Greetings to all from Duluth; spring is finally here, and it’s a beautiful 45 degrees and cloudy. Unless of course you’re in Menomonie, River Falls, or Cebu where its likely 40 degrees warmer! We have found that springtime in Duluth, though a bit dreary, makes summer all the sweeter. All jokes aside, we have had some beautiful days, great opportunities to get out and meet people, and have had a very busy month.

All About Missions

Street Level Duluth got to join up with Street Level Menomonie to drive down to Tennessee to roof a church. They drove straight through and had a full week of hard work, good fellowship, and sleeping in the church. It sounds like it was a great time to serve together and get to see what God is doing in another part of the country. They were able to get a large roof done along with a few other projects despite having some rather precarious weather. While they were hard at work in Tennessee another group from the church got to drive down to Louisiana camper-style to serve a few different churches. It was also a full week of fellowship and getting to serve others, whether we were sanding a floor, painting, siding, digging a hole, taping and mudding with a bazooka (wait, what?), or installing the worst designed door-closers ever!

I am sure both teams would agree that it was great to be able to get out and serve Jesus on a mission trip somewhere different, even in the midst of a pandemic.

However, this is never to be to the neglect of our mission here, at home, in Duluth. So, on Easter weekend we had a chance to get out and serve our community by setting up a candy giveaway tent and the mobile coffee trailer at the zoo for their annual Egg-stravaganza. I believe there were roughly 1,200 people that came to the event, all of whom walked by our tent/trailer and received information for the church, whether by flyer or word. It was a large group effort to prepare for and execute the event as the opportunity came suddenly, just weeks before the event date. The event went very well, and there could be more possibilities of setting up there for future events.

All About Service

We have continued to get into a groove with new service opportunities between community group, media ministry, and repair/rehab. The Easter outreach provided a great opportunity to see these three groups work together to put on the event. We all have a part to play, whether designing a flier, printing them, prepping the trailer, bagging candy, loading the trailer, planning the event, or handing out the candy/coffee and engaging with people. Though these ministry groups serve different purposes, it is important to remember that we are on the same mission with the same purpose. We have also been continuing our Sunday lunches and get to serve through the kitchen to ensure we have a chance to spend time together and share a meal together safely.

All About Teaching

We have still been going through the Anatomy of a Disciple Series on Sundays, continuing to learn how God, through His word, often uses body parts as an analogy of how we should be living as His disciples and as part of His church (the body of believers). On Easter, we heard an Easter message from Pastor Jesse about resurrection, and how no other event in history had as far-reaching implications as the resurrection of Christ.

We are continuing to rotate through Jeremiah, men’s and women’s studies, and “Horizontal Jesus” by Tony Evans on Wednesdays. We just finished a six-week Friday night marriage study going through the book “Sacred Marriage” by Gary Thomas. It is a really good book that looks at how your marriage should be focusing more on serving God than serving yourself or simply having a “nice and happy” life. Though our marriages should be creating happiness and joy, that is not the primary purpose of it.  

Prayer

You can continue to keep us in your prayers, we may be a small fellowship, but we have big plans to be making more of an impact in our community, and Satan does not like that. Please pray that we would stand firm in our faith, resist the devil in our thought life, and have boldness to engage with our community, neighbors, co-workers, and each other. Also, that we would do what we do because we love God and each other and want to see His will done in our lives and in the church.

Adam

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Up here in the Twin Ports, our February flew by. It came in like a lion with a mean spell of finger-freezing, face-numbing, below-zero temperatures. We’re talking more than -20 degrees below zero, for multiple days in a row (yikes!). We bundled up, muddled through and reminded each other that suffering builds character. Then, just like the sisters sang in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, “You’re about to forget the whole thing, but one day, all at once, it’s Spring!”

Sorry to start a blog post jabbering on about the weather, but it’s what we Midwesterners do best. On top of that, springtime in the North has got to be the most hopeful time of the entire year — it’s hard not to talk about! Our snow is finally melting, the birds are singing and after enduring a year of COVID-19 safety precautions, we’ve been able to be together as a church more than ever (still six feet apart, of course). Here’s what we’ve been up to.

What we’re learning

On Sundays, we’re deep into our Anatomy of a Christian series. Here’s a fun trailer we made to promote it. Throughout this month, we covered the Tongue, the Heart, the Stomach and the Lungs. They’ve all been really helpful, but my personal favorite was the sermon on the Lungs.

In the Lungs sermon, Justin talked about how the Bible describes Christians as being athletes. We’re running on a race course that we didn’t design, like an Ironman race. It’s crucial that we accept what God sends our way as a spiritual workout and let it develop the endurance in us that He intends it to. How else are we going to get the spiritual equivalent of rock-hard abs? It was a great reminder and seemed to be exactly what a lot of us needed to hear that week. I recommend giving it a listen.

On Wednesdays, we rotate between three different topics: Tony Evans’ Horizontal Jesus series, men’s and women’s groups, and the book of Jeremiah. When we split into gender-specific groups, the women are going through a series by Lauren Chandler called Steadfast Love, and the guys are going through a series that draws on the Navy Seal experience to further explore the Christian life.

How we’re getting to serve

With the start of the new year, we were able to start up a few new ways to serve on Sunday afternoons. Throughout February, we continued this and are getting more comfortable with the new schedule.

Some of us are in Community Group. These folks go out into the community, talk to people, give away treats, pass out flyers and more. Others are in Media Ministry. This group produces print materials, hones in our social media game, updates the website, makes videos and works on Burning Dog Radio. Last, but certainly not least, is our Maintenance Crew. These gentlemen fix anything that needs fixing and make sure our church building stays ship shape.

Fun and fellowshipping

Members have been able to reserve RavenFed for hangouts, which has been really helpful. This means we get to do things together indoors (remember, -20 degrees below zero outside!), knowing that everything is disinfected, safe and COVID-free. Recently, we took advantage of this perk and I learned how to play pandemic-friendly rummy with three separate decks. I did very well for a first-timer, thanks for asking.

We’ve continued serving lunch on Sundays after church. It has been nice to have the time to talk to each other without getting hangry. (That’s when you get angry because you’re so hungry, for those of you who don’t know.) We were even able to pick a sunny Sunday and go on a hike together as a church.

On the Street Level front, Monday meetings in the garage continue on. We’ve even been able to meet a few new faces. We hosted a retro video game night, and I found out that Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater is definitively not as fun as it was in the 7th grade. Also, we’ve started having Friday Movie Nights complete with pizza and popcorn in hopes that we can reach more students. Even when nobody shows up besides us, they are a great way to end a week.

Please keep praying for us

If you feel so inclined, we’d love it if you’d pray for us. Particularly for help with staying connected with each other, meeting new people in our community and enduring to the end of this pandemic well. It’s easy to get crabby and ungrateful because things aren’t ‘normal’ yet. But God is still doing very cool things and I don’t want us to miss them. 

Thanks for spending the time to catch up on what we’ve been doing!

-Claire

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Bible Studies/Teaching/Preaching:

The core of our time together as a church is teaching and preaching and Bible studies. It’s a huge part of what makes us tick. And lately, there’s been a wide variety. While Pastor Justin was guest-teaching in Menomonie early in January, Pastor Jesse taught on a Wednesday and Sunday about worship and persuasion, asking us to consider: who or what do we worship and are we compelled to share the desperately-needed truth of the gospel with those around us? A few weeks later, Pastor Tim visited from Menomonie and toured through the challenges to Christians found in Colossians 3. Routinely on Sundays, after finishing the ever-intense yet hopeful book of Revelation, Pastor Justin is turning our attention to a series of lectures on the basics of Christianity in the format of “Anatomy of a Christian.” So far, we’ve covered the Head, Mind, Ears, and Eyes and learned of our need for transplants, proper alignment, and barriers to and results of bona fide spiritual seeing and hearing. On Wednesdays, we alternate between the book of Jeremiah, men’s and women’s studies, video discussions around the Horizontal Jesus series, and shorter teachings with small group discussions.

Fellowship:

Bingo night.  After so much relative separation, we got pretty desperate and Bingo was the perfect solution!  The game itself is actually quite dry, but throw in a crowd full of twenty-to-forty-somethings dressed like elderly folk, add a nice meal of fish sticks, potato wedges and peas, and you’ve got yourself a party!  But the real party didn’t start until we decided to live stream the whole thing and invite friends.  Having people join from literally around the world was a special treat and it was a night to remember!

Sunday lunches started.  After a long break, we brought back Sunday lunches – meals that are fast to make and a snap to eat.  This allows us to linger long after the sermon, having communion, discuss with our neighbors what the sermon prompted in us, what’s going on in our lives and what God is doing through it all.

Super Bowl Party. A small group was able to gather the afternoon of the Super Bowl for a sweet time of enjoying one another’s company.  It was bring-your-own-snacks and overall a simple event, but it was a great opportunity to be together and catch up on the goings-on in each others lives.

Service:

Kitchen training.  After some at-home required reading, Matt led kitchen volunteers through the ins and outs of the “Church Lady Law” in a brief in-person meeting.  The training provided very practical help in keeping food and people safe – allowing us to serve one another and guests with the care required to make meals an enjoyable aspect of church life.

Community group and Media Ministry started.  Through posters, online presence, neighborhood events, and more, two new Duluth ministries seek to make sure the community knows we exist. Collectively, we’ve already had several meetings, including crossover between the two groups as these are intended to work hand-in-hand with each other, doing whatever we can to give the Twin Ports area the clear option to say “Yes, I’ll come to that church,” or, “No, I won’t,” rather than the recurring, “Never heard of it.”

Street Level.  A meeting with some SL Menomonie folks just before the start of the new semester rolled into in-person weekly dinners and Bible Studies at the Garage. The Garage, Street Level’s next-to-campus meeting space, was recently re-insulated. It is reportedly toasty warm now, making the space even more welcoming to guests and regulars alike. In a key aspect of both online and local ministry and advertising, the Word on the Street magazine crew has been continuing the development process and recently submitted ideas for the next issue.

Prayer Requests:

It’s exciting to move forward, but each step certainly comes with challenges. Pray for our spiritual integrity, that we wouldn’t be intimidated by what the world or the devil or our Lord sends our way.  That we’d be ready for what’s next, faithful in the not-in-public-sight elements of our lives, open to be helpful and helped by one another, and able to minister to the people around us.

-Karla

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The End of 2020

2020 is finally all wrapped up! The snow’s been blanketing us a decent amount and it’s cold and dark as ever up here in the north, but that’s okay as we are continuing to press on! We’ve continued to find new ways to stay in touch through video chat, fellowship together, and we’re looking forward to what God will allow us to do in the new year.

Thoughts of Heaven

December was a monumental month for Duluth as we finished up our study in Revelation. To date, Pastor Justin has taught all the way through the new testament. Finishing the last book of the bible coinciding with the end of a memorable year was a wonderful cap to our pandemic laden time in 2020.

In addition to our Sunday and Wednesday gatherings, we began meeting every Tuesday throughout December to let our ‘thoughts be filled with the things Heaven’. We had an informal dialogue and discussion, all were welcome to attend, where we would talk about, and perhaps speculate a bit, on what Heaven might look like. Meeting for an additional day of the week was a real blessing for this fellowship. It allowed us to connect with each other all while focusing on God’s glory and dreaming about what might be possible in the life to come.

The Old Fold & Staple… and Sticker?

Lastly, we came together to fold and staple Word on The Street Magazine to send out while the semester finished up. This is normally a large undertaking in itself and it helps to have all hands-on deck. This issue, while being one of the largest we’ve ever been a part of producing, had an extra step involved in that after printing, sorting, compiling, stapling, folding, we got to fold another time, and then sticker each copy of WOTS closed to be mailed out to students. The extra time involved was worth it as being mailed reaches a wide audience, as well as showing off the cool intricate design of the back cover, our new sermon series: The Anatomy of
A Christian.

Prayer Requests

Please pray for us to learn and continue to love each other as the body of Christ in the way He intends. Please also pray for God to lead and bless us in our efforts to ramp up service positions and community outreach kicking off real soon. Pastor Justin and Pastor Jesse have a big vision and big plans for Duluth in 2021. Please pray for God’s continued guidance and hand in our attempts to love Him and love our neighbors. Here’s to the new year!

-Seth Tolene

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New Adventures

What have us north folk been up to? So we got to set up our stand at Boo at the Zoo! Every October our local zoo hosts trick or treating events with local businesses and organizations. For three Saturdays leading up to Halloween, we got to hand out candy to trick or treaters and church information to the parents. Then, all dressed up, on Halloween, we set up in four different neighborhoods to do the same thing. These ended up being a great way to meet our community. We look forward to hopefully doing it again next year.

While the teams were on the domestic trip, We took a brief pause on revelation and Jeremiah. During that time we were treated to a series on Kings and Kingdoms as well as a study in Joshua. The team came back to some really nice weather (like seriously it was warm), giving us the opportunity to catch up with them on some beautiful days. Now, winter has arrived,  but October was not our last hurrah before it got cold. We’ve got some ideas on how we want to spend it together.

Campus Ministry

Street Level has continued to meet once a week as we go through Galatians. The Garage, Street Level’s meeting place, has been such a nice space and just what we needed. In addition to our Monday study nights, we’ve plans some other fun events. We joined in on the Halloween fun by having a party; complete with costumes, pumpkin carving, and old Halloween movies. Man, there were some intricate pumpkin carvings…they had some crazy skills! Next, we look forward to a retro video game night!

After thanksgiving, many students will not be returning to campus as all classes will be online. But some students will be staying in the area. We will continue to meet after thanksgiving. Also, we hope to print and mail  WOTS to every UWS students very soon. Street Level has been quite blessed this year with not only a neat meeting space and opportunities, but an awesome core group. We are excited for the rest of the semester.

Prayer Requests

Please pray not only opportunity to continue to reach students and our community, but that real strong relationships would be a distinguishing part of who we are; for us to continue to grow in unity and love for one another. Also, please pray for our leaders as they continue to seek God’s direction.

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Community Group

Through the summer and fall members of the community group have been setting up at different parks and intersections throughout the city handing out hot or iced drinks as well as church information to engage the community. We met a lot of people and were able to let a lot of people know who we are. As Summer fades to winter these outreaches will change, but we aren’t done yet. Every October the Duluth Zoo hosts an event “Boo at the Zoo” where local businesses can set up stations throughout the zoo to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters and promotional materials to their parents. This year we are setting up a station for three weekends in a row. This is a large event so please pray that God would help us to connect with the right people and work through us as we put ourselves out into the community. 

Street Level

Street Level has been continuing to reach out to both the UM-Duluth and UW-Superior campuses. A couple of weeks ago we drove down to Minneapolis to join Stout and River Falls at an all-day discussion of how to spread the truth of Jesus on college campuses in our current cultural climate. This semester remains one like no other with its own unique challenges and difficulties, but also unusual opportunities. Both campuses are emptier than ever, in fact, a walk through campus might leave you wondering if school is really in session after all. This might seem to be a problem at first but God has still placed us around people and we believe He intends to use us in their lives for His purposes. Please pray that we will make good on the opportunities that God puts in front of us each day. 

Fellowship

In the past couple of weeks, we have also had the opportunity to spend time together as a church enjoying each other’s company and the beauty of God’s creation. One Sunday after church we all piled onto our bikes and pedaled out of town along the shore of Lake Superior. We ended the evening around a fire in the Street level Garage’s yard with a bowl of hot chili. (Turns out one pot of chili can feed far more people than we realized.) On another Sunday we went for a hike taking in the change of seasons. 

Church Service

We are still in the midst of our series going through Revelation on Sunday morning. It has been a great series, one that has addressed things that many long time Bible readers simply breeze by. On Wednesday nights we are rotating through sermons through the book of Jeremiah and occasional videos and discussion.   

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