Wesley Foundation Essay

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Alumni, Friends, and Partners of The Wesley Foundation at Louisiana Tech,

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I write to announce the launch of a new facet of our ministry called “The Harvest Initiative.” The Harvest Initiative is a gathering of churches, alumni, and friends who commit to participate in the unfolding of God’s mission through the Wesley Foundation at Louisiana Tech University. Before going any further, a little context and backstory seem fitting.

Like so many of you, I got to know Wesley Foundation first-hand when I was a student at Tech. In many ways, God saved my life through the community at Wesley. In the Summer of 2008, having completed a Wesley internship and just a few months after …show more content…

Gone are the days when American Christians could assume that the culture, or much less the State, would prop up and reinforce the church. Even in North Louisiana, arguably the “buckle” of the bible belt, a serious commitment to following Jesus is liable to face ridicule, marginalization, or even outright persecution. Furthermore, while all North American Christians are experiencing a degree of disorientation, mainline denominations such as the United Methodist Church are liable to seem like they are in a state of outright crisis. Besides the ongoing threat of schism, in the UMC, we hear rumor of hemorrhaging church membership, droves of congregational closures, and predictions of more to come. Wesley Foundation is in no way untouched by these developments. For example, just this year the Louisiana Conference Board of Higher Education announced that, due to shortfalls in congregational apportionments, campus ministries throughout the state should brace for a full 15% cut in the grants which help sustain our work. By all accounts, it is a sobering time to be a Christian in North America and a challenging time to be doing campus

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