News and Events
- 07-21-2010 Headed Out
You can take the evangelist off the road, but you cannot take the gifting of the evangelist out of the heart of the person. Five years ago I stepped away from the itinerate life required of an evangelist for two specific reasons: first, the stability of our family needs, and second, to receive medical help for some intense physical problems that I was personally facing.
- 12-11-2010 Relief in Nashville
I just returned from the flood-stricken city of Nashville, Tennesse. I had the privilege to fellowship with some very precious people of God and to see the grace of God in action.
- This is now my thirtieth year of working either at or with a Christian camping ministry of some kind. My very first experiences were had at the Life Action Ranch in Niles, Michigan, where I first cut my teeth on the camping ministry in 1980. Down though the years I have had the privilege of working with some very large and well organized camps and a number of smaller, less formal but highly impacting camps. I have been and will remain very committed to the ministry of camping.
Headed Out
You can take the evangelist off the road, but you cannot take the gifting of the evangelist out of the heart of the person. Five years ago I stepped away from the itinerate life required of an evangelist for two specific reasons: first, the stability of our family needs and, secondly, to receive medical help for some intense, physical problems that I was personally facing. Now that my family is older (our children are grown and facing the rigors of Christian college life) and with the good news of medical answers (physically getting in balance and eating properly), I am grateful to announce that God is returning us to an itinerate ministry of preaching and conference work.
These last five years have been a wonderful joy for me to see Christ moving in my own soul. If you were to ask me what is the greatest lesson that I have learned in these long five years, it is found in Paul’s words to the church at Corinth (II Corinthians 12:10). “When I am weak, then am I strong.” The weak side of my ministry is that, as a person, I’m desperately dependent upon Him. My prayer is that the strong side may be Christ and His might and power coming through this human clay.
My own feelings of inadequacy for ministry supplies me with a commentary of this text, and that is my expositional aim. The text of knowing Him and unleashing His strength is not only written in His Word, but it is emblazoned upon the lives of the saints through the history of the church. Though we are certainly not apostles, we are believers, instructed as he was to learn by experience that “When I am weak, then am I strong.” This phrase has passed into a Christian proverb as a paradox, yet it is a warning and a consolation. It is a double-edged command for the strong to behold the weakness of their power and to set before the weak the strength of their weakness so that He may be glorified.
I have longed for the Lord to make me a more usable vessel through the brokenness produced through His work and trials in my life. He is so good to give us infinitely out of His grace the tools He uses to conform us to His image. It is my passionate desire to serve historically fundamental, local New Testament churches by the model of “preaching the word.” My heart is passionate to see God “stir in power” amidst the apathy of our age. Pastors are longing to see anemic believers adopt a transformed lifestyle and to see God draw renewed life to the church. To that end we are introducing a variety of venues as we return to this itinerant path. We must face it. This twenty-first, post-modern century has its own unique needs and calls for a difference in our meeting-planning mentality. Here are some of the ministry-meeting plans we are making.
