with a young girl’s dress and a pair of men’s pants lying across it. “When you are inside, it creates this reality of what people go through,” Kramer said.
A survivor even shared her story during one of the panel discussions. Katariina Rosenblatt, another Florida native, regularly shares her story. She formed an organization, There is Hope (www.ThereIsHopeForMe.org), that works to get victims out of sex trafficking and lead them on a path to recovery.
In 1985, Rosenblatt and her mother had escaped her abusive father and were living in a Miami motel. She was 13 when an older teenage girl befriended her. She said the 19-year-old offered her friendship and support that she needed at the time, but soon she learned that the woman was a recruiter for a child-trafficking ring.
Rosenblatt said she narrowly escaped losing her virginity to a 65-year-old man for $550. Others attempted to recruit her into trafficking in later years but she finally spoke out.
Rosenblatt said she knows what she is doing is making an impact. “I gave four school talks in the last four months and 18 kids came forward,” she said. All had either been approached for trafficking or had been bought and sold, she said. Of all of the things McKay has learned over the past year, she said Rosenblatt’s presentation made the biggest impression.
“It was shocking to hear about a childhood plagued with such confusion, pain and manipulation,” she said. “It brought forth for us all the important truth that this is happening to real people — real people who have grown up and lived through something that no person should ever even have to imagine.”
Kramer said after the March Freedom Week, she knew that trafficking was occurring on her college campus. One girl, she found out, was recruited out of her FIU dorm room.
After Rosenblatt’s presentation, a mother who had felt led by God to come to the campus spoke to Kramer and Rosenblatt. The mother said she was afraid her daughter was being trafficked. The mother said her 17-year-old daughter had been studying psychology at the university until she met a man who persuaded her to drop out of school. She said her daughter had come home asking for her passport, telling her mother she could no longer see her and that she was leaving to become a porn star.
Rosenblatt insisted that the mother contact the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI investigated and found the daughter was being held in a brothel in Miami. “God used us to help rescue a girl,” Kramer said. “That is amazing.” Rosenblatt said she is now mentoring the teenager, who was reconnected with her family. She is now attending a college in another part of the state.
Creating change
The Rev. Paul Massingill, Wesley Foundation executive director, said the student response to the events sponsored by FIU 4 Freedom has been “amazing.” “Many students are shocked, horrified and angered that so much slavery still exists and exists in their own city,” he said. “Raising awareness has already led to students getting more educated and involved in these issues locally … .”
Massingill said he encouraged Kramer to form FIU 4 Freedom because he wanted the Wesley Foundation to be involved in social activism. “Young adults want to see faith embodied,” he said. “Many are cynical about the church, and skeptical of the integrity of Christians.”
Kramer said she isn’t sure where she wants to go next with her mission. At first, she wanted to be on the streets and in strip clubs saving girls herself, but she soon realized that she could make a difference by bringing awareness to college students. Other college campuses already are following FIU 4 Freedom’s lead and starting their own groups.
“Just that clicking in people’s minds is a huge step from where we were 10 years ago,” Kramer said. Bringing awareness to a college campus not only will save women who could fall victim, but it also could spark action in students to bring change.
“My passion is to see students using their fields and talents” to bring change, Kramer said. “We are helping people care about it so they can use their vocation to make a lifelong impact.”
Erin Edgemon is a freelance writer in Montgomery, Alabama. Distributed by United Methodist News Service.
by Steve | May 29, 2013 | Magazine, May-June 2013
By Allan Bevere
“One of the flaws of the most characteristic Liberal portrayal of Jesus was the unlikelihood that anyone would have wanted to crucify such an attractive moral teacher. In recent questing it has been more widely recognized that a test of any hypothesis’ viability is whether it provides a satisfactory answer to the question, Why was Jesus crucified?”
– James D.G. Dunn
The great challenge for preachers of the Gospel in the West is to overcome the intellectually shallow and theologically inept summaries of Jesus’ life and ministry being first and foremost, primarily, and basically about love. The focus on the concept of love marginalizes cross and resurrection, which ironically in turn undermines the radical nature of the kind of love Jesus displayed.
Stanley Hauerwas likes to get at this problem by asking if it’s possible to imagine Jesus walking around Judea and saying something like,
“Hey, Guys… I have this radical idea. I think we should love each other. And the response of the religious establishment is, “What! Love one another! We can’t let this guy spread his subversive message! Let’s string him up!
Now before I get all the comments and emails reminding me of how much Jesus and the New Testament writers mention love, let me respond by saying that I know such is the case. I am not exactly ignorant when it comes to Scripture. The problem is that the modern tendency to dehistoricize and detheologize Jesus and his ministry into principles and concepts robs us of the context which makes the biblical notion of love intelligible. Without it we lose what it truly means for Jesus to tell his followers to love one another. The great sacrifice of cross and the wonderful victory of resurrection by which Christian love is understood is replaced by the modern romanticism of love as primarily a feeling, as the justification for behavior without consequences, and living a life devoid of transformation. We move from Jesus’ statement that no greater love can be displayed in laying down one’s life to it doesn’t matter how we behave because God loves us no matter what.
It doesn’t take a profound thinker to know that the primary motivation for this dehistorizing and detheologizing of Jesus is to domesticate his life and work into something more palatable to modern sensibilities. The Jesus who comes to us from the pages of the New Testament demands too much from us. Moreover, in our modern cosmological reductionist assumptions, we simply cannot have a Jesus running around doing miraculous things. So in Bishop Spong and John Crossan fashion we first demythologize Jesus and then we remythologize him after our own image and our own expectations. Jesus now becomes safe to follow. Yes, Jesus is still presented as a radical, but he is a domesticated revolutionary. He is one who looks like a hippie from the 1960s or a political activist whose methods of power and coercion look no different from the politics of the nations. But a domesticated revolutionary will not bring about serious change; he will just reinforce the agendas of those who are frankly doing nothing more than using Jesus as a prop to get what they want. Jesus was crucified because he presented a true alternative to the ways of the world that could not and will not be displayed in the politics of the current age. Jesus was not killed for promoting right-wing violence on behalf of the state, and he was not crucified for advocating a progressive social agenda. Jesus was crucified because he presented a serious threat to the status quo in all forms; and it will not do just to present his life and ministry as supporting any modern political and social agenda. And those Christians who attempt to do so are domesticating Jesus into doing their bidding.
But the real Jesus, the Jesus who comes to us from the pages of the New Testament, will not be so domesticated. Jesus has not come to conform to our expectations. We must conform to his. You don’t get strung up on a cross by running around telling everyone to love each other, and we won’t be able to understand the nature of discipleship without knowing that cross and resurrection stands at the heart of what it means to walk with Jesus. Cross and resurrection are about more than what God has done for us (and what God has done for us is much more than sentimental niceties about love); they also provide the blueprint for how Christians are to bear witness to the love of God in the world.
Allan Bevere is a pastor appointed to the West Akron Regional Ministry, in Akron, Ohio, and located at Akron First United Methodist Church. He is also a Professional Fellow in Theology at Ashland Theological Seminary in Ashland, Ohio.
