Sharing the Load

In August of 2008, I was just getting back to St. Louis from having spent 6 weeks in Cairo, Egypt. I was beginning my internship with InterVarsity and we were preparing for the upcoming school year.  I had never been behind the scenes in starting a school year in college ministry and I was curious to see how exactly we were going to go from seeing random people walking through the quad to getting those people to come to our Bible studies.  But, there was at least one freshmen that already had a connection with us.  We had heard that one of our co-workers had a fiance who had a younger brother coming to SLU as a freshman that year.  We figured that at least he would come to our Bible study so I felt a little better.
The Wednesday after school began, we were at SLU Fair, the student organization fair where all the student groups on campus congregate to tell freshmen and other folks about the groups available to them.  My supervisor pointed at a kid walking through the crowd and said, "I think that's Cris' younger brother!"  We called out "Robert!" (we heard that was his name) and he came over to the table.  A few minutes later he was wearing one of our signs on his chest and handing out fliers - three days into his freshman year.
Flash forward four years and Robert is now stepping on to campus to begin his Intern year with InterVarsity at SLU (and even living with me until I get married!).  That's him sitting next to me in the picture above.  Robert would spend a lot of his freshman year in one of our Bible studies before coming on to our leadership team and serving as one of our primary leaders during his time in college.  Robert is a good friend and a gifted evangelist with a huge heart for international students on campus.  He will be spending most of his time this year working with me at SLU, training and discipling cell planters, and leading out in our outreach to international students.  He'll also be spending some time scouting and potentially chapter-planting at Flo Valley Community College with one of our co-workers.
It's been over two years since I last had a staff partner at SLU and I am so excited for how God will use our partnership to grow both Robert and I and to bless the campus and students.  Praise God for community in mission!

Missionaries Never "Leave": Part Two

Note to the Reader:  This is part two of a blog series about feeling called away from the church that has been my home for the past 6 1/2 years. Part one was the story told from my perspective.  Part Two will be a letter from the Pastor written to communicate his part of the story.  It's been such a privilege to be under his leadership for all of my adult life so far and I was honored that he would take the time to write this letter so I wanted to share it as well!

April 12, 2012

Dear Kale’s Supporters,

It’s rare that I’m happy to see people leave my church.  But I’m thrilled that Kale is leaving.  Good riddance, I say!

Just kidding.  Last year Kale came and told me he sensed an opportunity to serve at a church near SLU’s campus, which could allow him to better serve his students.  Kale values church loyalty and did not want to leave without praying and discussing the opportunity first with his leaders.  He also knows he has a special relationship with Rooftop and some of its members, on whom he depends for prayer and financial support.  So we met repeatedly to talk about this possibility, and Kale even met with the elders to ask for their wisdom and submit to their leadership.

In the end, the elders agreed that the kingdom of Jesus Christ would benefit from Kale leaving Rooftop to work more closely with a different church, and we directed him to do so.  In fact, before Kale could LEAVE Rooftop we decided to SEND him out.  This is what churches should be doing: sending people out into new fields of harvest.  We’re excited to see what the Holy Spirit does in and through Kale and his students at their new place of worship.

I’m writing you this letter so you can have confidence that Rooftop’s relationship with Kale remains strong.  We are still a strong supporter of his work at Intervarsity, and would not have sent him out if we didn’t think he was ready for this new opportunity, or if we thought he was going about it the wrong way.  We are pleased to continue supporting Kale and we hope you are, too.

For the kingdom,

Matt Herndon
Rooftop Community Church

Missionaries Never "Leave": Part One

Note to the Reader:  This is part one of a blog series about feeling called away from the church that has been my home for the past 6 1/2 years. Part two will be a letter from the Pastor written to communicate his part of the story.  It's been such a privilege to be under his leadership for all of my adult life so far and I was honored that he would take the time to write this letter so I wanted to share it as well!

Ever since I came to Saint Louis for school back in the fall of 2005, being involved in a local church has been absolutely critical for me.  God blessed me very early on by leading me to work in the Housing Department at SLU where I met a guy who was interning at this place called Rooftop Community Church.  He invited me to go with him when I was making the rounds as a scared 18-year-old in a new place trying to find a home.  I immediately fell in love, stopped my church-search, and planted myself in that community.

For the past 6 1/2 years, Rooftop has been my home.  When most of my personal life fell apart during my freshman year of college, it was the place where Jesus called me into community.  When I first felt called to be a missionary, it was Rooftop that came alongside me equipping and encouraging me to follow Jesus into the mission field.  For me, Rooftop is not just my "church" or my "friends" (though both of those are true); Rooftop is family.

With this family behind me, I started my missionary journey at SLU.  About a year ago, my students and I were invited by a church in Soulard to partner with them in tutoring 3rd graders at Peabody Elementary in the Peabody Projects between Soulard and Lafayette Square.  Peabody is one of the lowest performing elementary schools in the city and is located in the heart of this project neighborhood.  About 15 of my students and I started volunteering there on a regular basis and fell in love with the school and the students.  I started dreaming more and more about what it would look like to build greater bridges between the City and the Campus.

As the partnership between InterVarsity and this local church grew stronger, several of my students began attending and even became members.  At this point, about 20 SLU IV students attend there with some sort of regularity.  I began praying about what the next steps in partnership would look like and started to ask God if he was calling me to join my students there and further lock arms with those who were actively ministering in these city neighborhoods.  Over the past six months, I've gathered lots of people around me to pray.  Matt and I met together and prayed.  My bosses and I met together and prayed.  I eventually met with the elders and prayed.  As much as I could never have imagined leaving Rooftop, it felt like God kept confirming that this was the right decision.  It felt like he was (and is) calling me deeper into his mission in the City, to begin building this greater bridge between the Campus and the Peabody Projects.

So I find myself in the middle of a gigantic transition that can only be described as "being sent."  I'm moving from the east side of the Loop into Peabody.  My intern for next year (currently a senior) is coming with me and 4 other leaders are praying and actively looking into moving into the projects with me.  I have dreams of tithing 25% of our leadership team every year to God's mission in this neighborhood.  How amazing would it be if this generation of student leaders not only gave up part of their time in college to living and working in the inner city but also decided to stay after graduating?  God is filling me with vision and passion for this next step and I can't wait to see how it all happens. 

With the Elders' blessing, I'm also "being sent" from Rooftop to that local church, August Gate, in South City where about 1/2 of my current leadership team and 20+ SLU students already attend.  I told God at the very beginning that the evidence of His direction would have to be overwhelming before I would ever stop actively attending Rooftop and, over the past six months, he has confirmed this decision.  This is obviously a bittersweet transition as my heart also feels joy and anticipation in praying for Rooftop's future, elders, leaders, and people.  Please know that I'm still around as one of Rooftop's missionaries and would love to sit down and share more about what's coming for the ministry at SLU or just catch up on life over coffee.  Thank you for your continued support as I follow our missionary God into whatever he has for me in this season - I need your prayers now more than ever and it's such a joy to have people to walk with when things get crazy!

Spring 2012: Students on Spring Break Mission

As it's been a while since I've taken the time to update my blog, I thought I'd write a flurry of posts to give you a sense of what we've been up to on campus and what I've been up to personally as well. Happy reading!

As we all know, Spring Break is traditionally a time for college students to get away from campus and head to the beach or mountains or wherever they go to get away from the stress of classes and live it up for a week. Here in InterVarsity, we do that too...but ours looks a little different.

This Spring Break, we sent students out to live it up for a week of missional living, where they could really live it up. We sent 5 students to City Lights 2012, InterVarsity's Saint Louis-based urban project. At City Lights, students come from all over the country to spend their Spring Breaks learning about God's heart for the urban poor and why the Gospel calls us to work for the reconciliation of all people under Christ, even those who don't look like us or make as much money as we do. They spend a week working in areas of the city that SLU students would never see in our Midtown bubble. They work alongside refugees who are scraping together a living after fleeing their war-torn home countries and yet still find a way to find joy in being God's children. Needless to say, students almost always return from City Lights fired up to see the work God is doing on campus spill out into the city around us. I can't wait to see what this team does with that passion!

For the first time ever, our InterVarsity chapter also sent a student abroad to partner with our sister movement in Guyana. Ashley, one of our leaders, joined with students and staff from our region to participate in a campus evangelism partnership with the InterVarsity group at the University of Guyana. The team spent the week doing proxe stations (artistic displays that walk a participant through a series of spiritual questions) to build relationships and pique interest in exploring Jesus for students that they met. They partnered with and learned from Guyanese student leaders and together shared the Gospel with dozens of students on campus. Over the course of the week, LOTS of students either became Christians for the first time or re-dedicated their lives to following Jesus. Ashley was able to share her stories at the Edge on Monday night and it was such a joy to share in her experience. God is doing incredible things with these students!

Interested in seeing more? Here are videos made by each team that go a bit deeper into their experiences:

City Lights
Guyana

Spring 2012: MOmentum

As it's been a while since I've taken the time to update my blog, I thought I'd write a flurry of posts to give you a sense of what we've been up to on campus and what I've been up to personally as well. Happy reading!

Last Spring, the Missouri InterVarsity Staff team was granted a national grant to create a cohort of students who would agree to be part of a semester-long training curriculum designed to help them become better evangelists - to train them in learning how to share the Gospel with their friends and classmates in ways that allow those who don't know Jesus to understand and explore the Gospel.

We had never done anything like this before but about 30 students ended up going through the program and we saw a lot of fruit from even our first efforts at designing a program like this. We called it MOmentum, partly because we thought the MO thing (Missouri) was clever, but mostly because momentum is exactly what we were hoping it would drive on campus. So, as we were planning the year back before school started, we decided that we again wanted to invite several students to join us in growing as evangelists in community with other students and staff. Two of our leaders here at SLU volunteered to lead our team and quickly recruited another 8 students to join them. The team is comprised completely of freshmen and sophomores eager to learn how to share their faith, most of them for the first time.

We've been learning a lot this semester through MOmentum. A few folks experienced frustration right off the bat as they were challenged to talk to their friends about Jesus back in January and found less-than-welcoming receptions to these conversations. A few of the students have felt exhilarated by the surprisingly warm response their friends have given to talking about Jesus. More than anything though, they are learning what it means to be a community learning together. Every month, they gather once as a Missouri team for training and then once more as a SLU team to share stories and support one another. This time has been especially sweet as those who feel frustrated band together with those who feel joyful and together cry out for God to work in the lives of their friends. As the staff of this chapter, there is nothing that gives me more joy than seeing a freshman student whose heart genuinely breaks for their friends who don't yet know Jesus. May God grant that LOTS of the folks we are reaching out to would respond and give their lives to Jesus this year!

Spring 2012: Ambition 2012

As it's been a while since I've taken the time to update my blog, I thought I'd write a flurry of posts to give you a sense of what we've been up to on campus and what I've been up to personally as well. Happy reading!

"It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known..." - Romans 15:20

This past January, InterVarsity hosted its first ever planting conference, Ambition 2012. A few hundred IV staff and students from around the country gathered together to talk about planting, or starting new ministries on college campuses. At SLU, we've been engaged in planting missionary communities (we call them "cells") for the past few years. We've planted these Bible studies in the Fraternity/Sorority system, in dorms across campus, among the International community, and elsewhere. We love starting new things at SLU and it was an honor to be in attendance at this conference.

Four leaders from SLU InterVarsity and myself took the flight down to Tampa, FL for four days of training and preaching from guys like York Moore, Alan Hirsch, Kim Hammond, Brian Sanders, and a myriad of InterVarsity staff from around the country. I even got to lead a seminar on planting new ministries purely through evangelistic Bible studies (i.e. starting with people who are not yet following Jesus).

These four days were a huge blessing to our team. We were blessed by the worship and mission of Tampa Underground, the church that hosted us. We were blessed by the creativity and apostolic spirit of staff and students from around the country. We were blessed by the community God has been building among our leaders and our region here in the Midwest. God has given us a vision to not only see our entire campus reached with the Gospel but also to see the Gospel spill over from our campus into the surrounding neighborhood. Join us in praying for God to lead us in seeing that vision realized!

Spring 2012: My First Seminary Class

As it's been a while since I've taken the time to update my blog, I thought I'd write a flurry of posts to give you a sense of what we've been up to on campus and what I've been up to personally as well. Happy reading!

This past January, I was given the opportunity to take my first-ever seminary class through Fuller Theological Seminary. One of my favorite things about working for InterVarsity is that IV really cares about developing its staff and encourages us to further our education and training. Back in October or so, my boss let me know about an upcoming opportunity to take a week-long intensive class at Fuller's extension center in Colorado Springs, CO. She told me the class was "The Theology of C.S. Lewis." As soon as I read that title, I was pretty much in.

I'm sure I'm not alone here; C.S. Lewis has been formative for so many Christians in the past three or four generations. I remember first reading Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters in high school and feeling like Lewis was dusting off my old images and conceptions of God, the Bible, the Incarnation, Sin, and what it meant to be a follower of Jesus. His stories and analogies have lingered in my imagination for almost ten years. As I've poured deeper into his fiction (The Space Trilogy, 'Til We Have Faces, Narnia) and other theological writings (favorites include The Four Loves and The Problem of Pain), I've continued to be blessed by his incredible ability to communicate ideas and captivate the reader with vivid images and compelling prose outlining his understanding of the Triune God and His activity in the world. With all of this in mind, I signed up for the class.

A few weeks later, I received the syllabus for the class which included about 1200 pages of reading, a reading notebook to be kept as we went along (roughly 1 page for each chapter of reading), a final exam, and a research paper. Whew. On top of that, the class was happening a mere week before classes started up again for the Spring Semester, meaning that I was almost guaranteed to find it challenging to squeeze in all the time needed to do justice to the final exam and research paper. I swallowed hard and decided to stick it out, praying that God would provide the time needed to complete the classwork.

The new year came and I flew out to Colorado to begin the week-long intensive. I did not really know what to expect from the classroom time but God blessed me (and my classmates) with several good gifts during the week:

• God provided a place for four of my classmates and I to stay for free! A couple in the community opened up their home to us (the wife was in the class as well) and even allowed us to drive their cars and gave us quite the introduction to Colorado Springs. This was such an incredible gift as we were able to rest well and be blessed so abundantly by their kind hospitality!
• The weather was beautiful the entire time we were in Colorado which definitely highlighted the incredible beauty of waking up everyday to a mountain landscape. As a smalltown boy from the Midwest, I haven't exactly seen a lot of mountains in my life. The scenery itself was worth the cost of the trip.
• The four classmates I mentioned were InterVarsity staff which proved to be quite a life-giving little community while we were away from home. My boss and I came in from Saint Louis and there was a girl from Washington D.C., as well as a guy from Maine. As we were stressing out together, God made us into friends. I love these people and still feel connected to them after only spending a week together. Praise God for supportive community!

Long story short, we survived the class together and felt genuinely blessed by God to be there. The lectures (though long at times) were wonderful as the Professor opened up Lewis' theology in ways that I had never seen before. I saw the rich beauty of Lewis' trinitarian theology that illuminates so much of his writing. I was reminded of some of the historical context and details of Lewis' life that informed his understanding of his role as a writer and thinker in the mid-20th century. I was once again swept away by Aslan and the High Countries and the Weight of Glory and reminded of the sheer Joy (or Longing) that both delights and frustrates us in this life. I'll leave you with one of my favorite Lewis quotes:

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”
The Four Loves