Have you ever prayed that God would open doors for your ministry? Have you ever seen God open doors for your ministry? Growing up, I was always taught that men opened doors for other people, especially the elderly and women. It's polite, honorable, and simply the right thing to do. When opening the door for someone, you have to beat him or her to the door. If you don't get there first, they will reach for the handle and open the door themselves. You have to go before! The Bible says that the Lord Himself goes before you (Deut. 31:8). God goes before and opens doors for us, and a lot of times it's when we're not even asking for it or noticing it. It is simply what He does. I'd like to share how God opened doors in my ministry. I can look back now and see how He has gone before me this whole time.
A little over two years ago, the Lord called me back to my home area into pastoral ministries. I've been serving as the youth pastor for Faith Community Church in rural Palmer, Iowa since January of 2012. The DNA of rural ministry shares some things with urban ministry, but on the whole, it looks very different. The Gospel message and our need for Jesus is the same, but the families, jobs, schools, tempo, and culture are very different. One shared aspect of ministry though, whether rural or urban, is our need to network. To reach as many students as we can with the Gospel, we need to network with schools, businesses, other churches, and other ministries. Working with the NNYM has caused my awareness to heighten in this need for stronger networking. As I became more aware, I realized that networking was already taking place in my ministry. I was walking unaware through doors that God had been and was opening. The NNYM has helped me to see these doors and understand why I've walked through them. As I built relationships in our area, God was bringing them all together for His Kingdom.
I have students in several area school districts. I've been slowly, but surely, building strong bridges with each school district over the last two years. We've partnered with Minnesota Youth Alive twice in an effort to reach out to these students through school assemblies and an evening Gospel program. This method has not only brought students to Christ, but it has also helped in strengthening my relationship with the schools, as the assemblies were a huge success. In the fall of 2013, we partnered again with Minnesota Youth Alive and brought painter/speaker Eric Samuel Timm to our area schools. Following the school day assemblies, we held an evening program where Eric shared the Gospel. We had students from all my school districts touched by the Gospel. I had a group from the Humboldt Middle School come to the evening program representing their Fellowship of Christian Athletes huddle. A family from our church has led this huddle for several years, which really helped me with the follow-up to this group from our Gospel event. Follow-up included an invitation to me to come and lead a Bible lesson for their huddle that meets bi-weekly. I accepted their offer and met with them a couple of times during the winter.
This past March, I asked our church to devote the month praying for all of our school districts. When it came to this Humboldt school, I said that I didn't have anything too specific. So I simply asked that God would open doors in this school for more ministry opportunities. A week later, doors flew open! A conversation "randomly" came up between me and the family who leads this FCA group in Humboldt. Through this conversation, an idea arose for a possible ministry opportunity. The Humboldt School District dismisses school one hour early every Wednesday for teacher in-services. All students must leave the school building, but return for sports practice as soon as in-services are over. There is a local restaurant that literally sits on the school grounds called Miller's Landing. So we decided to hold an FCA Bible Study in their back room open to all 7th-9th graders. That worked for the first few weeks, but then we grew. And then we grew some more. And then we grew some more. We then came to the point where we had no more room! This restaurant had one other spot not being used at 2:30 p.m. on Wednesdays that would be big enough for all of us, the BAR! Out of all the doors to be opened, this was the last one I expected. Our group has been running steady now at about 40 students as we spend each Wednesday afternoon studying God's Word for one hour. I've now become an official Huddle Leader for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and I've adopted this new youth group that meets outside our church walls every Wednesday. The family who has led this group for several years is now feeling led to start a new huddle group for younger kids that will meet in the fall. It has been such a joy to see God's Kingdom expand as people serve Jesus together!
I've learned so much personally through this recent experience, from the power of prayer to the importance of consistent networking. God truly does go before us, and He opens doors for our ministries. Whether we can see it or not, He is at work. May a simple story from a rural Iowa youth pastor encourage you to let God open the door for your ministry! "The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." (Deuteronomy 31:8 NLT)