About

Hi!  Welcome to my blog.  

I've been on a journey of faith with Jesus since 1988  Mission, Jesus Style is about loving God AND loving others...with no judgmental expectations, simply expressing the same kind of love that the Lord gives us each and every day.  My aim with this blog is to share what I'm learning and what I see in others that I need to learn. 

I'm a child of  God, daughter, sister, wife, mother, grandmother and friend to many!  I love the Lord and find great joy in helping others to know him too.

My journey of faith began in my mid-twenties and I never tire of making new discoveries about God and His faithfulness.  Since the mid-1990's I've been helping churches strengthen their outreach ministries, finding appropriate ways to serve the community and connect people to the local congregation.  

I have served as a Director of Christian Outreach at St. John's Lutheran Church, a suburban congregation in Maryland, as the director of the Southeastern District's Mission Development Academy and developing urban ministries as the Executive Director of LINC Baltimore.

Today, I help move ministry from ideas to action by supporting the development of Christ-centered ministries both as a practitioner and a coach.  

Through the Faithful Innovation coaching practice, I inspire, support and coach leaders developing new or renewing ministry through a podcast and coaching services. If you would like to me more intentional in your life, ministry or organization, I invite you to a complimentary conversation where you can explore what the Lord may be stirring in you. Just send a note to hello@faithfulinnovation.com and we'll set a time to talk. 

As a practitioner, the local ministry in which I serve is Faith and Work Enterprises, Inc., a faith-based nonprofit in Baltimore, Maryland that is building capacity for meaningful work and holistic wellbeing by providing men between the ages 18-31 with job readiness skills.  Faith and Work Enterprises provides Christ-centered training and practical working experience through an associated social enterprise, Pennsylvania Avenue Chocolates, where our participants assist in producing a distinctive chocolate bar and helping with the other operations of this business. 

My ponderings are often focused on how to to share the grace of God with others and equip Christians to do the same. One day it dawned on me that we have been encouraging our members to invite people to church, but have we been equally good at helping our people invite others into their living relationship with Jesus?

This blog is my personal journey of discovery - - Come along this road of discovery to see what God may teach us in the journey!

My Journey to Faith

I grew up in a secular family and came to know Jesus about the age of 13 through a two year connection to a youth group.  Although my faith had been planted, it remained immature.  In 1983 I married Scott Jasion, the young man I fell in love with while attending Towson University.  As we was waiting for the birth of our first child, also growing in me was a strong desire to know God!  I can’t really explain it, but I know that the seeds of faith that had been planted in me along the way were then being ignited by the Holy Spirit, drawing me to know the Lord of the Universe.  This began a wonderful journey of faith…and discovery…and a whole new sense of understanding life.  

Looking back, I think I always had some understanding of a Creator God.  I just couldn't reconcile that everything that exists just came about by accident.  There is too much complexity for there not be be some intelligent design that gives order to life and the universe.  Without ever having given much thought or attention to it, I believed that there was something beyond what exists here...heaven, if you will...but getting there required the good outweighing the bad.  It truly begs the question - what is the measure?

In my journey to "know God," I learned the measure was perfection.  Even in saying this there are so many questions!  They are all fair!  God invites us to ask!  I asked, and continue to ask a very long list of questions.  

What I came to know is that God's love came down in the person of Jesus Christ.  For me, the truth of this all hinged on the resurrection.  I couldn't toss it out because I didn't agree or understand.   Either it is true or it isn't.  If Jesus is true God and true Man, and what the Scriptures say is true, then good outweighing the bad in our lives could not also be true.  

There's a certain mystery to faith that cannot be fully explained, 

but something in my soul knew it was true. 

Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.

    But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished-- he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

ROMANS 3:20-26

I came to believe that God's love really did come down in the person of Jesus Christ.  Nothing in my human understanding thought this to be reasonable.  That's where faith comes in.

    Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.  This is what the ancients were commended for.
    By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.   HEBREWS 11:1-2

Faith is personal.  No one could make me believe this, although there were many that helped bring understanding and nurtured my faith along the way.

Living Out the Call to Serve

In the early years of this journey I was busy raising a young family, going to church, getting to know the Lord and learning to believe and trust him.  I learned the basic Sunday school stories of the Bible along with my children.  Thank you, Jesus, for children!  Looking back, it was truly a process!  God definitely does not think the way I had been taught to think! 

One of the gifts in my marriage was the blessing of a faithful mother-in-law who patiently and lovingly answered EVERY question I asked.  Those she couldn’t were lovingly answered by my pastor at St. John’s Lutheran Church.  I was nurtured by an incredible group of women in the Lutheran Women’s Missionary Leauge who showed me what living as “women in mission” looked like.  I refer to these precious women as my “mamma’s in the faith.”  So many people served as examples and as my mentors in the journey.   I give thanks for each person along the way who discipled a “hungry to know Jesus” young woman!

When first out of college I worked as an accountant.  After my son was born I continued to serve a few clients from my home.  After my second son was born I purchased a Jacki Sorenson aerobic franchise.  For the next fifteen years I taught aerobic classes, served my accounting clients, and did a lot of volunteering at my church, all the while feeling an increasing calling into ministry. 

It was during the 1995 LWML convention in Kansas City that I truly heard the Lord call me into vocational ministry, but it took another six years until I found the avenues to make that a reality.  The Lord was teaching me patience and helping me learn to worship in the waiting.  In 2002 I completed the Training Leaders for Ministry program through the Southeastern District LMCS.  During that experience the calling toward missionary/outreach ministry became clear.  I enrolled in the new Masters of Christian Outreach degree program from Concordia University in St. Paul MN, graduating with the first cohort in 2006. 

My passion is to help people to know the Lord!  There is so much joy in sharing God’s grace with others that they may come to know Him, discipling new believers and helping others do the same.  The Lord continues to open avenues for me to do this.   I have had the blessing of serving in a variety of capacities:

·       Director of Christian Outreach at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Glen Arm, Maryland

·       Program Director from the Southeastern District’s Mission Development Academy

·       Member of Lutheran Hour Ministries’ Mission U faculty

·       Grief Share support group facilitator (an amazing ministry!) 
·       Executive Director, LINC Baltimore developing new ministries in the metro area
·       Chief Operating Officer of Faith and Work Enterprises, Inc. 
·       Ministry Development Coach through the practice of Faithful Innovation

I had a desire to write for about five years, but had no idea how to begin.  One day the inspiration came and the journey of blogging began.  I pray that my journey blesses your journey.  

To God be the glory!
Tina