Ministry

A Storyteller Overland-commissioned study provides a fascinating glimpse into the nation’s adventurous spirit. “Looking at the data, it’s clear Americans are craving a break from their everyday routine,” says Summer Trammell, chief engagement officer at Storyteller Overland.

The survey revealed that over a quarter of Americans (27%) feel they’ve fallen into a rut, with one in four respondents admitting their life is a bit boring. In fact, the average respondent fantasizes about going on an adventure four times every day, but only 10% felt they could be adventurous in their current life on any given day.

When asked how they’d define “an adventure,” most described it as anything outside of their daily routine and an experience (46%) that makes them appreciate life more (30%). The top three things that stir adventurous urges are a dose of warm weather (34%), seeing the same mundane surroundings every day (33%), and seeing friends and family go on trips (33%).

As for the perfect adventure, most respondents said it should last six days, with the average person willing to travel upwards of 2,700 miles for a break. Hawaii, California, Florida, Alaska, and Colorado were the top destinations on their bucket lists.

The survey also uncovered heartwarming advice from respondents on how to live more adventurously. One respondent said, “It doesn’t have to be thrilling or dangerous! It can be anything that provides you happiness.”

“Just do it. You’re not getting any younger, so if you can afford it by making a few sacrifices, just make the plan and do it. My best adventures were solo trips, so don’t wait on anyone,” another traveler urges.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Boredom; Calling; Purpose; Will of God - By investing your energy in purposeful adventures—big or small—you can overcome boredom, discover new facets of yourself, and move closer to the life and purpose to which God called you. Volunteer for a new ministry at church or serve on a short-term mission, even if it is outside of your comfort zone.

In the fall of 2023, singer Oliver Anthony got his big break in the music industry with his song “Rich Men North of Richmond,” a scathing criticism of wealthy politicians and other movers and shakers. And now that he’s gotten a taste of the music industry in Nashville, he’s decided to live out his convictions.

Anthony revealed in a recent YouTube video, “I’ve decided that moving forward, I don’t need a Nashville management company. I don’t even need to exist within the space of music. So, I’m looking at switching my whole business over to a traveling ministry.” He added, “Our system is broken.”

The singer, whose real name is Christopher Anthony Lunsford, says his vision is not to participate in the system, but transform it. "I have this vision for this thing that I’m calling the Real Revival Project, and it’s basically going to start as a grassroots music festival. But hopefully it grows into something that can literally change our landscape and our culture and the way we live.”

Anthony says he wants to create something that exists parallel to Nashville that circumvents the monopolies of Live Nation and Ticketmaster, and it goes into towns that haven’t had music in them in a long time. And he insists he’s not doing anything revolutionary. “I just want to help bridge the gap between millions of people who all believe in the greater vision of us all just getting back to living a normal life.”

Anthony sees the decline of the industry as part of a larger pattern that discouraged his interest in pursuing the traditional path to music stardom. He said:

At the very beginning, our focus was just trying to figure out what we felt like God’s purpose was for our lives and trying to figure out how to pursue that. I think it was just being around all those people that weren’t of that mindset. There’s no way to create something that’s focused around God when you’re working with people who are just focused around making money.

Possible Preaching Angle:

God’s purpose for life is more than just seeking fame and fortune; God calls us to make a positive difference in whatever space we’re called to inhabit.

Most people don’t take real estate advice from a drug dealer behind a gas station in North Minneapolis. But Larry Cook, bishop of Real Believers Faith Center, is not most people.

About a year ago he confronted some young men selling narcotics in the alley between his church and the corner store that seemed to do more business in illegal goods than snacks or fuel. Things got heated pretty quickly. Voices were raised.

“The owner don’t care about it,” one of the young men yelled, as Cook and his wife, Sharon, recall the confrontation. “If you want to do something about it, you need to buy the gas station.” “I will,” Cook responded. “I absolutely will.”

What the man selling drugs didn’t know is that Cook had actually been thinking about buying the store for the past 25 years. He believed he was being called and when the time was right, God would expand his ministry to include this sore spot in the neighborhood, the store at the corner of a busy intersection.

North Minneapolis has struggled for a long time. In the 1950s, there was a thriving African American community, with lots of families, churches, and Black-owned businesses. Then there was a wave of white flight, followed by racial unrest that scared away financial investors, and the construction of an interstate that cut Near North off from downtown. Today, the area is marked by instability and poverty.

In the fall of 2022, the store came up for sale, and Cook and his wife put everything they had toward the purchase of the $3 million property. They’ve now reopened it under the name the Lion’s Den, a testament to faith surrounded by danger and their belief that even urban blight can be redeemed.

Sharon Cook said, “This is what Jesus would do. If he was walking in 2023, he would buy this gas station. He would feed the hungry. He would lend a helping hand to the elderly the same way we’re doing.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Facing poverty, crime, and closing businesses, Christians can look to transform their communities.

Ten years ago, Nathaniel Miller was at a vocational fork in the road. He had spent years praying and dreaming about pastoring a church, but Miller was short on cash. A pastor at his church suggested he connect with one of the congregants who owned a plumbing company. A decade later, he’s still plumbing.

In an article in Christianity Today, Miller writes:

It turns out that work, manual labor in particular, had been sitting right under my nose as perhaps the most direct route to learning the skills needed by those who desire to lead the church. I suspect I’m not alone. Any of us can become better at following Jesus by focusing on the demands and spiritual realities of our work. Rightly understood, work is the training ground where good Christians are made.

When I’m installing a water heater … every facet of my being is involved in the execution and completion of the work …. Over the past decade as a blue-collar worker, I have accidentally found a way of life that, far from keeping prayer at bay and hindering me from being with God because of my duties, has put me in the middle of a centuries-long, devout experiment. It teaches me at least these two things: In Christ, I am praying precisely because I am working, and I am becoming better at being a pray-er because I am a worker.

My hands participate in the work of bringing order to the world around me, and they thumb through theological works; they bring peace between homeowners and their homes, and they build the kingdom; they’ve learned to turn wrenches, and they’re learning to pray without ceasing.

I’ve discovered that practicing being in God’s presence and growing in the Christian life is something any of us can do in virtually any line of work, not just as pastors or church leaders. My plumbing vocation certainly isn’t the life I expected, but it’s turning out to be the life for which I prayed.

Gillian Murphy is director of the Elting Memorial Library, and she’s proud of the impact it’s having on her community. She said, “It used to be all the information people needed was in books. Some people couldn’t afford books, and that’s why libraries came about. Now, information is online. Libraries have morphed.”

The transformation of which she speaks is a movement that’s catching in libraries across the country. More and more of them are being identified under the catch-all label “Library of Things.” These are places that feature more than books to check out, but also specialty household items like board games, appliances, or yard tools. Murphy said, “Something you’d borrow from your neighbor.”

As of this writing, a brief Google search for “library of things” reveals hits for similar collections in places like Berks County, Pennsylvania, Kalamazoo, Michigan, and Sacramento, California. But according to Murphy, the key to a successful library of things is the same as it is for any library--it must be reflective of the community’s needs and interests.

That said, Murphy is gratified at seeing the library continue to be a hub of community interest, where people can not only borrow useful items and not have to buy them, but also gather for events and socialize. She says the library of things has driven more people to sign up for library cards. Librarian Stephanie Harrison concurs, “A library card is the most valuable card in your wallet.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Part of being in the family of God is cultivating a heart of generosity to help meet the needs of everyone in the community.

According to many industry analysts and insiders, the rising dominance of streaming platforms over the traditional broadcast networks is causing an unintended consequence: a lack of leadership development. As NBC’s Sierra Ornelas puts it: “Structurally, we'll have to figure out a better way to do this, because the structure we have now is not working.”

The pipeline from writer to showrunner has become strained by the explosive growth of the streaming series. The pace at which new streaming series are being greenlit and produced, combined with the shorter runs of episodes, are creating a situation where inexperienced writers don’t have enough opportunities to gain valuable mentorship experience.

When there were only a few networks and a few cable channels, there was a path to becoming a showrunner that made up for the lack of training a writer would have in logistics. Basically, the training came through mentoring and experience. When television consisted of 20-22 episodes a year, even junior writers could watch their script go from their hands to the screen. Writers moved up the writer ranks, and by the time they were pitching their own shows, they would have seen at least 50 episodes of television being made.

Something systemic needs to be done to ensure that new writers are trained as much as some were in the old system. Because as sink-or-swim as television has always been, the lack of experience and support in the new one will simply leave many to fail.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Successful ministry never happens in a vacuum. Rather, mentorship is an essential element of Christian community, and without it our people tend to drift aimlessly.

Skye Jethani writes, in Immeasurable, about good versus bad complexity in ministry. He illustrates it this way:

Bad complexity is like a Rube Goldberg machine. Those are the massive, jerry-rigged contraptions that fill an entire room with moving ropes, ramps, bowling balls, and buckets. One small motion, like a marble rolling or a domino tipping, begins a long and complicated chain reaction. A Rube Goldberg machine is a huge, inflexible apparatus that accomplishes one simple task. It’s not very useful, but it can be immensely entertaining.

Good complexity, in contrast, is like a Swiss Army knife—an elegant, nimble instrument that can accomplish an impressive number of tasks. No one would say Swiss Army knives are simple. They are intricate, with many precisely engineered parts, but this complexity of design paradoxically makes them adaptable and easy to use.

Many churches are marked by bad complexity. They are like Rube Goldberg machines—not very effective, but very entertaining to watch. They construct massive systems of control that are far larger than what is required for the task, and they are dangerously fragile. If one element of the system or environment changes, the weakness of the whole church or organization is exposed.

Possible Preaching Angle:

This could be used as illustration of the difference between strong and weak, healthy and unhealthy, complex yet meaningful church organizations and ministries.

California’s San Joaquin Valley not only boasts 17 billion dollars in annual revenue, it’s also home to over 100,000 laborers. The Harvest, a documentary produced by CT Media, follows the story of Marisol and Joel Lopez, a couple who discover the transforming love of Christ in the midst of their challenging life as migrant workers in the valley. To learn more about migrant farm workers, read this report by Bekah McNeel.

This short film was part of CT’s December 2020 issue, which explored the many ways God is at work through the global church, bringing light and life, hope and healing in the age of the pandemic. Find more at MoreCT.com/globe.

Livia Satterfield Young was a 12-year-old girl in a Romanian orphanage when her life was changed--forever--by an Operation Christmas Child shoebox. (Operation Christmas Child, uses gift-filled shoeboxes to demonstrate God’s love to children in need around the world.)

Livia was an orphan for 10 years. She described a lack of food, hygiene supplies, and no feeling of love and happiness. She said, “Some days our food supply was so low that all we had was a piece of bread that was hard as a rock and moldy. We also wore the same clothes for a week. We had only one toothbrush which we shared with hundreds of other children.”

Livia longed to feel someone’s love and warm embrace. She said, “I wanted to feel like I existed in this world.” That all changed when the ministry delivered shoeboxes full of personal hygiene items, school supplies and toys to her orphanage. The same day, an American missionary group also came and Livia met a woman named Connie. Livia said:

Before we opened our boxes, they shared with us about people who packed them because you loved us. I was so mesmerized by the word “love.” And then, they shared “the greatest news of all.” That there’s a God, and He gave His one and only son who died on the cross for me because He loves me. God made this possible through a simple gift. It sparked so much love, joy and hope in my life.

The same year Connie arranged for Livia to stay with a Christian family, and she accepted Christ as her personal Lord and Savior. She said, “I wish I [would’ve] had a mega-sized microphone to tell the whole world I had Jesus in my heart. Two years later when I was 14, Connie came back to Romania, adopted me, and took me home to my brand-new family.”

In the film Greyhound, actor Tom Hanks plays the captain of a US destroyer that is commanding the escorts of a 37-ship convoy. They are crossing the Atlantic in 1942, at the height of the “Battle of the Atlantic.” The story focuses on the three-days that the convoy is in the “Mid-Atlantic Gap,” where they do not enjoy the benefits of air-cover. The convoy is subjected to relentless attack by a U-boat “wolf pack.” The U-boats sink seven ships from the convoy and one of the accompanying escorts. The escorts in turn sink a number of the U-boats. The majority of the convoy makes it through, delivering essential troops and supplies.

The intensity of the combat is unrelenting. Hanks is on the bridge of his ship throughout. A running motif of the film is that he never gets to eat. His stewards keep preparing him food, and bringing it to him, but when it arrives there is yet another attack and the food almost invariably crashes to the deck. In a poignant scene towards the end, he changes his boots for slippers because his feet are bloodied by standing for such a long period.

The film is based on the book The Good Shepherd by C. S. Forester, and the title indicates the spiritual symbolism of the story. Hanks’ character is clearly a committed Christian, who is shown praying at his bedside, and he has a prominent sticker of Hebrews 13:8 in his cabin.

Possible Preaching Angle:

C. S. Forester must have realized convoy escort duty is a good parallel for the work of Christian ministry. Pastors and leaders are called to protect their flock from the attacks of the enemy and ensure that they reach their destination safely.

In an article for CT Pastors, Ken Shigematsu writes:

My mentor and close friend, Leighton Ford, was ambitious for God and he yearned to have a significant impact. After graduating from Wheaton College, he wed Billy Graham’s sister, Jeanie, and became part of the “royal family” of the Christian world. A rising star, Leighton began preaching in large football stadiums around the world. He was named Clergyman of the Year, and Time magazine identified him as the person most qualified to succeed his brother-in-law, Billy Graham.

Leighton’s son, Sandy, had become an accomplished track and field runner. Like his father, he aspired to become a minister of the gospel. Unexpectedly, he was diagnosed with a rare heart disease that caused arrhythmia. After an operation to address his condition, Sandy seemed fine. But then, while running shortly after his 21st birthday, the arrhythmia struck again. A few days later, he died on the operating table.

A few days after Sandy’s funeral, Leighton went to Sandy’s room near the university to gather his son’s belongings. As he looked over Sandy’s desk, Leighton found an unfinished poem. It was titled “To Dad, for his 50th birthday:

What a golden honor it would be to don your mantle, to inherit twice times your spirit. For then you would be me and I would continue to be you.”

Leighton wept. He thought of the mantle that would never fall on his son’s shoulders. But in the midst of his searing loss and pain, Leighton sensed the Holy Spirit calling him to begin a new ministry, one that would mean stepping out of the limelight. He felt led to invest himself into a small group of younger men and women to help them “run their race” for God through one-on-one spiritual mentoring.

Leighton, now in his 80s, has been blessed with many sons and daughters. He is no longer an A-list Christian celebrity, but his influence is deep and wide. And he is now truly content with his life and calling. As Sandy’s poem foretold, the mantle of Leighton’s ministry has fallen—not on Sandy, but on his many spiritual sons and daughters.

According to his mother Trinell, once Monte Scott sees a need, he usually tries to fix it himself. Which is why he decided to shovel dirt from his backyard into a pothole on a city street in front of his house. “I didn't want people messing up their cars like my mom did,” Scott said. “If somebody were to drive down the street and hit a pothole, and then would have to pay like $600-700 to get their car fixed, they would be mad."

Such selfless initiative is in short supply in the world, which explains why video of his exploits went viral on Facebook, being viewed over 52,000 times in just a few days. “I was at work, and I got a text message from my niece, and she'd seen the video on Facebook,” Trinell Scott said.

Unwilling to stop at one, Monte has since filled in 15 different potholes in the area around his home. “Now people see that we in Muskegon Heights, do produce good kids,” said Trinell Scott. “Everything is not bad out of Muskegon Heights.”

Potential Preaching Angles: You can’t serve everyone or everything that is in need, but sometimes paying attention to the Holy Spirit's nudge means using your ability to meet an unmet need without being invited.