Jim Van Gelderen: Welcome to the Thee Generation Podcast. This is Jim Van Gelderen, and I’m podcasting from the state of Michigan. 

Several weeks ago, the War Special Forces fall team started out. I had some responsibilities at Baptist College of Ministry, so Evangelist Caleb Reed led the team for a couple of weeks, and I was grateful to hear some great reports of what God did. 

About a week ago, my wife and I had the privilege of joining the team. We had our first week here in Michigan. Have a couple more to go. Certainly encouraged that the Lord is still working in teenage hearts, and grateful for all the Lord is doing. There’s nothing like serving the Lord. 

By the way, I wanted to encourage you here that just in a few weeks, we’re gonna have the Thee Generation Youth Summit. That’s gonna be October 12 through 14. That’s a Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday at Falls Baptist Church in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. I certainly hope you can join us, if there’s any way. We’d love to have you. 

As you may know, our theme is called War Max. That’s going to be the Army versus the Navy versus the Marines versus the Air Force. Four-way competition. It’s the only time in the history of Minutemen Ministries that we do four-way competition. A few years ago, we started with the Cola Clash. Some of you may remember that. Last year, we switched themes to The War Max. Four military branches competing for these three days. It’s intense. 

Some of the games you’re familiar with, with War of Special Forces, The War, and Cola-Clash, are done four-way. And sometimes a unique twist put on them. If you want more information, go to Thee Generation, that’s T-H-E-E Generation, and when you get to that first page you’ll see “Youth Summit.” You can click on that, get a bunch of information about it, pray about it, talk to your parents, youth pastor, pastor, and see if it’s a possibility to come on over to The War Max that will be going on at Falls Baptist Church. 

And I will tell ya, friend, it’s a great opportunity to bring somebody, perhaps spiritually would be helped and challenged by our sessions. It certainly is an exciting time, and we’re grateful for what the Lord has done in the past, fully anticipating another work of the Lord in many hearts. 

Hope you can join us, but certainly pray about it, and if there’s anything we can do, let the office know, and we’ll do all we can to try to give you information that might facilitate your coming. 

Well, those of you that listen to the podcast on a regular basis know I’ve been, in the last few podcasts, talking about My Journey. Getting to the point in life where you reflect back andーI don’t know how to explain itーyou see things particularly in those early years, formative years, of God’s just gracious dealing. 

Many times it wasn’t that you were really that smart or understood a whole lot of things, but because I had a heart to want to do what the Lord wanted me to do, He led me. There’s something about those early years of training and then ministry that are special. Because you can see how God was just doing remarkable things to encourage my heart and to set my course, and sometimes something that seemed very insignificant turned out to be highly significant in how my ministry played out, and the kind of ministry God has given me now for almost 40 years. 

But it all started, of course, my call to preach, one of my podcasts was on the call to preach. I won’t review that, except at 16, I yielded to the call to preach; God had been dealing with me. And one of the first things my dad did was to begin to open doors for me to preach. 

I remember going over to a church there in the Chicago area, some of you have heard me tell that story, where I felt very insufficient, felt like I preached a message and walked out of there thinking, “I didn’t help anybody. Everybody was bored during that message.” And I certainly don’t know if the Lord used it, but I remember that was kinda my first introduction to preaching. I’d done a little bit of youth group preaching, and probably found a little more blessing in that, or a little more encouragement in that. 

But that began my journey, and I beganーI did some preacher’s contests. In fact, that’s really what precipitated before my call to preach. I went to a preacher’s contest, and other folks encouraged me, I don’t know that I was personally, inside, that encouraged, but other people encouraged me. That they seem to see in me a gift from God, which turned out to be true, because it is a gift. But I did some preaching along the way in high school, then I went off to college. 

Now I think college is so important that you, number one: Go where God wants you to go. I would encourage you, friend, be praying about college.

God led me to college very clearly. It was my dad’s alma mater. And I had been there many times. My older brotherーI was a student there and he’s seven years older than I. So I remember, even as a little boy, going to that campus. I became familiar with the college. 

But when I showed up as a freshman, I knew in my heart I needed growth; I needed to meet God. I needed things spiritually to happen in order to be effective in ministry. The first thing I want to tell you: my freshman yearーprobably the biggest impact my freshman year was older students. Largely seniors. The Bible says in Proverbs 13:20, “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.” And I remember that freshman year, I began to hang around some of those seniors. 

To be honest with you. I’m not sure why they let me hang around them, but they did. I’d walk to breakfast with several of them every morning. And their influence had great impact. One of them was just on fire for God. He had an extension ministry, that’s a soul winning ministry, in a town a couple hours away. They’d go to a serviceman center; they’d go out on the streets, just witness to people. I went down there a few times. God stirred my heart. 

And I remember that one of those seniors preaching in a dorm meeting, and boy, he preached with passion, fervor; God stirred my heart. Others of them were just good, solid guysーmaybe preaching wasn’t their main gift, but they had a walk with God. They loved the Lord. They were consistent. They were out every week trying to win people to Jesus. 

And get greatly influenced by the seniors. That’s why it’s so important to be in the will of God where you go to school because you wanna be in a place where students that are older than you have already blazed the trail. They’re on fire for God. They can show you, “Hey, this is what God can do in your life.

But my sophomore year, I began to be involved in leadership, and God opened some doors. I had some preaching opportunities. I certainly had my failures. I had some times where God met with us. 

But I began to be in that leadership position and began to sense the need to meet with God. I think I mentioned in another podcast, where I began to spend time in the evenings meeting with God. It was a search; it didn’t happen overnight, and there were times where I just feel like God was a million miles away. And I didn’t know how to get Him, but I continued to seek Him, because the Bible says, “If you seek, you’ll find.” And I found that certainly true in my college years. 

Into my junior year, God gave me more leadership. I became a chaplain of the literary society I was in, preaching every week. There’s no doubt that preparation time and preaching time began to stir my heart. And I began to, again, see God touch different hearts, meet needs, and I began to understand a little bit more about ministry. 

At the same time, God was growing my burden. I’d been home a couple of summers. Had been out on the streets witnessing to teenagers. We had youth evangelistic events in the summertime, and so my heart was burdened to get involved in youth evangelistic enterprises right there. 

And to make a long story short, we started a basketball tournament in a nearby town, in Simpsonville. And a church sponsored us and rented a gym, and we went out and recruited teams. We had four teams. We had t-shirts that we had brought down from my youth group of a program that we didn’t use anymore, and I’d use those four team t-shirts, and I’d get guys that were P.E. majors to come and ref the games, and we’d try to make it as big a deal as we could. And in between the games, somebody would stand and preach. Sometimes it would be myself; sometimes it would be somebody else. And we’d preach the Gospel.

And those kind of things, God stirred my heart about. But college was a time not just of “I’m gonna do ministry in the future,” it was now. I don’t care if you’re in high school or college or what age you’re listening to this podcastーnow is the time to get involved in ministry, even as a teenager. 

I wish back in high school I’d been more involved in ministry. I went on a visitation, but I was not immersed in a ministry mindset. But when I got to college, I was, especially as I got older, I became immersed in a ministry mindset. Nobody told me to go and do that basketball tournament. I just had to do it. I had to do things with teenagers. 

Some of the programs we do nowーThe War, Cola-Clashーthe embryonic form of that. We’d sometimes get churches to sponsor us to do a rally in their area. We’d invite area teenagers and preach the Gospel after the competitions, just like we do with The War and Cola-Clash. 

My point is: college was a timeーit was a time of being influenced by good people. It was a time of getting involved in ministry. It was also a time of seeking the Lord. I’ve dealt with that on My Journey series here, in one of the previous podcasts. 

It was also a time, obviously, to learn. I don’t minimize the classroom. There were some big things that I learned in the classroom, but I will say collegeーprobably, the greatest lessons I learned were outside the classroom. And just ministry. Interacting with people, growing, have fervency, ministering, preaching, counseling. 

I became a hall leader my junior year, which means I was responsible for about thirty-some rooms. And every once in a while, I got to stand on a chair in the middle of that hall and preach. Those times I look backーI remember giving invitations. The study lounge, which would have been where the invitation went, was packedーkids getting right with God, students getting right with God and God stirred me. Had the privilege of doing that my junior year and my senior year. 

There was something about preaching the Gospel, and so those college years were very formative years for me. Those four yearsーI couldn’t replace them. 

I do remember my senior year having the wonderful privilege of leading an ensemble every night, almost every night preaching in a different church. I remember seeking God, pleading with God. Oh, sometimes I’m sure I laid an egg. Sometimes I felt like I did terrible. Other times though, God met with me. God was teaching me, and I was seeking Him, and I was praying. 

There were times on that ensembleーI can remember in Arkansas going out in the woods one night after the home we were staying in. I went to that home, I can’t even remember how I got out into the woods, but looking up, the sunーor, excuse me, the moonーwas out, and I remember the woods being lit some, and God meeting with me. 

There were other times on that ensemble… All I can tell you is: God met with me. I remember one time calling my mom on a payphone. I know your generation’s not gonna understand thisーyou high schoolers and college students, butーcalling on a pay phone, hanging up that phone, and my heart burning with a sense of the presence of God. I knew God was doing something. 

That’s what college is all about. Where you begin to establish a walk with God. You begin to see God use your life. You begin to influence others. You allow yourself by the grace of God to be influenced by men and leaders ahead of you that are walking with God and have some things that you need to learn from. It’s a wonderful time, friend. 

Now, of course, I’m a vice president of Baptist College of Ministry. I believe that college is this kind of atmosphere that I’m talking about. Thank the Lord, there are other colleges out there. Some of you are familiar with them. Some of you may be students there. 

But here’s the thing I want you to walk away from (with). If God wants you to go to Bible collegeーand I would urge you to at least give it the possibility of going for a year, and asking God to use that year just to frame up your life; give you a foundation for the future. Because I think back to my four years of college, and there are amazing memories of what God did in preparing me for the ministry I’ve been in for 38 years. 

Well, next time I want you to join me, because I’m gonna tell you in My Journey on Finding a Wifeーand God gave me a wonderful wifeーI could not have done what the Lord’s called me to do in these 38 years with(out) my wife Rhonda. And so I’m gonna tell that story next time. 

But until next time, remember the Thee Generation battle cry: Total Surrender, and Total Dependence.