(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).

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...)