Ministry opportunity - Thanks for praying

I accepted the position and am really excited about next year. Here is the job description that I was given after accepting (my comments in parentheses):

Organize a Bible study for Erb Hall men (4 mods)
Meet regularly with other Bible Study MA's and Campus Pastor
Build relationships and be a Pastoral Presence (this will be good practice)

We also sign you up as a Mover and Shaker to help you meet students. You get paid by admissions to move students in the dorm and a T-shirt. (sweet, oh the hardships of ministry:)

I am sure you will get some free donuts. (Like I said before, oh the hardships of ministry:)
I would suggest that you would play some intramural, (once again, this is going to be rough:)
walk through the dorm once a week.
Chat with your guys when you see them on campus
Lead a Bible Study.

It is pretty relational, and it as much about presence as program.

All joking aside from above. I am really looking forward to being able to practice a ministry presence and interact with some awesome students. I am sure that I will learn as much as they do, if not more.

It is refreshing to look at next year and see that I will have ample opportunity to begin doing ministry. More on that in future posts.

Winding down

Finals week is coming to a close. Monday, I worked on a paper. Tuesday, I worked on my paper and took an evening final exam. Today, I took another final exam and am now working on my paper. Tomorrow, I will work on my paper, take a final exam, and work on my paper. Anybody else sensing a common theme for this week?

I hope to be done with my paper this evening or tomorrow, so that I don't have any school work on Friday. We will see how diligent I can be:)

Ohio Visitor Alert

Some wonderful family friends are stopping by for a visit again. Joe and Lori are going to be here around noon. This is their 3rd visit since we moved out here in January. I wish I could say they come out here exclusively to see us, but even though that's not the case, we still really appreciate that they take time to see us when they are here.
We feel blessed! It is so good to see ya!
We joked the last time they were here that they have been to our house more times in Kansas than they were when we were in Ohio. (That may not be true, but it is fun to say:)

We have found that people are quick to just drop in out here, and we are quick to just drop in on people too. That is two things we want to take with us.
-open invitation for anyone to stop in anytime
-freedom to stop in at other peoples houses anytime

Weekend Family Fun

Saturday morning at 9:30, Alyssa and Suzanne ran in the Emma Creek Classic. It is the largest women's fitness event in Kansas. It is a 5k race here in Hesston. They had a record of over 1,000 women registered to run this year. That's a lot of ladies!
Alyssa and Suzanne did very well, with Alyssa beating Suzanne by 1 second! Alyssa finished her first 5k with exactly 43 minutes. Courtney, Emberlynn, and I waited at the finish line and cheered for everybody. After everybody finished, we ate a lot of donuts:)

In the afternoon the college offered $4 admission to all college students and their families. So, we took in an afternoon of lots animals at the Sedwick Zoo in Wichita. We really enjoyed this family time together. It is what memories are made of. The girls slept most of the way home.

Sunday afternoon brought the Puppets of Praise to Hesston Mennonite Church. The girls enjoyed the puppets singing and dancing, and the ice cream afterwards.

We finished out the evening with a visit to another PM'ers house to work on his computer and visit with the family.

Ministry opportunity - Please pray

I have been asked to consider a ministry opportunity for next year, during the school year. It would involve relating to a number of students and having weekly Bible Studies in a mod. Please pray for me that I would sense clearly if God is calling me to this for one year. This would be in addition to my class studies, Supervised Ministry Experience, and living a semi-sane life as Husband and Father.

If God impresses something on your heart that you should share with me, please contact me via email or phone. Email is slnolt7 at gmail dot com.

Getting myself out of the way

I did it! Tonight I had my 3rd sermon in preaching class. The first two attempts were well written and theologically sound. They even had some humor and interesting illustrations. But the presentation was very boring and stiff. Well tonight I did it. I preached a sermon of which my wife was proud of. My professor was surprised and pleased by. My fellow students were excited for my presence and the volume of my delivery.

So what made the difference? I have been struggling for the last 2 years with getting myself out of the way. I have been overly conscious about myself in public situations, and I would compensate by trying to remove my personality and passion from what I was doing. I have been realizing this as the semester went on that in removing my personality, and trying not to be showy that I have been unauthentic to who I am as a minister. It has been counter productive. I have been so aware of myself that I have been absolutely boring.

I have been praying that God would free me; release me to be myself. And somehow still work through the imperfect and human me. Tonight I felt free, I moved around the pulpit at appropriate times, I spoke loudly and with feeling, I used hand gestures, I trusted myself to not use my notes too much, I didn't worry about saying things just right, and it felt really good.

Praise God!

Good growth

Where has the time gone? One week of classes, and one week of finals. That's it, no more. I have a lot to accomplish yet in these 2 weeks, but yet it has gone so fast. I feel like I have learned a lot of things and that I have grown in helpful ways.

How about you? Have you learned anything in the last 4 months? Have you grown in helpful ways? I shouldn't have all the fun! We all need to grow as individuals. Just as importantly, if not more, we need to grow corporately. Have you grown as a church? Have you grown as a company? Have you grown as a team? Have you grown as a family?

In all healthy areas of our lives we need to grow. It is a proven fact in nature (water those plants), our bodies (eat), relationships (time, love, and forgiveness), and business (invest in people and tools) that we don't stay in the same state without energy expended. We either improve or we deteriorate. We can only stay in a stasis for a short period of time. Sometimes we fool ourselves into thinking that we have arrived and it will stay the same for eternity. That is when it starts to slip. Desire Growth!

Ouch! I am talking to myself too. I have grown in some areas, but their are other areas that I have neglected where I need growth too.

What do we do in Kansas for fun?

Here are some random pictures giving you a rare opportunity to see us in Kansas doing stuff:)

Here we are with some friends hanging out at one of the 5+ parks in Hesston.

This is a beautiful shot across the arboretum one evening. A place that we like to go for walks and duck and fish feeding, as you will see in some more pictures.

Anybody watch VeggieTales, do you remember the silly song of the Zebu? The first time I heard it was before we had any children of our own. We were "borrowing" 2 of Suzanne's sister's girls, and I thought to myself, "Is there really an animal called a Zebu?" Well, here is one at the free zoo in Hutchinson.

A fowl shot from when my parents were here, and we got to enjoy an afternoon with them at the free zoo.

One of our girls, wait a minute that would be a monkey in the free zoo. Emberlynn wanted to hold it. They wanted to take it home, and were telling us how they would take care of it:)

Hail from an 04-07-08 Kansas storm that brought wind gusts of 70mph, and sustained winds for about an hour of 40+mph. Needless to say, when the hail came the girls were in our bed. It was really loud up in their room. They didn't wake me though, I was already up working on finishing a paper:)

One of my favorite shots from the arboretum, when my parents were here. Let's just call it a Father-Son moment.

Alyssa contemplating the meaning of life in the arboretum.

Courtney hanging out at the park.

A cold, chaotic easter egg hunt that lasted 5 minutes, if you were lucky. If you got there late, you missed out.

This is Lake Vista, part of Showalter Villa Retirement center. Walking by the fountain at the far end will get you wet if the wind is blowing. I guess that would be always.

How to tell if it is garbage day in Hesston. Everybody has one of these blue barrels. They have a cool truck that pulls up, and an arm comes out and picks up the barrel, dumps it in the truck, sets the barrel down, and then they drive off. It is fun to watch.

Did I mention that sometimes it is windy in Kansas? These barrels are quite stable when it isn't windy. But how would we know that?
Oh, the arboretum. I will cherish these moments!

This is probably about the only time that they sit still even for a moment. I would call this photo tranquility or "Ready, set, ....."

Another fun photo of the arboretum. Memories.



Well that is it for this time. I hope you get something out of these. Even if you don't, I still enjoy writing them.

Kansas Relief Sale

We were at the Kansas Relief Sale on Saturday. It is held in Hutchinson at the State Fair grounds. They only use about 5 of the buildings. It was kind of interesting to note the different feel of the relief sale, when you don't know very many people. I really only knew people that were from the college. Back in Kidron, it is a lot of fun to go and see people that you haven't seen for a year or more. Well maybe some day we will get back there again.
Here are a couple pictures that we took, just to get a little picture of what things look like for those of you who are familiar with Ohio's relief sale:

First we have the "feeding of the multitude" area with random strangers. They did a real good job of moving people through this area. We got to enjoy Verenika with ham gravy, a sausage, and a bohne berrogi for desert. These were all new for us and really good.

Next we have a picture of the girls on Saturday morning waiting for me to finish the 5K race. I had a personal best, beating my time from 2002. I ran a 21:31 and it felt really good for 3 weeks of training.


Here I am finishing the race. It is a little smaller than the Ohio one. My time of 21:31 would have got me 35-40th place in Ohio. In Kansas it got me about 7th, but unfortunately my age group was well represented. I got fourth in my age group:)

This next shot is just one of the buildings, specifically the one that housed the Children's games and auction.
The awesome barrel train! The girls really enjoyed it. My girls are the three with their backs too me. I have tried to keep from posting pictures of our girls due to this being a public site, and they turned their heads at the same time without my prompting.


Here is a final picture of the awesome (and fast) feedbag slide that the girls and Suzanne just loved! I enjoyed it too. Random strangers again.

If you want to see more pictures from the official relief sale sight, check out this link.

Church Visit part 2

Our second visit for the day was very different at First Presbyterian Church in Wichita. This service was much more liturgical and for the head instead of the heart. The sermon was very much a teaching time entitled "The Heidelberg Catechism". It was interesting to learn about some of the pastor's perceived differences between Lutheran and Presbyterian beliefs surrounding the the Eucharist or Communion. The main difference being whether the bread and wine are symbols of the body and blood of Christ or if they actually become the body and blood of Christ.
The focal point, physically, audibly, and seemingly spiritually of the church service was the organ. It happened to be the day that they were dedicating organ enhancements as they moved from a complete pipe organ to a combined pipe (5) and digital or electrified organ. Rather interesting theology as they said the organ calls us to worship, leads us in worship, and sends us out into the world. The only thing that kept us safe was that they didn't say they worshiped the organ, but you could probably make a case for it by the applause and teary eyes as "Nimrod (Enigma Variations, Opus 36)" was played during the dedication:)
Although this was a very liturgical service it was a good learning experience, and the church building was very beautiful. The congregation was much older than the first church we visited, but they also seem to be very much involved in community ministry. Not necessarily focused on youth though.

Church Visit part 1

We did two more church visits today. The first one was a very growing and high class Westlink Christian Church in Wichita. They have a real focus on children, jr high, an Sr high schoolers. Their Children's area is huge, and colorful, and well staffed, and it has at least a half dozen gaming consoles. Their jr and sr high area looks like a bar and grill or trendy coffee shop and has at least 2 dozen gaming consoles, plus 4 wii's. I think their idea is to attract the students and then give them what they need. Just to give you an idea of their focus on youth. They are having a huge event at the end of this month called the Freedom Experience which includes a illusionist/escape artist, a professional skater, a bmx stunt team, and some pop and rock artists. The event will cost around $75,000 and they expect many teens to come and many commitments to Christ. We enjoyed the worship service which was very well done, and very worshipful. The pastor had a great sermon including stories and illustrations on possessing childlike:
humility
strength
honesty
love
faith
Great experience despite the overwhelming feeling of extravagance at every turn, and we had to boogie out of their right after the service and head for our second service of the day.

Free Youth Ministry Materials

There is a website maintained through some Hesston College personnel that gives free youth ministry Bible study materials. It can be found here: http://ymroadtrip.org

One source of these materials is writers in a Christian Education class at Hesston College. I will have to tell you that these writers are really good. Disclaimer, I am one of the writers. But non-the-less, the other writers are really good. Michele Hershberger, the teacher of this class expects the very best. Please use these materials and pass on the link to every youth leader you know, especially those of an Anabaptist persuasion. The site is regularly updated with new lessons. My class specifically has done the "side roads" section.

If you really have to know, this one was mine. The other ones really are better:)

Soccer Champs

Hey Venture Products, Soccer team, how is the season going? I hope you guys are enjoying yourselves again this year, and beating all the young teams:)

I played intramural soccer this year at Hesston College. Our team played really good together, and ended up winning both the season and the after season tournament. We went undefeated all year. Here is a picture of our proud team after winning the championship at 11pm. I really enjoyed playing with these people.


(front) Abenezer Daniel, Janell Maust, Kendall Landis, Amanda Yoder; (back) Shawn Nolt, Elliot Wilder, Kevin Wilder, Josh Boese, Tim Horn, Zach Fretz; (not pictured) Joseph Spory

You can also see this picture here: http://hesston.edu/academic/depts/physed/Intramurals/0708.htm

Happy Birthday Dad!

I love you, and that's no joke.
Son Shawn

Thoughts on Church Visits

Some things that I would take away from our visits.
-The physical posture that we have when worshiping does say something about our hearts.
Standing, moving, smiling, raising hands; they aren't indicators of worship taking place in the heart, but they can be. Distracted looking around while singing, not singing at all, lots of glum faces, reluctantly standing; they aren't indicators that worship isn't taking place in the heart, but they can be.
-Greeting visitors and regular attenders that you don't know does say something about Christ's love in you.
If the only person that talks to me in 30+ minutes of trying to get people to talk to me says, "Would you like a survey?", what does that say about peoples love for others?
-Use of our physical facilities says something about our focus.
Is it about nice, pretty, well-kept facilities? Or is it how can we use what God has given us to reach those around us? I would suggest that in this case it is the latter.

What is so hard about this, is that I can come up with what I think are the right answers. But I also know how much work it can be to put into practice. The more involved we get in the world, and in peoples lives, the messier it gets. Sometimes we prefer to stay on the surface, because it is cleaner and more comfortable there. I believe God calls us below the surface, and into the depths. That is where God is working, and he wants us to join him there. "Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief."

Church Visiting Sunday

This last Sunday, we visited 3 churches for our Evangelism and Church Growth class. Each one was a very different experience. There were about 11 of us, and Suzanne and the girls didn't go along.

The first church we visited was an African American Methodist Church. There were roughly 2,500 people in attendance that morning. As you can imagine, the service was much more lively than your typical Swiss or Russian Mennonite service. The singing was very powerful. Lots of clapping and swaying, and impromptu runs and repeats. The drummer was drumming and the piano was playing. During the preaching service, the organist was playing little notes and runs to keep time with the pastor. The youth choir had a very moving song, with a couple of the singers in tears by the end. There was also a testimony song, by a lady from the audience. During the greeting time in the service, we got a number of hugs and I even got a kiss from an older lady. At most there were 2 dozen non-African American people in attendance, but we felt very welcome. Many people invited us to come again.

The second church we visited was an Evangelical Free Church. This church was made up of mostly white middle and upper class people. There were also about 3-4 dozen Chinese people, some of which had earphones on as they listened to a Mandarin translation of the service. There was a stark contrast in the friendliness of this congregation or lack thereof. No one greeted us, I was hard pressed to get an usher to give me a bulletin, and the service lacked any sense of emotion or movement. An ironic comment from the pastor at the beginning of the sermon was about how awesome it is to see God orchestrate the service. Most of us found this to be funny, knowing that services like that are usually planned to the tee, and the previous one we were at had lots of unplanned elements. After the service we continued to encounter little friendliness. It is not my nature to be overly outgoing, but I actually walked up to conversations to get people to talk to me. Most people just made eye contact and went back to their talking. I even walked in front of people as they hurried excited the service. Most people just sidestepped you and said, "excuse me." Where were the "Hello's", the "Welcome's", and the "Good to have you here"? We did share our experience with a member and they were embarrassed, and promised to share it with leadership. At the very least they need to have a couple people whose "job" it is every service to know the congregation well enough, that they can spot the visitors and welcome them.

The third church we visited was only to look at it's sports facilities. It was a Baptist church that took up a whole city block. They recently built a large sanctuary that seats around 3,000, but their Sunday attendance is only in the 750-850 range. The rest of the facility is also way under used. They have 2 full basketball courts, a 6+ lane bowling alley, a weight room full of nautilus equipment, a cardio room, a large dining area and kitchen, and many other amenities. Unfortunately, they only allow members and their guests to use it. It is kinda like an exclusive country club. Most of their members are from the suburbs and it is too far to drive in to use the facilities. They only come for church to this intercity neighborhood. Most of us thought that they should open up the facility for the neighborhood, maybe after school programs, or community ministry. I know it would cause a lot of extra work for the church to let ruffians in, but it's about ministry and impacting those around you. It's not about just having nice stuff and keeping things for ourselves.

I know, we are idealistic college students. More thoughts in the next post.