Congraduations

[Yes, I love Cake Wrecks. Moving on.]

Our homegroup has four students graduating this week, and another one in August. That’s quite the exodus! It can feel like people graduating and moving on is just what happens in our church, because that is what happens. People come and stay for a few years, and then they go. Sure, one in thirty may stick around for a while, but, if you’re going to work in campus ministry, you have to be okay with saying “goodbye for now.”

Yesterday we commissioned our seniors (or rather, those who were willing to go to the front, be commissioned, have hands lain on them and be prayed for) to go be disciples and witnesses and worshipers of the living God, wherever they end up after graduating.

I didn’t get to participate in the laying on of hands because Ezra had just fallen asleep on my shoulder, and that little boy hates napping already – I wasn’t about to wake him up. So I stayed in the back and prayed as I watched (I admit: I often pray with my eyes open. I get really sleepy sometimes).

It was so precious and wonderful to see our church surround our seniors. Almost everyone was at the front, hand on someone, praying for them. I felt like the Lord was showing me what we actually do all the time. College ministry is not just about keeping kids in church through college. It’s not just for students to find a good spouse (though I sure did!). It’s not a game; it’s not church lite. What we do at Fellowship Church is try to reach everyone we come in contact with at this university as if they desperately need what we’ve been given. We cover their lives in prayer; we invite them to at least three get-togethers a week; we meet with them one-on-one; we encourage them; we challenge them; we advise them; we tell them “we don’t know!”; we meet their parents and siblings; we worship with them; we play ridiculous games with them; we try as much as they let us to live life with them while they’re here.

I felt very convicted this morning that I was treating my job as kind of unimportant. But the body of Christ changes lives; it changed mine and continues to change it. I need to act as if I’m the specific person to play a certain part in a student’s spiritual growth. Because, as a sister in Christ, I am, and I do.

Processing: Please Excuse the Mess

I recently was in a meeting of young women leaders in several of our church small groups
(homegroups). We were discussing the demands of homegroup and the burden of
leadership. Oftentimes, if we don’t do it, it doesn’t get done. If we don’t care, it
doesn’t get cared for. If we aren’t present, no one is.

It’s a struggle for us to be needed, isn’t it? Not pretend needed, but actually
needed, like something/one will suffer if you aren’t in it/with them. I don’t like that. I don’t
want to be interdependent. I don’t want things demanded of me. I don’t mind freely
giving what I feel I can, but for you to be relying on me – no thanks. And I’ll try
real hard not to rely on you.

But, the truth is, it seems like the Church is supposed to require a lot. Honestly,
when I read Acts, I see how far I am from the early Church, and church is literally
my job. Other than care for Ezra, church is 90% of my time. I want the holiness of community, the iron sharpening iron, but then again I don’t: I really want to sharpen myself.

I’ve noticed this feeling much more recently, as I try desperately to place
resentment on everything but Ezra, when really I’m resenting that Ezra needs me so
much. It’s terrible to me, because I’ve wished for him for years. I’ve begged God to
let me have Ezra, and, now that he’s here, and so very much an infant, I resent him for
it. But I can’t bear to resent him outright, so I resent Stephen for working so hard, or Ray for wanting Stephen to work so hard, or homegroup for being right in the middle of his bedtime, or my parents and inlaws for wanting to see him when we so rarely get an evening to ourselves, or the way public buildings are set up so that there isn’t a single corner in which to nurse discreetly, or how hard shopping carts are to steer with one hand… seriously, anything other than him.

I cry as I type this partially because I, well, I feel a lot of emotions
(embarrassed: of course I can’t handle what I dove into; sad: I don’t ever want my
son to feel like his mother doesn’t want him; regret: if I had let us wait longer,
I’d be more spiritually mature; anger: Ezra hasn’t done anything wrong at all, so
how dare I take my brokenness out on him?; loneliness: I don’t feel like I have
friends who can identify with me in this right now; panic: I think it’s only going
to get worse, right?), but also partially because I don’t know what to do with this.
I wish I had the whole “relying on God” thing down better before I allowed someone
to rely almost solely on me. Maybe the Lord will give me some sort of miraculous download, which will fix all the broken places that are telling me I cannot/should not rely on anyone other than me; I tend to doubt it.

Regardless, who’s born is born. Ezra’s gonna have to deal with the mom God gave him now. I
guess my job is now to pray, a lot, for God to let me throw my arm around His shoulder
and for Him to carry my weight. Because I can’t rely on me and not bitterly
disappoint myself.

October Prayer Letter

I pray that this greeting finds you all experiencing Christ’s love and joy to overflowing in you and your family’s lives. I will admit, I feel tired as I write you, but that is because of how much the Lord has been doing here in the ministry over this past month. I know words will never be able to adequately express this – but I want you to know with what thankfulness I write – you play a pivotal role in allowing GCM’s outreach here at A&M to continue its work in seeing students transformed into Christ’s likeness.

Michelle expressed last month how busy September is for our ministry – but that busyness also brings with it the reward of seeing many new students get involved with the ministry. The semester started off with a bang, with 350 students coming to our Fall Kick-Off Rally. Though it’s even more encouraging that 110 of those students were first-time visitors! So far, this ministry year has been one of good growth for us, with a 10-20% increase in involvement throughout all 14 of our student small groups.

Two freshmen that my small group met and reached out to at the Fall Kick-Off Rally were Omari [at left] and Jeanpaul [at right]. Throughout this past month, I’ve spent many hours with these guys: having fun together, worshipping, talking about life, and meeting for discipleship. It blows my mind that a month ago I had no idea either of these guys existed! I am really so thankful to the Lord for his provision in giving our small group six freshmen to follow up. You can be praying with me that these freshmen will continue to grow in leaps and bounds, and that our group will help them become more and more like Christ.

In other, completely unrelated news: IT’S A BOY!!! Of course the sonogram was very grainy [as you can see on the flipside], but there wasn’t any doubt about the gender. So, Michelle and I are very excited to have a healthy, growing baby, and you can continue to pray for us during this time of transition in our lives.

Prayer Requests:

1) For the Lord to continue the good work He’s begun in the lives of the new freshmen in our small group.

2) That Michelle and I will continue to prepare our hearts and our life for being parents, and welcoming our son into the world!

Support Update!

Depending on how familiar you are with the concept of being totally support-based, the first few paragraphs may be confusing for you. But! You can message me or comment with questions. I try to be clear, but… I’m not.

In August, I switched from being on my own employee insurance to being to Stephen’s (employee + spouse) insurance, as I went from 30 hours to 20. The decision to do that now instead of in February when our baby is born was simply that I was racking up unpaid salary (since it hadn’t been raised yet; we call it backpay, as it’s pay that’s backed up from previous months), and it was silly to be doing that when I didn’t really plan to work that much in the Spring.

So, I got off my insurance, but kind of lollygagged about getting the papers in to get on Stephen’s insurance. You know when you have x number of things that need to get done today, and x number of things that need to get done by the end of the week, and then a few things that need to get done by the end of the month? Those last few things don’t get a lot of attention, until it’s the end of the month.

So. We did not have to pay for insurance for a couple of months because… I’m not 100% sure why it worked out that way. But we didn’t. It was a blessing in August, as Stephen would not have received a full paycheck (we call that a shortcheck), and it was really fun in September, as we both got full paychecks (my first full paycheck! So exciting!) AND Stephen received all of the backpay he had accrued from earlier this year. But it meant we had to pay for insurance for August, September, and October in this last paycheck! We were biting our nails as to how much we would be shortchecked.

Turns out, it wasn’t terrible. I get nervous whenever we have to dip into our savings (and we will probably a little this month), BUT we still have enough to cover the birth of our baby, and next month is looking like I may get a full paycheck again! [an aside: I don't know of many jobs where people get excited about getting their second full paycheck in nine months of employment. But I'm still really, really excited!] So we’ll get to add that to our savings as well.

Alllll of this to say, I did a lot of complaining to the Lord in the summer months about how it felt like He was deliberately keeping us on the very edge of not having enough, all while we were working very hard and diligently to be responsible for the GCM account for which we are responsible. I really was wondering if we would be able to responsibly provide for our child – not giving him new and brand name things, but just basic necessities like a car seat and healthful food (through me).

But God’s been providing exactly what we need, and it seems like He may actually allow us to be able to cover the “what ifs” that come with a major life (and potentially medical) event, like the birth of a child. I feel like I now need to learn how to trust Him as He starts to give us more than the bare minimum!  It’s another exciting and kind of scary faith-growing adventure!

Ten Missional Prayers for the Church Today

Dr. James Emery White

Pastor, Ranked Adjunctive Professor of Theology and Culture Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary

1.         That pastors would see other churches in their immediate vicinity as a co-laborer, not as the competition.

2.         That members of churches would see themselves as ministers and missionaries, dying to themselves for the sake of the cause, as opposed to consumers who care most about whether they are fed, ministered to, or served themselves.

3.         That parachurch organizations would be parachurch organizations – meaning serving alongside the church while giving the local church the pre-eminence it deserves – and allowing the partnership to reach its full redemptive potential in light of the biblical mandate.

4.         That church planters would commit to being a) sent by a church; b) called by a community; and c) eager to go where no one has gone. Instead of a) sending themselves; b) going to where they simply desire to live; and c) remaining blind to the reality that they’ll be the 11^th McDonalds in a row of ten existing ones.

5.         That all seminaries would remember that they exist to serve the church, and that they would serve the church to such a degree that their students would be more on fire to serve and build the local church after they have graduated than before they entered.

6.         That those committed to discipleship, and rightly so, would quit pitting it against evangelism as if any emphasis on “reaching out” somehow takes away from “building up”, creating a false dichotomy that doesn’t exist biblically.

7.         That older generations would quit worrying about whether they are being catered to sufficiently, and would become more interested in whether they are passing the baton on to the next generation that is so desperate and hungry for mentoring.

8.         That the false dichotomy between a concern for personal or sexual morality, and social justice, would evaporate. Instead, that we would see that being salt and light applies to both concerns: being as concerned for a culture of divorce as much as we are for the AIDS pandemic in Africa.

9.         That the pendulum between whether to share the gospel or engage in social ministry would also disappear. That we would see them not as an either-or, but a both-and; we are to give a cup of water and the bread of life, feeding both stomach and soul.

10.        That we would understand that lost people are not the enemy, but instead the objects of the Father’s heart – and thus, they should be the objects of ours. That we would join the Father as He sets out to find His lost sheep, search for His lost coin, and look desperately down the road for His prodigal son.

James Emery White

I loved this.  Just thought I’d share it! – M

Prayer Letter for August

We’re on the verge of another exciting ministry year! Stephen is now fully back in the swing of ministry, as the Fall Kick-Off Rally is today (Wednesday, September 1^st). We cannot wait to see who God is going to bring to our homegroup and how He is going to change our lives!

In mid-August, 70 leaders spent six days at our annual staff retreat. What is really amazing about that is 40 of them were student volunteer leaders. Seeing young people get excited about furthering God’s kingdom on earth through discipleship and evangelism, and then taking big steps towards actually carrying those desires out, is awesome to watch. I’m always bowled over at how God transforms freshmen into men and women who run after His heart. Of course, now is the time when all of that planning really goes into effect.

In the next two weeks, the students will pass out 5,000 flyers, invite a hundred classmates, and write on every chalkboard we’re allowed to on A&M campus, all advertising our Fall Kick-Off Rally; then have 15 different homegroup parties,  meet people at A&M’s Open House, and host 15 first homegroup meetings. On top of that, thousands of freshmen and transfer students are quickly making friends and looking for things to do. There’s so much opportunity to influence this generation for God’s glory. Please pray that we will be shining lights on campus!

As Stephen is busily preparing for all the crazy events we do in the first two months of the semester, I am continuing to raise support for our budding family. I’m pleased to announce that we’re at 60% of our combined GCM goal! It may not sound impressive to you, but it’s amazing, considering every person we’re currently meeting with has been referred to us by others; that is, we didn’t previously know anyone we’re now meeting with. The body of Christ has really been amazing to us!

Please be praying that we will reach 100% of our combined goal through GCM by the end of December. We chose the end of the year, as I’m due with our first child in February and won’t be able to travel much after the start of the new year. 40% may not sound like much, but it means I need to average about $170 in new monthly recurring gifts to GCM each week to meet that goal before Christmas.  That’s a lot! But God is so big, and He’s so capable, and He cares so much for us.

Prayer Requests:

• Please pray for freshmen and transfer students to get plugged into spiritual communities on campus.
• Please pray for the success of homegroup parties and meetings in attracting and keeping new members.
• Please pray for our continued efforts in raising support.

Howdy and Welcome!

 Welcome to this newest venture to keep everyone in the loop! Hopefully here will be where people come to find out what’s going on in the Muenichs’ lives, as well as what God’s doing through Fellowship Church at A&M.  Typically we’ll put something here, as well as a link to a great song, maybe a picture, verse reference. Something along those lines. Here’s what I (Michelle) wanted to share with you: Aaron Strumpel’s “Lift Up Your Hands.” It’s quite lovely, I think. Aaron Strumpel has a way with honesty, which is a pretty big deal to the generation of kids currently in college.

As for what’s going on in our lives currently, we’re busily raising support for the next 2 weeks before our staff retreat. After that, I’ll be on my own for the most part, since Stephen has a lot of staff responsibilities.

What you can be praying for: that these last two weeks of extreme support-raising togetherness will be productive in our eyes as well as in God’s; that the Lord would be already knocking at the doors of A&M’s soon-to-be freshmen; that our baby would continue to grow healthily. Thank you for your prayers! They are so powerful and such a blessing to us.

Love! m