Indiana Bound

I took a van load of our WOD campus leaders down to the Chai Alpha Great Lakes Regional Conference for campus ministers ( known as FORWARD). We haven’t been able to spend time together as a group, so this afforded a great opportunity for the leaders to get to know each other. Robin Wallar, the student leader for Lift Church and Joe Wahba, pastor of The Embassy at U of Waterloo left with me from my house and we picked up Tevor Gingerich ( Humber College Embassy ), Andrew Masters ( pastor, Lift Church), Aaron Mix-Ross ( emerging campus leader) and Rielly McLaren ( chaplain at St. Claire College ) on the way. When I heard them connecting and synergizing I knew that if it had just been for the van ride down to Indiana it was worth it. I had two modest goals for the weekend. Connecting and learning. I think we accomplished both.

Joe, Trevor , Robin, Andrew and Aaron : Waiting for Rielly in Windsor...

Our friends, Steve and Belkis Lehman were our hosts. We were quickly enveloped into the Chai Alpha fold and found we had both a lot to receive and a lot to share with our new friends. The worship times were great. Time was given for response and prayer ministry. People were touched and strengthened by the Holy Spirit. There was prophetic challenge and exhortation combined with vulnerability and openness.

Steve and Gabe Lehman

I taught a seminar on ‘Breaking the 30 Barrier’. In campus ministry, that is a real, albeit soft, numerical barrier. It is borne out by Chai Alpha’s own statistics. I took the time to talk about why we would bother talking about numbers. The point is that it is not about numbers but it is about growth. Healthy organisms grow and reproduce. Thirty is the size to which a campus ministry grows, beyond which the campus pastor is not able to minister personally to everybody. Although there are other reasons, it is an actual sociological barrier. There needs to be an equipping of students to carry the load.

Trevor represents Canada... :)

Trevor and Robin shared from their recent experiences. I could not have been prouder of them. They did a fantastic job of walking through the things they had to do in order to break that barrier in their own ministries. While I gave the general overview, they brought the meat and potatoes. I then finished by defining three basic barriers. External, Structural and Internal. Focusing on the last category, I asked the group about what things might be limiting them within themselves. It could be fear, apathy, lack of vision , unbelief or something else. I left it with asking them to search their own hearts with the guidance of the Holy Spirit.


Steve asked me to speak on things I learned through the loss of my son. On Sunday morning I shared on the Hope of Eternity and we shared in the communion table together. It was a very meaningful way to wrap up the conference.  We made new friends and saw God move.

Six Guys at the Five Guys ... 

The conference wrapped up and we journeyed back up to the True North strong and free.