Author: River Falls Ministry

November 19, 2018 River Falls Ministry

River Falls Ministry News

Read the latest news from Jesus Fellowship of Believers community ministry and Street Level UWRF campus ministry in River Falls, WI.

Street Level UWRF

Street Level, an official student organization at UW-River Falls continues to meet each Tuesday evening. We’ve spent the last month studying the life of Jacob. Among other things, it showed us what it means to follow God with obedience and humility while acknowledging that he is in complete control of our lives. We are now beginning a two-fold path of further Bible study alongside a new video series. The Bible study will now focus on the book of Ruth, in which we find a woman’s life guided by the hand of God through both difficulty and success. Our new video series will focus on big questions about life and God, such as “Why Does God Allow Pain and Suffering?”. Our intent is to honestly discuss the larger questions which many people ask whether or not they are believers.

Street Level on Retreat

At the end of October, we joined the Street Level chapters from UW-Stout (Menomonie) and UW-Superior for our annual Fall Retreat. This year, we all traveled to Luther Park in Chetek, WI for a Friday and Saturday. Even though the weather was damp and chilly, the main building had a fireplace, and there was plenty of “Round the World” ping-pong to keep people warmed up. The retreat focused on “Four Questions About Discipleship”, in which we explored the call and nature of following Jesus. We were thankful to have Pastor Justin Thompson from Jesus Fellowship of Believers Duluth join us for teaching alongside the three Street Level directors. The challenging topics of the weekend included “What is the cost of discipleship” and “What does a disciple do?”.

Community Bible Study

The JFBelievers River Falls community outreach continues to meet every Sunday at 5 pm. We continue our journey through the New Testament, verse-by-verse, chapter-by-chapter each week. We’ve recently finished the book of 1 Thessalonians, in which we spent a lot of time discussing the second coming of Jesus, and what it means to be ready with our lives. We always end our time with discussion – we believe talking through and thinking through the Word can best lead to its application in our lives.

Early Thanksgiving

Last Sunday we turned our post-Bible study meal into an early Thanksgiving dinner. Almost everyone brought something to the feast: stuffing, cranberries, and even special-recipe cinnamon bread. While the Bible study is certainly central, these times of fellowship have been one of the key ways we get to know each other and talk about what’s happening in our lives. Apart from the person-to-person friendships, care, and prayer, the gatherings lose the fellowship that is characteristic of the New Testament.

December Calendar

  • Sundays: 5pm / JFBelievers Bible Study,  6pm / meal
  • Tuesdays: 6:30pm / Street Level Meal, 7pm / Bible Study (until December 18)
  • Thursdays: 5-9pm & Fridays 9am-3pm: Open Hours for Study (until semester’s end)

River Falls Ministry Online

October 19, 2018 River Falls Ministry

RF-News

We continue to meet on Tuesday evenings for Street Level for a meal and study. There have been a few students that are consistently coming around and becoming more involved. We pray that they will continue in their desire to follow God and find what he has for them. We also had the opportunity to participate in a few other events.

Outreach

On a Tuesday evening Street Level did an outreach on the UWRF campus. They were giving away coffee and Dutch frites to students. We are thankful to the Street Level Menomonie and The Blind Munchies Coffeehouse volunteers that helped us. The University gave us a great spot in the middle of campus. It was right outside of the University Center to set up the coffeehouse trailer. There were some good conversations with students and people hung out for a while. We gave away over 120 frites and 100 cups of coffee.

Guest Speaker

Also, on a Monday evening, a group of us piled in a couple of cars and joined Street Level Menomonie to hear Jon Bloom speak on his book “Don’t Follow Your Heart.” It challenged us to think counter culture.  At the end of the month we are looking forward to the Street Level retreat with Menomonie and Duluth.

Study

On Sunday evenings, we recently started the book of 1 Thessalonians for the community study. We have been reading about how these believers followed God with so much passion that all the other towns new about them and their conversion- even though they have been going through persecution. Lately, we have been also doing a discussion on how we can apply the verses to our lives. We still end with a meal and fellowship (We are hoping to keep using the grill as long as the weather permits).

Street Level

The Street Level space has been open on Thursday and Friday evenings for people to come have coffee and hang out. A few people have stopped in to see what we are doing, and students have been using the place often to study. Also, Word on the Street has joined us from Menomonie for a few Thursday evenings working on the next publication with us.

Thank you for your prayers for the River Falls outreach. Please pray for the group that we grow in discipleship, and that we would continue to meet and engage with the people in our community.

November Calendar

  • Sundays: 5pm / JFBelievers Bible Study,  6pm / meal
  • Tuesdays: 6:30pm / Street Level Meal, 7pm / Bible Study

Online

 

September 19, 2018 River Falls Ministry
We’ve now made the transition from Summer to school, which has meant a lot of changes, as well as some renewed excitement on our part to see what God is going to do this semester. We’ve restarted Street Level, and have seen a number of new faces around. Most are Freshman who are new to college life and are discovering all the new opportunities, relationships, and interests vying for this their time and commitment. It’s been refreshing to see them around, and we are praying that some get plugged in and can find what God has for them here at school. This year. we are are encouraging “involvement” in the Street Level, which means taking up regular participation in a ministry like WOTS.
In addition to the weekly meetings and doing some outreach tables on campus, we are also planning to partner with Street Level UW-Stout to engineer a few outreaches on the UWRF campus. These will likely take the form of food giveaways via the Mobile Coffeehouse. Our hope is that these outreaches will be fun way to meet new students as well as offer opportunity to serve with with the greater Street Level family.
New to our weekly schedule, we have nailed down official regular “open study hours”, which are every Thursday evening, 5pm-9pm. During these hours, we are running the Street Level place much like a “coffeehouse”, with the espresso bar open and music on, the goal is to make the space conducive to study, projects, or discussion. There have been several students and wanderers-by who have visited over the past few weeks.
Our Sunday evening gathering continues, and we continue our chapter-per-week pace through the New Testament letters. Joining the studies and discussions have been a few new faces – also due to school restarting. We are consistently encouraging people from Street Level to consider and pursue involvement in the local church. For many, their “church” is back home, and, for a variety of reasons, fail to seek out a Biblical fellowship dynamic while they are away to college. This is an unfortunate pattern that we see being set all too often for students that consider themselves Christians.
Please pray that we are, with discernment, providing the right teaching, personal challenge and friendship to the new students that have been joining us this semester, to the end that they can participate in all that God has for them.

October Calendar

  • Sundays: 5pm / JFBelievers Bible Study,  6pm / Meal
  • Tuesdays: 6:30pm / Meal, 7:00pm / Street Level Meeting
  • Thursdays: 5:00pm – 9:00pm / Open for Coffee and Study
  • October 26-27: All Street Level Retreat

Online 

 

August 19, 2018 River Falls Ministry

What’s Happening

The end of Summer is near which means a new season for the River Falls Ministry. Starting in September we will be changing some of the things we are doing at the Street Level Place and focusing on reaching out to the college students as they come back to school.

We are still meeting for a Sunday Bible Study and Meal at 5 pm which will continue into the fall. Right now, we are in the book of Colossians and will be moving into 1 Thessalonians.  Doing the meals after the study has offered the opportunity for us to get to know people more.

Until the students come back we will be hosting two more community grill outs. The Tuesday grill outs this summer have allowed for us to continue to meet people in the community. We never know who God is going to bring in the door to have a meal with us.

Once the students are back in September Street Level will resume on Tuesday nights. We are looking forward to seeing some familiar faces that we haven’t seen in a few months. Also, we will outreach on campus through tables, posters, and possibly a bonfire on campus and trail walk.

Additionally, the Street Level place will have more open hours this semester. It will be a coffeehouse type atmosphere. We will be open for study and for people who just want to hang out. There will be music playing and the coffee bar will be open for full service.

We are looking forward to seeing what God has in store for us this semester. Thank you for all your participation and prayers!

 

September Calendar

  • Sundays: 5pm / JFBelievers Bible Study,  6pm / Meal
  • Tuesdays: 6:30pm / Meal, 7:00pm / Street Level Meeting
  • Thursdays: Open for Coffee and Study / 5:00pm – 9:00pm

Online 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 20, 2018 River Falls Ministry

July was a good month to stay outside and do a lot of grilling as well as move forward with connections in the community.

Our big event was the rummage sale at the Street Level location. It was a very hot day, but we were able to still entertain 50+ shoppers. The mobile Coffeehouse joined us, which was a very helpful contribution to the day – it drew in people that stayed to talk. We were able to meet many of the neighbors in our building, including several exchange students from India. They actually purchased most of the furniture we had in the sale. The success was, of course, mostly in the people interaction, but thankfully, we were also able to raise money for the 2019 Street Level Kentucky trip in the process.

We’ve also continued our Tuesday evening grill outs. We have met several people from the community, as well as seeing a student who stayed behind for summer. We’re usually surprised at who shows up and it keeps us on our toes for conversation and listening to what God may have for us in the situation. It’s good training for us – I would expect this is a large part of what God is doing.

Please continue to pray for us as you are led. We need God’s guidance and empowerment to continue to be of helpful impact for the Kingdom.

The River Falls Street Level officecoffee outreachSunday community studygrilling outfun at the grill

June 19, 2018 River Falls Ministry

We have been enjoying the summer. It brought us into a season of change, and we are looking forward to seeing what God will do.

Since the UW River Falls students finished school for the summer, we made a few updates to our regular schedule. Instead of meeting for Street Level each week – because most of the students are home for the summer – we started doing a community grill out at 6:30pm on Tuesdays. Our goal is to meet people in the neighborhood and more people in the building that Street Level meets in.

On Sundays we continue to do a bible study and are enjoying a meal together afterwards. We just finished up studying Galatians and a short study in Jude. Both books spoke about people coming into the church and bringing in false teaching in different ways. In Galatians we talked about the law verses following God with our hearts; while in Jude we talked about people coming into the church that we don’t initially recognize as unbelievers. The next book we look forward to beginning is Philippians.

This summer we will continue with these outreaches as well as include some other events. With the support of Street Level Menomonie, we are currently planning a rummage sale at the end of the month. During the sale The Blind Munchies mobile trailer will be at the serving drinks. The purpose is to raise money for the spring break Street Level Missions trip as well as engage with the River Falls community.

Thank you for your prayers for the River Falls outreach. Please pray for us to continue to meet the people and engage with the people in our community.

June Calendar

  • Sundays: 5pm / JFBelievers Bible Study,  6pm / Meal
  • Tuesdays: Community Grill Out, 6:30pm
  • Saturday June 30th: Rummage Sale 8am-3pm

Online

let's eat hanging in the lobby on the grill hot pads