Rev. Abraham Funchess Jr. shares message at 2010 Advocacy Day worship service

(Click here to see the video of Rev. Funchess' keynote presentation.)

On Monday, February 1, 2010, Rev. Abraham Funchess Jr. of Jubilee United Methodist Church in Waterloo, shared a powerful and inspiring message at the Advocacy Day worship service held at Calvary Baptist Church in Des Moines. Rev. Funchess started his message with the spiritual song, “I Want Jesus To Walk With Me”. Funchess shared that “there is no end to this work we are engaged in” as we like people of so long ago see a world around us where the wealthy get wealthier and the poor get poorer.

 

Rev. Funchess reminded those in attendance of the atrocities that were so well known as a part of everyday life during the time of Jesus and that it was just a “matter of fact” in the society at that time. However with the complacency during that time in history, Funchess shared how Jesus grew up in an area where he saw people in poverty, sickness as well as suffering with emotional despair. “Jesus ran right up against the evil of those days”, Funchess shared. Jesus preached the good news to the poor and shared a gospel that set people free.

 

During the message, Rev. Funchess shared that if someone kills the hope in an individual, that the hopeless can become enslaved. Jesus gave hope. Jesus energizes us and moves us to fight for those who have no sense of hope. Funchess reminded everyone of the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who said “we all have a right to the tree of life”. We must not become complacent in our world today with what we see happening around us. Rev. Funchess reminded everyone that we all have, and will continue to have, opportunities to do great things. Whatever our passions are by either helping the poor, helping in the area of race relations, or other social issues, we will be amazed at what we can do when we all work in unison.

 

For the closing of the message, Rev. Funchess sang “Amazing Grace” joined by those attending the worship service.