Here’s a picture of one of my pastors I saw on Facebook this week. The post, covering last week’s annual meeting, announced new officers and the budget approval. One big deal about the budget was that Pastor Roo, Pastor Josh and Heidi (the church admin) were all going to be able to return to full time paid status! It was happy news to everyone. I felt like I got a front row seat to what God was doing because of a Sunday morning message I was invited to give back in November.

Celebration Covenant is not a powerful mega-church in our community. God has placed us in a corner of the city where the mission of Jesus is greatly needed. But it is not what you’d consider prime church real-estate. I’ve benefitted greatly from Celebration Covenant after a decade of serving in a much larger, more prominent church came to an end in 2016. Roo and Dawn from the very beginning of my experience with them have been nothing less than wonderful friends, terrific team-mates in ministry and caring pastors for me and my family. They’ve found a place for me again and again to serve- mostly teaching and training.

So when I was invited to give the Commitment Sunday message on stewardship last Fall, I jumped on it! It was a delight to talk about one of my favorite topics. It was a little surprising that someone other than a paid pastor got to challenge the congregation to engage with financial giving. Roo and Dawn are co-pastors of Celebration Covenant (husband and wife as well). They trade off with Sunday morning preaching and occasionally invite me in to help. I jumped at the chance to give the last message in the series. 

Below is the message I gave that Sunday. I offer it here believing for certain that no PBR reader in their right mind will want to listen to a ten-point sermon on giving! May the Lord be with you if you do. BUT, it was merely a punchy summary of what Roo and Dawn had already spent a couple of months teaching about leading up to that week. 

Why share all this here, Tim? We are your donors and prayer partners. I hope you are not trying to get preachy…. or punchy…. or whatever with us!

No. I share it because I feel like your support of my ministry made the perfect platform for me to encourage a whole church to get on board with their mission and their budget. Because I am so blessed by my ministry partners in InterVarsity, I was the perfect person to encourage a congregation to give generously and cheerfully to its mission, its tangible needs and to providing for its paid leadership. 

Thank you for being the kind of people this message was about. My hope is that you DO experience all ten of these things (and more) when you give to God. I am in constant need of perspective on how Cheryl and I steward God’s blessing in our lives. I bet that’s true of you too. Thanks so much for your faithfulness. Thanks so much for your generosity. Thank you for the impact you make on the mission of Jesus in the University and in the community you live in.

“Thank God for this gift, too wonderful for words!”  2 Cor 9:15 NLT

PS – I would LOVE your prayers for me during the month of February. As I’ve hinted at in past posts, I am now in the midst of a 6 week focus on developing my funding. More details about that in posts to come! I’m off to a great start. AND I have taken on a very large funding goal. The response so far has been really encouraging.

Thanks for your prayers last weekend! We had a terrific time at the Progressive Dinner. We’re so grateful for Rene and Kathy Padilla and West Hills Presbyterian. In bygone years the group would have divided up into smaller groups for dessert. This year the whole gang came over to the Perrys. About half the people in the picture are GFM connected and the other half are undergraduate InterVarsity staff and students. I’m so blessed by my teammates Will Chu and Megan and Adam Leong.

Click here to give to Tim’s ministry.

Thanks so much to all my readers who are getting their year-end giving sent. As you can imagine, December is a big month. We are always hugely blessed and usually head into January on the positive side of the ledger. Thanks so much for your prayers and generosity. As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, this fiscal year I have a big hill to climb, but my supervisor has helped me get set up in an MPD cohort for the months of January and February. MPD is Ministry Partner Development – finding prayer partners, ministry volunteers and financial supporters. Provided my current donors sustain their levels of support, my goal is to find as close to $20K in new, repeating dollars as I possible can. More on that challenge later!

I hope you are enjoying a terrific Advent season. If you’re not already aware of it, I highly recommend the BIOLA Advent Project for daily art, music, scripture and devotional thoughts. This year the project is situated in the book of Isaiah, the “Fifth Gospel”. May you enjoy some moments of much needed reflection and personal worship in the midst of the busyness this month always brings. May the Lord Jesus help us this season to receive with humility and give with sacrificial generosity! Be blessed y’all!

PS. Please do let me know (LMK) your support plans for the coming year – it’s super helpful for my planning! Just reply the text message you received this post in, OR swat me a quick email. Thanks!

I have about 10 minutes to write this blog. So it will be very short. In about an hour and a half, a group of 30 InterVarsity students, faculty and staff will be gathered for a holiday progressive dinner. I will be sharing an Advent devotional. Rather than talk a lot about it, here’s the mad genius himself at work at his white-board. You can probably figure it out from my scrawlings.

Click here to be taken to Tim’s donation page at InterVarsity

Pray for the evening to be a delight to our local InterVarsity ministry community. Pray for relationships to gel. For my grad students to enjoy getting to know a new Pharmacy faculty member named Dr. Wesley Sparkmon! Pray for undergrad students and grad students alike to enjoy a great meal and a fun time at the Perry’s house for dessert. I’ll send up some pics after its all over.

Thanks!

OH…and please do let me know your 2023 Support plans!

Thing one:

LMK your support plans for the coming calendar year. My income and expense sheet is currently negative heading toward Thanksgiving. Nothing unusual there – budgets usually catch up and sling-shot forward with year-end giving. Part of my deficit this year included the amount rolled over from the last fiscal year (nearly $3K shortfall). Currently my deficit is a little higher than usual. Concerned, but not panicked.

Click here to give to Tim’s support.

On the encouraging side of things, I have been able to find several increases from current donors and a few new supporters this Fall. In a coming post, I’ll give you more of an idea of what my goals are for ending the fiscal year next June. I do have a larger than normal funding goal. My schedule will be changing next semester in order to allow me to use more of my time for new fund development. Meanwhile, please pray for my calendar year-end giving to be strong this time around. And pray for the work I am doing now to dive into intensive fund-raising in January.

If you are one of those year-end, annual givers. Please use the link above to send your gift. I’ll keep you posted on my finances between now and January. Thanks so much for your support!

Thing two:

Tomorrow morning I travel to Illinois to be present at a funeral. The wife and mother of a young family has battled cancer the past three years and finished her fight on Monday of this week. I’d love your prayers for the Portwoods. If you’d like to know a little about Janelle, you can read about her at this link. Several of you reading this know Mike and Janelle and have been praying and following her experiences.

They are a remarkable family of faith, hope and love. I’ve been blessed over the years to have their prayers and support in my InterVarsity ministry. Mike was on various leadership teams at Illinois Wesleyan back in the 90s! Please pray for the visitation (which is tonight, Nov 11th). Pray also for Janelle’s funeral which is tomorrow. Lord, please give me safe travel over and back from Joliet, IL tomorrow.

Thank you so much for your prayers. If you want to let me know your support plans for the coming year, please just text me back or email me below.

Well, we’ve gone off Daylight Savings Time… I believe for the last time… EVER? Not sure what that will mean, but for now it means I start feeling like an animal in hibernation. In my younger days I used to love the fact that we got an “extra hour to sleep-in”. At my age, it just feels like an extra hour to lay awake in bed!

In addition to nightfall coming early, November is the month we all begin hearing from churches and non-profits about year end giving and annual pledges. If you’ve been a PBR reader for a while, I’m usually asking you to fill out a ministry response form. This year, I’m going to try something different. Toward the top of each post between now and the end of January, you’ll see my little LMK reminder. What does LMK mean (some of you might not be proficient in Text-Speak)? LMK = Let Me Know.

I would love to know what your plans are for either year-end giving or your 2024 ministry partnership with me. No response form this year! Just LMK your plans via replying the text you received or emailing me at the address below. I’ll be giving you updates on where my support level stands (I do have significant needs as I move into the new year). I’ll let you know what my new support goals are. I’ll also make it easy for you to find my donation page if you are typically a year-end giver.

Click here to donate to Tim’s ministry

A ministry highlight I’ll mention this time was my Fall Faculty Reading Group. We experienced what I’d call a book-discussion Triple Whammy! 1- A really interesting topic. 2- A very practical, basic book that led to great discussions, and 3- A very workable format that helped us sustain a simulating conversation.

The topic was Transgender Identity. The book was Preston Sprinkle’s Embodied. And the format was a mid-semester, 6-week discussion (partly in-person, partly via zoom sessions). Faculty are very busy people – they really appreciated the middle part of the semester (6 weeks in a row starting in late September). Each time we discussed two chapters of Sprinkle’s book. That meant significant conversations that spanned all 12 chapters of the book. Faculty actually enjoyed the pace – meeting weekly kept us moving through the book. Eight faculty participated from a wide variety of disciplines (philosophy, marketing, medical physics, nursing, social work, and political science).

Things I noticed during the reading group:

• Faculty are wonderfully analytical and ask terrific questions.
• There was not a hint tension among anyone in the group.
• Earnestness. Each person had a truly curious and teachable spirit.
• Most had a very personal investment in the topic (a family member, a friend, a colleague, parents wanting to understand their kids development and social contexts).
• Working today on campus every faculty member must be alert to transgender issues with their students.
• Having such a variety of disciplines added to the breadth of perspective.

The reading group was the most stimulating thing I had a hand in doing all Fall. I’d highly recommend Embodied if you are also curious about Transgender Identity and understanding it more accurately. Another title I’d highly recommend reading if you are new to the topic is Mark Yarhouse’s book Understanding Gender Dysphoria. I’ve read both books in the past year. Let me know if you are also learning about the topic.

Thanks for reading. Thanks for your support and prayers! I’m so grateful for how your giving allows me to do a mission in our universities. May God continue to bring his kingdom among our academic departments including faculty and grad students and professional students.

This Fall I’m trying something new with my professional students at Creighton. Ordinarily at second Saturday brunch, I’ll have a guest faculty member join us and talk about their discipline. “What was your path through training and into practice? What was your faith like when you were in professional school – what challenged you? How have you been able to connect your teaching and practice with your Christianity?”

These are great questions students love to hear faculty talk about. But how would THEY answer similar questions? What would students do with the opportunity to tell their story to their peers? I decided to sketch an outline for them and start recruiting volunteers. I told them, “This is kind of like a TED talk. On yourself!

Mara and Katherine took the challenge and did a terrific job! Very different spiritual journeys. Same energetic personal vision for God using them in their disciplines (OT – Mara and Pharmacy – Katherine). Each time we meet I have students give me feedback via a google form. To my surprise (maybe shouldn’t be) every student has checked the last option! I think we’ll try to get through the whole group throughout the whole year!

Getting students to give this kind of talk does several things. 1- It helps them identify as Jesus following Christians in their academic and professional context (no small feat). 2- Telling their Christian peers their story first paves the way for telling non-Christian classmates and professors about themselves including the parts where their faith connects with who they are and what they care about.

Another way to think of My Story is to see it as a sort of passion narrative. At Kansas State University there is a faculty lectureship series called, What Matters to Me and Why. Professors sign up to give the WMMW lecture, the college of business where the lecture is held monthly buys lunch for attenders. And faculty, regardless of their faith or world-view, are given the entire hour to tell their peers what they really care about in their discipline. Wouldn’t it be cool if students could do the same thing with their classmates and professors? My Story is an on-ramp for students to become more articulate about their faith and calling.

Still looking for where to park my camels! Keep praying!

Thanks for keeping me in mind and in your prayers this Fall. Ministry opportunities are full. Leading my team is fun and demanding. Pray that I can keep focused on finding resources and staff potential people as we head into October and November. Hope you are enjoying a wonderful fall season!

Be blessed!

Click here to Donate to Tim’s ministry.

I recently got to be part of one of the strangest bible studies I’ve encountered in a while. Several of my fellow staff directors and our supervisor read Genesis chapter 24 asking the question, What insight does this chapter hold for us, as we think about staff recruiting?

A challenge my Area Director team is working on this year is hiring more staff at our Research 1 institutions (universities with the largest research budgets and most numerous PhD programs). On my team, we have staff coverage at all R-1s in our four state area with two exceptions: The University of Nebraska in Lincoln and Mizzou in Columbia, MO. My networking efforts this year will be trained on finding staff candidates for UNL. This is where the camels come in!

The improbability of prospecting.

Genesis 24 opens with a grieving widower longing to see his son marry the right woman. If the story sounds familiar, I’m talking about Abraham and Isaac. The right woman in Abraham’s mind would come from his own people and NOT from the “Canaanites among whom I am living.” Things you can’t miss in the story:

• Abraham makes his servant swear an oath that Isaac’s bride will NOT be a Canaanite (and let me tell you, they did something a little different than raise one hand with the other on a bible!).
• The servant’s prospecting has to fit what God has already promised Abraham (trajectory).
• The Lord will ultimately secure the outcome, sending not only this servant but a messenger before him.
• Abraham himself won’t lift a finger – but provides the resources and gifts!
• The servant accepts his assignment, but engages his own faith in the LORD.
• He goes to where women would naturally gather (a water source, after the heat of the day).
• The servant specifies EXACTLY what he wants (an incredible woman, who will water his camels).
• The LORD gives him EXACTLY what he asked for on behalf of Abraham and Isaac.

Of course this is NOT about knowing how to water camels. The essential ingredients seem to be:

1. God’s purposes for Abraham and his family (the promise). vv6-7
2. God’s involvement in the search (He will send his angel before you).
3. The Servant’s diligence and faith (travel, gifts prepared, prayer, confirmation)
4. Shortcut avoided: no, don’t just take Isaac with you.
5. Shortcut avoided: no, don’t accept a woman from Canaan.
6. Shortcut avoided: no, don’t just settle for the first woman you see.
7. Confirmation – God is this really who you are providing (the camel oracle)?

Abraham understood God’s purposes and saw how vital it was that Isaac be able to build a family. While some of the mechanisms don’t relate (swearing an oath, watering camels, nose-rings) there is a definite pattern of searching, finding and confirming. It’s not about technique. It’s about searching and finding through actions of faith. That’s what prospecting is all about.

A send off for one of Silas’ friends who has been living with us. And our daughter Phoebe’s big move back to Omaha from San Diego w her husband Ryan. Landed in an apartment 3 blocks away!

What are you trying to find?

This fall I am trying to find two kinds of people. Both seem very much no where to be seen! I’m searching for GFM staff-potential candidates in hopes of hiring a staff member to work at UNL. I’m also searching for a major donor (capable and energized to give $10,000 to $20,000 in repeating support). These aren’t easy things to look for. I’ve shut the door on as many short-cuts as I can. I’m searching for full time staff who will raise their entire budget (improbable). I’m searching for candidates who have vivid gifts for ministry and have masters level education or higher (how likely would their availability be, given training like that). I should use my faith to focus on what I specifically need and not get distracted by what might be possible. With a limited pool of candidates, it will be compelling to take the first thing that comes along.

The same is really true of searching for major donors. They don’t seem accessible. It feels like their interests have all been spoken for by needs they find more compelling. I am convinced of the urgency of my specific needs. Like an unmarried only son, funding is a make or break reality in the context of God’s purposes for InterVarsity and God’s purposes for me. I can’t continue doing a ministry that isn’t more fully funded. InterVarsity can’t raise up work on new campuses without leadership and resources.

Here are some specifics you can pray for as you picture Tim doing GFM ministry this year:

• Faith. Pray for my faith and that I get a grip on the PURPOSES God has for GFM on my R-1 Campuses.
• Candidates. Actual people to talk to about joining GFM staff in Lincoln, NE (same is true for our faculty work in St. Louis and for GFM in Columbia, MO).
• Pathways to those candidates. I have a list of people I’m talking to for the next three months. They are LIKE Abraham’s servants in that they may prove to be the human channel for finding staff.
• Creativity and specificity. Connecting and communicating about GFM ministry means inviting others into what God has called InterVarsity to.
• Success in connecting! Calling, texting, emailing, messaging, conversing, praying, listening.
• All the same bullets above apply to finding candidates for resources as well. Pray for me to find potential major donors this year.

How can I more directly help you, Tim ?

Help me find the right people. If you have connections, suggestions, ideas of where to look, I would love your input. Staff candidates for GFM are the kind of people who understand graduate students, they’ve been a part of the university system, they are faculty members or retired faculty members. People who have done masters degrees in ministry are also great candidates. Many GFM staff were formerly undergrad IV staff who got the itch to go to grad school. If any of this is ringing a bell, call me! Text me! Email me! Introduce me to who you know. You might have some good advice about where I can park my thirsty camels!

Later! Thanks for reading. Thanks for praying!

“Zooming in is sometimes called pinching out, because you’re spreading your fingers, like a reverse pinch. Here’s how you do it. Put your finger and thumb tips together and place them gently on the item you want to make bigger. Without lifting your fingers from the screen, spread them apart a little.”

So, it’s Friday afternoon and I’ve been camped out today at Zen Coffee – just down the street from Creighton University here in Omaha. This is what just about every staff worker of every campus ministry (in its right mind) is doing, mid August. You get yourself to campus for the student involvement fair and set up your table. InterVarsity table cloth. Brochures. Pens. Information cards. Invitations to your fall events and group meetings. And…chocolates. An hour later, the students are gone – all that’s left are the info cards they filled out (and some empty chocolate wrappers). Staff and student leaders take the cards, type them into a spreadsheet, then start making calls and sending texts.

Pinch and Pray now, please!

I would absolutely love it if you would combine your twin superpowers of pic-pinching and praying. If you don’t know what pic-pinching is, I guarantee you’ve done it a hundred times today by the time you read this post (instructions are at the top). You know what to do. Pinch this pic till you can see all 15 names on those follow-up cards. They’re in the first column of the table you can see on my computer screen. That’s not just a stack of cards sitting on my table at Zen. That’s not just an NSO follow-up spreadsheet. Those are fifteen graduate students I’d love you to pray for by name sometime this weekend. Fifteen grad students well-known by God and their loved ones.

A few specifics you can pray for:

• Relief from the anxiety of starting their program next week.
• A little slice of availability to me and my student leaders.
• Helpful conversations with their professors and advisors as they get oriented.
• Pray for these students to engage their faith with the demands of their program.
• Most of them have just moved here – figuring out a new town.
• Several students asked us to help them find a local church!
• Some new students are from another country! Lots to figure out.
• Friendship. New grad students need friendship every bit as much as freshmen!
• Pray that they’ll be able to come to next week’s first brunch (Aug 19th)
• These students can be consumed with pressure and anxiety about professional school.
• Sleep. It’s an extremely restless time.
• Peace. Managing new expectations.

Thanks so much for your prayers for me and my staff teammates. Thank you for your prayers for these students (and hundreds of others). Thank you for your faithful support which allows us to be on campus.