Powerpoint Presentation for Teaching the United Methodist Women's Study, "For the Love of God". This version was a 3.5 hour teaching session at Michigan Area School of the North in October 2010.

1. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD THE EPISTLES OF JOHN BARRY AGAPE… LOVE IS… MUSING & TEACHING PETRUCCI DARKNESS! LIGHT~ IF… KOINONIA

2. 1 John 4:7-8 Beloved, let us love one another For love is of God And everyone who loveth is born of God The one who loveth not, knoweth not God For God is love. So, beloved, let us love one another… First John Four, Seven and Eight

4. Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary Pure and holy, tried and true With thanksgiving, I'll be a living Sanctuary for You

5. The Serenity Prayer God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him Forever in the next. Amen. --Reinhold Niebuhr

22. ORTHODOXY HETERODOXY

23. First John 1:5-2:2 – God is Light 5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; 7 but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. 2:1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; 2 and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. NRSV

26. Prayer Creator and Healer of the world, help us see our part in your work of healing our world and its wounded people. Show us what needs to be torn down and what needs to be built up, that all people may live in peace and safety, enjoying fullness of life. Amen. From Number 397, Upper Room Worshipbook, 2006, by Mary Lou Redding

27. Confession of Sin and Assurance of Pardon We are reluctant, Author of Love and Light, to name and then set aside our hurts, anger, and disappointments which we have acted upon individually as well as corporately within the church. Heal us with your tender touch and shine your light upon us as we diligently seek the persons who live with a renewed commitment to seek your image in all persons. Open our eyes to your reclaiming power in our lives, your redeeming love, and reveal to us through this study how your love is made known through continued unselfish sacrifice.

28. Come! Live in the light! Shine with joy and the love of the Lord! We are called to be light for the kingdom, to live in the freedom of the city of God! We are called to act with justice, we are called to love tenderly, we are called to serve one another, to walk humbly with God! “ We Are Called”

29. Come! Open your heart! Show your mercy to all those in fear! We are called to be hope for the hopeless so all hatred and blindness will be no more! We are called to act with justice, we are called to love tenderly, we are called to serve one another, to walk humbly with God!

30. Sing! Sing a new song! Sing of that great day when all will be one! God will reign, and we’ll walk with each other as sisters and brothers united in love! We are called to act with justice, we are called to love tenderly, we are called to serve one another, to walk humbly with God! “ We are Called,” The Faith We Sing, #2172

37. VISIONING PLANNING SKILL MOTIVATION TIME

39. The English word “ martyr ” is an almost direct transliteration from the New Testament Greek word, martus , which originally meant “ a witness .” It was especially used in the early church to signify those who were witnesses of Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, and consequently many of the apostles died giving their testimony of their Lord. In current usage it usually means one who is killed for refusing to renounce their religious faith, practices, and beliefs.

48. There are a lot of “missing persons” in our world today whose situation of poverty, injustice, and suffering makes God weep. The missing persons are not strangers to God, for God already has reached out to care for them. Yet they are strangers in the world who need to know God cares through the witness of a church that practices a ministry of hospitality and justice. Just Hospitality: God’s Welcome in a World of Difference, Letty M. Russell, edited by J. Shannon Clarkson and Kate M. Ott, pp.18-19.

50. Guide my feet while I run this race. Guide my feet while I run this race. Guide my feet while I run this race, for I don't want to run this race in vain! Hold my hand . . . Stand by me . . . I’m your child . . . Search my heart . . . Guide my feet . . .

52. GOD IS LOVE. 1 John 4:8

53. We Should Love One Another 1 John 3:11

54. Little Ones,let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. 1 John 3:18

55. All Who Love Are Born of God... And Know God. 1 John 4:7

56. No one has seen God; if we love each other, God lives in us, and Divine Love is perfected in us! 1 John 4:12

57. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. 1 John 4:16b

59. Ubuntu is an African philosophy focusing on people’s allegiances and relations with each other. The word has its origin in the Bantu languages of Southern Africa. Ubuntu is seen as a traditional African concept. A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed. — Archbishop Desmond Tutu, p. 4, Alive Now, May/June 2008

65. … The church is very good at doing things for people, but we are not very good at proximity and partnership. There is a big difference between dragging folks into your soup kitchen and simply hanging out with them on the street corner. There is a difference between bringing others into the church so that they can be like you and becoming immersed in someone else’s struggle. Things change for you when you hang out with people and become partners with them.

66. Suppose you are tutoring children in a low-income neighborhood. When you begin to see that your pupils are gifted, bright, talented children, yet realize that many of them are flunking out of school, it pushes you to challenge and change the public school system. When you begin to know people’s hopes and fears, dreams and struggles, you move into the fight for justice. If you redefine everything in light of this new priority—being present with people and in partnership with them, being concerned with justice rather than just charity—everything changes. Children’s ministry becomes redefined as ministry with all God’s children—the children hanging out on the streets, not just those that an adult brings to church…. — Janet Wolf, from ”Ministry with all God’s Children,” New World Outlook, Sept.-Oct. 2000, gbgm-umc.org.

69. Community is the Place... Where those you least want to live with... ALWAYS live. Parker Palmer

70. Jesus help us live in peace From our blindness set us free Fill us with your perfect love Help us live in unity. Many times we disagree O’er what’s right or wrong to do It’s so hard to really see From the other’s point of view UNITY How we long for power and fame Seeking every earthly thing We forget the One who came As a servant, not a king

71. The Patchwork of “The Beloved Community”

72. The Rev. Dr. Serene Jones is president of Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. The first woman to head the 174-year-old nondenominational seminary, Jones came to Union after seventeen years at Yale University, where she was the Titus Street Professor of Theology at the Divinity School, and chair of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Jones is a prolific and popular scholar in the fields of theology, religion, globalization, and gender studies. Her most recent book, Trauma and Grace: Theology in a Ruptured World , explores the devastating social and personal effects of violence on the human psyche and the role religious communities can play, both negative and positive, in healing wounds. Her book, Feminist Theory and Christian Theology , is a standard textbook in feminist theology. Jones is ordained in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ.

73. Ada María Isasi-Díaz was born and raised in La Habana, Cuba. Brought up in a practicing Catholic home, early in her life she discovered a concern for the poor and the oppressed and a love of religious practices. At the same time, her mother taught her the importance of struggling (la lucha) for what one believes without ever giving up. She left Cuba and became a political refugee in the US in 1960. She lived three years in Lima, Peru as a missionary. “This experience has marked me for life. I often say that it was there that the poor taught me the gospel message of justice. It was there that I learned to respect and admire the religious understandings and practices of the poor and the oppressed and the importance of their everyday struggles, of lo cotidiano. It was there that I realized the centrality of solidarity with the poor and the oppressed in the struggle for justice.” Dr. Isasi is Professor of Ethics and Theology at Drew University Theological School.

74. Wahu Kaara is a globally renowned Kenyan educator, activist and campaigner for social justice. A prolific writer, poet and speaker, Wahu has devoted her time and energy to civic engagement and incisive analysis of the global political and economic architecture, with a special focus on the impact of globalization on the countries of the South, especially Africa. She has campaigned and written extensively on debt, aid, privatization and human rights and has been a leader in the Africa and Kenya Social Forum councils that organized the inaugural World Social Forum in Africa in Nairobi in January 2007. Though widowed at an early age, she is a committed Christian, the happy mother of four, and proud grandmother.

75. S. Wesley Ariarajah , Methodist Minister from Sri Lanka, served both in the pastoral ministry of the church and as lecturer in the History of Religions and New Testament in the common Protestant seminary of the churches in Sri Lanka. In 1981 he was invited to join the staff of the World Council of Churches, where he led the Councils Interfaith Dialogue for over ten years. From 1992 he served as the Deputy General Secretary of the WCC. He has given lectures, conducted seminars, led conferences in many parts of the world and written a number of acclaimed books on ecumenism. Rev. Dr. Ariarajah is currently the Professor of Ecumenical Theology at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey.

80. I Love You, Lord And I Lift My Voice To Worship You O My Soul Rejoice! Take Joy, My King In What You Hear May It Be a Sweet, Sweet Sound in Your Ear

82. Getting Outlines, Thoughts and Slides for Teaching “ For the Love of God” www.slideshare.net Join and Search: Barry Petrucci [email_address]