December 2012 Prayer Letter

This month I share a lot about a couple of major life changes for Aimee and I as well as the beautiful challenge of God's restoration among his people. I hope you enjoy!

Additionally, the end of the year can be a great opportunity to give a special gift amount or consider becoming a regular financial partner with GCM. Please prayerfully consider what God might be leading you to. You can go here for information on how to give.

God bless,
Chris

Student's Story: Erica

Something new this year for us this year has been a blog that we are keeping via our website. Recently, one of our student leaders, Erica, shared how God has been at work in her life recently. We really have been impressed by what God's been doing in her life and are blessed to walk through this journey with her. I hope you are encouraged by what she has to share.

http://www.columbiarock.com/archives/1433

Prayer Night

Once a month, we have a service in which we celebrate one of the biblically-based core values of The Rock. We call this service Axis, as these are central to who we are. This semester, we are celebrating Stewardship. In a different approach, we decided to view prayer through this lens, that one of our basic function as believers is to be in fellowship with God. It was with this in mind that we decided to spend an hour in prayer.

As the producer for Axis, I got the chance to organize the night. I contacted six different students to help facilitate prayer stations that groups rotated through for about 8 minutes each, categorized in  Upward prayers to God, Outward prayers concerning other people and Inward prayers on personal reflection.

Upward
Praise - celebrating Jesus by hearing a psalm and writing a letter praising Jesus.
Giving Thanks - writing down things they were thankful for and lifting those up together.

Outward
Mizzou, partner ministries - praying together for the the evangelistic work with pictures for visual aid.
The Church - writing on note cards reminders to pray for throughout the week and praying for The Rock and its leaders

Inward
Personal Growth - personal written response in praying through the fruits of the Spirit
Struggles and Challenges - praying in small groups, lifting personal prayer requests to the Lord

Watching the church pray for an hour was so cool to see. For many, that was probably the longest they'd ever prayed. For some it broke the mold on what prayer looks like. For the leaders, well we were just so proud of the participation and facilitation of students.

Thought I'd share! Thank you for your own prayers.

Equipper Dinner

Aimee snagged a good picture of last night's Equipper Dinner, so I thought it'd be a great chance to share with you all! Typically, we have a meeting every Sunday evening with the student leaders in our Canvas Group (equippers) but this week we decided to take a break from the typical schedule and decided to have a nice taco dinner.

These seven students are such a blessing to Aimee and I. We don't just do church with them, we do life with them. I've seen God work in each one of their lives in ways that have set them on fire for him and in ways that have broken them to where all they have is dependence on him. Getting to have a meal together where we get to just enjoy each other (and have a nice little conversation about pre-destination) is just icing on the cake of getting to serve with them.

October 2012 Prayer Letter

Hey everyone,

We have had quite a semester so far. I'm glad to share with you about some transitions and new opportunities coming our way as well as ways that the Lord has been moving in our church this year. Teaching opportunities, Redemption Ministry and other good stuff is in here. Click the picture to see the latest letter.

God bless,
Chris

Fall Retreat Picture Smattering

Our Fall Retreat was 2 1/2 weeks ago and I still feel like I'm recovering from it a bit. We had a "world record" attendance (as John would say) of 151 students this year! We had canvas group competitions, three services with an awesome guest speaker and friend, a Thanksgiving meal, deep talks into the night, baptisms and time set aside where we encouraged students to meet with the Lord. Here are some pictures I swiped from Facebook!

Group shot!

My sister Anna (left) is a freshman at Mizzou this year!

Pastor Bryan Wiles (left) our guest speaker, and Pastor John Drage (right)

One of our six baptisms

Praying for our new brothers and sisters after the baptisms

Pretty sure this is just a game of Pictionary...?

One of our students shares what God has been doing in his life recently.

Fall Retreat Directors

All photos by Casey Batezel

"This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."

1 John 4:10

Yesterday, we kicked off a new series at The Rock entitled, Beyond Measure. Many people have a distorted view of God's love. We tend to have a very us-focused view of God's love, like he is some genie in a bottle waiting to make us as happy as possible - and when he doesn't, we are disappointed. Or, we can't imagine a God that is personal and instead picture him to be an angry God, out for vengeance and punishment, waiting for us to mess up so that he can inflict his wrath on us.

1 John shows us what the true nature of God's love is and that is what we are hoping to share with our students over the next four weeks. Please be praying that God will reveal his true love to us in this series.

September 2012 Prayer Letter

Hey everyone!

I'm excited to share with you what has been going on so far this year at The Rock. In this letter, I unpack some more about the numbers I shared on here a few days ago. I mainly get to write about how God is reaching so many people this year already.

Hope you enjoy,
Chris

What's Your Biggest Question?

Last Friday, we set up a giant question mark painted on a piece of plywood on campus on Lowry Mall, a high-traffic area of campus. We call it a Spark! event, with the purpose being to spark conversations with students. For 6 hours we asked students : What is your biggest question? Here were their responses.

Where will I live?  Will I be remembered?  How does forever work?

Why does money have to be so important? Will I make it on my own?

How do I live my life to honor God? Why do I feel so awkward all the time?

Is there any such thing as a person on this earth that serves no purpose?

Why do babies have to die? Will I ever truly be happy?

Am I taking the right path? What's the point of life?

Will I get married? Will we ever have a non-corrupt government? Why do I exist?

How can I make a difference? Why do you follow God? 

Why do people settle for less than they deserve?

What am I going to do with my entire life? Can I do more? Was it all worth it?

What aren't they telling us? What's God's plan for me? How do I do something significant?

Why can't I get a date? Am I ever going to find someone?  

How can we truly, effectively help the poor?

Is there a God? Who am I? What happens after I die? What is knowledge?

Why haven't I gotten my acceptance letter to Hogwarts? What is the meaning of life?

Will I ever find love, or was I meant to walk this world alone?

What is the purpose of our existence?

How can people be so hateful to people they don't even know, just because they are black, gay, etc?

Why do we love love when love seems to hate us? Why does higher education have to cost so much in America?

Is there a life after death? What do you need to be happy? What's God purpose for me?

What should I do after college? Am I on the right path?

Is it possible for a human being to completely forgive someone who has done you wrong?

What is really out there? What is the right question?

Why is grace such a hard thing to grasp and apply? 

What do I have to do to be happy forever?

Will I be successful in my career? Why is the world unfair? 

Is there a purpose to suffering?

Why can't we do more for our planet? What really happened at the end of LOST?

Who runs the world? What were we made for? 

How can someone own land?

Why are people so scared of what they don't know? 

Is the end really the end? Why is Kim Kardashian famous? What if I never existed?

What was God's reason behind creating man, heaven, earth?

How did we get here? Why was I cursed with OCD?

What happens after the end? What happened before the beginning?

How do you make peace with being put up for adoption?

Why does no one give a s*** about our environment?

What's my purpose in life? Why do people insist on judging others?

Will I ever forgive myself? 

Will true equality for women ever be achieved?

Why do some people easily believe in God but for some people it's so hard?

Why do some people choose a life of ignorance?

How do you choose what has meaning and what does not?

A Few Numbers

225 Attendance at our first Sunday service. A record since I've been here.
42 Freshmen at our first Freshmen Leadership Group. Another record.
36 Our first Canvas Group attendance. Double our average from last year.

Welcome to Week One.

Pittsburgh Church Plant Update

This week marks the first week of classes here at Mizzou. It also marks the first week students are arriving at the University of Pittsburgh campus, where The Rock's church plant team is working hard. H2O is the name of the campus church they are starting and it looks like they are working hard to get the word out.

Here is a link to our team's campus church website if you'd like to check it out. Pastor Ed Courtney is co-leading with Pastor John Freeman (from Michigan State). Peggy Myers is on staff there, Amanda Craven is currently raising support to get there asap, Melissa Fritts is on associate staff and Bill Lautenschlager will be arriving in January. We are missing these guys dearly but are celebrating and praying with them as they reach a new campus for the Lord.

A New Semester Begins

Tonight, students participated in the traditional Tiger Walk, a ceremony where the 6500-student class walk through our beloved columns, symbolizing their official entrance into the Mizzou family. I participated in my sixth Fall Concert, set up directly on campus where these students would walk past back to their dorms. We  got to meet several freshmen during the concert and had a blast doing so.

Today also marked our first Sunday morning service of the year. We packed over 225 people into Middlebush auditorium for our kick-off series, "Living Questions". Man, it was incredible, thought-provoking and Christ-honoring. There has been so much going on this week, I don't even know where to begin, other than the fact that we have interacted with dozens of new students so far and we're looking at having a great turn out at our first Canvas Group on Thurs. I'll be sending out a letter in the near future and can't wait to tell you some great stories!

GCM 2011 Annual Ministry Report

GCM's 2011 AMR is out and available for you to take a look at. There are some encouraging things in there, from GCM's growth in donations (despite the economy really) and even a spotlight on our church plant to Pittsburgh, PA!

http://www.gcmweb.org/AMR/

No Quick Fix

This is an interesting little insight to life in college ministry written by Jackie Knapp in a contribution article for the Gospel Coalition.

"Instead of discovering the quick fix, I am slowly learning how Jesus lived and loved as He lead his motley crew of disciples should be the heartbeat behind my ministry, and that there is not some hidden secret I am going to find. “This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:12-13). This is the way He calls us to live, with whoever is in our lives. In my particular context, there aren’t flashy programs or easy substitutes for the time, energy and love it takes to build relationships with students starting with a foundation of friendship."

It's definitely true that in our instant-gratification society, there is a strong emphasis on what the "best" program is for ministries to "win followers". My prayer is that I ever remained focused that there are no easy solutions to sharing the gospel in college ministry or in any other context, really. 

Please be praying for the students that God wants me to pursue this fall and begin building relationships with.

Chris

You can read the full article here

The Rock's Website Face Lift

As mentioned in my latest prayer letter, The Rock is undergoing some changes this year. I'm really excited to include you all as we unveil our new website. Fellow staffer Andrew Schulz put in a lot of hours over the past few months to upgrade our website, making it easy to navigate and hugely resourceful for anyone wanting to know who we are.

Feel free to browse who we are, maybe listen to some sermons, meet our other staff or see what we're up to.

You can visit the website at http://www.columbiarock.com/

July 2012 Prayer Letter

Hey everyone,

My latest prayer letter is out. This month, I talk about the final weeks of LT, particularly our Project Group, Staff Retreat and the life change that has been happening out here. Also, some fun updates on some changes coming to The Rock.

Take care,
Chris

Evangelism Trips

A lot of students assume I'm good at contact evangelism, that I don't fear it, like I've done this a million times and have some kind of plan because I'm leading weekly trips to Boulder. Truth is, God put it on my heart to carry on this LT tradition because this is a skill that needs developed for me. Whenever we walk through the Pearl Street pedestrian mall area, there are people I don't talk to because I haven't yet mustered up the courage to start talking with a complete stranger, because I'm intimidated by their body language or because I don't know how to begin. Yet God has certainly been at work here.

We've had three trips to Boulder for what we call contact evangelism so far. That essentially means that we pair up students, typically guys/girl, and encourage them to go begin spiritual conversations with people. Lots of people have mixed feelings about this kind of evangelism, but honestly, most people with negative views have them so they can justify their own fear of beginning these types of conversations.

Here are a few reasons why we are doing these trips:

• To help students get past "safe talk" with people and practice initiating spiritual conversations with people
• Biblically, Jesus and the disciples would tell people about the kingdom of God throughout his ministry and beyond.
• We believe that God can use these conversations to draw people to himself, whether it's salvation during these conversations or whether we are planting the seed for them to give themselves to him later.
• To grow a confidence and a clarity in our students about what they believe about God.

We rest on God's promise as Jesus says when he sent out his own disciples, 

"Do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you." Matthew 10: 19

My first trip, I paired with Ami, a students from Mizzou. We had three conversations, a reluctant older man, a girl who worked at the local Nepalese store and a homeless street musician named Gypsy who promptly told us he didn't talk about "God, politics or sports". My second week, I paired with a girl from Texas A&M named Chelsea, a new believer that just started reading her bible this summer! We visited with an older woman who had just recovered from breast cancer for about an hour, conversing about whether or not the bible can be trusted, if there is one true religion and of course who Jesus was. Chelsea was lit up afterward with excitement and passion for this. And just yesterday, Aimee and I paired up when our project group went to evangelize in Ft Collins. We visited with a homeless couple for over an hour about Jesus as we all ate Jimmy Johns. They we so open and you could tell they never talk about what they believe but were grateful to hear that we wanted to share God's love with them.

Oh I could share more but I would like to ask for prayer over these trips. If you think about it on Fridays, please pray for courage, for God's provision and that we would share the gospel boldly.

June 2012 Prayer Letter

This one is coming at you from Estes Park, Colorado! I've been excited to share with you about how the LT program is going so far. Here, I share about Project Groups, the Worship Team and Evangelism. Also, Aimee shares some thoughts in this prayer letter! I pray it's an encouragement to you.

Take care,
Chris

Baptisms Spring 2012

On our way out of the school year, we had "Payday", as Pastor John tells us, by celebrating new life. Since our Fall Retreat in October, we've had 9 students make a verbal commitment before the church to follow Jesus.

At 10pm in our pastor's driveway, using his hot tub as a baptismal (because that's how we roll), we heard the testimonies of these 9 students, baptized them and prayed over them. It was a phenomenal way to end the year.

Feel free to join us in praising God for His life-changing work!

Pittsburgh Church Plant

This Fall, we will send out a team to officially plant a church at the University of Pittsburgh. In a partnership with our sister church at Michigan State, we our sending out Pastor Ed Courtney, staff members Bill Lautenschlager, Peggy Myers, Amanda Craven (currently support-raising), associate staff Melissa Fritts and a slew of alumni who were great leaders in our church.

We recognized the team at our last service of the year, this past Saturday. In October, we'll bring everyone back for a bigger send-off ceremony but for now we wanted to recognize that this was the last service many of them would be attending. We are so excited for this plant and yet it is obviously a time where we'll be grieving not having these guys and girls around next year.

If you'd like to follow the team on Facebook, you can go here

Please pray for:
- Jobs for our leaders who are not on staff.
- God to prepare the campus for his servants there.
- Safety of the students as they have received several bomb threats this year.
- Unity and purpose of the team as they prepare this huge task.

Many of you knew Sherri Bent from Hope Community Church. She went to be with the Lord on Thursday, with her husband Stephen and two children, Kainan and Navi'a mourning her loss. Please be in prayer for this family. Below is a link to the obituary page.

We know this world is not our home and that Sherri is with the Lord today. It's a time to celebrate that and yet our hearts and prayers as well need to be with the family who is mourning this time of separation until they meet again.

Obituary Page

Thanks,
Chris

May 2012 Prayer Letter

Hey everyone,

This month, I share about our Rock Appreciation Dinner, Staff Conference, Garrett's ordination and Equipper Retreat.

I hope you are encouraged by what the Lord is doing here at Mizzou.

Take care,
Chris

April 2012 Prayer Letter

Well this was supposed to be the March 2012 prayer letter but hey life gets away from everyone sometimes, right? Regardless, this month I share about a Canvas Group trip, a Music Team discussion on worship and a brief recap of our Spring Break Mission Trips.

I pray that this letter is an encouragement to you. Thank you so much for your prayers and giving!

Take care,
Chris

Student Profile: Amanda

Recently I asked one of our worship leaders, Amanda, to share some thoughts with the rest of the Worship Team. She has been on the team for a few years now and just a couple weeks ago closed out her time here in Columbia to go on staff with GCM. Amanda intends to serve on our church plant team to Pittsburgh next year. I hope that what she has to share is an encouragement to you.

You've been on the worship team for a few years now. Is there a memory of an experience over the years that really stands out to you?

There are a lot of stories I could tell here. One that comes to mind isn't terribly exciting, but is one where I really felt the Lord's presence. It was this year at Fall Retreat. Travis and I were practicing for the Saturday afternoon service in the empty chapel. I remember being hit with this feeling of peace and joy in the midst of a crazy semester that had me dead tired. We had a couple guitars, a drum, and our voices, nothing big or emotion-wrenching, but it was one of those moments where I felt as if the Lord was enjoying it as much as I was. Sometimes I get caught up in so much about leading worship that I forget how fantastic and honestly fun it is to make music to the Lord in both heart and voice.

How have you grown musically over the years? How have you grown in worshiping God with your musical gifts since you've been on the team?

As a music major in college, it was cool to find so many transfers between what seemed like my two worlds of music—the formal, classical study and rock worship band. The most helpful, I think, was simply learning to listen better. Getting to experience both sides of music helped develop me as a whole musician. As for how I've grown in worship...that part was even cooler. Co-leading at LT two summers helped me begin to let go of my perfectionism, which took some tough lessons. The Lord doesn't require perfect music; he desires the heart—worship. Leading music and worshiping simultaneously  definitely took time to learn better with the help of the Lord. Fortunately He gave me a stellar co-leader here at the Rock who, through modeling it and working to learn it better himself, helped me understand worship so much better as a leader. There's so much less stress and more rest and joy now.

What do you enjoy about being a worship leader? What is difficult about it?
There's a lot I enjoy about it. One thing I've really enjoyed is the collaboration, both with Travis and the rest of the band. It's cool to plan out the setlist together, think about musical ideas, how to get certain effects. Bouncing ideas back and forth, learning how to listen and compromise, bring new ideas to the table...it takes a little more time than if only one person were planning, but I think he's agree it's been worth it. Then working with the whole band...Sometimes even after all that planning, members in the band will either want to shoot down an idea or have some other awesome thing in mind that we could use. I think that's the atmosphere we try to create though, in which everyone gets to contribute more than just playing an instrument. Coincidentally, collaboration is probably also what is difficult. It's definitely been frustrating at times and takes plenty of time and patience on both ends. We don't always agree and it's sometimes challenging to understand each other...although I must admit, I've taken strides in figuring out how to read Travis's mind:) hah! Anyway, but really, it's all been totally worth it. I've learned so much from working with him and the band, and would do it all over again.

What have you enjoyed the most about being on the team?
Again, there are many...the fellowship, practicing, music-making, but really one of my favorites is the view from up front...and the opportunity to help facilitate what I see. What I mean is I love watching the body of the believers raise their hands and voices in worship to the Lord. It's such a beautiful sight that I wish more people could just walk up front, turn around, and see what I'm seeing. You guys on the team know what I'm talking about. No matter what role we play in the band, we get to watch this. What an honor and a blessing from the Lord that he gave us these musical gifts so that we get to be the ones to lead the church body in worship of Him! Love it.

You're going to staff training in March. Can you share with us what your plans are from there?

After staff training, I'll head to Memphis to begin the support-raising process. From there, I'll split my time between my old hometown, Jackson MO, and my parents’ current home in Springfield, IL. When I'm finished, I'll join the team in Pittsburgh and see where the Lord takes me from there!

Any final thoughts for the team?

What can I say? I've loved being here, working with you guys. It's been sweet to watch the worship team grow and develop. Andrew, Chris, Matt, Tyler, Travis, I really appreciate all the specific opportunities you gave me over the years to grow and learn to worship. To everyone else in the bands and production, thanks for supporting the team and the leaders. I hope I've been half as awesome as you have been to me. Rock worship team has been such a blessing and I'll miss it a lot.

 “Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea and all that is in them, singing: To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!” 

Revelation 5:13

Worship Service

I'll be kicking out a prayer letter next week, but in the meantime, here are a few songs we played at our last service. This is the one service this semester I'm actually playing bass at so I'm excited that one of our students filmed them!

"Jesus Paid It All"

Kristian Stanfill

"Beautiful Things"

Gungor

February 2012 Prayer Letter

Hey everyone!

In this month's prayer letter, I share about three students whose walk with the Lord has really been encouraging me lately. Also, there is a brief description of our Colorado LT program and how Aimee and I are really excited about getting out there.

Hope you are encouraged and blessed,
Chris

The Rock Newsletter

Hey everyone,

Our church, The Rock, just published a newsletter reflecting back on 2011. It was a big year for us, announcing a church plant, having tons of life change and celebrating our tenth anniversary as a church. Click the picture here and give it a read! I think you'll be encouraged.

God bless,
Chris

January 2012 Prayer Letter

Hey everyone! I emailed this out a couple of days ago, but in case you missed it, here is my latest letter!

Inside is a look at the end of last semester, a look at our Christmas series and what's to come with our Recovery Ministry next semester.

Also, I have a recap on our winter conference, IGNITE, that took place over the break.

I pray this is an encouragement to you!

Chris

IGNITE Conference Audio

We just got back from our GCM Church-wide conference, IGNITE, a few days ago. I'll definitely be sharing more in my upcoming prayer letter, but if you want to hear some fantastic sermons and "breakout sessions" that our ministry is sharing with our students, go here for a listen

There were a ton of great topics for our breakout sessions that would encourage you as well, I'm sure.

Enjoy!
Chris