SUMMER 2013

REGIONAL PLANTING

PLANTING ON CAMPUS

BAPTISM STORIES

VISION ACCOMPLISHED

Fr�Washington

to the World

HIGHLIGHTED IN HOUSTONpage 9

page 8

TakingTakingTakingTaking

to theGreeksGreeksGreeksGreeksBY DREW WORSHAM

lpha

Greek students – men and women in fraternities and sororities at WSU and UI. We believe Greek students are among the most influential people, not only on campus, but also in life after college. At Washing-ton State University, the Greek system includes more than 50 chapters and over 17 percent of the undergraduate student population in Pullman. At the University of Idaho, there are 33 strong chapters whose members make up over 30 percent of the student population and almost half the students who live on campus. They are the students pushing trends forward and setting the social pace for much of the student body.

Along with being highly influential, Greek students are grouped together in large houses in strategic parts of campus. Like most students, they are dying for community, belonging, and a sense of identity. Although they are asking big questions, they are among the busiest students on campus, so we decided to take the gospel to them.

In December 2012, a few Greek students approached the On-Campus team at Resonate about starting a Village specifically designed for Greek students. It sounded like a great idea, but we pushed back. We didn't want to pull all the Christians out of the mission field – their houses – only to create a holy huddle of believers who may check off the box for completing their spiritual deed of the week. We know we are called to make disciples and that disciples live on mission, so we wanted that idea to be the DNA of whatever we did from the beginning. We had students begging for something, so we decided to act.

When we started praying for direction, God dropped the answer into our lap. A visitor from England told me about a program called Alpha

that God was using in amazing ways to reach the lost. It was intentional and missional, ready to be implemented in each house, and we loved it.

In January, we started a Greek Village on both campuses. Within two weeks we had over 40 students in one house at WSU alone, and soon we multiplied 2 Greek Villages into 4. We used those weeks to identify the “people of peace” in each house who were attending Greek Village. We asked them where their heart for their chapter was and cast the vision for Greek Alpha. We told them Greek Alpha was designed for non-believers who were searching and asking spiritual questions.

We even invited ourselves into every fraterni-ty and sorority across both campuses, announcing Greek Alpha to every member, and giving them a non-threatening spiritual survey. With students leading the charge, we started Greek Alpha in most of the houses. During a weekly meeting, members in each house gathered to have a snack, watch a 20-minute video dealing with some aspect of the gospel, and discuss the video. The groups ranged from 4 to 15 students per house depending on how proactive the house representative – usually the only believer in the group – was able to be.

We have seen God do amazing things in the Greek system because of the Alpha course. But, even after seeing Greek students give their lives to the Lord, get baptized, and talk openly about Jesus, we have learned Alpha was never the point. Rather, the greatest benefit of the Alpha course has been to give students the vision of living missional-ly in the houses where God has divinely placed them. Through Greek Alpha, the gospel was shared and the Kingdom advanced, and that is worth celebrating.

2

The following stories, of people who have chosen

to follow Jesus, o�er merely a glimpse of what

God con�nues to do in and through Resonate Church.

Resonate Church celebrated 74 changed lives this year through bap�sm.

JESICA CALKINSJesica was a skeptic looking to relationships, parties, and alcohol to fulfill her, fighting to be a good person, but always feeling hollow and unsatisfied. When she was brought to Resonate Church by her roommate, God opened Jesica’s heart to understand that only Christ could fill what was empty inside her. Since then, she has been exploring what it means to know Jesus, and was thrilled to get baptized as a symbol of her commitment to follow Christ for the rest of her life.

MICAH MILLHEIMWhen Micah got to college, he adopted a postmodern view of life—that there was nothing worth doing, and no meaning or purpose to his existence. Having grown up in the church, and finding it incredibly frustrating to live without any real drive or belief, Micah turned back to God, who showed him He was never alone. In a moment he will never forget, Micah felt God saying He was always with him and always will be. Through Resonate Church, Micah came to understand community and grace, and knows now that following Christ is the only path to true life.

Jasmine GoodwinGod changed Jasmine’s life when Resonate Church started a Greek Village in her living room. At the time, Jasmine knew she had to change her lifestyle of partying and lose many of her friends, but she understands now that a lifestyle change had to start with a change in her heart, a change only Jesus could create. Freed from a lot of guilt, shame, and anger, Jasmine has learned how to forgive and live by faith for the glory of God.

Meghan BallockAs Meghan grew up, she lived to impress a God she always thought was judging her. When she understood Jesus wanted to have a relationship with her, she was inspired to go on a mission trip to El Salvador, where she experienced God’s grace personally. While she had always relied on her own strength to pursue the right things in life, Meghan knows now that she wants

to live a radical life for Jesus because of His radical sacrifice for her.

The following stories, of people who have chosen

to follow Jesus, o�er merely a glimpse of what

God con�nues to do in and through Resonate Church.

Resonate Church celebrated 74 changed lives this year through bap�sm.

JESICA CALKINSJesica was a skeptic looking to relationships, parties, and alcohol to fulfill her, fighting to be a good person, but always feeling hollow and unsatisfied. When she was brought to Resonate Church by her roommate, God opened Jesica’s heart to understand that only Christ could fill what was empty inside her. Since then, she has been exploring what it means to know Jesus, and was thrilled to get baptized as a symbol of her commitment to follow Christ for the rest of her

life.

MICAH MILLHEIMWhen Micah got to college, he adopted a postmodern view of life—that there was nothing worth doing, and no meaning or purpose to his existence. Having grown up in the church, and finding it incredibly frustrating to live without any real drive or belief, Micah turned back to God, who showed him He was never alone. In a moment he will never forget, Micah felt God saying He was always with him and always will be. Through Resonate Church, Micah came to understand community and grace, and knows now that following Christ is the only path to true life.

Jasmine GoodwinGod changed Jasmine’s life when Resonate Church started a Greek Village in her living room. At the time, Jasmine knew she had to change her lifestyle of partying and lose many of her friends, but she understands now that a lifestyle change had to start with a change in her heart, a change only Jesus could create. Freed from a lot of guilt, shame, and anger, Jasmine has learned how to forgive and live by faith for the glory of God.

Meghan BallockAs Meghan grew up, she lived to impress a God she always thought was judging her. When she understood Jesus wanted to have a relationship with her, she was inspired to go on a mission trip to El Salvador, where she experienced God’s grace personally. While she had always relied on her own strength to pursue the right things in life, Meghan knows now that she wants

to live a radical life for Jesus because of His radical sacrifice for her.

3

Mark RoseFor Mark, the process of giving up control of his life to God was long and slow. He grew up being the good kid who did the right things, but he realized that there was still something missing in his life. He attended Resonate for some time and though he admits that it didn’t “click” for months, God kept pulling on Mark’s heart. Eventually, he learned to understand God’s ways, how He wanted to use Mark, and how Mark could live his life to glorify Him.

Micah JenkinsThe first time Micah attended a service at Resonate Church, God captured her heart. Never having felt like she was good enough for her peers, Micah tried to fill a void in her life with boyfriends, sports, good grades, and parties. Once she heard the truth that Jesus loved her and accepted her as she was, she chose to give her life to Him and get baptized in celebration of that truth.

Allyssa TurcotteAllyssa had never felt as alone as she did when she found out she was pregnant at 19 years old. Then, after she miscarried, the friend she turned to for comfort brought her to a service at Resonate Church. After getting plugged into community through Village, Allyssa heard the story of Jesus and His sacrifice. Because she knew the pain of losing a child, she was overwhelmed with love and a desire to follow God, who gave His Son for us. She gave her life to Jesus and now she looks to Him for all things.

Daniel BotkinStriving for a life of perfection led Daniel to years of dishonesty. But when God rescued him from a life of deception and cheating and led him to repentance and humility, Daniel realized how faithful God is to use imperfect people within His perfect plan. Brought to a renewed relationship with the Lord through playing music, Daniel now serves as a worship leader at Resonate Church.

Ana AcevedoAna’s life changed when she realized her relationship with the Lord had never been her own, but had been dependent upon her friends and family. This realization led her to feel alone and doubt if any of it was real, but God was faithful through a sermon at Resonate to show her that His love is the only thing we can depend on. Now she is whole-heartedly seeking a deeper

personal relationship with Christ.

Christine WoellerAfter a fatal car accident left her high-school community in despair, Christine sought to know why the Christians in her life had found an unexplainable peace and joy. Through the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Christine learned what it meant to know Jesus, and her love for the Lord has only grown since she came to college and began attending Resonate. Christine got baptized because she understands that God looks at her and sees the perfection of Christ.

You can find these stories and many more at: vimeo.com/resonatechurch

Mark RoseFor Mark, the process of giving up control of his life to God was long and slow. He grew up being the good kid who did the right things, but he realized that there was still something missing in his life. He attended Resonate for some time and though he admits that it didn’t “click” for months, God kept pulling on Mark’s heart. Eventually, he learned to understand God’s ways, how He wanted to use Mark, and how Mark could live his life to glorify Him.

Micah JenkinsThe first time Micah attended a service at Resonate Church, God captured her heart. Never having felt like she was good enough for her peers, Micah tried to fill a void in her life with boyfriends, sports, good grades, and parties. Once she heard the truth that Jesus loved her and accepted her as she was, she chose to give her life to Him and get baptized in celebration of that truth.

Allyssa TurcotteAllyssa had never felt as alone as she did when she found out she was pregnant at 19 years old. Then, after she miscarried, the friend she turned to for comfort brought her to a service at Resonate Church. After getting plugged into community through Village, Allyssa heard the story of Jesus and His sacrifice. Because she knew the pain of losing a child, she was overwhelmed with love and a desire to follow God, who gave His Son for us. She gave her life to Jesus and now she looks to Him for all things.

Daniel BotkinStriving for a life of perfection led Daniel to years of dishonesty. But when God rescued him from a life of deception and cheating and led him to repentance and humility, Daniel realized how faithful God is to use imperfect people within His perfect plan. Brought to a renewed relationship with the Lord through playing music, Daniel now serves as a worship leader at Resonate Church.

Ana AcevedoAna’s life changed when she realized her relationship with the Lord had never been her own, but had been dependent upon her friends and family. This realization led her to feel alone and doubt if any of it was real, but God was faithful through a sermon at Resonate to show her that His love is the only thing we can depend on. Now she is whole-heartedly seeking a deeper

personal relationship with Christ.

Christine WoellerAfter a fatal car accident left her high-school community in despair, Christine sought to know why the Christians in her life had found an unexplainable peace and joy. Through the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Christine learned what it meant to know Jesus, and her love for the Lord has only grown since she came to college and began attending Resonate. Christine got baptized because she understands that God looks at her and sees the perfection of Christ.

You can find these stories and many more at: vimeo.com/resonatechurch

easter sundayVision Acc�plishedRESONATE CHURCHTODD AUDITORIUM 9 Am | 11 AM

EASTER

by Josh Martin

our first meeting. Drew, Keith, and I sat in a room with a box of pizza and a question, “What do you value?”

Two summers before, I met Keith at a camp near Spokane. He helped our team organize and enroll Northwest kids into bunks and schedules. Our team provided the program, Keith and his wife Paige provided the logistics. At the time, Keith was serving as the Northwest Collegiate Minister at Washington State University. We hit it off immediately - Likely because I was serving as the worship leader for this summer camp and Keith was a sound guy and our team didn’t have a sound guy.

From the start, I realized that Keith loved excellence. Even if he had to drive home and load his car with his personal gear to make the sound better, he was willing to do it—because he wanted to do things well. “If we’re going to do it, let’s do it best” is what I got from Keith, right after “hello.”

Keith and I spent three weeks together, unloading gear from his car, and doing camp. But honestly, after those weeks I didn’t think much more of our relationship. I told Keith I had a friend named Drew who was a magician. Keith laughed, I understood. Anyhow, my magician friend and I were about to head out for a year-long road-trip doing music and magic and we wanted to come to Washington. Keith said, “Yeah, well, that’s great; I guess, uh, maybe, let me know if you guys make it up here.” Or something like that. I’m sure he thought he’d never hear from us again. Everyone is skeptical of a magician.

We called months later, said we were headed to Washington for a few weeks, and asked if he knew any places where we could do music and magic. He was gracious and let us stay at his house, even connecting us with a couple other collegiate ministries and giving us an opportunity to perform at WSU.

I Remember Through more connections and stories than I have time for, we ended up staying in Pullman for nearly a month, driving away to events and coming back. It served as a home base of sorts.

While at home base, Drew and I started dreaming about what was next. For me, it was something in Pullman. For Drew, Las Vegas was next. I wanted to plant a church; Drew wanted to meet Lance Burton and see how he got those tigers to come out of thin air.

Eventually the Lord brought our hearts togeth-er and a year later we drove across the country with all we owned. It was the best decision we ever made. And it all led us to a room with Keith and pizza, asking what we valued.

Keith wanted to change the world. It was apparent. I remember the first time we met in his living room as a team after we had the value conversation. He wrote on a piece of butcher paper taped to his living room wall, “How do we reach 1,000 students?”

I looked up from my scone and started choking. “1,000 students,” I coughed. “How do we reach one student, should be the question.”

We all laughed. Except Keith. He was serious.

H e w r o t e o n a p i e c e o f b u t c h e r pa p e rta p e d t o h i s l i v i n g r o o m wa l l ,

He wanted to reach 1,000 students. Even before we reached one, he had the picture in his mind of what it could be.

Everything felt different after butcher-paper conversation. We knew what was North. This goal wasn’t just for fun or faithfulness. This task was for eternity. This vision was for the souls of our city coming to know the King of our hearts. We needed to feel the weight of the task. We needed to be scared. And in one question Keith did it.

Later that day as a staff, we went to a hill outside of Pullman and prayed for WSU. We sat out there and looked over our city, a lot like Jesus looked over Jerusalem. And one by one we started to weep. We could feel the darkness. We could hear the hurt. The gravity of the goal was settling in. We knew we needed the glorious move of a glorious God to lead even one person to faith, much less 1,000. God help us, we pled.

Over 20,000 students attend Washington State University. And eight miles away, 13,000 attend the University of Idaho. Within 10 miles of our feet, 30,000 college students were going through life—as if eternity wasn’t coming—and the vast majority of them had never heard about Jesus. Or at least properly heard about Him.

Pizza conversation brought us to values, butcher paper conversation brought us to reality, and praying on that hill brought us to our knees. We begged God to use us. He assured us He would. But none of us walked away encouraged. We walked away sobered and needing to stretch, because a marathon was coming.

Little did we know, five Easters later, we would see 1,000 students gather to worship; we would see God do a work in our midst that was even more than we originally dreamed. And the real beauty is, behind those numbers are names, and behind those names are stories and in those stories are the church and in the church you find a movement, a movement powered by a Triune God capable of bringing light to the darkest darkness.

" H o w d o w e r e a c h 1 , 0 0 0 S T U D E N T S ? "

O F P L A N N I N G

5

alRegionChurch Planting

A Bright Future in Dark Places

I had the pleasure of co-leading an al l-star team of eleven missionary-minded students to three differ-ent Northwest universit ies with a great hope in mind. Our mission was to take the spiritual tempera-ture of these campuses, to determine how a collegiate church plant l ike Resonate might be received by students, and to pray over each university. Throughout the week, our team had mean-ingful conversation with over 80 students, observed campus l i fe, and took careful notes about the towns that support the universit ies we visited.

In each case, several things stood out to our team. The presence of gospel hope and joy was subdued or non-existent in most campus environ-ments and only a small percentage of the student population was being reached by any ministry on campus. Most people seemed lonely, making the need for community, more disciples, and the church evident. There is a lack of significant spiritual movement on any of these campuses.

Before going on this tr ip, I felt cal led to plant churches, but hadn’t received a specif ic direction l ike I had hoped; instead, God gave me a general direction that became much more powerful than I real ized. During the trip, He gave me a burden, a driving sense of purpose to give my l i fe to reach students through planting collegiate churches. He gave me a deep desire to see students searching for signif icance fal l in love with the gospel and with making disciples.

I was also blessed to see that I wasn’t the only one He burdened; much of my team came away from our trip sensing they wanted to plant churches as well. On our last day, when I asked how many on our team would consider moving with a core group to plant at another university, everyone raised their hands with confident smiles and enthusiastic hearts.

Four years ago, when I first came to college as an arrogant, angry, and lost 19-year-old I never thought I would give my life to Jesus, let alone give my life to leading others to Him. But Jesus had other plans. He used Resonate Church to save me, call me, and set me on a path toward advancing the Kingdom of God through church planting. By the grace of God, my wife and I are honored to be a part of a team of Spirit-led believers who will plant a Resonate site at the University of Montana in Missoula within five years.

Jesus is on the move. Jesus is building His church. Just as He's done before, He’s using college students who are scattering all over the nation and the world to share the hope they find in Jesus Christ. This new generation of missional believers is more passionate than ever about engaging a lost world with the gospel and I can't wait to be a part of it.

BY CRAIG LOVELACE

Only a small percent-age of the student population was being reached by any ministry on campus.

Most people seemed lonely, making the need for community, more disciples, and the church evident.

There is a lack of significant spiritual movement on any of these campuses.

THIS

SPRING BREAK,

6

After six years of addiction to drugs and alcohol, the grace of God captured Ryan Druffel’s heart, and his life will never be the same.

His first taste of alcohol came at the age of fourteen, when he got drunk and became enamored with the feeling of release it gave him.

“It was what I needed, what I wanted.”

For Ryan, alcohol was an escape from what life had become.

Over an eight-month period, nine-year-old Ryan was sexually abused by the fifteen-year-old son of his father’s new girlfriend. From that time forward, Ryan became an excellent liar, manipu-lating people to see only what he wanted them to see.

“I always felt like I was two different people. There was the real me that endured the sexual abuse, and there was the version of me that I fabricated, so everybody else would like me, and I tried to live up to that.”

After graduating from high school, Ryan began experimenting with a variety of drugs.

“Certain drugs made me feel invincible, like I was the person I should have been without the abuse or the trauma. But I was mistaken.”

Years of enslavement to both drugs and alcohol followed, leaving Ryan feeling empty and emotionless.

“He was in desperate need of something different,

Someone different.”

“I didn’t know how to feel. I had burned so many bridges and did whatever I could in that time to get the drug that I needed, because in that moment that drug was my god, and it’s all I would live for. I questioned the purpose of my existence so many times, and there were moments that I wanted to act on it and take my own life.”

Every time Ryan would lose hope, something would prevent him from following through. And eventually, he got tired of being sick and realized he was in desperate need of something different, Someone different.

“I went to visit my grandmother. I was out of options, out of answers, didn’t know where to go next, didn’t know what to do. I sat down for lunch with her in the kitchen and confessed to her everything that I had done over the last six years. As a tear rolled down her cheek and she smiled at me, she said, ‘There’s a plan for you, just let it happen.’”

For the first time Ryan really listened. He had never thought that way before. He had always wanted everything on his own terms, his own way, but finally he was willing to let go.

“From there I found the Alcoholics Anony-mous program and started doing the steps. It’s a spiritual program based around a higher power, and after about a month, I got really interested in starting a relationship with Christ.”

The second week of January, Ryan went to Resonate Church for the first time and was immedi-ately hooked, getting involved right away in Village and constantly learning more about Jesus.

“It was an amazing experience. I’m almost four months into starting my relationship with God and it’s exciting. I look forward to it. I constantly want to know more. I have so many questions, and I know they won’t all be answered at once. It’s going to take years, a lifetime of continuous progress pursuing a relationship with Jesus. But I’m excited for it.”

Ryan was baptized this spring to demonstrate that he has surrendered his life.

At his baptism service, a woman in the audience was struck by the familiarity of Ryan’s name and story. She remembers praying for a small boy who had badly burned his feet in her neighborhood many years before. He was burned so badly, in fact, that doctors said he may never walk again. She had prayed for his healing and that Jesus would be the Lord of his life. After the boy left the hospital, she lost track of him, but she continued to pray that he would know Christ.

Twenty years later, on April 28th, 2013, Jeanne Vantrease saw that God was faithful to answer her prayers as she watched Ryan express before his friends and family the reason he was choosing to be baptized:

“It’s symbolic that Christ has all the control and all the power in my life. He’s my Savior.”

BY HEATHER HAGEN

7

Fr�Washington to the World

94 PARTICIPANTS

SPRING BREAK ‘136PROJECTS

SUMMER ‘12 | ‘138

PROJECTS

33PARTICIPANTS

IndiaTijuanaThailandEast Asia

New YorkPhoenix, AZ

Cheney, WAMissoula, MTTijuana, MEX

Ellensburg, WALos Angeles, CA

San Francisco, CA

coming to Resonate I’ve had one major hope for our church: To see every student go on a mission project during his or her time in college. The goal is not to see how many students we can send; rather, by exposing Resonate students to other cultures and contexts, we hope to see God move people to become life-long missionaries. This is exactly what happened to one graduating senior, Nichole Southwick.

In 2004, Keith Wieser and his wife, Paige, took a team of college students to Tijuana, Mexico to work with Centro Shalom, a local Southern Baptist Church. When Resonate launched in 2007, we knew we wanted to continue this partnership and have since sent nine teams to share the good news of Jesus with this city. Nichole is one of 160 students we have sent to Tijuana in the past six years.

Since

BY ERIN DAMMON

Over three spring breaks and a summer, Nichole has taught English, hosted vacation bible schools, and distributed food and water to those in need. Her time in Tijuana not only affect-ed the way she lived in college, but also changed her future plans and the way she wants to live her life. As graduation approached, Nichole knew God’s call on her life was to live among the people of Tijuana and tell them of His saving power. She decided to forsake the typical Ameri-can dream and live her life worthy of the gospel.

As Nichole prepares to leave in August, Resonate celebrates sending her out. For over a decade, people in our church have invested in Centro Shalom,

and now we are sending our first long-term missionary to continue God’s work there. Additionally, Resonate is funding and building a home for Nichole and future missionaries on the church’s property.

We want our church and our students to understand one simple truth: Reso-nate's mission is to be a body of disciples who partner with Christians around the world to start churches. We are called to be witnesses in Pullman and Moscow, the Northwest, North America, and the ends of the Earth. Our hope is this partnership in Tijuana will be the beginning of many other partnerships allowing us to send out the church to a world that has never heard the good news.

8

HIGHLIGHTEDIN HOUSTON

Resonate Church was featured at this year’s Southern Baptist Convention in Houston,

Texas. Keith and Paige Wieser were asked to share their story, and they invited

Jacob Dahl WSU On-Campus Site Pastor and his wife, Jessica( On-Campus Catalyst to share

about their calling to collegiate church planting. This is what Jessica wrote about

her experience at the convention:

HIGHLIGHTEDIN HOUSTON

Resonate Church was featured at this year’s Southern Baptist Convention in Houston,

Texas. Keith and Paige Wieser were asked to share their story, and they invited

Jacob Dahl WSU On-Campus Site Pastor and his wife, Jessica( On-Campus Catalyst to share

about their calling to collegiate church planting. This is what Jessica wrote about

her experience at the convention:

9

churches in Arkansas and Texas for longer than I have been alive told us they were praying for Resonate and the college students there. A man who was about to move to Morocco to plant churches thanked us for sharing and for planting churches ourselves. Precious elderly couples shook our hands and told us how God had gotten ahold of their hearts through college ministry, and encouraged us to keep doing what we were doing. The couple that had spoken before us onstage, whose family had left a legacy of 200 years of ministry in Zimbabwe, smiled and winked at us after we got off stage, still shaken and

culture can be steered by many of the decisions enact-ed by the Southern Baptist Convention each year. In the midst of all of this, Resonate was asked to present during the main session of the Executive Board Meeting about what God is doing in our midst. Keith and Paige told 6,000 people how God is using collegiate church planting – something they have been a part of pioneering in our nation – to reach a genera-tion that is walking away from their faith. It was humbling for me and Jacob to stand on the stage next to them, getting to tell our story of how God used Keith, Paige, and Resonate to

overwhelmed. We were surrounded and supported by giants of our faith. Most of you know the story of Resonate - how Keith and Paige Wieser left the South to plant a church among the most unchurched to reach the most unreached. Many of us came into their story as the ball was already rolling, but even still, God contin-ues to do amazing things in our midst. Our week at the convention reminded us that He is not through using His church to accomplish His purposes. The rolling hills of the Palouse can at times make us feel isolated and forgot-

drastically change our lives and shape our direction as future church planters. It got even more overwhelming from there. We were asked how people could be praying for us. While we stood on that stage, with 6,000 people praying over our ministry, the vastness of what God is doing in our church in our tiny college towns became real. The idea that God was using the faithful giving and humble prayers of a gather-ing of saints all over the nation to accomplish His purposes in the Northwest became tangible. The story is so much bigger than us. Pastors who have been shepherding small rural

ten. Many days of pursuing a generation that doesn’t always want to be pursued can feel like we are going at it alone. Even those who have left and graduated can look back on their time with Resonate and wonder where it fits into the larger story of their lives. But beyond these hills, God is moving people to lift our mission up in prayer. He is sending more and more workers to the harvest of reaching college students through the church. He is pressing on people’s hearts to be a part of His story through collegiate church planting. And that, like our time at the Southern Baptist Convention, is a pretty big deal.

The story is so much biggerthan us...

churches in Arkansas and Texas for longer than I have been alive told us they were praying for Resonate and the college students there. A man who was about to move to Morocco to plant churches thanked us for sharing and for planting churches ourselves. Precious elderly couples shook our hands and told us how God had gotten ahold of their hearts through college ministry, and encouraged us to keep doing what we were doing. The couple that had spoken before us onstage, whose family had left a legacy of 200 years of ministry in Zimbabwe, smiled and winked at us after we got off stage, still shaken and

culture can be steered by many of the decisions enact-ed by the Southern Baptist Convention each year. In the midst of all of this, Resonate was asked to present during the main session of the Executive Board Meeting about what God is doing in our midst. Keith and Paige told 6,000 people how God is using collegiate church planting – something they have been a part of pioneering in our nation – to reach a genera-tion that is walking away from their faith. It was humbling for me and Jacob to stand on the stage next to them, getting to tell our story of how God used Keith, Paige, and Resonate to

overwhelmed. We were surrounded and supported by giants of our faith. Most of you know the story of Resonate - how Keith and Paige Wieser left the South to plant a church among the most unchurched to reach the most unreached. Many of us came into their story as the ball was already rolling, but even still, God contin-ues to do amazing things in our midst. Our week at the convention reminded us that He is not through using His church to accomplish His purposes. The rolling hills of the Palouse can at times make us feel isolated and forgot-

drastically change our lives and shape our direction as future church planters. It got even more overwhelming from there. We were asked how people could be praying for us. While we stood on that stage, with 6,000 people praying over our ministry, the vastness of what God is doing in our church in our tiny college towns became real. The idea that God was using the faithful giving and humble prayers of a gather-ing of saints all over the nation to accomplish His purposes in the Northwest became tangible. The story is so much bigger than us. Pastors who have been shepherding small rural

ten. Many days of pursuing a generation that doesn’t always want to be pursued can feel like we are going at it alone. Even those who have left and graduated can look back on their time with Resonate and wonder where it fits into the larger story of their lives. But beyond these hills, God is moving people to lift our mission up in prayer. He is sending more and more workers to the harvest of reaching college students through the church. He is pressing on people’s hearts to be a part of His story through collegiate church planting. And that, like our time at the Southern Baptist Convention, is a pretty big deal.

The story is so much biggerthan us...

10

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