Ministry Feed

A month ago I asked you to pray for one thing. I wrote, "We need God to raise up a female student leader who can help start Bible studies for women." I want to tell you what God did with that prayer.

On Halloween we were out on the streets for Trick or Truth. Three young women walked up and wanted to play. One of them picked Truth and pulled out a scripture: "The Lord is near to the brokenhearted." She went quiet. Her dad is sick with cancer and not doing well, and she had been carrying it alone.

We got to talk about Jesus being close, right there in the middle of all that. Then I waved Morgan over. Morgan grew up in a Christian family and knows her Bible, but she had never shared her faith on the street before. Trick or Truth was her first time out. She met the girls, we prayed for them together, and they started connecting.

Before long someone asked, "Why don't you guys do a Bible study?" The girls get off work at 4 every Friday. Morgan said, "I'm free. I can do that."

This past Friday she led it. She brought her friend McKenna, another strong believer. None of the three girls had much experience with the Bible, and all three were wide open. Since then they've joined our prayer calls, and on Sunday they were at our house for dinner.

Now Morgan and McKenna are helping each other lead, and they'll probably start another study soon. Both of them are joining our leadership training for ARK Iowa interns.

We prayed for a female leader. God sent two, plus a Bible study, three new friends and a dinner table full of people. When we ask, He puts things in motion and puts us in the right place at the right time.

**Pray with us:** for the young woman whose dad is sick, that she'd feel how near God is. For Morgan and McKenna as they lead. And for the next study, already on the way.

This past week we took about a dozen people out to the streets to share Jesus.

Every Tuesday my friend Danny and I go out with any students who want to join us. Keilor has come every single week. He's committed to sharing his faith on a regular basis, and it shows.

On one of those Tuesdays I met a student named Varun. He grew up Hindu and has found himself questioning whether God exists at all. We had a beautiful conversation. He told me he respects people of faith and wishes he had faith himself. I got to share my story and pray with him, and he was very receptive.

Then came Trick or Truth, our annual Halloween outreach. We hit the streets with two boxes. The Trick box holds challenging questions, and the Truth box holds Scriptures. It's an easy way to start a conversation with people you might never stop and talk to. Halloween is one of the best evangelistic opportunities we have as Christians.

Many of the students who came had never done street evangelism before. A lot of people carry a stigma about "stranger evangelism," and they found out it's more fun, more engaging and a lot less scary than they expected. Every year it leads to praying for people, sharing our testimonies, hearing about their lives and hopefully making a new friend.

That's our whole goal with evangelism: to be professional friend makers. It takes all the pressure off. We don't have to convert anyone or have every answer. We get to know people and share what God has done in our lives. How they respond isn't ours to control.

And at our monthly worship night, Keilor played piano in front of others for the first time. He's only been practicing for a little over a month, and he's already learning to flow in the Spirit from song to song. It's been beautiful to watch him grow as a worshiper.

**Pray with us:** for Varun, that the faith he wishes he had would find him. And for our students to keep stepping out.

I've been praying for student leaders to rise up at the University of Iowa, and God is answering. Gabe and Keilor, both juniors, keep asking questions about the Lord, and now they're stepping out to learn how to evangelize. Every Tuesday we head out to pray for students and look for guys to start new Bible studies.

I handed one of my Bible study groups off to Keilor, and he's running it on his own now. Then he went and started another one with some freshmen from his hometown. Equip someone with the tools and let them run, and you get to watch disciple making happen in real time.

We also launched a Tuesday morning prayer call, and Keilor is rising up to lead it. Last week seven students were on, some of them praying out loud for the first time. After this semester we're asking every group to multiply: each group of four becomes two groups of four. We're even talking about a dedicated prayer room on campus.

Will you pray with me for one more thing? We need God to raise up a female student leader who can help start Bible studies for women. Multiplication is on the way. Who else is He calling to carry it?

School is back in session. My first week back at the University of Iowa, freshmen settling in, and I've spent it meeting students and finding ways into the gospel one conversation at a time.

A lot of you ask me how I even start. It's simpler than you'd think. I ask, "How can I pray for you?" Christian or not, most people are open to that, to the idea that someone cares enough to bring them before a higher power. Usually I get the surface answer first: prayer for school, for a job after graduation. Good things, and I pray for them. Then I ask the next one: if God did a miracle in your life today, what would it be? That's when the pondering starts. That's when the real need comes up.

Today I met Bodie and Austin, two freshmen from Des Moines who are serious about their faith. I told them how we do this, gathering at tables of four instead of rooms full of people. Nothing against worship and preaching, but the growth happens at a table where people get vulnerable and actually say their faith out loud.

Turns out Bodie had badly sprained his ankle the day before, so Austin and I got to pray healing over him. I can't wait to hear how he's walking. We're starting a Bible study with the two of them, their roommate, and one more friend.

Pray for these guys, and for all the students I get to coach. There are 40,000 of them here. That's a lot of tables, and I can't pull up a chair at all of them alone.

This past Sunday at Adrian and Megan's house we laid out communion on a small table in the middle of the room. Then each family came up and led it themselves. They prayed through it, talked about what the elements meant, and served one another face to face. When one family finished, the next came down and did the same. This went on for about ten minutes, and it was a beautiful thing to watch. Communion wasn't being put on for us. We were hosting it for one another.

When I think about the early church, the ones closest to the time of Jesus, remembering His sacrifice and resurrection was the most central part of how they gathered. That's why we keep communion at the center of our worship, whether we're in a home or a church or wherever we find ourselves with other believers.

So let me ask you: how often do you take communion? Is it only on Sundays, in a certain building, led by certain people? The Bible says as often as you remember the Lord. There's no limit and not many rules, other than do this together and don't make it about yourself. It's a group expression of the goodness of God through the blood and body of Christ.

If ordinary tables becoming altars stirs something in you, our course "Come to the Table" walks through how hospitality, evangelism, and communion come together in practical ways. Go lead communion for someone this week. It's okay to do it on your own. It's so much better when we do it together.

Almost a year ago I stopped a young man in our local mall. He barely spoke English. He is from Angola, a Portuguese speaking country in Africa, and I got that much across before I asked to pray for him. He let me. We swapped phone numbers, I said I'd love to connect, and then I got distracted and never followed up.

Six months later I'm standing in the lobby of a local church we're now working with called Life Church, and there's Pedro. "Weren't you the guy who prayed for me in the mall?" His English had come a long way, and it clicked. We started hanging out. Now he's been coming to help me with worship at a Celebrate Recovery gathering at Iowa City Church where I lead worship twice a month.

We've had deep prayer and repentance in those rooms. We've had salvations. The worship starts and people begin to weep, and you realize this isn't a performance. We get to host the presence of God, and He shows up. Pedro has a job now and he's walking through our discipleship pathway.

Pray for Pedro. Pray for that Celebrate Recovery program. God had this whole thing planned before I ever dropped the ball on that follow up.

I think one of the things I realize is that the most important relationships that I have have come from times of evangelism. When I'm living on mission, God brings people that I am meant to be connected with. Those relationships can't be forced; we must stumble across them, led by the spirit, surprised at every corner and every turn.

My dad passed on July 18th while we were driving from Iowa to Denver, about two hours from his home. We had known stage 4 lung cancer was having its way in his body for some time. That didn't make it hurt less. Loss is loss.

I got five days with him the week before. We talked about my childhood, about sports, and as the only follower of Jesus in my family, I talked to him about God. He was a New Yorker and loved the Knicks. A month before he passed he told me, "If the Knicks win the championship I think God might be real." They won. Turns out he wore a cross through the last 11 games they played.

He let me pray with him and read scripture with him, really for the first time in our relationship. Maybe his heart was softening. Maybe he just wanted to spend time with his son and knew how much scripture and prayer meant to me. It's hard to know if someone has truly grabbed hold of Jesus, and maybe that's not for me to judge. Here's what I do know: George Gluckler died at peace.

I kept a few pairs of suits, which are all a little too small for me. It's funny as a child we think about our parents as so much bigger than they are. I used to think my Dad could beat up Hulk Hogan and now I need his suits tailored to my size. Our perception of life seems to change as our vantage point increases.

As a man, whose earthly father has passed, my greatest hope is that I can resemble my heavenly Father in some way. I most want to be transformed into His image. It's not by power and not by human strength that we are changed but only by the Spirit are we truly saved, healed and delivered into glory.

I pray for peace over everyone who is dealing with loss. It is part of life and we all must face it at times. God is close to the brokenhearted. Grace and Peace.

On Monday I stood in front of Alec and Alyssa and married them. Five years I have watched this. Saturday mornings at Alec's house, coffee and an open Bible, working through what God's word actually says. Then a Bible study in his living room, me teaching live on Zoom through ID3, and that is where Alyssa walked in.

Here is what those five years taught me. Something happens when you open your home to people. In our family the table is the most important place, and who we invite to it matters. I have tried to model that at every step, and Alec and Alyssa picked it up as their own. Their door is open. Their table is set. People come in and taste the goodness of God.

At the reception I made a toast. Weddings are like fireworks, loud and celebratory and gone in a minute. Marriages are campfires. They give off warmth so that people come close. Marriages are meant to keep burning throughout the night.

That is the product of discipleship. A life and marriage that offers a warm place to to gather.