Lance Marcum Signs With The Cardinals!

In my earlier post I mentioned Lance Marcum, one of our collegiate ministry interns from McKendree College, was hoping to get drafted in the Major League Baseball draft at the beginning of June. It didn't happen and I was pretty surprised. But, the Lord had more in store for Lance than he could ever imagine. Last week Lance was offered a free agent contract with the St Louis Cardinals ( a dream come true) and Lance has reported to their State College, Pennsylvania minor league ball club. Lance used this opportunity to share his faith in the artlicle located here. Link. What a great young Man. The Cardinals organization won't know what hit them and Lance will have the opportunity to affect the lives of a huge number of people. The Lord is really using Lance and Lance isn't afraid to give Him the credit.

Thanks Stacy for the tip!

Bowing My Knee

I am attending the Air Force GeoBase Compass Conference in Denver this week. The Compass Conference is a conference about the Air Force's capability to use electronic mapping capability. As I arrived at the Denver Airport I noticed a family of three getting off the airport tram and heading up the escalator. They had a daughter who looked about 3 years old who tried 4 times to walk up the down escalator. Every time the parents would tell her that if she would just go to the correct escalator she would be able to get to the second floor. It didn't matter, every time she would turn and go up the down escalator. This continued until she got so tired that she had to give in and go up the correct side.

So many times in life I feel like I do the same thing to God. I am running as fast as I can, but not making any progress. God is there telling me, "If you just follow the path I have set before you you will make progress". But it never happens until I get so tired of living for myself that I have no choice but to follow God. Kind of reminds me of Romans 14:11,

For it is written: As I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow to Me, and every tongue will give praise to God.

I can either choose to bow now out of respect for the Lord, or I will be forced to bow later.

If The Bible Had Been Created By Dogs

The Wittenburg Door bills itself as "The World's Pretty Much Only Religious Satire Magazine". I have been a subscriber for years and as I was plowing through the current May/June 2006 issue I found the following article and thought it was clever. On page 21 the article "If the Bible Had Been Written By Dogs" states,

In the beginning, the People created the grass and the birds and the squirrels. And the World was without Dinner, and Treats; and the People left, so it was time to sleep.

And the People came back, and said "Let there be Dinner": and there was dinner.

And the Dinner was good: And it divided the sleeping-time from the eating-time.

And People called the Dinner "Food", and the sleeping-time they called Night-Night.

And the eating and the sleeping were the first Day.

And the People said, "Let there be a fence in the midst of the World, and let it divide the Outside from the Go Home". And the People divided the grass which was inside the Outside from the grass and vehicles and squirrels and birds which were outside the Outside: And it was so. And the People called the Outside "Home", and set within it a Get In Here, with all the power and righteousness and Food and Night-Night.

And the People said, "Let the Outside bring forth squirrels, and rabbits, and interesting little bugs": and it was so. And the People blessed them saying, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the Yard, but do not enter the Get In Here, even though ye be dead and flat and matted.

And the eating and the sleeping and the chasing were the second Day.

And thus it was and would be for all eternity.

Lance Marcum Named an NAIA All-American

I'm pretty excited that one of my collegiate ministry interns has been named an NAIA All-American Baseball Player. Here's a link to the article. Link. Great job Lance! Lance has been called into the ministry and is a fantastic witness to those he plays with. It couldn't have happened to a better young man. I'll be waiting to hear some good news on Major League Baseball draft day.

All Points Blog Quote Of The Week

It's nice to see that the founder of the company I work for made the "Quote of the Week" in the All Points Blog.

The Quote of the week is from Jack Dangermond, President and Founder of ESRI. The quote was made in his Crafton Hills College graduation address:

"It's embarrassing for a dumb guy like me to be so successful. But how I got there was so bloody simple."

"Be interested people. I don't care whether you're interesting or not. But be interested."

A Whirlwind Weekend

I had a weekend like Adam Feldman's week. Link.

On Friday my brother Steve and his wife Tracy came into town in their motorhome all the way from Las Vegas. I've only seen Stgeve and Tracy once in the last 5 years and they have never been to our house since we moved to St Louis 11 years ago. It was great to have them here, but unfortunately at the end of the kids school year it is incredibly busy. Here's what our schedule looked like:

Thursday 8:00pm
Collegiate Ministry Internship meeting

Friday 5:30pm
Steve and Tracy arrive from Nevada

Friday 6:00pm
Yearly Middle School Chorus Performance

Saturday 10:20am
Bethany competed in the Illinois State Vocal competition (She received a 1st!)

Saturday 2:00pm
Bethany performed at the FBC O'Fallon Children's Choir Performance of Promise U

Sunday 8:30/9:45/11:00am
Matthew played the French Horn in FBC O'Fallon's Church Orchestra for all 3 services

Sunday 1:00 Steve and Tracy pulled out of town to head back to Nevada

I tried my hardest to explain to Steve and Tracy that they just happened to hit us on a bad weekend, but then again most weekends are a little crazy here. It is hard to appreciate life when you are so busy.

I was very happy though because for the first time since my Mom past away 26 years ago my brother was in church. And he was there two times in less than 18 hours. Praise God! I'm sure they had a long quiet drive to Kansas yesterday. Lots of time to think. A great opportunity to plant seeds.

One of my favorite passages is Isaiah 55:9-11:

9 "For as heaven is higher than earth, so My ways are higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.

10 For just as rain and snow fall from heaven, and do not return there without saturating the earth, and making it germinate and sprout, and providing seed to sow and food to eat,

11 so My word that comes from My mouth will not return to Me empty, but it will accomplish what I please, and will prosper in what I send it [to do]."

God's Word will accomplish His purpose! Amen

The Ups and Downs of Collegiate Ministry

Last night I had my final meeting of the year with the ministry leadership interns of our collegiate ministry at McKendree College. It is always a sad time for me. Most of my interns are Seniors in college, and although I know we have helped to equip them to take the baton and run the good race, it is difficult to see them go. It gets me thinking about collegiate ministry in general and how difficult it is. Here's a few random thoughts on collegiate ministry:

1. It is like trying to put together a collegiate sports team. Every year the group has a different dynamic. The Seniors from the prior year are gone and replaced by Freshmen straight from High School. Stealing a line from Forest Gump, collegiate ministry is like a box of chocolates....

2. We go full speed from the end of August through the beginning of May. There is no let up during the school year, and with minimal staff it is always challenging to get everything done. Planning is difficult; when we have time to plan (during the summer months) all the students are gone. When we have our students (during the school year) it is too late and we are too busy to do strategic planning. It seems like we are always playing catch up. It does make for a very fluid ministry where we are able to do a lot of experimenting on-the-fly. I just have to trust that the Holy Spirit will lead us where He wants us to go.

3. There always seems to be a mad sprint to the end. The Seniors realize that they only have a limited time left in college and want to make as big of an impact on campus as possible before they move on. I commend them for this, but sometimes we settle for a short-term impact rather than aim for the long-term results. It is hard to get Seniors interested in strategic, long-term, thinking when their time on campus is coming to an end.

4. I am very impressed with today's college students. They are much bolder in their faith than I was in college, they want to make a significant impact on their campus and those around them, and they have so much energy. It also seems like they don't have to study nearly as hard as I did when I was ini college. I think that is my problem, not theirs. I have always been very dense when it came to having concepts sink in. A quick 2 x 4 to the head has worked much better on me than persuasive language.

I'll post more later, but for now those are the few unconnected thoughts running around in my hed.

2nd Annual Christ on the Quad Celebration

Brothers and Sisters,

It is so exciting to know that time is counting down on our semester. This week and one more is all we get. I know the Seniors are saying "Praise God!" Although we only have another 2 weeks left we have some great things planned:

Thursday April 27:

Our 2nd Annual Christ On The Quad is this Thursday. Can you believe it? All events will be held on the McKendree College Quad. The Weather looks awesome; it should be 70 degrees and partly cloudy. Here's what the CotQ schedule looks like:

7:00 a.m. PRAYER WALK
10:00 begin setting up & prayer
11:00 Open (Aaron Povolish/Amber Schafer)
11:10 - 12:15 Bastian (Katie Hub message in middle)
12:20-12:50 Lance
12:55-1:15ish field day events
1:20 - 1:50 Noah
1:55-2:15 buffer time/raffles/games (amber & aaron)
2:20-2:45 Sudarsun message
2:50-3:15 Keish & Sudarsun & Allison (rap)
3:20-3:35 Emma
3:40-4:00 Chapel Praise Band

After CotQ we will be meeting at 6:00 at The Gate for a time of praise and worship and relaxing and just hanging out. We will provide free pizza and drinks. Everyone is welcome.

If you haven't been to The Gate we are located at 225 N. Monroe St, Lebanon, Illinois. Here's a link to a Yahoo Map of The Gate's location. Link.

It will be a wonderful day, so please pass the word around to your friends to be there.

God bless each of you.

Agape Music Festival

There's a great lineup at the Agape Music Festival in Greenville near the Greenville College campus on April 28 and 29. Relient K, Kutless, Skillet, BarlowGirl, Thousand Foot Crutch, Falling Up, House of Heroes, Bastian, and my favorite The David Crowder Band will all be performing. Every year the festival seems to get better and better. This year Bastian will perform at the Festival the day after they help us out at the McKendree Christ on the Quad event. I will be posting about the CotQ tonight. More information on the Apage Music Festival, including ticket prices and line up can be found on the festival website. This is really a great concert event every year.

Here's a link to directions to the Bond County Fairgrounds. Link.

Please Pray For Us

I have to apologize. Although I am good at praying for others throughout the day I seldom ask others to pray for me, my family, or our ministries. We have a lot going on in our collegiate ministry at McKendree College and we could use your prayers that God will use us to be faithful in telling the lost about His love.

Our ministry continues to grow inspite of our weaknesses and we are beginning to have a significant impact of the McKendree College campus. We are undertaking some large events over the next couple of weeks that we can use as a vehicle to reach those who do not know the Lord.

In this light, there are several things you can be praying along with our ministry for:

1) Monday night April 17, in celebration of Resurrention Sunday, we will be having our yearly Stations of the Cross night. The students take a 10 foot tall wooden cross and carry it all over Lebanon, Illinois stoppinig to read scriptures about the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. We then come back to our building and celebrate with a symbolic "nailing your burdens to the cross" quiet time followed by Communion. Last year the students told me this was the most incredible thing we did all year. Please pray that unbelievers show up and begin to not just hear but also "feel" what Christ has done for us.

2) Thursday Night April 20 we will be hosting Phil Nelson, IBSA Collegiate Evangelist and one of the more dynamic Christian apologists I have met. Phil will give the students some training and insight into evangelizing their fellow students. Please pray that Phil can help the students learn to present the gospel with boldness and without fear.

3) All this plays into our 10 day blitz on the McKendree Campus that culminates on April 27 with our students are holding "Christ on the Quad", which is an all afternoon music, testimony, and preaching concert. The gospel will be presented several times. Last year our students held the first "Christ on the Quad" and we received lots of opposition from the McKendree College Chaplain. Although he is a Methodist minister he is very politically correct and doesn't believe that Christ is the only way to heaven. He knew we would be presenting the gospel in a no-nonsense way, so he did everything to stop us, but the Lord still made "Christ on the Quad" a success. We estimate we had 700 students walk by while we were worshipping. Each one of them heard Christian music, testimonies, and the gospel. Please pray that the gospel will be preached and that McKendree Campus Ministries won't try to interfere again this year.

4) Lastly, please pray for our graduating seniors. We have about 4 of them who are desiring to go to seminary or serve on the mission field next year. Pray that God will open the doors to show them what His will is as they move past this major life event.

We are also in desperate need of adults who want to be involved in the BCM at McKendree. My wife and I are the only two adults who have been there and the students need to have more adults around who will commit to mentoring them, spending time with them, and loving them. If anyone is interested please contact me. Our primary time of worship is Thursday evenings from 7:30 to 9:30.