I read the message and could hardly contain my excitement. I had to tell somebody. Anybody! So at supper I told Uncle Jim and Aunt Julie the exciting news, “I get to be the captain of my soccer team this fall!”
After finishing my third season of soccer, I had a lot of reflecting to do. After being a starter for the first 10 games of the season due to a pre-season injury to one of my teammates, I once again returned to the bench where I had spent most of my first two seasons.
Trailing Calvary Bible College 0-1 late in the game, we sat on the sidelines hoping for something, anything good to happen. Our guys had fought hard in the Saturday afternoon heat, but still we had little go our way.
All of a sudden, defender Aaron Nilius cleared a ball from midfield, and from 35 yards out midfielder Jay Nihart barely managed to deflect the ball off his head toward Calvary’s goal. Fortunately for us, their goalkeeper was standing too far out and the ball cleared his reach and bounced into the net. We erupted on the sideline, and in that moment we had tied the game at one apiece. We were back in the game.
I love how Hebrews 12 begins: “Seeing then that we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses…” In the context the author is urging his readers to live in faith, following the example of the many men and women of faith mentioned in Hebrews 11.
As I begin my church planting internship and anticipate many years of church planting ministry in the years to come, I love every opportunity I have to interact with the church planters who have gone before me.
No, pastors and church planters don’t have one-day work weeks, preaching on Sunday and then taking rest of the week off. Sunday is only the end of one week of hard work and the beginning of another.
Yesterday was my first full day in Bennington for my internship. In fact, in all my trips out here over the past five years, it was literally my first full day out here.
Anyway, the day was filled with meetings of various sorts. At 9am I attended the regional pastors’ meeting with several pastors from the Omaha area and beyond. It was a great time of Christian fellowship, light-hearted humor, mutual prayer, and engaging discussion.
I enjoyed catching up with several men that I had previously met and hearing how God was working in their churches. It was also fun to catch their vision for the future, especially in the areas of discipleship and church growth.
For lunch we went to a Chinese restaurant where I got to sit in on part of the a camp board meeting. Having worked at IRBC for several summers, it was interesting to hear the pastors discuss the ongoing ministry of the camp here in Nebraska.
Finally, I had a meeting with Pastor Eric to discuss the general plan for my internship. It was a great discussion not only about the internship but about church planting and life in general. I’m excited to see how God will teach both of us in the upcoming days.
For supper I ate Nebraska’s famous Runzas with the family, and afterward I headed to my house for the evening.
Before I went to bed I was able to do some reading from Haddon Robinson’s classic “Biblical Preaching” and download some other free books for future reading.
‘Twas a good day and a great way to start the internship! More than anything I was reminded of why I’m here. The vision and excitement and initiative of these Omaha-area pastors is exactly what I want to be a part of this year and in the future.
The plane began its descent on American soil, and shortly before 6am EST we were on the ground in Atlanta.
A new day, a new month, a new city…and a new perspective.
My ministry trip to Brasil is over, but life continues on. I could not just come back the same person that I was when I went there. But I’ll talk about that later.
What should I write about next? Are there issues that you are facing or that the church is facing today that need to be addressed? Take 15 seconds to let me know!
