Disciple Deeply

The Free Methodist church plant “Emmaus” was started in 2005 with a vision to plant reproducible missional churches founded on the three circles: faith (Up), community (In), and mission (Out). Three years later, fifteen members of Emmaus were listening to the Gospel of Luke through a practice of reading and reflection called Lectio Divina. They were a community within the church seeking God’s direction on mission together – a combination of (Up/In). In Luke 14, Jesus calls his followers to invite the “poor, crippled, blind and lame” over for dinner. The group took these words to heart and started sharing a weekly meal with homeless neighbors living in cars and tents around a local park. They were a smaller community within a church who were doing outreach together – a combination of (In/Out). They did not plan a sack lunch meal, but a banquet they would be proud to share with any of their friends. During the meal, they committed to engage in conversations with the park residents who attended. They listened to the peoples’ stories in order to celebrate and pray for them - a combination of (Out/Up). Later in the week, the small community of believers reviewed the stories they heard and prayed again for their new friends at the park – again, a combination of (In/Up). Only After a year of sharing meals, listening and relationship building they added a second meal at the park - more (Out/Up). During that second year of ministry at the park they saw 10 people commit their lives to Jesus and join their community of faith through baptism – Up/In/and Out! Another twelve folks entered into housing and recovery programs. A group of men who had various mental and physical disability started a monthly guys to serve the park and other non-profits in their city who help the homeless. By its seventh year the community was hosting two meals a week, baptizing several people each year, and seeing dozens move from being served to serving others in need.