Anthem Rocked

For a recap of Anthem, click here.

For pictures of Anthem, click here.

The Bridge Night

Last night at Salt Company I committed rhetorical suicide. But I knew it would be for the good. I hoped, anyway.

I had some friends (Andy and Jonno Sage) build a 16 foot bridge right behind me during the whole message. They had hammer drills and were making all kinds of noise. It was a huge distraction. But I wanted it to be the focus... Jesus Christ as the bridge from death to life.

The building of the bridge was a little trite (that's a nice way of saying "cheesy"), but it really helped illustrate John 5:24 "whoever believes...has crossed over from death to life."

At the end, I gave people the opportunity to write their name on a post it note and walk over the bridge. Some trusted Christ for the first time, others for the thousandth time said "Yes" to following Jesus.

Here's a stack of over 600 post its that were on the bridge, this top one says, "I'm lost, bring me back to you!"
"Dear God,

Please help me find myself in this sea of people."
I loved this one, from one of God's trophies of grace (Martin), "382 days and counting" (for a little more on Martin click here then here...just looking at the pictures alone tells his story)
This is a reminder to be praying that God would answer this student's prayer, "I want to be free."
We had a great turnout, 670+ students. It's a blessing to have room for them all in the auditorium. It's too early to say, but I wonder if having more space has encouraged people to bring friends. I hope that we are able to break through the 500-700 plateau that we've seen the last 9 years or so.

By God's grace, we will see more and more students become followers of Jesus. To the praise of his glorious grace!

First Week in New Auditorium

There is so much going on it's hard to keep up with. Here's the short ministry highlight reel...

1. A guy in my small group gave his life to Jesus. He told his roommate, "I didn't get much homework done this afternoon. I've been in on my knees weeping and giving my life to Jesus."

2. We had our first ever TSC in the new auditorium... 600 people felt great in there. It was a good dynamic, as there was clearly more room to grow, and yet it didn't feel empty by any means. It would be an understatement to say that we are incredibly blessed to have TSC in there. I look forward to all the God stories that will happen in that room.

3. One of our students, Courtney, shared her God story through a video. It was a moving reminder of God's amazing grace that finds lost people. It was the perfect way to end John 4.

4. One of the guys in my new believers small group had his first evangelistic encounter. He went into dining service and sat next to the only guy he saw by himself. God gave him a slow pitch. After some small talk, the guy immediately opened up, "Craziest thing- I happened to be in the hospital in your hometown and they asked me if I had any religious beliefs. I was drugged at the time so I'm not sure what I told them."

5. God has been drawing students into the light. One student confessed to me a secret he's had for 5 years! He said it was God's love that has given him the courage to step into the light. Another student, overwhelmed by guilt, confessed his moral failure to me. There are many more similar stories I'm hearing about.

6. Meeting with my small group guys showing them how to prepare a sermon, using various tools: Outlining/Diagramming, Translations, Commentaries, Bible Encyclopedia, Greek-English Interlinear Bible, etc.

7. We had a ribbon cutting for the Ames Chamber of Commerce. It wasn't so much a highlight as it was a good opportunity to get a picture of Mike Despard and Jeff Dodge holding a big ribbon (and Troy Nesbitt about to cut it with a huge pair of scissors).

Anthem on iTunes

Over two months after it's release, Discmakers finally got the Anthem "One Life" album up on iTunes. A general search for "Anthem One Life" is the quickest way to find it.

It's been cool to see the songs become the melodies of our church family. In the opening week of the new auditorium, I think we sang three Anthem songs. Our goal has always been to give the next generation a lyric and a melody that will inspire passion for Christ.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Unite Iowa

This summer, Andy Kampman, a friend from Iowa City, approached me, "Hey Mark, what would you think of getting college ministries from around the state of Iowa together for a night of worship and prayer, with a focus on the nations."

If you know Andy, the dude has one string on his guitar- "unreached people." I guess if you could only have one string, that's not a bad one to have.

As we talked, it seemed like it would be worth a try. So last week we gathered in the Ames Middle School for "Unite Iowa."

The highlight of the night was seeing about 800 students from around the state and from all kinds of ministries (i.e. Navs, Cru, the Rock, InterVarsity, 24/7, Basic, etc) come together for worship.

For me, I found great delight in watching our students come out to serve with sound and other behind the scenes jobs. The whole night there wasn't a single person from TSC seen on stage. I think that was an especially important factor in this truly being a unity event.

On another exciting note, yesterday Cornerstone had our first services in the new auditorium. Click here for more on that.

Please pray for us as we have our first Salt Company in the new auditorium this week. We'll have something we haven't had in about 15 years, namely, room to grow. But there's nothing about the state of the art sound, bright lights, and comfortable chairs that will move the heart of a person even a millimeter closer to God.

Thanks for your prayers.

Billy the Preacher

This fall has been hard to keep up with.

Last weekend we experienced the power and presence of God on our fall retreat. For some thoughts on our fall retreat, click here.

One phrase we say all the time: "Ministry is Relationships."

The closer we get to people, the more impact we're likely to make.

Therefore, one of the things I'm most excited about this semester is my two small groups. One is with five student leaders, who are doing a great job of discipling their peers. My other is a group of 4 guys- 3 new believers and one who's not yet a follower of Christ.

In this group, one of my guys, Billy, has been asking to share a message that God has put on his heart. I said, "Why not go ahead and preach it to our group."

So we went to the chapel in the browsing library of the Memorial Union, and Billy preached his message to a crowd of 4.

Do you want to know how it went?

Billy preached on forgiveness and hit a home run! Seriously, it was a message that could've been given on a Thursday night at TSC. I was shocked.

That day one of the guys in our group just happened to bring his roommate, who told him later, "Bill's message blew me away and I couldn't stop thinking about it all day."

Please continue to pray for us as these divine appointments with college students is happening all around us.

Well, off to stadium cleanup. Who do I thank for scheduling the late game tonight? (late game=later cleanup...)

Not the Crowd, but the Few

Last weekend I was with the Anthem band leading worship at a statewide conference in Salina, Kansas. The primary speaker was Max Barnett, who had a vision to plant campus ministries on all the Big 8 campuses. One of his disciples, Jack Owens, came to Iowa State in 1972 and started what is now the Salt Company.

Brett (left) went to Lincoln, Max (middle) stayed in Oklahoma, and Bob (right) went to Kansas State.

I am a boy among giants.

Jenni Sabino and Teresa Dodge decorated my study. I'm changing the name from office to study. More on that in a future post. Here you see Jase, one of our rockstar students, getting intellectual by reading some C.S. Lewis.
I spoke on John 2 last night. I started the message by showing how John's main point is that Jesus isn't a mile marker, but a fork in the road. This picture was used to illustrate that...
I spent some time addressing the issue of alcohol. It's hard not to with Jesus changing the water to wine.

Here is a picture of worship last night. The atmosphere was electric.

In my discipleship group this afternoon in my basement, we had a little visit from Batman.
Batman died.
Our topic of conversation was, "How are you being a disciple and who are you discipling?"

I told the guys the day they stop passing on their faith to other people is the day I ask them to be off leadership. We also talked about the importance of memorizing the scriptures as a part of following Jesus.

I'm going to give them a list of passages that I think every Christian should have memorized.

Keep praying for us, as we seek to raise up the next generation of Christ followers. There is so much God is doing, and yet so much more we are asking him to do.

Finally, pray for our retreat coming up this weekend with guest speaker Ed Noble, the teaching pastor at Journey Community Church in San Diego, CA.

Saying Good-bye

I'm a little late on this post, as the Anthem team led worship for a conference in Kansas. I was gone Friday morning through Sunday night...

It was a little sad saying good-bye to a good friend and co-laborer, Mike Easton. He and his wife Emily left yesterday for East Asia. They'll be working to reach university students in a city with very little gospel witness.

Our Freshmen Group director, Stan Hayek, kicked off our series on "The Water's Edge," a study through the book of John.

Please pray that many students will trust Christ as we journey through the book of John this semester. I'll be preaching on John 2 tomorrow night.

Jesus turns water to wine.

Hmmm... how should I apply that to college students?

Sitting on a Gold Mine

Can this really be happening?

Thousands of the state's (and world's) best leaders converge on this town in the middle of these Iowa cornfields to study and pursue their dreams. Hundreds of them show up every Thursday night at Salt Company to seek God's dream for their lives.

Sometimes I feel like I'm being set up for some kind of cosmic punch line...

But there's a great stewardship that comes with this next generation of leaders. We have a vision to raise these students up to become leaders in the church- whether godly moms, elders, engineers, pastors, teachers, worship leaders...

So we've launched the Cornerstone School of Theology to equip those seeking to be trained for ministry.

Today was our first class: Church History with Professors Jeff Dodge and Tim Lubinus.

Stan (TSC Freshman Director) didn't fare so well on the first quiz (this wasn't for a grade since it was the first day of class)...

Stan turned to me after getting a whopping score of 3/14 and said, "I really need to take this class."

How many pastors, missionaries, worship leaders, youth pastors, and other full time ministry workers have already been birthed out of Cornerstone/TSC? I hope to see that number increased exponentially in the coming years.

Soli Deo Gloria.

Numbers

684...

people jammed into the Cornerstone box. You would've guessed there were over 1,000 people there by how packed it was. If you think, "A few years ago I thought we were running

800-what has happened?" Historically, we have done a great job of over-estimating numbers. It was as big as any TSC in the gym I can remember. The feeling in there was electric... thunderous clapping and singing, followed by Troy hitting the ball out of the park. He spoke on the history of TSC and God's desire to do more.

590...

people signed up for connection groups going into the night.

650...

signed up for connection groups by the end of the night.

412...

signed up to clean the stadium. Do you think the Hawkeyes coming to town has anything to do with it? We'll need it for the 70,000+ rowdy tailgaters who will be making big messes.

160...

Greeks (not the ethnic group, but those in fraternity/sororities...) that came to the kickoff BBQ.

35...

Greek girls that showed up for a discussion on relationships.

30...

Farm House guys who came to 6 A.M. Bible study. I guarantee that never would've happened in my house. Did those guys grow up on dairy farms getting up that early? Either way, 30 guys from one fraternity getting up to seek God is something special.

1...

guy I talked to that couldn't go on the freshmen group retreat because he has to go back for homecoming. Lame. I wonder what my life would've been like had I not gone on the freshmen group retreat back in the fall of '95. It became my connecting point to the ministry.

2...

socially awkward situations.

400+...

students I hope will join us on our fall retreat October 9-11.

2...

of my kids I brought with me to TSC (Ava and Beck). Beck slept through most of Troy's talk and the entire closing worship set. He asked me as we were mingling at the beginning, "Why do you have to always keep stopping to talk to people?" People are a nuisance in his mind.

Monday Prayer, Tailgate and Cleanup

It was another rockin' week of ministry, beginning at 7:00 A.M. for our second Monday morning prayer meeting of the semester. The room was packed with students seeking God for what He might be willing to do on our behalf.

I had the privilege of praying with this group of guys that live in Barton Hall. They have a connection group of anywhere between 8-12 guys from their dorm, and they are praying for their whole floor to come to Christ. They meet every night at 10 PM to read the word and prayer. College ministry...
Yesterday we had a TSC tailgate before the Cyclones took on the mighty Bison of North Dakota State. New coach. New offense. We knew we'd be in for a nail biter. And it didn't disappoint (It was a little closer than the final score indicated). About 400 students came to tailgate.

After meeting about the 50th person while wandering around for 3 hours asking name-major-living area, my relational tank was full. I feel bad that I will only remember a hand full of names. But I did have some very fun conversations.

Like the guy I asked, "Materials engineering, huh? Well what is your dream job when you graduate?"

The dude almost teared up as he said, "Polymers. There's just so many possibilities with polymers."

I was thinking: Poly-who? I didn't have the guts to ask what the heck he was talking about. So I moved on.

The only bummer of the night: we ran out of gas for the grill (thus, the long line).

This just might be one of the highlights of my year. Late into the night, the Janitors of God take over and clean Jack Trice stadium, after 50,000 people make a big mess. The award for the nastiest mess was a guy who reached down to pick up a napkin, and it was covering a pile of puke. Then, the popcorn bag next to it was filled to the top with puke.

This is where all of you alumni get a chance to comment on your stadium cleanup horror stories. I've got MANY up my sleeve.

And it's also your chance to be thankful you're not a student cleaning the stadium at 1 AM. Or me, a 32 year old cleaning the stadium at 1 AM.

Okay, this is cool. We had a student for every row from the upper deck to the first row by the field on BOTH SIDES! We had over 300 students cleaning, and the majority finished cleaning the stadium in an hour and a half.

That doesn't include blowers and trucks. They left around 1:30 or 2 AM.

All this is a reminder that this ministry is not about a bunch of hype on Thursday nights. May it never be! We are servants of Christ, willing to pick up puke for nothing in return.

May God bless the work of our (dirty) hands. We cherish your prayers for us- to that end.

Anthem Available Through Willow Creek

Willow Creek just made the new album available on their website: Click here to purchase and/or give a review.

You can also purchase Esmerelda, Cornerstone's Christmas production, on that same website.

AMAZING WEEK... Kickoffs!

This was an amazing week of college ministry. This is worth the read (As the author, I guess I'm slightly biased).

I wonder if I'll start every blog post that way.

Anyway, here are some images for you...

The week of ministry started with the Freshmen Group kickoff on Sunday night... about 600 students were served a free meal, followed by the gospel presentation by Stan Hayek, our freshmen director.

Below: Don't get this confused with the TSC kickoff (further below...). This is Monday morning prayer!!!! Well over 100 students gathered by the Campanile as the sun was coming up. Did you know Monday morning prayer is the only consistent "event" in the history of TSC.

Below: These girls were praying in the only sunny spot on campus- the steps of Beardshear. I thought it was symbolic of interceding in the presence of God for Him to shine His face on us.

And shine He did, as you're about to read.

I'll try not to get in the habit of this, but this part of the post is also found on my other blog (metropuritan.blogspot.com)

Before you read this, you might want to click here first for some background. I left off with the question, "What will God do?"

But here's the quick recap in case you failed to click there:

It's pouring rain all day yesterday, all night, and the forecast is not looking good- Rain all day.

I read John 6, with Jesus' words resonating in my soul, "Well, Mark, what are we going to do?"

Stan and I prayer walk the courtyard at 9:00 AM (in the rain) and Stan concurs that the rain is not a problem, but an opportunity for God to show up in a special way.

The rain is off and on all day, and it's spitting rain until 6:40, when Jesse starts the opening song of worship.

The rain totally stops.

Not a single drop for the rest of the night.

College students poured onto the lawn from all directions. My guess is that there were anywhere from 800-1,000 students packed onto the Old RCA Courtyard.

Here are some pics...

This was Jesse during rehearsal (6:10) getting rained on.

This is right after... Our student leaders, all 140 of them, went to town waving their white signs in the air in an attempt to get students to join their connection groups.

The mass of people was organized by having six huge signs with living areas, so students could sign up for connection groups near them. Here is Kevin posing by a couple of those signs.

Mark D doing his best to recruit to his connection group.

Gabe is competing nearby...

We have about 1,000 students that we're trying to get connected and about 100 groups, so doing the math, well, pray for our leaders... Steffi had over 30 girls wanting to get into her group in Linden!

This was about an hour after TSC ended. There were still a TON of people just hanging out talking.

This was almost 2 hours after ending, and still people were hanging out talking in the dark!

These are the true heroes of the night... the guys who got there at 1:00 to set up the stage and finished tearing down and unloading back at Cornerstone at 10 pm. Bless you, servants.

Moreover, the guy on the left is a transfer student who had just experienced his first TSC. He's off to a good start!

I wish I had more adequate words to describe how clearly and powerfully God showed up on our behalf.

In summary: I've never regretted putting myself in a position where my plans were doomed to failure if God didn't supernaturally show up.

Moreover, I wish I could go on and on about the students I personally interacted with. Maybe I just will...

Two girls who wandered in

One freshman guy who wandered in and this was the first fellowship he's had since arriving

A sorority girl who showed up because she was invited by a friend

Two Chinese guys who gladly told me they were not Christians, but were studying the Bible to learn how to know Jesus.

A freshman I had prayed for this summer who showed up out of nowhere

A prodigal sophomore who just decided to start living for Jesus again. He desperately wants out of the partying scene but doesn't know how to get out of his living situation

Five guys from the same frat who are eager to see God bring their house to Christ

Another guy who wants to start living an authentic life, "Mark, I want to walk with God, can we meet weekly?"

Two female athletes

A guy who just became a Christian last year and is weeping over his lost dad.

A sophomore who prayed for his roommate for the entire last year and he came for the first time tonight (not grudgingly)

A couple who just got engaged

A guy who just got a date (you think junior high is full of drama...just wait 'til marriage and your life destiny is on the line!)

I made it through the night with only 2 blunders....

1. I announced to the crowd that I took my 4 year old for a leak behind a nearby bush during worship (c'mon...it was his pants or the bush. I opted for fertilizing the bush)

2. I ended my talk by saying, "Can I get an 'Amen!'" GASP...I could've shot myself. Where did that cheezy "I'm a southern preacher wannabe" hype come from? Just a simple "Amen!" is fine, but I don't think I've ever said that phrase in its entirety before. Unless mocking someone. What was I thinking? I still can't believe it.

Oh well.

Forget the fact that God held off the rain and brought 1,000 college students to worship, hear about Jesus and get connected with His people...

He even showed up in the midst of my trite rhetoric.

Soli Deo Gloria.

Leadership Retreat

We had our leadership retreat on Monday and Tuesday with over 100 of the 140+ TSC leaders.

Gasp... (at the thought of mentoring that many college students)

Here are some rockstar leaders (Above: Mary, Carley, Lydia. Below: Kent and Aidan)

The retreat was rockin'. Our best to date. Here were some highlights:

1. Our goal: simple and helpful.

That was totally accomplished as we often repeated the theme and focus of our year, "Just Care." We also consolidated everything a leader needs onto one sheet, entitled, "The One Sheet You Actually Need." We have a long history of overwhelming leaders with tons of information.

Was that tradition started under Jeff Dodge? Probably. And Paul Sabino was glad to carry it on.

Someone's got to get us back to the good old days of life under Troy's leadership.

Actually, I hear his leadership style was pretty hardcore- most akin to Hitler.

I hope none of those guys read this blog. I could be in trouble.

2. Confession time

If there's one thing that has marked this ministry over the years, it has been ruthless authenticity. That begins with confession, which requires a safe environment where people, even leaders, are allowed to struggle with sin. It also must be a place where grace abounds.

I felt strongly that we needed an extended time of confession. Monday morning started with a sobering challenge by Pastor Tom (Nesbitt) in our staff meeting. He referred to a story of a long time Christian who was stuck in sin, refusing to come clean. He challenged us not to keep secrets, but to gladly expose our sin by bringing it in the light. It's impossible to be "free in the dark."

We encouraged students to share in private with a trusted brother or sister. One student I talked to told me he almost didn't come on the retreat because he was overwhelmed by guilt about something he had done a week before the leadership retreat. I assured him if only the righteous showed up to the retreat, no one would've come.

3. Michael Jackson dances

We're always looking for competitive, yet non-athletic games to loosen students up while helping them build relationships. This was perfect. We gave 11 groups each 90 second clips of Michael Jackson songs. They had to come up with a group dance and perform in front of everyone.

4. The food

I don't think we had this kind of food at the Y camp or at Hantesa. I guess some good did come out of Paul Sabino's leadership (i.e. moving it to Hidden Acres).

5. Connection group practice

We did a mock connection group sign up to get the leaders in the mentality of going after people at the kickoff. The staff did some role playing. I was the guy who picked one guy to be in my group, while neglecting everyone else I met. My one guy was Andrew...

Here are some non-highlights. There's really only one.

1. The drinking fountain outside the chapel.

lame.

Nobody enjoys hitting the bar and realizing they'll have to put their lips on the spout and start sucking to get hydrated.

When I resort to complaining about the water fountain, that's a good sign I'm due for another trip overseas.

Our leaders rock.

God is good.

How the class of 2013 thinks

With college ministry on my mind, this was a good read to remember my audience: Click here for the mindset of the class of 2013.

Props for the vine: Johnnie Gibson's email-> WORLD mag -> Ed Stetzer -> Smart peeps from Beloit College

Anthem: One Life Released Today

The Anthem CD is officially released today!

No offense to the old school TSC worship team that performed on hit albums such as, "Shout to the Lord" and "Not to us", or TSC Live Volumes 2 and 3, and Between Stars and Gravity...

... but let's just say we've come a long way since those days.

15 songs. 10 bucks. What a deal.

Here are a couple places you can find it: Click here for anthemworship.com OR Click here for myspace.com/anthemworship.

It should be available on iTunes soon, but you can also click here to download the digital version (from this site we get 100% of the profit, as opposed to iTunes). It will also be available through the Willow Creek Association website.

You can find chord charts and stream five full songs at anthemworship.com.

Soli Deo Gloria.