In addition to the article I’d like you to read in the post below (already aged a half-life since it was written) I’d like you think about two questions.  These two questions were given to me at my Regional Leadership Team meeting yesterday by a very wise colleague.  They are two of the most timely questions for helpful dialogue with just about anyone you encounter.  To get a grip on the first question, please watch this short video from an administrator at a university in my GFM Area.  Click here to watch.

Q1 – What losses am I experiencing?

What’s happening at Washington University is just one example of what is happening everywhere else where graduation commencements would have been taking place this spring.  The Class of 2020 is about to get ripped off!  As Chancellor Andrew Martin expresses so meticulously, the lack of closure and celebration students will experience this spring is far from trivial.  No matter how much effort it will take for high-school students, college students, graduate and professional students to technically cross their academic finish line, corona is robbing us all of that delicious sweetness with which ceremony decorates accomplishment.

What’s the loss?  Closeness at the finish-line with others who’ve journeyed with you.  That last day of serious, on-sight school work and the crunch of classroom doors shutting behind you for the last time.  The sound that last paper makes landing on the teacher’s desk in a stack with the rest.  That last ounce of passion from your favorite teacher who is also being shorted the joy of seeing you finish.  Family!  Family coming on to your turf, sitting through your ceremony, taking pictures of you crossing the stage, embarrassing you with their uncouth hollering.  Receptions and parties happening all over town in the latter half of May.  That’s the loss.  You’ll still get your degree or your diploma.  Your tassel.  Your honors chord.  But will anyone get to see those robes?  My son Silas was given everything in his high school graduation kit… EXCEPT the robe.  “They’ll pick those up at school a day or two before graduation.”  Really?

As you fight your way through whatever else corona hands you, ask yourself the loss question.  What am I losing?  How can I minimize the loss?  How can I best grieve the loss I can’t avoid?  How can I help someone else with their loss?  Who can I turn to share some of the grief of mine?

Q2 – What am I afraid of?

Check-in question number two is a little harder to ask.  A little harder to answer.  Just as important to ventilate.  What are you afraid of?  As we name our fears we expose uncomfortable things lurking inside us.  We have to face things we’re weak at or insecure about.  We run the risk of awful-izing and exaggerating our fears.  But without dialogue, our fears can drive us where we don’t want to go.  Our fears can keep us isolated and suspicious when we should be open and cooperative.

Just today I had a chance to try out these two questions.  I had an appointment with a possible supporter that had to be cancelled because of the social distancing guidelines our community is trying to follow.  We had the appointment via Zoom call (video).  I asked my friend these two questions right at the top of the conversation.  It was a simple step of conversational wisdom that helped our interaction flow.

I encourage you to do the same.  Or find another discussion question or two that works for you.  Meditate on this:  “What question could I start a conversation with that would help me listen, build trust and scale back anxiety?  Let me know how your conversations are going.

Meanwhile, please be in prayer for students and teachers as they try to finish this impossible semester.  Pray for administrators and decision makers.   Pray for parents and families whose homes have suddenly turned into school rooms!  And pray especially for every member of The Class of 2020 you know.

Feel free to text or email me your thoughts:

Tim Perry    402.709.7911     tim.perry@intervarsity.org

These are incredible days of challenge aren’t they?  Last week was the first work-week that my job started significantly changing in response to COVID 19.  Was that true for you?  Last week was different than the week before.  News reports started having more bite, hitting closer to home with bigger implications.  “I don’t think we’re going to be able to finish this year of ministry on the trajectory we planned.”  By the end of the week things started looking different in my community too.  This morning we went to church and worshiped with about 45 other people (yes, we don’t attend a mega church, but no, the crowd is usually a little bigger than that).  We drove past empty churches on the way to our church.  It felt very strange!  “Was this morning the last time we’ll be at our church for a while?”

In the next few PBR posts I’m going to bring you an article that’s been circulating among my colleagues in Graduate Faculty Ministries entitled: Love in the Time of Coronavirus.  It’s lengthy.  I’ll talk about just one part of the article each time I post.  I’ll include the link to the article each time.  I’d like you to read it first because it’s helpful and well written!  But also because it’s a great reflection on where I feel our leadership needs to head in campus ministry.  Let it be a guide to your prayers for InterVarsity as well as a practical guide in your context.  Let me know what you think!

Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic – Crouch’s 4 questions:

1. What is happening? An overview of the most important things for Christian leaders, anywhere in the United States, to know about SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19.
2. What should we communicate? A list of the most helpful messages others can hear from us — and the most harmful messages as well.
3. What decisions should we make? Recommendations for decisions about large gatherings, medium-size gatherings for Christian worship, and small groups meeting in households.
4. What can we hope for? A few reflections on the genuine possibility that our decisions in the next few weeks could reshape the practice of Christian faith in our nation…

Formerly an editor at Christianity Today, formerly an InterVarsity staff member, and author of numerous books on Christianity and Culture, you’ll find Crouch incisive and practical if you’re not already a fan!  You can read a little about Andy Crouch here at the Praxis website.

“Praxis is a creative engine for redemptive entrepreneurship, supporting founders, funders, and innovators motivated by their faith to renew culture and love their neighbors.  Our community of practice operates through high-touch programs, robust content, and a global portfolio of redemptive business & nonprofit ventures.”

Love in the Time of Coronavirus, has helped me cut through a lot of unhelpful noise.  I’ve needed a place to land in terms of my attitude toward this crisis.  Andy’s challenge is helping me move forward into the real decisions facing my leadership.

A leader’s responsibility, as circumstances around us change, is to speak, live, and make decisions in such a way that the horizons of possibility move towards shalom, flourishing for everyone in our sphere of influence, especially the vulnerable.

I’m asking a lot of questions this week I wasn’t asking last week.  What is the pandemic going to do to my ministry this week?  How do I get in front of decisions with a better grip on what I’m doing?  Please pray for me.  Here are a few things needing fresh leadership:

1. Major fund-raising needs I’m responding to this spring.  I began 2020 firmly committed to working on my budget.  How am going to accomplish my goals?
2. Several appointments this week with potential ministry partners and possible financial supporters.  What do I do differently?
3. A trip I have been planning for weeks to Illinois, Indiana and Ohio!  Do I cancel the trip when it’s taken me over a month to set everything up?
4. I supervise 6 other staff in my territory.  What needs to be different in my leadership starting this week?
5. All of our groups on campus have been shut down.  What does that mean for how we try to connect with students?  Are my staff prepared to sustain ministry to students and faculty without face to face contact?

I’ll keep you posted on what I’m learning and how I’m leading.  Let me know what you think of Andy’s article!

Thought I would get a quick word out about how things in my GFM world are being impacted by the Corona Virus.  I’m grateful for how the semester has been moving along.  I had originally planned a less travel-intensive Feb-Mar-April in order to get after some much needed fundraising.  Last year at this time I was traveling to every Central Area campus (NE, KS, IA, MO).  This spring I have only two trips planned.  I also have a fundraising trip on my calendar for later this month.   It will most likely stay in the  schedule unless something drastic changes with the people I plan to visit in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.

What is InterVarsity telling you at this point?

National leaders are keeping watch on the spread of Corona and encouraging staff across the U.S. to stay informed via news – especially regular briefings from the Center For Disease Control and also those from the World Health Organization.  They are encouraging wise decision making about conferences and events and staying in close communication with hosting facilities.  InterVarsity is not recommending any particular travel policy or restrictions at this point.  If staff need to change plans concerning non-essential travel based on local/regional circumstances, they are encouraged to do so with the approval of their supervisor.

What about overseas travel?

“Regarding InterVarsity’s international programs, our Overseas Crisis Management Team monitors and assesses risk every summer. We have redirected two East Asia GPs and one Study Abroad student trip to other countries; otherwise, most other programs are moving forward as planned.”

A few things worth saying (comments about our posture)

• We are calm, while continuing to realistically assess risk.
• At the same time, we are sensitive to others who may be suffering from increased anxiety. We are sensitive to how this is playing out in different contexts – from emptied grocery stores and supply shortages in parts of California to fully stocked shelves and relative calm in parts of the Midwest. Let’s lean into compassion for the various contexts that InterVarsity touches.
• We are more concerned for others who are sick with this (and other illnesses) rather than overly concerned about our own well-being. There is a powerful history of Christians caring for sick neighbors during outbreaks far worse than this.
• This situation has people thinking about their own mortality and fears. The shell keeping people from deep conversations is a bit thinner. Our ministry continues, and our desire continues to be that people experience the real hope of Christ at a time when there is so much hopelessness.

Am I worried about Covid 19?  I am concerned.  Anyone who does a people intensive ministry with lots of travel should be vigilant.  In the non-ministry world of my family, I’m looking forward to my grand-daughter’s second birthday next month, my oldest son’s defense of his dissertation two days after Poppy’s birthday, and my youngest son’s graduation from Central High School in May.  I’m making sure Corona knows it’s not welcome at any of our birthday parties, graduation celebrations or Easter!

I like the point our national leaders make reminding us that Christians have historically served well in circumstances like this.  The way of Jesus is a way of self-sacrifice for others more needy.  May Christ-following believers all over the globe continue to do so as we pray and take action to protect human flourishing.  Thanks for your prayers.  Thanks for your financial partnership!

Pretty simple post here announcing a new banner for the blog.  There are lots of things PBR probably can stand for.  From now on at the blog, it’s shorthand for Perry Boiler Room.

In case some of you are new to the blog and just don’t get it, here’s how it got its name.  The Boiler Room is basically the command control center of the Perry household.  My office and library are down here in the basement.  It’s where I light my candle, have quiet times, pray, fast and fill journals.  Its where all hot water and radiator heat is stoked.  It’s also where 100 minutes of free weights and Nordic Track happen three times a week.  Where brainstorms spawn and roam free on my 12 foot long white-board.  And… where Aspen edits all my work!

Enjoy the new look!

Click here to give to Tim’s work

Contact me via email here

Who do you see when you look at this picture?  There were some of US.  And there were some of THEM.  Can you tell which is which?  The US, were 6 Staff Directors in my four-state territory.  The THEM, were 11 potential InterVarsity staff candidates.  I got to join the undergrad side of my ministry in hosting Prospective Staff Weekend (PSW) down in Kansas City last November.  The six of us were able to spend a couple of days with terrific students and faculty involved in our ministry.  Hopefully the US…are still young-looking enough to make it nearly impossible to pick us out in the crowd.  Maybe not…

Of “The Eleven” there were several I especially loved meeting up with.  One is a faculty member at St. Louis University in the Chemistry department interested in a part time position working with faculty.  Two were graduate students connected with our Undergraduate and International Student Ministries. Three more were possibly headed to graduate or professional school within the next year!  So much potential.

Not… in the photo.

Three other possible candidates are currently looking at Graduate Faculty Ministry applications.  A recent graduate living and working in Iowa might volunteer part time as she helps start a new GFM group.  A PhD student in Theology at St. Louis University is strongly considering GFM ministry after finishing his degree later this spring.  And the spouse of a Wash-U faculty member, herself a PhD in Environmental Science, is applying for the open position we have at Washington University.  I’m so encouraged to cultivate these seeds of interest!

I just booked a flight today for St. Louis.  Pray for me on Feb 14th.  Yes, while everyone else is eating those nasty candy hearts and enjoying Valentine’s Day greetings, I’ll be spending the day following up with several of these terrific people.  Pray for great conversations, asking and answering the best questions.  Pray for God to move in bringing the people we need on staff in just the right locations.  Pray for the application process to move along.  For potential obstacles to be worked through.  For people to say “Yes!” who should.  For God’s call to be clear.

Other people.  Other places.

One of my GFM staff members at K-State has been having conversations with an International (PhD student with two years left to his program) showing great potential for ministry.  He’s been a key leader in his context and lives out his faith leading others to Christ.  I am accumulating connections with faculty and grad students at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.  But I have no staff member there.  The nearest GFM staff team-mate that I have is over two hours away.  I would be immensely blessed with a staff colleague here in Omaha!  Des Moines also has so much potential for faculty work as well as possible new ministry with Occupational Therapy students at Drake.  Keep praying.  Hopefully good news is coming!

Thank you so much for your partnership.

Coming to you today from the Rosen Center in Orlando.  The entire InterVarsity staff team is together this week meeting, eating, gathering, worshiping, praying, searching scripture and hearing stories of God’s work among university students and faculty.  As I mentioned in my last post, today is fasting day.  We’re seeking God to bring a new work among us and through us on campus.  Would you take a few minutes somewhere in your day to pray for us?

Last night in our plenary we heard from Robel Chemeda, General Secretary of the Ethiopian IFES student movement known as EvaSUE.  Some of our leadership spent time with Robel in Addis Abbas in 2019 seeking to learn from a truly remarkable student movement.

James Choung, one of our national leaders interviewed Robel.  It went something like this:

James: So you lead a movement of 50,000 students with a staff team of 70 people.  There are about 1,400 InterVarsity staff workers in this room who are dying to know how you do it?

Robel: We actually can’t do staff work the way you do here – our students aren’t given permission to meet on campus.  They have to meet where they can off-campus.  Staff members are there for support, but most things are led by students.  Small groups are a very big deal.  And we experience quite a bit of persecution.  Many students have rocks thrown at them.  Students and staff have actually been sent to jail!

James:  Jail?  Who sends them to jail?

Robel: Christians.  Many churches are infected with legalism and don’t like the student movements.

James:  God is obviously blessing their faithfulness. It doesn’t seem to slow the growth of your movement.  What impact does the persecution have on them personally?

Robel:  They are actually happy about the persecution – they count themselves blessed to share in Christ’s suffering.  It builds their faith instead of tearing it down.

James: What is the secret to their resiliency?  How can they stay so strong in the face of persecution?

Robel: It’s their discipline of prayer and fasting.

James: Could you describe that for us?

Robel: When our students call a prayer and fasting gathering they will decide to skip breakfast and lunch.   They will meet up at about 9:00am and pray without stopping till 3 or 4 in the afternoon.  They pray in “one voice”.  One Voice is when everyone is praying out loud at the same time.

James:  You mean, students pray for 6 hours?  Do they like that?  Do they take breaks?  Why do you do it that way?

Robel: They are so encouraged to be together.  They sometimes have to find creative places to meet so they aren’t harassed.  Students who are new find it a challenge at first.  But they long to be together.  It’s scriptural to gather – that’s what they see the early Church doing in Acts.  They don’t take breaks!

James:  We’re here this week to cultivate our longing for revival.  Your movement has grown incredibly in the last several years, but that’s not what you’d call revival?

Robel: The growth we’re seeing in our movement now was actually rooted in much more severe testing Christians experienced in the past.  EvaSUE was born out of the spiritual climate of the 1960s.  It totally went underground for a period of about 8 years.  People much more fervently sought God in daily sustained fasting and prayer (eating just one meal a day and praying multiple hours a day).  In our experience revival is when the kingdom grows though intensity of trails and results in extensive growth every where!

That was last night’s set up for our day of fasting today.  As I write this the InterVarsity staff family has spent this whole day (following breakfast by the way) in prayer and scripture.  We’ve begun with an extended season of prayer of lament.  Lament over the needs we see in our nation’s universities and colleges.  The mood is pretty heavy.  I’ll have to give you an update in my next post.  Please keep us in your prayers!

Every three years InterVarsity holds a national gathering of all staff.  The 2030 Calling I’ve been writing about this past year began to take shape after the last such gathering three years ago.  This will be the first time our entire staff family has been together since then.  It will be my first SC since coming back on staff with InterVarsity.  The big question we’re going to tackle seems to be:  IF (big if) revival is the doorway God is taking us through to advance the mission, how then could we ready ourselves as a movement to welcome a work of the Holy Spirit like this?  Two quotes from our staff website about SC20:

“InterVarsity’s 2030 Calling directs us to see our campus mission field with fresh eyes, focusing on unreached corners and campuses. This calling is compelled by a holy discontent—thousands of students and faculty have little or no gospel-centered witnessing community on their campuses. It also is fueled by a holy longing—a yearning for campuses to experience a season of breakthroughs in word, deed, and power that usher in a new normal of kingdom experience and fruitfulness.”

“At Staff Conference 20 (SC20), we will seek the Lord for kingdom breakthroughs in our own lives and every corner of every campus. We will give our attention to preparing for revival, renewing our calling, and thriving together. We will meet the Lord in Scripture through John 13–17, Jesus’ Upper Room Discourse.  And we will worship with our brothers and sisters gathered from across the fellowship.”

Please be in prayer for us as we gather in Orlando, Florida later this week.  Here’s a schedule of our time together.  I’ll post an update or two  from the event.  We’ll be seeking God in a special day of prayer and fasting on Jan 4th.  Ask God to meet us and move in us in a new way.

Before the year ends…

Thanks so much to all who have been getting their year-end donations sent in.  In case you are one of those who likes to take care of things at the eleventh hour, here are two helpful links.

Click here to be taken to Tim’s donation page on InterVarsity’s website.

Click here to fill out my year-end ministry response form.

 

Thanks so much!  Here’s to a bountiful 2020!

We usually refer to our people as Ministry Partners.  At the macro level we call it Ministry Partner Development (MPD) not fund-raising.  For the sake of celebrating my team, I am intentionally referring to my supporters as donors in this post.  “Donor” doesn’t capture all of what my ministry partners are to me, of course.  Ministry partners are family.  Ministry partners are friends.  InterVarsity alumni.  Fellow staff members.  Former staff members.  People whose pastor I’ve been.  People I’ve supervised.  My wife and my kids.  All these phenomenal foundation stones are who I treasure and absolutely lean on with all my weight.

Click here to donate to Tim’s work.

Donors are ministry partners who keep me in business.  On top of all the prayers and friendship and team-work, donors give financially so that I can do ministry.  Here’s a timeline of the team God has given me over the past 34 months.

Several things should jump off that chart.  Finding 83 donors is no small feat!  Calls.  Appointments.  Meals.  Gallons of coffee!  Asks.  Requests.  Proposals.  Follow-up.  Every staff member will tell you how rewarding and demanding being self-funded is.  Thank you to everyone who has given to see that I can pursue InterVarsity’s call to the University.  It wouldn’t happen without those donations month after month, year after year.  Thank you for doing your part!

It also should stand out that InterVarsity staff are constantly finding donors.  We enlist more and more people every year because our needs are always expanding.  Some of our donors move on out of necessity or hardship in their lives.  Some want to help for a season because God has blessed them in unusual ways.  I remember beginning this adventure making the prediction:  “I think I can find my full budget from about 65 donors.”  I was almost right.  But I was totally wrong.  My team will ebb and flow.  I’ll always need to welcome new partners.

Lastly, I do need a pay raise.  My supervisor actually encourages staff to not let our pay stagnate.  Personally speaking, my circumstances are pushing me harder than my boss.  As a family we’ve had an expensive year (I think you know exactly what I mean).  Expensive years are years when these kind of things happen:

• Your teenager shatters his arm in a skiing accident.
• Your damaged home needs a new roof, but the insurance settlement doesn’t cover all the necessary repairs.
• A random person doesn’t see the red light at an intersection and smashes your car (the settlement from their insurance is $1,000 short of the damages).
• A family member has a major medical procedure.

Pray for me as I continue my efforts at finding Ministry Partners.  Especially as I look for donors.  My current budget is in a pretty good place (85% funded), but in the next calendar year I need to add to my salary significantly.  Thank you to those I’ve already heard back from via the response form.  Several have indicated they can bump up their contributions.

If you haven’t yet filled out my online Ministry Response Form, please click here.  Let me know how you’d like to partner with me in 2020.

If you happen to be an avid Facebook follower of mine, this might be old news.  However, a couple of blog posts back I left you with the announcement that I’d be having a heart procedure to fix my Atrial Fibrillation.  I’ll spare you the details.  After zapping and freezer-burning excess electrical circuits inside my heart, my Atria now look and feel as completely normal as I remember them 13 years ago!

If you haven’t yet visited the Ministry Partnership Response form this month, please click here and take three minutes to let me know your plans for 2020.  Thanks!

You can tell from the image on the left that before the procedure I was an ENTJ,  Ideational, Strategic, Learner.  Just kidding – ablation did nothing to my personality profiles (hopefully).  Actually this is a before and after image mapping the electrical flutter in the left atrium of my heart.  Evidently purple is bad?  Red in the blood vessels absolutely bad!  We want chill-gray pulmonary veins.  Nice work, Doctor Mahoney!

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.  In the two weeks since the procedure I’ve been feeling terrific. Two very brief episodes of arrhythmia (lasting minutes not days).  A 1.5 mile long walk every day.  No workouts yet, but I’m itching to get back on the Nordic Track!  Sleeping well at night.  Definitely more energy during the day.  I go in for a follow-up on Dec 23rd.  Doctor and I are both hoping for the decision to take me off the medicines I’ve been on since being diagnosed with this 13 years ago!

Thank you so much for all the prayers.  Feeling so grateful to not be in a crisis over the procedure and for an effective recovery.  Grateful for my family who waited patiently through both trips to the hospital and for friends who stopped by.  Thankful for the incredible medical technology that enabled a surgeon to spend 3 hours inside my heart operating through a blood vessel in my leg!

More posts coming this week on ministry support and a training conference coming this weekend.  Please keep those response forms coming!  It’s been encouraging hearing from you.

Click here to be taken to Tim’s donation page.

It is that time of the year.  Everyone in a support-raising ministry or non-profit is reaching out letting you know how things are going… and what the current funding needs are.  This is that letter.  If you want to skip some of the details and head straight for the response form – you know the drill!

This is the fist time in three years I’m requesting everyone who reads perryboilerroom to give me feedback.  We’ll get in the groove of doing this each Nov/Dec moving forward.  In the old days this was quite a project!  Stamps, envelopes and response cards.  It led to papercuts on the lips, tongue and fingertips!  Now all you need is this convenient link:

Click here to be taken to my ministry partnership response form.  

It’s a google form.  You’ll know you’ve landed in the right place when you see this:

Here’s the skinny:

1. In 2020 I need to raise an individual budget of $103K (Area Director’s budget below).  That covers my salary, benefits, overhead and some travel costs.
2. Currently I have 68 active donors giving 85% of my budget.  That means I’m trying to find about $16,000 in new support.
3. I’m hoping new support will come partly from new donors and partly from increases in giving from current donors.

When you go to fill out the response form, would you consider helping me increase my funding?  If you are giving monthly would you think about a small boost in the amount of your donations (maybe by 10-20%)?  Please let me know what you decide on the response form.  I’ll make sure you get the link to my donation page (also below).  Monthly donors can also just add a One-Time year-end donation to their monthly giving.  Use the google form to tell me what you want to do.

If…

If you are an annual donor and haven’t given yet in 2019, now is a great time to do that.  If you can increase the amount 10-20% over last year’s donation that would be terrific!

If you’re like me, you may need to keep your budget where it’s at.  If you’ve been giving and need to keep your donations the same – just indicate that on the response form.

If you’ve been getting updates for the past couple of years but haven’t been able to support financially – maybe this could be a good time for you to begin monthly support or send in a one time donation.

If you’re old school and need a Business Reply Envelope to send a donation – add that information in the last box of the response form and make sure I have your street address.  Far be it from me to stand in the way of a fresh paper-cut!

Many of you are familiar with InterVarsity’s donation website.  Once you’ve sent me your response form, feel free to head over there if you need to send a new donation or change your current giving level.  Please email me if you’re having difficulty working the web page.

I’m so grateful for your partnership.  I can definitely tell I’m no longer on my ministry on-ramp.  I am immersed in  my job description and feeling the full weight of GFM ministry.  It’s a tougher job than I remember having on the undergrad side of things 13 years ago!  Thank you for getting me to this plateau!

In the coming days I’ll post a few other thoughts about ministry partnership.  I’ll keep a few reminders in front of you – I know its a very busy time of the year!  I would really love to hear from you.

tim.perry@intervarsity.org