I have been given one of the biggest honors. The Lord has called me into ministry, kinda full-time, kinda part-time (whatever part-time means!) Even more, I have the honor to be in ministry with coaches, athletes, administrators, and other sports ministry leaders. Sports are somewhat of a passion area for me! I am thankful and humbled that I get to do what I get to do.
There are few moments in which it takes me a night to process and reflect upon and last night is one of them. Last night (Feb 27), we were able to hold our first AIA at GVSU monthly meeting.
My wife and I moved back to west Michigan this past fall for a call I was feeling to work with the athletes at Grand Valley State. I accepted a role with a campus ministry that has worked at GVSU, but some details fell through after our move and was released by the ministry before I officially started with them. No hard feelings, stuff happens. I was questioning (like I seem to do often) my decision to move back to west Michigan. My wife and I were beginning to become established in east Michigan, we lived in a great area, in a really nice condo, doing ministry at a place I loved dearly, with athletes and staff I loved dearly.
God was calling my wife and I into something deeper than I thought.
I felt humiliated and disappointed when I was let go from the ministry that moved us to Grand Rapids. My pride took a big hit when I was told that I wasn’t a good fit for the ministry. My first reaction was “What the heck!!? I have been involved in ministries like this for more than 10 years!” The thing is, they were right. Even ministries have different visions. That particular ministry vision is different than mine, their vision isn’t wrong, AIA’s isn’t wrong, we have different ways of doing ministry and that’s OK.
So why would they hire me, I move to the other side of the state, then they fire me?
Again, What the Heck!!??
A great, dear friend of ours, Geoff Eckart, the lead pastor at Daybreak Church in Hudsonville, MI, said something to me that will stick with me forever. He first asked me if I would have moved back to the area if I wasn’t hired by that ministry. My answer was, “Nope.” I wasn’t looking to start something new; I was wanting to join in on an existing ministry and add whatever I could to it. Geoff then suggested that God opened this door, knowing we would move to the area, then swiftly close that door (and He closed it with a big slam!).
God’s plan seems irrational sometimes.
In theory, this was a great thought. I had connected with a few athletes already, we were meeting consistently, I was able to meet a few coaches, fill in and lead a couple team bible studies, but I went into a dry funk that I couldn’t explain until now. I know I could have explained it to an athlete or to a student I was discipling, but when I was going through it – I had no words. I wasn’t depressed, I wasn’t sad, I wasn’t anxiety filled, I was just “BLAH”. My devotional time was OK, I was working out somewhat regularly, my eating was a solid C+, but there was just something going on in me that I wasn’t really digging.
God’s silence, the dryness that I was feeling were growing pains. I was beginning the preparation process for this next season of ministry.
Last night’s meeting had a great turnout. We had 35 athletes show up. This was our first large group meeting and 35 attended! We also had a couple coaches, other ministry leaders, my daughter and future son-in-law helped, and many ladies from my church were there serving food and cleaning up afterwards. I was overwhelmed. As the meeting went on with the athletes leading, athletes speaking, and coaches encouraging, I didn’t want to do my spiel, I didn’t want to stop the Laker-Roll that was happening. I did go up, though. I had to shorten my message on the fly as we were quite a bit over on time, but God put the words in my heart and I was able to share the vision of what AIA wanted to do on campus, how we wanted to charge a movement to glorify the Lord through sport and competition, and how all 663 athletes on campus is the goal, God wants all of our hearts.
I have been blessed with a great group of “core” leaders, 5 athletes that I have gotten the pleasure of getting to know this year. All 5 are freshmen, which is such a huge blessing. Over the last couple of months or so, many others have stepped in to serve their teammates and the athletic department of which I am also deeply grateful. The list of “core” leaders is growing, and I couldn’t be more optimistic. A couple coaches attended last night’s meeting to support and encourage the athletes to keep walking with The Lord and loving their teammates well. We even had a few guys from the Cornerstone wrestling team and one of the coaches from the women’s soccer team from CU join us, as they are feeling the Lord move on their campus through the athletes. It was a great night.
When the last group of athletes left the church last night, I was overwhelmed with emotion, I bawled like a baby. It was so hard to get that meeting going last night. So many times, the doubt cloud hit me, especially during this dark, dry time. God showed up and did a work in the athletes and coaches and reminded me of the hundreds of times in Scripture that He is always with us.
I am thankful for this dry spell. I am thankful that during it, I had people around me praying and encouraging me, even if they had no idea what I was going through. I am thankful for past lessons that guided me through this time, where I had to rely on those lessons for assurance as my heart was telling me something that could have distracted me even more. I am thankful for a wife that prays for me, the ministry, and the athletes we get to pour into. I am thankful that I ran into a young pastor who only knew me from Facebook and prayed over me last night before our meeting – it meant a lot. I am thankful for a new home church that caught the vision of AIA and lets us use the building and for the many ladies that have stepped up to serve the athletes.
Not sure if I’m totally out of the dryness yet, but I can see that God is revealing the weight of this ministry to me and the responsibility to which I have been entrusted. I am thankful for this latest lesson I must go through.
1 Samuel 7:12b “…Thus far the LORD has helped us.”
This Scripture is written on 5 rocks that are placed in my offices, my car, and my bedside. The weight of ministry is lightened realizing that God is doing most of the carrying and asks me only for obedience as the ministry moves forward. Thank you, Jesus for what you ask me to do!
He has brought me this far ………………… He will take me over there
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