(My Last) Winter Spring TSC Retreat

Well, I think I went out with a bang. This was my last retreat as the director of the Salt Company, and it was up there with the best of them. Soli Deo Gloria.

Here's the highlight reel...

1. Matt the security guard experiences love, community, and in his words, "liberty" for the first time in his life.

Here's a picture of Matt. He was a new man. (From L to R: James Laugerman, Me, Nathan Kaloupek, Matt, Gabe Noll, Zach Gilbert)

There are no better college students on planet earth than in TSC. Our students loved every person in the hotel. Matt was a gruff security guard who worked the evening/graveyard shift. Our students engaged him in conversation, and he would frequent our meetings. The Spirit of God among us pulled him in. On Saturday night, I got a call from one of our students at 4:30 am, saying, "Mark, can you come to our room, we've got the security guard in our room." I'm thinking, "Great, just what I need at 4:30 am. What did you guys do now?" But then Zach (TSCer) says, "No, he wants us to pray with him, could you come help us out?"

Being the not so good shepherd I said, "Bro, you guys got it this far, what do you need me for?"

This was the scene I saw as I was leaving the hotel on Sunday morning...

2. Worship

I was so proud of the Anthem team. We went out on a limb and introduced a bunch of our new songs. By Saturday night and Sunday morning, God seemed to descend on our group during the worship.

It was a frenzy getting ready, as we often determined the worship order minutes before playing. We were also finalizing lyrics and music parts minutes before, since they were all new songs, even to us.

Jesse wrote a new song called "Glory and Honor" and it's got anointing all over it. It got me pumped for Anthem (Thursday, April 29)

3. Paul Sabino

He was like Josh Hamilton at the home run derby two years ago. Everything pitched to him ended up in the bleachers. Paul is one of the main reasons I hate to leave Cornerstone in Ames. What a great brother! Jeff Dodge calls him "Apollos." (Acts 18:24-ff). I have never wept so much during a sermon as I did on Sunday morning. Check it out on the TSC website: click here.

4. Two fraternities decided to have their formal at the Embassy Suites with us.

Big mistake.

Not for us, but for them. It's hard to have fun getting wasted and being immoral when you've got 400 college students reading their Bibles, praying throughout the hotel, and filling the hotel with worship.

It was a study in

contrast.

Ten feet and a thin wall separated passion filled worship from pagan revelry. (I'm not even sure what "pagan revelry" is, but I'm pretty sure that's what I was seeing Saturday night.) Illustrations of Romans 1:18-ff (passionate rebellion and suppression of truth) were in abundance. Multiple comments were heard, "You're judging us." In one case, a sorority girl gets on the elevator, wearing a bikini. She was basically naked. Here's the exchange:

Naked girl: "I'm not wearing any clothes, am I?"

Innocent male TSC student, holding his Bible, going up to his room: "Umm. No?"

Naked girl: "That's not a nice thing to say."

In her moment of shame, she turns the table to put the Christian in the place of the transgressor, so as to say, "You're not nice for judging me."

In another case, some Greek guys were mocking us with their snide comments and looks when I asked them what house they were in. "Sig Eps" they said. When I told them I was a Sig Ep, their tone changed. Ooops. That's a cardinal sin in the Greek world. Always show respect to brothers, especially older ones. I'm sad for those guys. I've seen their emptiness up close and personal.

5. My guys

Joey and Willie, two guys in one of my Bible studies shared their experiences from the weekend. Both of them were on the other side of the wall 6-8 months ago.

Joey (on left) said, "I was so close the partying this weekend (just on the other side of the wall), but I felt so far away. And I know if I ever tried to go back, I'd have 400 people pulling me back toward Christ."

Willie (on Rt) talked about how much God has changed his life this year, and how he experienced intimacy with Christ in worship like never before. At one point during "Glory and Honor", he said it was like God reached down to him and swept him up into His presence.

He also shared how their small group decided to do hotel evangelism on Saturday night instead of have their discussion. It was his first experience sharing the gospel like that. Two girls (also in bikinis) ran outside with their beers to avoid them. The doors locked behind them. Oops. But apparently being naked and freezing with a beer is better than hearing the gospel.

6. The talent show

What luck... JB and Linda's bus broke down on their way back to Branson. They shared their new CD called, "Back to the Biblical Basics of Marriage...Courtship Edition". We didn't get it recorded, but I can assure you we will have them do it at TSC before the year's over and we'll get a good recording. All the acts were amazing...the winner was Audrey and crew with their stadium cleanup spoof.

7. Hanging with my kids

This is the first retreat that I had a couple of my kids with me the whole time. Leatha planned to be there, but 2 of the little ones were sick. Life as a mom...

It's premature to get sentimental, but this was a retreat I'll never forget.

SDG.

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).

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.

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?

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.

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.