Fall Retreat 2014

Before I kick out a prayer letter, I thought I'd give you a look at our Fall Retreat.

Our prayer goal was 183 people. We had 186.

It was incredible, crazy, overwhelming and powerful. Here's a look in pictures.

We start off with a huge Thanksgiving style dinner

It was Eliza's first retreat!

We have three worship services

Our guest speaker, Dave Megill

The next day we play some crazy games.

One of our freshmen going nuts at four-way soccer.

One of our Community Groups was super excited.

We have baptisms later that day.

Our current Community Group, Aspen, made t-shirts!

Finally, a look at everyone who came!

I can't wait to share more about such a full month in my upcoming prayer letter!

For a full look at the retreat, check out our photo album.

Chris

Fall Retreat 2013

Hey everyone!

Our annual Fall Retreat is this weekend, October 4-5th. We are so excited about this time because of how much life change seems to happen at this event every year. Please join us in praying this week for a few things.

That we would have 160 students come

Safe travel for our speaker, Ed Courtney

That God would use this time to bring students to him and that this weekend would be a spiritual turning point for many students to rekindle their faith or trust Jesus for the first time.

Thanks!

Seniors Dinner 2013

We catered in some Buckingham's BBQ for our annual Seniors Dinner last night. Each year we celebrate one final meal with our seniors.

This year, we are graduating 35 seniors between now and December.

When I was released back to field staff from full time support raising back in the Fall of 2009, you may have guessed it, these kids were all freshmen. It's the first class I've seen from start to finish, and Aimee and I have had our share of emotional goodbyes. Between talks on long drives, auditioning and worshiping with those on the music team, serving with in my own small group or just getting some time here and there, I've gotten to know several of these students. We are going to miss them but we were glad to be a part of this final send-off for them all.

John's tradition of reading "Oh the Places You'll Go" Indeed. 

Our prayer of course is that they go make disciples of all nations. Please join me in praying that God carries our seniors along through their next journey in life.

Spring Baptisms 2013

 Thursday night, we celebrated two of the church's ordinances : communion and baptisms. Our Communion service was great - we had a student share about trusting the Lord through his leading her to be the final member of our church plant team, we worshiped the Lord through song and took Communion for the last time this semester as a church. The highlight of the evening, though, was afterward, when 100 or so of our students ventured over to our pastor's driveway for baptisms.

We had 13 baptisms that night.

I got to be a part of four of them, including my sister's!

The staff call these our true pay days. With the six we had at our Fall Retreat, that brings us to 19 baptisms for the year. When we get to see new life and these public declarations of faith, we truly get to see some fruit of our labor. It's exhilarating, uplifting and helps you to know that God is here.

Join us in praying for these new believers and for some old friends who have decided to be faithful to what God has called them to. Pray that we as a church build them up and train them to be disciple makers as well.

Men's Retreat

For the past few years, the women of our church have had an annual retreat, bringing in a guest speaker and growing and building up our community of women. This year was no different, as Aimee and Kirstin pulled their resources to put together yet another great retreat (from what I hear).

This year, both John and a few of our older guys decided that a Men's Retreat is something they wanted to push for. Two weeks out, two separate ideas for a retreat showed up. I found myself a part of a team to help develop the vision and strutcture of the retreat. For this to go well, we had to make some real progress in a hurry. So, in our conference room from 9pm to almost midnight on a Tuesday, five of us hammered out the concept of the retreat.

We called it "Stepping Up" as an invitation for the men in our church to claim ownership of the Gospel, growing as men of God and living that out in our world. The "-ing" came from an invitation from the older guys and an understanding that we're all in this together. Some of us need a hand up to take the next step in our faith something. My design for the flier came straight from this idea.

It went so well. 40 of us traveled an hour north to a lakehouse we rented. Because of the recent snowstorm, we were confined to the cabin the whole time. I got to co-teach with Andrew on a "Call to Anguish" based on my recent convictions and sermons I've been listening to. We had two other talks, lead by older guys, each accompanied by small group discussions. And of course we had fun, playing cards, fooseball, ping-pong, and eating lots of food.

At the end of the retreat we opened the time up for confession. The Lord met us in a huge way, bringing deep convictions to the surface and past hurts, some of which had never been shared before. I was floored with the honesty of guys confessing sins and sharing some vulnerable stuff. A few of the situations even called for the staff men to discuss how to further help these men heal.

Please be praying for our men and that our church would follow suit in being honest and real before each other. Pray that we submit to the Lord in our sins, our convictions and that we trust him to restore us to him.

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

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.

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

Fall Concert Prep

Nestled in Matt's basement, we set up for another practice. This week, we're tackling Avett Brothers, Matchbox 20 and Cage the Elephant. After hooking up the amps, tuning my bass and going over the key signature just to make sure we're set, Matt starts us off singing as he plays keys. The music junkie in me thinks again how dull this life would be without music and I throw up a quick thanks before I join in on the chorus.

The four of us are making sure we do our fall concert really well this time. Not only is it a nice break twice a week, but in reality we are preparing to create an environment that people want to stay in when a mass of freshmen come through Lowry Mall this August. After they do the Tiger Walk, a ceremony where freshmen walk through the columns on the quad, they almost all go through Lowry Mall on their way back to the dorms.

This is where we come in. Intercepting the students with icee pops and a concert of cover songs, we take the opportunity to welcome students and just let them know who The Rock is and what we're about. It's an honor to be able to be a crucial part of that environment being a success. We hope for people to stick around at first for the music or the icee pop and to stay because they made a connection with someone. It's a strategic move in evangelism and a fun one at that!

So we'll be meeting in Matt's basement, putting in hours this summer to make the music excellent and fun. This, I dare say, may be our best year yet!

Also, Baptisms!

This past month, we had our semi-annual baptisms at The Rock with ten students getting baptized, including two in our own canvas group! It was such and encouraging and exciting time. I thought I'd share this link to a student's blog who wrote about the time and posted a video from it.

Joey Soto's Blog

Grad Dinner

Last night we had our Grad Dinner (not to be confused with the RAD Dinner) where we celebrate our seniors, most of whom will be leaving us in the next week. We got to host 17 of our seniors for a semi-formal dinner. After serving up some filet  mignon, salmon and seasoned chicken (yum) John pulled out Oh, the Places You'll Go by Dr Seuss to read to the grads. It's sort of become his tradition to do so.

Afterward, John opened the floor up to the students to share how being a part of The Rock has made an impact on their lives. Here are some things they had to share.

"Without being a part of The Rock, I probably would have gone through college complacent about my faith."

"Being a part of The Rock has definitely helped me be more on fire for God."

"The Rock helped give me the opportunity to lead and take ownership of my faith."
"I always felt loved and supported by people at The Rock."


It was very encouraging to see younger guys and girls share about how God took a hold of their lives while in college. So many of them are now set up to make an impact for the Lord in their next communities, workplaces and mission fields. And this group is going places, whether it's the business field, a two-year African mission trip, teaching, or to Memphis serving as co-laborers with the Service Over Self inner-city ministry, they are going to do great.

It's one of the most bittersweet things we do, but as a campus church, it's in our DNA to make disciples and be at peace with sending them out to bring the gospel to the nations. I had five members of my canvas group there last night and, although I will miss their presence and leadership, I'm encouraged that they will do great in their endeavors and pray that they continue to live for the Lord.

Please join me in praying for our seniors as they leave us and go begin the next chapter in their journey.

What's Coming in April

It's Spring Break now, but we're on the verge of one of the busiest months of the school year here at The Rock. Here are some things hitting our calendar soon that you can be praying for.

Rock Appreciation Dinner
Each year, we Rock staff take a night to serve a nice dinner for all the student leaders in the church. It's a fun time to dress up (in costumes, of course. Our theme this year is Decades - we are the 20's) and celebrate the life of the church while thanking those who serve. Pray that those who serve us would feel appreciated and encouraged.


Equipper Retreat
Those who are looking to be a student leader in Canvas Groups next year will be taking a weekend away to dream about the fall and have a couple mini-workshops for building ministry skills. It's an awesome time to connect with those students who have caught the vision of bringing the kingdom to their campus. Pray that it would be a time for us to become more kingdom-minded and that new students would raise up as fully-devoted followers of Christ.


GCM Staff Conference
Missionaries from across the country will be heading to Ann Arbor, MI next week. I'm looking forward to seeing friends, hearing how the ministries are doing and being challenged in my service here. Pray that we would be refreshed and revitalized in our mission here.


Baptisms
Twice a year, The Rock has baptisms. Our next will be in a couple weeks. Please be praying for those students who have come to know the Lord to have the courage to share that publicly and participate in what the Lord calls us to after salvation. Also pray that we as a church would join in raising these young men and women up in the the faith as disciples.

Rock Fall Retreat 2010

Did I mention we had our annual Fall Retreat a couple weeks ago? I'm pretty sure I threw that in the last prayer letter. This tradition continues to be one of my favorites that The Rock does. Each year, we venture out to Cedar Crest Camp in Mexico, Missouri for an overnight retreat. We prayed for 130 students to come this year - and they did. We had 134 total, setting a record in attendance. That was reason enough to be thankful!

On Friday, we began the retreat with a giant Thanksgiving-style meal hosted all in the same room. I got to sit and visit with students I didn't know very well, which I always love. After the meal, we have our first session of three in an old chapel that we fill to capacity. Our speaker, Dave Megill, was excellent, speaking right to the heart of our identity in Christ.

After that, we had Canvas Group competitions which included bobbing for apples, a scavenger hunt and a pumpkin carving contest. Oh, I almost forgot, there was also a speed-eating contest involving an entire head of lettuce. Fun stuff.

From there, we spent the rest of the night playing Ultimate Frisbee, sitting by the campfire and playing games.

Saturday involved breakfast, our second session and an hour of personal reflection. Here, students were encouraged to seek the Lord, journal, pray, and read His Word. After having lunch together, we finished the retreat with a third session and baptisms at the pond. Eight people were baptized on Saturday!

The retreat finishes off our Fall Push. From here, we staff help spear-head the shift into building the foundation in relationships that we have initiated thus far. Evangelism continues to be a priority but we are now encouraging our leaders to invest in students who have been coming around, as we start to initiate small groups and individual discipleship. Our canvas group has had over 30 different people join us on any given Thursday Night. We push now to develop unity and deepen the roots of community within these groups. Please be praying for that!

Here are some pictures from the retreat!

Praying with the students who were baptized

Our guest speaker, Dave Megill

Yes, an entire head of lettuce.

Fall Retreat

This weekend, The Rock will be having one of it's biggest events of the year, our annual Fall Retreat. Hosted in Cedar Crest Camp in Mexico, Missouri, the Fall Retreat is a time for students to take a break from a hectic schedule. For freshmen, this is usually a time when the pressures are starting to take hold and homesickness can really start setting in. This provides students and opportunity to unwind, connect with others and refocus their gaze back on the Father.

Friday night, we'll have a huge Thanksgiving-style meal and an opening service before spending time in fellowship for the night. Between bon fires, dozens of board games, playing a little Ultimate Frisbee, etc, it's a great chance to bet to know students who have been coming around. Our guest speaker this year is Matt Rogers, a pastor at one of our partner churches at Virginia Tech and someone I really got to know a couple of summers ago. He's a great guy and I'm confident that he will challenge us, refresh us, and encourage us in our growth.

In the past I have had late-night conversations with students struggling with belief in God, played glow-in-the-dark Ultimate Frisbee till 1am, sat by fires with a guitar and singing praise songs (not kum-bay-ya), and have begun several friendships through Fall Retreats of the past. Please pray that lives are changed for the kingdom through this weekend. It's something we are all excited about!

Fall Semester Begins

I'm sorry for not having updated this in so long. It's time to change that around.

Marriage

First, some great news! I'm married! Of course, you probably know this by now but on June 13th I married my best friend, Aimee. She is my greatest supporter and truly makes me want to be a better man. Aimee is now serving as associate staff at The Rock, meaning that she puts in her time volunteering but her role carries more responsibilities than a student leader. She is going to be serving as an Equipper in Canvas Group, in women's discipleship, organizing mission trips and the programming team. Aimee works as a para-professional at Ashland Middle School just south of town. Basically, she works with special needs students throughout the day.

Move-In Week
The Fall Semester started here at MU just a couple of days ago. It is certainly an exciting time in our church. With 5,620 freshmen this year, there is huge opportunity to bring Christ to many new students. We took advantage of Move-In Week, the week before classes began. Here are some things we did:

• Serving. Students from our various Canvas Groups spent three days giving out bottled water and helping new students move in to their dorm rooms. It was a great way to bless students during what can be a hectic and tiring time.
• Survey Table. Outside of the Brady Student Commons area, we passed out Icee Pops and met a flood of students from Wednesday to Friday. This is something I was able to help out with. I got to meet so many people and we were able to share with them about our worship service and other happenings we do, including three people from my hometown of Springfield, MO! Here, we also have short surveys asking people if they are interested in finding a church or volunteering in the community.
• Follow-ups. Based on the contact information we get from those who told us on the surveys they were interested in finding a church, we met last Thursday night to follow-up with the students in their dorms. Andrew and I each met about 5 guys and even that night played cards with three other guys who we just happened to meet in one of the lobbies.
• Friday Night Hang Out. Last Friday it was root beer floats, washers, watermelon and even a brief game of freeze tag outside of one of the dorms we focus on. It was a great time to reconnect with many students and a few of the ones we just met came to hang out as well.

Concert On Campus
This is an event that was something I have been putting weeks of time into. A handful of us who are a part of The Rock's Music Ministry played 14 cover songs, using a free concert as an outreach tool last Sunday. Several others from the church passed out icee pops and surveys and had countless conversations with students who passed through. It was a strategic location because we put the concert on right after a freshmen ceremony, where most of the traffic would go through as they headed back to their dorms. We had a fantastic time and God really used it to begin many new friendships!
Story - The Rock's First Series
Last Saturday we kicked off a new seven-week series in The Rock. With a very Narnia-esque feel, we brought in a giant wardrobe that everyone walked through to get into the service. Pastor John Drage taught on the story of the Prodigal Son that Jesus talks about in the gospels. Two students shared about their own stories of falling away from the love of God and their return. It was a very moving service and we had around 215 students come! It was a great kick-off service to say the least. The picture here is our poster that we have for the series, hoping to be a draw for students to come and hear the Gospel.

Check out our website to see more about our "Story" series.

Canvas Groups
Tonight is our first week of Canvas Groups. Again, they are small groups of about 15-30 students that meet around campus on Thursday nights. We typically have a teaching and some other activity with the purpose of connecting with Christ as a community. Outside of Thursday nights, Canvas Groups Aimee and I will be a part of Plaza Canvas Group. We cleverly name our canvas groups after campus dining halls. We are excited to be a part of this community, though granted my involvement will be limited as I continue to build a team of ministry partners for GCM. I hope to be able to do what I can to love on these students and share with them the truth of God.

Please Pray for...
I'll end on this. During this time, there are certainly a lot of things our church needs prayer for and that I need prayer for. Thank you so much for your commitment to do so.

• finding new supporters. The only way I can get back to campus is to meet with people and share with them about GCM's ministry here at MU. I am really needing to find more people around the state to share with.
• trusting in God. Something the Father is really showing me lately is that my trust in Him needs to increase. Trust that he is bigger than my fears, that he loves me for who I am, that he is using me, and that he will see this through.
• reaching new students. It takes a huge effort from everyone in the church to reach out to new students. Pray that we are diligent in making new friendships, inviting people to church and following up with those who have interest.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support. It is great having you as a part of the team!

Blessings,
Chris