The Substance @ The Heart of Ministering to Jesus (M2J)...

...is the love & worship of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Around the substance we have placed a certain form, M2J, which is the unique way in which we pursue it.

Ministering to Jesus is corporate, personal & intensely focused devotion to God. We commit together certain times & places each week to worship. We call these times ‘worship watches’ which usually last for one or two hours. People are free to come & go during that time as they are able.

Typically as people enter, the leader is at the front of the room, with their back to us, worshipping the Lord by playing music (sometimes with a musical instrument but usually with CDs), putting up scriptures or leading us into times of silence. Each person there, following the lead given, enters into personal devotion each in their own way - sometimes standing, sometimes kneeling, sitting, prostrate on the floor or using the banners.

This is not a meeting in the regular sense. We have no announcements, no opening prayer, no times of direct fellowship. It is not a prayer meeting. Rather we are there to give our full & undistracted attention to the Lord. We are there for Him. We are there in His presence. We discourage corporate singing. Rather we take the words of   ‘God-centered’ songs & scriptures & meditate & worship in our hearts. There are some times of ‘seeking’ Him but mainly we pour out our love & admiration on Him, declaring Him King of all creation, celebrating Him.

M2J is one of many forms in our day pursuing the substance of loving Him. Other forms would include private devotions, reading Scripture, church worship, "harp & bowl" worship, contemplative prayer...

Reasons Why We Recommend M2J As A Helpful "Form" To Learn To Know & Love Him

• It is very focused :: Our worship is totally focused on God - Father, Son & Holy Spirit; but especially on Jesus, the incarnate One
• M2J helps us to purify our motives :: The emphasis in our time is of worship - it is all about Him, not about us
• We have no other agenda :: We are there simply to spend time with Him & bring Him pleasure
• Our worship is active not passive :: As we spend time with Him, we want to "minister" to Him. We actively stir up our spirit to love Him from the heart
• M2J is very simple :: Anyone, anywhere can learn to lead a worship watch. Elderly people can lead, also children.  Equipment is kept to a minimum. We do not need a worship band or even much space. We can easily worship for many hours, often through the night.  It is very "do-able"
• We are training our hearts :: Generally, we do not sing in our worship watches.  At first, this is a hard discipline.  How else can we express our love to the Lord?  As we go on, we discover that by keeping our mouths shut, our hearts are beginning to "make melody to the Lord" (Ephesians 5:19) in a way we have never known before
• We are disciplining our lives :: We put regular times in our week when we choose to spend time with Him. The worship watch team that we belong to helps us to be accountable. The encouragement of others worshipping in the same way gives us great joy.  Slowly a new discipline develops

In M2J we are developing a rhythm of life, clear committed times in our days or weeks when we "go in" to the Lord in prayer or worship & then "come out" to our world.