Hearing the Music

Orphans no more! Reaching college students.

In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.  Ephesians 1:5-6 

Late one night in 2011, I walked into the dorms to lead a Bible study with 8 Division I baseball players. My palms were sweaty, my heart was racing, and my nerves were screaming, “Just turn back! It’s not too late to bail on this one.” These guys were tough. They had little interest in God and sneakily called me Bible Kenny (I found that little fact out about 2 years later!). The decision to hang in there led to God not only saving a set of twin pitchers on the team, but so much more. I vividly remember gathering 3 years later in my living room with friends on the soccer team who came to Christ as well as their girlfriends on the volleyball team who had chosen to follow Jesus. It was truly amazing! Little did I know where this journey would take me or what God would do with my meager plans. 

Laura and I adopted Maria Klaire, our fourth child, as a result of a seed that was planted in my heart during that Bible study with baby Christians. First, through studying Ephesians 1:6, God showed me how He adopted me into His family. Second, God compelled me to live an outward-facing life built off the motto “orphans no more.” Laura and I began a two-year journey that ended with bringing our daughter home. There were two distinct moments I gave up, but God kept us going. It was not easy, but great things never are. And we were reminded how God, the Great Evangelist and our Heavenly Father, has never given up when gathering His orphaned children home.

This Fall, I have a similar opportunity with the Calvin football team (helping lead a weekly Bible study) and I cannot wait to see once again how God works beyond us. As a church, we have a similar opportunity with all the CAM students in our midst. Please be praying with me that God would use us to help connect spiritual orphans to the Heavenly Father we all desperately need.

Photo by Jake Ingle on Unsplash

Start Small, Dream Big

“Small decisions can lead us to great destinations or great destruction.”       -Matt Bradner

Including my years as a college student, this was my 22nd time attending the Campus Outreach New Year’s Conference. (Personal favor, do not stop and do the math to calculate my age.) And without fail, God has used this event to rock my world every time. One of our keynote speakers, Matt Bradner, challenged us with the principle of sowing and reaping (see 2 Corinthians 9:6) -- our small everyday decisions in life will accumulate into large outcomes. Matt unpacked this principle using King David’s journey -- the runt in his family whose older brothers were all serving in the army. David, who was left home guarding the family sheep, was beckoned to deliver food to the men at battle. Fast-forward. In the end, it is that boy David whom God uses to defeat the enemy Goliath and free His people. To God be the glory, who accomplishes much with little. 

Do you want to be used by God like David? Certainly, David was not perfect. In fact, later in life, it was David’s small decisions that led to his great moral failure in 2 Samuel 11. Nor is David the hero in the Goliath story. God is. And yet, God has given us this wisdom principle of sowing and reaping to guide us in life. David had a history of trusting God with the seemingly small things in life and that set his life on a trajectory to then trust God when faced with great difficulty that day on the battlefield.

Today, I’m reminded to be faithful with the small things in my life. Reading our church’s daily devotional is one great example. We don’t have to read the bible every day. We get to. It’s our great privilege to read God’s Word and let this small daily decision shape our future character bit by bit. 

Another quote from the conference equally struck me. It was not from a speaker but from a Michigander attending for the first time, “Evangelism, I have always said I value it. But today I realized I never do it.” {Pause. Read those simple yet profound words a second time.} Humbling to admit but it’s those “small” words of confession that can be the start of incredible, life-changing results. 

Confession is hard. And yet it is so good because when we admit our weakness, that is when our mighty God can best be seen right there at our side eager to carry us into the battle and onto victory. My prayer this year for myself, my team of missionaries and volunteer leaders, and the CAM students I’m working with is this -- that we would all face our weaknesses head-on day by day, look to God to be our strength, and ask Him to lead us into the harvest field sowing gospel seeds. Who knows, maybe we’ll even see incredible results of friends' and family members' lives changed forever? The results are not our responsibility. We must leave them in the hands of our Sovereign God and simply do our part. Oh, God, use us for your glory! Amen.

Photo by Christine on Unsplash

Go, Going, Gone!

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:19-20)

Growing up in the South (Nashville, TN to be exact) was not easy. Mostly, all the country music really wears on you. On the other hand, the weather is always sunny, so that helps balance things out. Okay, okay, forgive me for being sarcastic. But why would Laura and I leave such a beautiful home state with the familiarity of family and friends? In short, because of a sense of calling in line with Christ’s command to “Go…. make disciples.” No matter if you go across the street to reach a neighbor, across the globe to reach the unreached, or simply move from the comforts of your hometown to a new state, God is eager to use your life to impact others. Laura and I have seen this to be true in the 18 years of shared experience, ministry, and marriage. And that is why we have chosen to go. 

Going disrupts but going reconstructs. Going unhinges our norms but brings new norms. Going humbles but brings humility. Going weakens but going can then strengthen. In addition to God’s command to go at the end of the book of Matthew, He matches this commission with a promise to be with us. Where is your faith needing this reminder of God’s presence? Do you, like the Hayes family, remember a time where you felt lost but God’s simple nearness was your anchor? As much as we want to throw off the confusion, the isolation, the fears, etc, it is in those challenges we can find our great strength by taking hold of the Father’s promise. 

For me, listening to Michael’s sermon on covenant friendship last week only helped highlight the many ways Laura, the kids, and I have been welcomed by the congregation. Invitations, meals, gift cards, move-in helpers, etc. We cannot express enough gratitude for God wrapping his arms around us through His people, the church. And we have been reminded of the great importance of being a committed, active member of the church. Laura and I often ask ourselves, “How do people make it apart from Christ?” Christ’s grace alone gives us all that we need and He has used many of you to pour out that strength. So, again, thank you. 

We also eagerly await the coming years of service here at Christ Church. Please join with us in beckoning our God to pour out his Spirit and grace into the lives of many young people as we seek to leave a dent in Grand Rapids for His glory. May God raise up many new disciples and disciplemakers who will carry the gospel-baton onto the next generation. Psalm 71:18 compels me towards this end, “So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come.”

Photo by Charlota Blunarova on Unsplash