kringdom come . . .

Sometimes you’re standing on the edge of almost, but not yet. That’s where it feels we’re standing right now. Changes seem to be on the horizon here in our ministry at Ball State. These are changes that we’ve been praying about for years. But now we can see them in the distance, not fully realizing the potential these changes might bring to us. I want to highlight some of the potential changes we’re facing and enlist you to join us in praying for those things.

A while back, we invited one of the pastors who serves with our national ministry to come and speak during a Sunday night student leadership meeting. He came and so did a large number of students both new and old who expressed a desire to begin learning to use their gifts and abilities to serve and build the kingdom. I can say that since then we have been literally overwhelmed with the numbers of young people who have a heart to serve in evangelism, discipleship, small group leading, etc. As a ministry that operates primarily by recruiting students to help lead and serve, it has been amazing to see so many that are eager to help further our mission here at Ball State. We have been praying specifically for this in recent years, but have never seen anything close to what we’re seeing now. Students are offering themselves to be used by God, many are praying about going into missions and full-time ministry sometime in their future. This summer Brandon who is graduating from Ball State in May will join our staff team by beginning the process of raising support through GCM. He joins a long history of over 25 people who have raised support to serve with us at Ball State over the past 20 years. We’re especially excited because this is the first new staff member we’ve had at Ball State for almost 5 years.

One of the GCM staff members who was with us back in the late nineties moved out to Philadelphia for about 8 years where he went to a Bible school and got some ministry experience as a pastor in a large church recently moved back to Muncie. After being here for about a year, he decided to go back on staff with GCM (that’s commitment – to raise support TWICE!). In addition to some of his other responsibilities, this past semester he started teaching a course through Moody Bible Institute for some of our students, who have been able to take that course for elective credits at Ball State. We’re looking to expand this program, to be able to provide a rotation of 4 or so classes that students can take for credit at Ball State while also getting a solid theological and scriptural education. We look forward to seeing where this program will go from here.

Years ago, we had a group of Ball State graduates who had remained involved in our church on campus, though their changing life experiences of having families and jobs didn’t lend itself to the kind of ministry and services we were able to offer as a church. I remember sitting down and having a heart to heart with many of them, saying we didn’t have the leadership to be able to meet them where they were at without taking away from the work we were doing on campus. This was very difficult for us because of the relationships we shared, but we helped many of them transition to other local community churches where their needs could be better met. Yet there was a core group of graduates who didn’t want to leave. They stayed involved, committing themselves to serve the students on campus and our staff team of full-time workers here. Over the years, that group has grown and these are people who have become a support to the leadership here as well as being key leaders who are serving in different ministries of the church. Recently we started praying about ways to connect Ball State students to helping to meet some of the needs of the local Muncie community. Our county has the highest unemployment rate in all of Indiana and as a result of the recession the homeless population has doubled here, the schools are well below the state average in performance. Jobs are leaving this area, and there doesn’t seem to many signs of change. Many of our graduates believe that God wants to use his people to bring change to our community and are finding ways to recruit other college students and future graduates to stay in Muncie to help create jobs and opportunities, to work in the schools and the social services that are in need of quality leadership. Of course we don’t know where this will lead in the future, but maybe hope for this community could come from God’s people, especially young people who are already wanting to serve and help people in these ways more than we’ve ever seen in the past.

As I mentioned a while back, we’ve started an informal partnership with a group of churches in Liberia West Africa over the past couple of years, and this summer we’re sending a second team of medical professionals and ministry leaders who are going to be serving there again. It has been amazing to see the outpouring of generosity from students who have already given to help with the community development and creation of jobs in the name of Jesus to this impoverished country. Joe Lieway, the Liberian pastor who is the Superintendent of the Bible Faith churches in West Africa has become a dear friend and a partner with us in the work of the gospel both here at Ball State and in the country of Liberia.

This past summer we acquired new office space for our church that also happened to be a local concert venue in Muncie. We didn’t take it over because we wanted to start putting on shows, but we did envision being able to use the space in connection with other groups and organizations who wanted to partner with us in music, art or community events. The space happens to be in downtown Muncie where, as we found out a few months after we moved, Ivy Tech Community College is moving a large portion of their campus over the next several years. What had traditionally been an area for bars and businesses is now starting to fill up with college students. We happen to be right in the middle of the downtown district and are asking God what that means as far as starting a new campus outreach to students with Ivy Tech in downtown Muncie.

Recently we’ve been talking about what it will take for us to plant a couple of campus churches on different campuses in Indiana over the next ten years. Having been a part of an attempted church plant years ago to Southern Illinois University, we learned many things that we shouldn’t do. So currently we’re trying to determine how we need to be praying for future staff, pastors and church planters to be able to plant healthy college churches. What we’re doing in planting college churches is pretty unique in the scope of what is happening on college campuses across the nation, so the ability to replicate what we’re doing here on a few other campuses would meet a great need for the next generation of young people who are on college campuses now.

I know this is a lot and there is so much more. We’re sensing that we’re standing on the edge of some things we’ve never experienced in our church at Ball State. There is excitement, certainly some apprehension, but a sense that God is preparing the way for great things to happen through young people who are called by His name. Thanks for being a part of this with us. You are a crucial part of making this ministry happen. We are very appreciative of what you do to enable us to serve at Ball State.

Neil