We are all shaped by our experiences and perspectives. Many times in my life I have used my experiences to evaluate whether I think something will work in ministry. Sometimes that is wise, and sometimes that is me being narrow minded.
I remember starting my time as a youth director at a church in Michigan and evaluating what the ministry had been doing. Then I began to decide what needed to change. One of the things that caught my attention was bicycle trip that the 7th and 8th graders did each summer. They would bicycle 230 miles in a week, camping at campgrounds, making their own meals, and spending one day at an amusement park. As I looked at this event I decided that I wouldn’t change anything the first year, but that It would die that summer. I talked to the people who had birthed the idea and they were excited about the bike trip and they were nerding out on the types of bikes students should have, what tents we could bring, and how amazing it was going to be. I doubted that it was going to be a great week, all I could think about is safety of the bikers, students sleeping in tents, thunderstorms that flood us out, not to mention actually riding a bike for 200+ miles. As we got closer to the event, my excitement level stayed low and I kept telling myself that I only have to do it once and then I could kill it for next year’s calendar.
And then the trip happened.
I watched how the middle school students showed up to start the trip – some of them excited to have a week away from home, some of them so nervous that they could barely keep their bikes up, and some ready to make trouble. I remember hugging my wife and her saying that it was just one week. With that I was off.
Throughout the first day I struggled – I struggled to have a good attitude, I struggle to look at the good things that were happening. I struggled physically, because riding a bike for 30 miles was not something I did on regular basis. I remember the first thing that God used to begin to nudge me into seeing what He was doing through the bike trip.
The first night we all sat down together and debriefed our highlights. Some students talked about getting to make it to the lake, others talked about the ice cream store we stopped by that day, and then a 7th grade guy shared through tears that the highlight for him was that he made it through day one. See he was an awkward unathletic, slightly overweight guy who had been told his whole life the list things he could not do. He didn’t have people in his life that believed the best in him or encouraged him to try new things. He was forced to go on the bike trip because his parents thought it would be good for him. God used that 7th grade guy to get my attention and he kept using 7th and 8th graders to show me His heart for people.
Over the week, I saw students learning how to set up and tear down tents, how to cook for 50 people over a campfire, how to change a flat tire, how to dry out after being soaked, how to have fun, and how to ask other people for help when they needed it. Our last night we had a huge campfire and had everyone share what they had learned about themselves. Every student was able to share incredible things about how they see themselves, how they see the need to have friends in their life to help them, and how God can be with them in the hard and in the good. I saw life change happen throughout the week.
Before I got home, it was clear that a 230 mile bike trip was going to be one of the most transformational trips that God was going to let me be a part in. I remember thinking ‘there is no way I can kill this event, there is simply something amazing that was happening.’ It didn’t make sense. None of my ministry training or experiences would say that a bike trip is the event that you highlight and put your energy into. It doesn’t make logical sense that this type of trip would attract all types of students. But over the next 9 years, God used the bike trip to transform student and adult volunteers. We had torrential rainstorms, bike wrecks, an ambulance ride, tears, laughter, and defining moments. At one point we had 100+ people do the trip with us and each year the volunteers were more transformed than the students. Adults who didn’t know if they had value to add to students, discovered that God could use them, that students wanted to learn from them, and that the best was yet to come. Thank you Ron, Lanny, Scott, Kim, and many others for doing what doesn’t make sense.
Sometimes in ministry, what God uses to lead people to Him, and to help them grow in Him, doesn’t make sense. Over the last 25 years I have witnessed God using things that don’t make sense to me to create incredible encounters with Jesus. I have seen juggling with fire, a van blowing its engine on a mission trip, a blizzard in the middle of service trip, a health emergency in the middle of a program, a message that wasn’t communicated well, and a glow stick all be used by God to create incredible encounters with Him. Things don’t have to make sense for God to impact people.