“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.” -Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
I didn’t appreciate that passage when I had to memorize it for AP English my Senior Year, but I have learned from it so much at this point in my life. See, it’s seasons that move us from one place to the next and it’s seasons that provide for us the opportunity to learn something new about who God is in our lives and how He wants to move through our lives. When new seasons present themselves, we have two choices: be paralyzed by the new reality they present or be energized by the catalyst that new seasons can be.
Well, a season is ending in my life and a new season is presenting itself, more and more, each passing day. After 4 years of work at Nappanee Missionary Church, it is time to spread my wings a bit more and follow God’s lead to another place and another mission that He is preparing.
Why am I leaving?
Even when I first started here at NMC, we were dreaming up a program that would raise up ministry leaders that had graduated college and send them out into the Kingdom. So, for the last 3 years, this transition in seasons was always, potentially, on God’s agenda. This year, as we were praying and seeking the movement of God, we have become confident that my time here has ended and it is time to move on. God is clearly ready to move others into this wonderful place to be grown and molded and given the tools to do effective ministry for His Kingdom. And that is incredibly exciting. The ways that He is moving me, also gives me great confidence in the plan that He has for me to continue to pastor students and expand His Kingdom in many different ways.
A Couple Clear Calls
It was back in November the Pastor Terry and I sat down to discuss this course and really seek out where we sensed the Lord moving our ministry and my ministry. It was at that point that God was pretty clear to Pastor Terry and Derry that this was the direction for the ministry. I had sensed a similar direction for my life through some different, small, but clear indications from God. This discussion with Pastor Terry was the most obvious call, but it was not the only one.
In January, while we were at Passion Conference, God clearly spoke and revealed to me a passion that has been present but not as obvious to continue to work with college students in some capacity. As it stands, I have little direct contact with college students outside of those that have graduated from our ministry because of our distance from local colleges. This was confirmed in how much I was energized and excited about working with our SOAR interns, our graduates, and other discipleship encounters with college students. While this was not a distinct call out of student ministry, it was a very clarifying call to minister to college students.
In February, I was attending a Leadership Summit and a couple things became quite clear in regards to that “crazy stupid idea in my head.” For the longest time, God had whispered the idea of starting a Church or doing church differently. I had shrugged it off, mostly because of fear, but also because it would be tough tough work. It was at ELS that I was reminded that the things that are inside of me are worth sharing and are very much worth pursuing. Yet, because of my role at NMC, I could not ignore my responsibility to the students of NMC in order to develop and create those visions.
More recently, there have been a number of different snapshots where I have noticed myself feeling like I was “in my sweet spot” both in my ministry to students and in settings of creation, development, and innovation that were too obvious to ignore. While many of these moments were inside my ministry at NMC, a growing number were in my ministry outside NMC. It was in these moments that God has been clarifying His call away from NMC and on to a new thing or a new ministry that He intends for me to be a part of.
An Unknown Destination
At this point, and this is difficult to understand, God has not yet made it crystal clear where my next steps will take me. God has made it clear that it is time to move, but just not where to move yet. This is probably the most difficult part of this transition at the present time. It would be so much easier to make this known and have a clear destination that I will be landing; a more definite future for everyone to have the opportunity to celebrate this move of God with me. However, it is in this unknown that I am so blessed, so excited, and most of all, incredibly energized because of the immense amount of potential that it holds.
God is moving. That much is so incredibly clear. Different conversations that I have been blessed to be a part of only amplify my excitement of the direction that God is leading me. See, this entire process is about Kingdom Impact. This whole experience is about how God wants to grow both me, and those that come along the journey with me. It is quite clear that faith is rising in my heart and that He continues to show Himself faithful. The question is, will we trust Him?
Some things are clear to me in this whole unknown. Among those is my clear love and passion for students, families, and the Church. I still find myself most energized when I am with high school and college students. I find myself most creative and in a sweet spot when I am collaborating with leaders on how to best reach and disciple students. But, most of all, it is clear that vocational ministry is still the sweetest spot for me and I intend on securing a future that is able to invest my life into these areas. Of these things, I am quite confident and incredibly secure of their place in my life.
The Future and Beyond
In all of this, I am greatly excited for the next season in my life, but also the next season in the life of Nappanee Missionary Church. Over the course of the last 30 years, God has moved in some incredible ways through the leadership of Pastor Dave and the faithful followers of Christ at NMC and I am more than confident that the greatest days of NMC and its ministry to the Kingdom of God are just ahead. And one of the brightest spots of those next days is going to be the impact of Student Ministries.
I am so encouraged by the addition of Tim Veenstra to the NMC team. Tim is a great guy and a guy that loves students and loves to see students take their next steps with Jesus. I believe in Tim with all of my heart. God has used him to impact lives already and I cannot wait to hear how God uses Tim to help more and more students come to see Jesus. Tim is going to be a huge force for Jesus in the next two years.
In all of this, God has been faithful and will continue to be as we continue to seek His face. He is good and He has provided so much, to teach me and, hopefully, to use me to impact a few lives along the way. It is such a blessing to be a servant of His, but it is even more a joy to be His son. It is because of that joy that He has planted inside of me that I am confident that He is going to continue to be faithful and continue to be who He says He is in my life and in the lives of the students of NMC.
To the Students of NMC Senior High:
Let’s celebrate all that God has done and all that He is going to do! He is good and He is going to continue to move us to pursue Him everyday. You are a blessing to me and I am so blessed to have a few more weeks and months to spend with you all. You are deeply loved by me and I believe so much in what you are able to do through Christ. Let’s make these last few months awesome and finish this season well!
Geoff
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You know something that has become increasingly clear about my life and the season that I find myself in is the reality that seasons are tough. Sometimes they really stretch you and it easy to see how God is teaching you. Other times they stretch you and it seems like it is near to impossible to see how any of this makes sense. No matter what, we clearly go through different seasons in life and when those seasons change they create transitions. My current one is called “Major Transition.”
) to your student and don’t change them unless the information changes. My mom and I know a bit about this type of situation and I can tell you, it sucks. Overall, trust yourself as a parent. You probably have prepared them for this moment. So, surrender this one to God and have some faith that He still sits on his throne, even though you just want to hide in a hole until it’s all over.
Whether it is risking relational fallout because of what you have been convicted to say to a person, time that you have to sacrifice to spend time with a person, money that you decide to shell out for a friend or a person, or a bit more work to make sure that you can spend some time with a person, relationships cost and some cost a lot.
I was reading through some different stories in the Old Testament and came across something very interesting. Abraham, Noah, Moses, and others, named places and recognized different areas because of the ways that they had experienced God in a certain way. They would come out of a certain situation, praise God for it, and then build an altar and describe it in a way to define a characteristic of who God had proven Himself to be.
