What is God trying to teach me?

Let me start off by saying that I absolutely love when God uses the words of someone to teach you something, and then immediately gives you a situation to test whether you really learned it. Maybe it's because I'm stubborn, but I feel like God does this to me constantly.

For example, this past weekend, I was lucky enough to be able to visit the Church of the Four Corners in Independence, MO, where a couple of friends from college go these days. It's a new church plant, and the pastor is a young, dynamic speaker (and he has a Macklemore-style hipster vibe to him, which is cool too). His message on Sunday was the beginning of their 3-week series on Phillipians, simply titled Joy. He discussed how Paul didn't ask God "Why me?" about his less-than-ideal circumstances (Paul wrote this particular letter from a Roman prison), but instead modeled a life where we ask God "What are You trying to teach me?" through our circumstances.

After church let out, I drove to my friend Ben's new apartment in Westport. The plan was to allow him to drop off his truck and trailer with all his stuff in it, and then drive back to Independence in my car and meet our friends for lunch after church. But as I pulled on to Ben's street, my radio turned off. Then the lights on my dash went out. Then I could feel the engine start to die. The same thing happened the previous day, and obviously the new battery I put in wasn't the actual solution. My car died completely shortly thereafter, and there I was, stuck in KC without a working vehicle.

Now this wouldn't have really been an issue, but I had appointments set up with several people later that day and the next day, so my first instinct was to get upset. I was going to have to cancel those. I was going to have to pay a bunch of money to get my car fixed. Things were not going to go the way I planned them to go.

But then the words of that morning's sermon came back to me. I realized that God was allowing me an opportunity to show that I actually learned something. So I took the bait. I asked Him "What do You want me to learn from this?"

The thing is, I don't know if I really know the answer to that question still. When I started writing this post, I thought it would be super profound and by the end I would have come to some grandiose conclusion that my life had been forever changed. Sorry if you thought the same as you began reading. But I just can't put my finger on one thing that this weekends' events have taught me. My faith has been growing like crazy the past couple of months, and I have been learning a ton. My car trouble this weekend was just another event in my life that I believe God is using to mold me into the man that He wants me to be, and He is constantly using things like a simple sermon to help change the way I think about the world. And I could not be more excited about that.

Reflections on my Easter

Easter this year was not what I planned it was going to be. But that's ok. It was exactly what I needed.

When I was thinking about how I was going to spend my Easter last week, I figured I would go to the Crossing with my parents. For those unfamiliar with Columbia, the Crossing is probably the closest thing we have to a "mega-church," but without any of the theological issues I usually hear about with churches of its size. It's an amazing church that has done a ton of good in town, and even for my family specifically. The Crossing, simply put, is where I would be going permanently if I didn't feel called to campus ministry.

Anyways, I figured I would go to the Crossing on Easter. I went with my parents to a Good Friday service there, and very much enjoyed it. It was extremely well put together, and I honestly was excited to see the "sequel" to that on Easter morning.

But then a friend texted me on Saturday and said he and his wife were going to be visiting the Rock on Sunday. And then I invited a couple buddies from the Rock to come to Easter dinner after church. And with that, I realized it would just be easier to go to the Rock.

Easter morning with my Rock church family

Now, this may be confusing to a lot of you. You'll read my bio at the top of this blog and think to yourself, "Wait, isn't he on staff with the Rock? What gives?" and you won't be wrong. I am on staff at the Rock. It is my church home. But during this phase of my life, I am not actually attending Rock services regularly, because my focus needs to be on getting fully-supported, so that I can come back to campus and focus my energies 100% on college ministry. I completely understand this and am in full agreement with it, but that doesn't make it any easier. It's super hard to be away from my church family during this segment of my life.

So anyways, going to the Rock was not exactly what I had planned for my Easter morning. But it ended up being exactly what I needed. Just being back in an environment completely made up of college students was refreshing for me. It helped me re-focus, and it was an awesome reminder of my calling to college ministry. I love the production-value and the amazing teachings and the scale of everything at the Crossing, and have definitely enjoyed my time going there these last few months. But to me, there's just something about Middlebush Auditorium that feels like home.

"Good" Friday

The nickname given to the Friday before Easter always used to puzzle me. I mean, it's the commemoration of one of the most brutal executions in the history of the world, what is so "good" about that?

To sum up in one word the answer I have come to over the years: EVERYTHING.

From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachtani?" - which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" 

When some of those standing there heard this, they said, "He's calling Elijah."  

Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink. The rest said, "Now leave him alone. Let's see if Elijah comes to save him." 

And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.

Matthew 27:45-50

If the casual reader saw these words, they'd seriously question why Christ's followers now celebrate the anniversary of this day. This seems dark, and foreboding, and not at all worthy of celebrating, let alone calling it anything close to "good."

But these verses only give part of the story. The day isn't referred to as "good" Friday because of what happened on that day, but because of the reason that event had to happen. Jesus wasn't the King that the Jews of the time expected. He hadn't come to overthrow Roman rule. But he was nevertheless the prophesied Messiah. He was the Lamb, the perfect sacrifice for the sin of man, past, present, and future. He was betrayed by one of His disciples, given over to the Sanhedrin, and crucified between common thieves. He had to die so that we can truly live.

And then, just three days later, on what is now celebrated as Easter, the following happened:

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. 

There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. 

The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here, he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him. Now I have told you."

Matthew 28:1-7

Good Friday is not celebrated because Jesus was murdered. Good Friday is celebrated because of what His death signified for the world. Through His death on Good Friday, and His resurrection on Easter, we can share in His ultimate victory over death, and spend eternity with Him.

And that sounds pretty darn "good" to me.

One of the best Good Friday/Easter songs ever written. Enjoy.

Networking

Networking.

If you went to school for any sort of business management, you've heard this word a hundred times. A thousand times. Maybe even a million times.

When you're in school, it becomes a dirty word. Something you HAVE to do to get a job, to get ahead in life, to even survive. When you're in school, it's an awkward, awful process of going to "events" where recruiters from different companies drink a lot and hand out business cards and do little else.

But now, as I try to get my feet underneath me as a college missionary, I absolutely love the process known as "networking." It should be obvious to everyone that this looks a lot differently for me than it does for a senior in college that's scrambling for a job. But it's still networking.

And it's going to take a lot of networking for me to reach my goal of getting back on campus by this fall. The average GCM missionary needs to get in contact with around 900 people in order to get fully-supported. My list of people to get in touch with is right at 250 currently. So I have a long way to go.

But luckily, I know I serve a God that provides. Even if I don't get back to campus by my goal date of August 21st, 2014, I know God is going to get me there eventually. I know that if it takes longer, it's because God wants to show me something through this process that is going to take longer than the next couple of months.

But anyways. Networking. It really is a cool thing. So for those of you out there still in college, try to actually pay attention to that. And for those of you not in college anymore, I really would love to connect.

Thanks.

Character over Comfort

"God is more interested in your character than your comfort, and he's more concerned about your holiness than your happiness." - Rick Warren

This quote was presented to me a couple days ago, and I've been meditating on just what exactly it means ever since. I'm still not 100% sure I understand the exact magnitude of this statement, but I do believe I'm beginning to wrap my head around it.

Up until now, everything that has happened to me or around me, I've looked at through comfort-colored glasses. When I start to have a hard time (which is pretty much every day during support-raising), I question whether God cares about me, because don't I deserve to be comfortable? Shouldn't everything be easy for me? Isn't that the goal of life? To get a nice car and a hot wife and a big house and have 3 cute little kids playing in the in-ground pool in the backyard? Isn't having a "comfortable" life the point of all this work we do?

Simply put, no. Now, nothing is inherently wrong with having any of those things I listed above, so if you're reading this and have any of those things, please don't take that as an accusation. But that is definitely not what life is about. Life is about becoming more like Christ, in both character and deed.

Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did. - 1 John 2:6

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. - Phillipians 1:21

When Paul says in Phillipians that "to die is gain," that doesn't exactly sound like God has a plan to make us super comfortable all the time. Once again, I have no qualms with being comfortable. I enjoy good food, good company, and good sports teams just as much as the next guy. I do find a sense of comfort in those things. But if that is what my life is all about, then I've missed the point.

My prayer these last few days, and for the coming months, has been and will be that I am consistently being transformed to the image of Christ, that I can live out the words from scripture above, that I would truly live and love like Jesus did, and that I would find my ultimate satisfaction and comfort in the arms of Christ.

Thanks for reading.

End of an Era

About 20 minutes ago, I said goodbye to one of my best friends in the world. Not goodbye in the forever sense, but goodbye in the sense that I most likely will never live in the same area code as him ever again. And that's just now hitting me.

Myself, Ben, Seth and Josh (May 2013)

I first met Schwenker when I started going to the Rock during the 2nd semester of our sophomore year. A year later, he invited me to go with him and some friends on a Spring Break trip to Virginia/Washington D.C. I lived with him last year at the Cotton House. I've played on a intramural basketball team with him. I've really enjoyed getting to know him over the past 3 years, and like I said earlier, he's truly become one of my best friends.

Ben first told me about the job he's starting today about 2 weeks ago. Over those two weeks, I don't think I've let myself really believe that he'd be leaving. Ben is one of the last of the friends from my year to leave Columbia, so it really is the end of an era in a sense. I know it's a normal thing for college friends to move away eventually, but it's still not something I'm used to, and I don't think I ever will be.

But I guess that's something I will have to get used to as I pursue college ministry as a full-time vocation. Mizzou isn't meant to be home for everyone forever. People leave Columbia every year when they graduate. It's a temporary dwelling place, a place where kids come to learn and grow and discover who they are.

And while that is going to be extremely tough to deal with every year, I also think that's one thing that makes college ministry so great. It's an almost perfect metaphor for the world in general. The world isn't our home. This is a temporary dwelling place where we learn and grow and discover our identity in Christ, one way or another. I don't know about you, but I can't wait to get home.

I don't really have anything more eloquent than that to say about the subject. Right now I'm really just letting myself mourn for a while, but also trying to put a positive spin on it all. I'm gonna miss Ben a ton. But I thank the Lord that I don't ever have to say goodbye to him in the forever sense.

Love you dude.

How a Book About Uganda Made Me Even More Stoked About Being At Mizzou: The "Joe Finally Finished Reading a Book" Story

So for the past few weeks, I've been reading a book called Kisses From Katie. I was so intensely moved by this story that I figured the only logical thing to do was to write a blog-post that no one will read about how awesome this book is.

Let me start off by saying that this is a huge departure from my normal reading fare. Mainly because it's not about a galaxy far, far away or about a fantasy land where elves and dwarves battle dragons and orcs. If you don't get those references, it means that all I normally read are Star Wars or Lord of the Rings books. Also, if you don't get those references, how are we even friends in the first place?

But back to the matter at hand. I absolutely loved this book. It is by Katie Davis, who is living and doing work in Uganda, and has been for the past few years. If my math is correct, she is now about 25 years old, and when the book came out 3 years ago, she had already adopted 14 little Ugandan girls. Since I only finished the book about 10 minutes ago, I haven't really researched her life to see if she's adopted any more since then, but it honestly would not surprise me one bit.

Katie describes in detail the hardships that she endures daily in Uganda. Her life is a constant struggle of trusting God to provide for the basic needs of those around her. Basically, it is made clear that Uganda is pretty much the exact opposite of the United States, where basic human needs are a given, even for the poorest of poor among us. I knew this to be the case, which is why I was actually skeptical of reading this book in the first place. I had absolutely ZERO desire to ever go overseas to do missionary work, and I figured this book would try to convince me that I was stupid for feeling that way. But I could not have been more wrong.

This book, while it is solely about the importance of overseas, third-world missionary work, only strengthened my own resolve and desire to do college ministry here at Mizzou. The feelings Katie describes of God pushing her to stay in Uganda are the very same feelings that I've had about staying at Mizzou. Now I'm not saying that me staying in my hometown to do ministry is anywhere near the same thing as Katie going to Uganda, but I've realized while reading this book that it doesn't matter. I can only be obedient to what God has called me to. And in this season in my life, being obedient to God means doing college ministry with the Rock Campus Church and Great Commission Ministries. Which I could not be more excited about.

Now that does not mean that this book didn't open my eyes to more avenues of ministry. I have to say that foreign missions is now a much more viable option in my mind. For example, I absolutely cannot wait to go on a trip to Honduras with the Rock and that is not something I really cared about doing even two months ago.

So in summary, in case you only read the first and last paragraphs of things: go out and buy Kisses from Katie, cause it'll rock your world.

Real Life

Wow. My life just got real.

And I don't mean in that in a sarcastic way. I truly feel like I just started my real life a few short weeks ago, when I began as a campus missionary with Great Commission Ministries and the Rock Campus Church. Everything else that has happened up to this point just kind of seems like a bad prequel trilogy (yes I'm looking at you Star Wars) in the hopefully epic tale that is my life.

Our good-looking group at the GCM Headquarters in Orlando, FL

Almost exactly 3 weeks ago today, on February 2nd, I boarded a plane for Orlando, FL to attend New Staff Training. I didn't really know what to expect from that time, but what it ended up being far exceeded any of my dreams. I spent 8 days with some of the coolest people in the country, learning about our ministries and how to biblically and responsibly raise support to be full-time missionaries. Every single person at the training has so much passion for the Gospel that they're dedicating their entire lives to it, and it was extremely encouraging to rub shoulders with them for a little over a week. I can't wait to see where God leads each and every one of them, and I hope that anyone and everyone that reads this will pray with me for each of them! Plus, a little over half of them are fellow Collegiate Church Network missionaries, so I'm stoked to see many of them at LTs or Ignites over the coming years!

When I returned, I immediately began the Ministry Team Development process. Finding people to partner with GCM and myself in this Gospel work has been extremely challenging (and I expect it will only get harder), but it has also been unbelievably encouraging. My job right now is basically to meet up with people and tell them about the work that I will be doing through the Rock on campus, and I feel like every day and every time I share my story with people I become more and more affirmed in my calling from God to do this work. And with every meeting I become more and more aware that I will only be able to complete this task if I rely solely on God.

So yeah, that's where I'm at currently. I'll keep updating this blog periodically, but if you'd like to receive a monthly update from me, please sign up for that here. And if you read this and would like to hear more about what it is I'll be doing, please email me or give me a call at 573-864-9191.

Thanks for reading! Have a stupendous day!

- Joe Langworthy

My Ministry Profile

This is something I created while I was in Florida doing training. It sums up in a few short words what and why I am a campus missionary at the University of Missouri. Let me know what you think, especially if graphic design is your thing! I can always use help improving in that area.

Why Am I Going on Staff?

If you've been going to the Rock for any stretch of time at all, you (or at least someone you know) has probably been asked about going on staff. While this has almost become an inside joke among Rock members, it is definitely an important question to consider. The Rock needs more people to step up and join the team to continue doing the work and the ministry that we all love so dearly. But not many people do step up (and I don't mean that in a guilt-trip way, I'm just stating a fact, since the Rock only currently has 5 full-time staff members). So before I go to training, I wanted to go through 3 reasons why I chose to stick around college for at least awhile longer and join this ministry full-time.

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1. This ministry has been a huge influence in my life, and I want to see that same life-change in other people

When I came to the Rock for the first time, I was pretty much a mess, especially emotionally and spiritually. I was burnt out on life, church, school, and responsibilities. I didn't really want anything to do with God anymore. I'd been living the "Christian life" for 7 years at that point, and I was tired of always feeling inadequate and worn out. I had started turning to alcohol to relax, and I was on the edge of a disaster in that area. But something called me back to church, and the Rock is where I ended up. I'd known a few people that went there, including Travis Sterret and Kirstin Schulz, so I decided to go one Saturday night. I didn't think about it at that point, but it was still winter break, so the Rock was extremely small. It wasn't much more than myself, John Drage, and the Swifts. But I quickly connected with Chris, and I have been coming to the Rock ever since.

During my time at the Rock, I have developed what I hope to be lifelong relationships with dudes that passionately love Jesus, and gotten to know several men that have greatly affected my walk with Christ. Guys like Chris Swift and Andrew Schulz are always there for me, and they have both been amazing mentors in my life. In turn, I see younger guys thirsting for the kind of mentor relationships that I have with Chris and Andrew, and when I see that couldn't help but think to myself, "Why can't that be me? God has given me a passion for the dudes on this campus, so why not stick around and help disciple and mentor some of these guys?"


2. Nothing else seemed to ignite my passion like ministry does

A couple weeks ago, I took a Strengths Finder assessment to figure out how I operate in a workplace environment. My number one "strength" was Belief, which basically means that I have an extremely strong and steadfast system of values and morals that I use to weigh every decision I make. In one of the descriptions of people with that strength, the author mentioned that people like me are likely to not enjoy jobs that don't hold a strong sense of purpose for them, which I have definitely found to be the case.

Last summer, I completed an internship with the 2013 MLS Cup Champion Sporting Kansas City Soccer Club. I liked what I was doing, and felt like I could work for a sports team for a career if I needed to. But it also really seemed to be "empty" work. I couldn't care less if someone has a "good" experience at a soccer game, especially if that person is going to Hell. It all seemed like kind of a waste of time.

But I have never felt that way about ministry. Whether I'm doing work for the worship team or getting stuff together for a community group meeting, I love how important and meaningful everything involving ministry feels. I know that I am doing it all for the glory of God and for the advancement of His Kingdom, and what better job could there be?


3. I believe I have a special passion for the city of Columbia, the University of Missouri, and the students here on campus

As a lifelong Columbia resident, I like to think I have a different perspective on this town then most Mizzou college students. I know areas of town other than downtown and campus. I've lived on pretty much every side of town at one point or another. I know local spots that most students have never even heard of. And through all that, I have come to absolutely love this town and the people here.

But with that comes a realization that Columbia is an extremely broken town. There is a lot of hurt here, and there is a huge need for a Savior. I see that in the homeless people that hang out on the street corners downtown. I see that in the mothers and fathers in my family's suburban neighborhood. I see that in the college kids on campus. And all of that stirs in me a huge desire to stay here, to love these people like Christ loves them, and to spread the Gospel among them. Nothing would delight me more than to see the city of Columbia and the campus of the University of Missouri come alive with joy and passion that only Christ can give!
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I hope that this helps give everyone a better sense of why I made this decision to go on staff. I can't wait to get to training down in Orlando, FL here in a few weeks and get done support raising so I can get back to working on campus. Please don't hesitate to let me know if you have any questions about our ministry here at Mizzou!

Thanks everyone,

Joe Langworthy