Florida Crown Emmaus Newsletter
| A Gateway to Christ |
January 2018 |
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I'm not ready, yet! I have thought that many times since I became a follower of Jesus Christ. I thought I wasn't ready when God first told me I was going to be in ministry. I thought it again when I was assigned to my first church. Most recently, I had the thought when asked to pray about being the community Spiritual Director. If I could pick the time for things to happen they would not have been the same as God chose. In each case I was wrong and God was right in His timing. It was through that lens that I prayed about this opportunity and during this time of prayer, God revealed that He was calling me to serve as the community Spiritual Director. I went on FCE Walk 43 and I sat at the table of Peter. I serve at San Marco Church (formerly Swaim UMC) in Jacksonville. I am excited about this opportunity to serve the community and God but also humbled to be in such a position. Emmaus and Chrysalis have been my passion since before I was called into ministry and I pray that both Emmaus and Chrysalis continue to make stronger disciples of Jesus Christ and leaders for our local churches. I ask that you pray for me to provide the spiritual guidance when necessary and at other times the wisdom to stay out of God's way.
De Colores, Fly with Christ
Pastor Steve
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2018 Gathering Calendar
Calling ALL churches, large and small: We need you, one and all!
As we enter a new year, it is time to look forward. Forward to 2018 and what is in store for Florida Crown Emmaus. With that in mind, we are opening up the calendar for Emmaus Gatherings and hoping to hear from Pastors or church coordinators to arrange a spot to host a Gathering. If you, or your church Emmaus community, are dreaming of hosting a date in the coming year, please contact Kathy Scott OR any of your Emmaus board members. We will be happy to assist in providing information and working with you to make your dream a reality.
The dates of our 2018 Gatherings and locations as currently assigned, are:
January 27 - Mandarin UMC
February 17 - Lakeshore UMC
March 17 -
April 21 -
May 19 -
June 16 -
August 18 - Middleburg UMC (?)
September 15 -
October 20 - FOURTH DAY -
November 18 -
Kathy Scott
Incoming Community Lay Director
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BILL ADAMS - INCOMING COMMUNITY ASSISTANT LAY DIRECTOR
DeColores!
My name is Bill Adams and I will be your Community Assistant Lay Director for the upcoming year. The main duty of the Assistant Lay Director is to substitute for the Lay Director when needed and assist when needed. It is the duty of everyone on the Board to represent the Florida Crown Emmaus Community. Feel free to contact me through the FCE website,
www.floridacrownemmaus.com , with any questions or ideas you may have.
My wife Lisa and I both made our weekends with the Via de Cristo community prior to Emmaus being established here in North Florida and have been a part of Florida Crown Emmaus from the onset. I have served on a number of teams and was the Lay Director for Men's #73. For the last 3 years I have served on the Board as the Men's Team Selection Chair.
I look forward to serving the Florida Crown Emmaus Board and Community for 2018. It has the potential to be a great year. Since we are only having one weekend in 2018, it is especially important to recruit and sponsor pilgrims and to support it. It is also the responsibility of Emmaus to develop and nurture leaders for the Christian Church as well as the Emmaus community. I am thankful for this opportunity to serve.
Yours in Christ,
Bill Adams
Community Assistant Lay Director
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DeColores and Happy New Year!
As another new year begins, this is not just going to be another new year with resolution's that we make and slip them in the back of our mind. My name is Tracy Crissman and I am humbled to begin serving the community as the Florida Crown Emmaus Board in the role of Agape Coordinator. I attended my walk. Costal Bend Emmaus Community, Corpus Christi, Texas Walk # 621 in January of 1998. God's timing for my walk defiantly showed me that "he was in charge". My husband was on deployment, I was raising a young daughter, going to school full-time, working full-time and serving on our children's council. How could I fit a weekend away in my already packed schedule? My sponsor knew just what I needed. I needed the spiritual renewal and the "Texas Agape Love" just kept pouring in from table agape, food agape, prayer agape you name it we felt it! Now, 20 years later I am ready to take a giant leap of faith and serve on the Florida Crown Emmaus Board (FCEB). With God's guidance, and prayers from FCEB and the entire Emmaus Community I look forward to showing AGAPE love to our pilgrims and community in the next three years.
Not sure how or where to serve? Pray about what God is calling you to do in our Emmaus community. Is it to form a reunion group? Is it to provide agape? Is it sponsorship? Is it to serve in the kitchen on the walks? All of these are vital to a successful Emmaus community. I encourage you, as you life out your 4th day, to join a reunion group and attend our gatherings. All of these are posted on the Florida Crown Emmaus website.
Let's make 2018 a wonderful year in our Emmaus community and fill both the men and women's team! Now is the time to begin praying about sponsorship and AGAPE for our next walk this fall.
Tracy Crissman
Agape Coordinator
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Reunion Groups
Paul Frendahl
Book of Numbers; and Organization
I was always under the impression that the Book of Numbers was God's provision for those that suffered with insomnia. Just a couple verses and I was usually fast asleep.
As I studied Numbers more thoroughly and prayed for discernment, I found that Numbers has a significant message of order, resource utilization, and planning. God's people were in the process of transitioning from slaves to freedom and required structure in order to govern their nation, communicate and operate efficiently, and fight the battles that would be inevitable when they entered the Promised Land.
The first thing God commanded of Moses was to take a census, by tribe and clan, of all the men of fighting age that were able to go to battle. I doubt God needed to know this number, but it was important that the Israelites were made aware of the number of men in each tribe so they could begin to arrange living areas and community structure. Also, they needed to be shown that God had kept his promise to Abraham to make them into a mighty nation.
Once the census had been taken, God instructed Moses to order the tribes of Israel around the central focus of the Tabernacle or Tent of Meeting where God Himself was present. Three tribes were positioned on each side of the Tabernacle (North, South, East, and West), all facing the Tent of Meeting where they could see the pillar of cloud. The Levites were positioned in the center to tend to the duties of the Tabernacle and the Most Holy things.
Over the years, our Emmaus Community has grown to a population of many thousands of members that are organized by their respective churches and by hundreds of Reunion Groups that have been established within those churches. This is our modern day organizational structure that helps to drive the Emmaus movement. Reunion Groups are as essential to the fulfillment of the Emmaus vision and mission as the tribes of Israel were to the fulfillment of God's promise to bring his people, Israel, into the Promised Land.
My plan for this year is to follow God's example in Numbers to organize our community by geographic regions to help stimulate and encourage the Reunion Groups to "Pray, Study, and Act" in accordance with Emmaus principles. Also, we will strive to motivate these Reunion Groups to reach out to their existing members that may have been absent and attempt to get them to return to their groups. And, of course, we will continue to reach out to potential new pilgrims who have not yet taken an Emmaus weekend and invite and sponsor them as they are called.
Much like God did in Numbers, I plan to take a census of the numbers of individuals involved in Florida Crown Emmaus and determine the churches with which they are affiliated. Then; once that information is known, we will structure seven regional leaders, within the greater Northeast Florida area, who will have responsibility for the churches in those regions and then determine a primary Reunion Group coordinator for each church. This plan, of course, will keep God as the central focus of these groups as He was in the Book of Numbers.
Anyone interested in becoming either a Regional Leader or the Reunion Group Coordinator for their church, should feel free to contact me at
paul.frendahl@gmail.com or by phone at (904)509-6650.
I hope I can count on all of you to support this effort to organize and prepare a plan that is God driven to increase our numbers and our ability to serve. I pray that this plan, much like the plan God laid out in Numbers, will help us to grow in our faith and provide a vehicle for greater fellowship and evangelism within our Emmaus community.
Trusting God,
Paul Frendahl,
Reunion Group Coordinator
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| Emmaus Newsletter Check with all of your Emmaus friends to ensure that they're getting the newsletter. If they aren't, encourage them to go to the website to sign up, text EMMAUS to 22828 for a signup prompt, or send a note to fcecomm@gmail.comto get their email address added. There are several ways and we want our Community to stay informed! |
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Board of Directors List
Community Lay Director - Kathy Scott (904) 612-4361
Asst. Community Lay Director - Bill Adams (904) 771-4268
Community Spiritual Director -
Rev Steve Painter (904) 553-3250
Asst. Community Spiritual Director -
Rev. Dave Preston 904-616-6817
Treasurer - Celeste Willis 208-0965
Men's Team Selection -Steve Babine 687-3544
Women's Team Selection -
Barbara Rowe (904) 642-5995
Secretary - Hugh Fletcher (904) 223-4744
Registrar - Verna Fields 771-7450
Agape, Prayer Vigil - Tracy Crissman (904) 534-3356
Gatherings - David Arrington (909) 652-8630
Kitchen Coordinator- Aileen Wood (904) 491-4900
Physical Arrangements - Mike Oakes
(904) 434-7444
Music - Joe Alexander (904) 221-5791
Communications Director - Richard Jacobs (904) 742-5151
Reunion Groups - Paul Frendahl (904) 509-6650
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Chrysalis
Hootie Hoo!
Chrysalis weekends have just finished, and once again, God has moved in a mighty way. Back in September, Hurricane Irma came through Florida and unfortunately, our Chrysalis weekends had to be postponed. We are reminded that God's timing is always perfect, though. We are so grateful for our weekend Lay Directors, Taylor Mathis and Ian Keane, for being faithful, patient and strong leaders through many challenges. Lives were changed as evidenced by testimony from the butterflies of Flight 34 and Journey 16.
We were also blessed to bring our Chrysalis weekends back to Mandarin UMC. It truly could not have been a better location, as the logistics were smooth and the facilities were gorgeous. We thank the clergy, staff and congregation of Mandarin UMC for their generosity in allowing us to use their beautiful church campus.
Chrysalis weekend dates for the fall will be announced soon. Please consider what young people you can sponsor on these weekends. We have plenty of time to start planting that seed for the fall weekends.
RUSH/4
th
Day Gathering, 6:00 PM:
Mandarin UMC
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| ABOUT THE WALK TO EMMAUS The Mission: Empowering Leaders to be the hands and feet of Christ
The Vision: Fourth Day Leaders Embodying Jesus Christ
"I continue to dream and pray about a revival of holiness in our day that moves forth in mission and creates authentic community in which each person can be unleashed through the empowerment of the Spirit to fulfill God's creational intentions." -- Unknown
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| Florida Crown Emmaus PO Box 351588 Jacksonville, FL 32235 flcrownemmaus.com
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January 27 - Mandarin UMC
February 17 - Lakeshore UMC
March 17 -
April 21 -
May 19 -
June 16 -
August 18 - Middleburg UMC (?)
September 15 -
October 20 - FOURTH DAY -
November 18 -
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Florida Crown Emmaus
www.floridacrownemmaus.com
Jacksonville, Florida 32235
Communications
904-382-7323 |
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