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The Elder Corner By: Pastor Duncan Ross

Lately, much has been made around here of a pastor who stays 25 years in one church. That’s under-standable I suppose, given the infrequency of this. I must confess however that I am baffled as to why this is so rare. When Mount of Olives Baptist called me in the Spring of 1990, I knew it had to be God because Bethel Seminary had told me three years earlier that their grads were never placed in churches larger than 100. At 160 attenders, Mount of Olives was—only by strange workings of God’s grace, willing to consider a seminary graduate. And then—only one who had been recommended to the church by a beloved interim pastor who also happened to be Bethel’s Director of Placement.

When Bob Gilmore called and told me the Search Committee would be recommending me to the church, I was shocked. God’s hand was clearly on this process and I took this as a very strong call of God. An under-shepherd, like the chief Shepherd he is to imitate, is called to lay his life down for the sheep. I wish I could tell you that my commitment to this church had always been at that level of sacrifice, but I CAN say that I have always understood that to be the nature of the call—to be willing to die for this flock of believers in a manner that pointed to Jesus, whose redeeming death saved sinners.

As I have spent my time here, some of my graduating classmates from Bethel have served as pastor of four or five different churches. I always wondered why the churches to which they were called were always increasingly larger and more lucrative for the pastor. You would think God might call someone to a smaller church occasionally. Though there are a few good reasons for a pastor to sever ties with a church, it would seem that this call to die for the flock would make that a rarity. It’s simply not consistent to say to a flock of God’s beloved sheep, “I’m willing to die for you, but I’m only going to hang around until a ‘better’ offer comes my way or until a challenge comes up that I don’t want to mess with.” This is not the way of Christ.

It’s clear to me that God has used my family at Mount of Olives in our lives as much as he has used me to minister to his flock here. You have taught me so much about loving people, caring, listening, praying, preaching and all the other pastoral functions—as well as just living a life for Jesus. I never hope to serve him more satisfyingly than I have here.

The recent 25th Anniversary Celebration was such a wonderful evening for our family. To hear testimo-nies of God’s work through us—in spite of my many flaws and foibles, was a powerful reminder of his faithfulness and his capacity and desire to use weak and broken vessels for his name-sake. Thank you to everyone who had anything to do with this—for those who planned, participated, attended or sent cards in connection with our 25th anniversary. May God continue to bless the ministry here so as to show the manifold glories of Jesus to a lost, and dying world.

July 1, 2015

The ‘Olive Press’

July Events

Monday, July 6 ~ Church Offices Closed Friday-Saturday, July 10-11 ~ Youth at Mertes’ Cabin

Saturday, July 11 ~ Mugs & Muffins Saturday, July 18 ~ Men’s Golf Scramble

July 19-26 ~ Grand Portage Outreach Trip Wednesday, July 22 ~ Prayer for Our Missionaries

Saturday, July 25 ~ Men’s Breakfast

Prayer Sisters Several women who attended the Women's Day of Prayer in March indicated that they

were interested in forming Prayer Sister Groups. If you are interested in helping Lori Steward and

Rebekah Richmond with your ideas and suggestions please contact them. They welcome your

input. They would like to know what works and what has not worked. If you would like to

participate by getting this going let them know that too. You can contact Lori at (218) 235-1088 or

lori.b.steward@gmail.com and Rebekah at (218) 341-7036 or rebekah@ps271.com.

Having seen the Muslims face-to-face and five times a day hearing the haunting call to

prayer to a mythical god is a powerful reminder of their need for God’s grace and the

amazing truth that God has chosen you to be saved when so many others in this world

are daily perishing in their sins. This is very humbling and I’m not sure it can be

replicated any other way than in going to the field and seeing it for yourself. Missionary

slide shows are important in informing the church of their life overseas, but nothing can

replace the real thing—the chance to see what stokes the passion of these dear ones

who represent our Lord and our church so well. Finally, it is an immeasurable blessing to

the pastor to see people who once sat in the pews out on the field, speaking the

language and loving people for whom Jesus died. I can’t tell you how much it blessed my

soul to see the Hankins and the Hayes in action over there. It reminds the pastor(s) that

God is truly at work in the lives of the people to whom they are called to minister.

These blessings translate into a deeper level of commitment to the global mission of Christ

in the local church. Whether we like it or not, what gets the heart of the pastors

eventually gets the heart of the people to whom they minister. For the most part,

pastors with a passion for God’s global purposes translate into churches with like

passion. Therefore, the church is ultimately the beneficiary of the pastor’s renewed

heart for the Great Commission. Whatever stokes the heart of the pastor for the global

mission of the church is bound to redound to those in the flock.

In light of these factors and many more, I strongly urge Mount of Olives in the years to come to

continue to sponsor pastors (whether me or one of the other pastor elders) to go out to visit

the missionaries. This will doubtless bring mutual encouragement to both missionary and

sending church in the Greatest Cause and, Lord willing; continue the process wherein even

more of our people can sense God’s call to go out--to take great risks for God for their joy

and his glory.

Youth Grand Portage Outreach Trip By: Jase Tunell

The last word that Jesus spoke to His disciples was a charge to go out and spread the good news of the Gospel, and for the past 2,000 years our world has seen that take place. Spreading from Jerusalem outward, many, many people have come to know the truth of the Gospel and had their lives altered by Christ. Today, we continue to carry out that command wherever God leads us. For the past eight years, He has led our youth group to proclaim this glorious truth to the community of Grand Portage. However, Mount of Olive’s ministry to Grand Portage began much earlier, in the 80s, with members of our church going up to help stack wood for some people in the community, including the pastor of Mount Rose Baptist Church. This summer, we are once again going to join with the church in Grand Portage (now named Maamawiitawin – Ojibwa for “gathering place”) to reach out to the community with the love and message of Jesus Christ. While we are up there we will do work projects, run a Vacation Bible School, organize Teen Night activities and host a community event. In everything, we are looking for opportunities to talk with people, build relationships, speak truth into their lives and connect them to the local church. This trip, year after year, has proven to me to be not only helpful to Jake and April McCormick’s ministry in Grand Portage (the pastor and his wife), but also to our own students’ walk with Christ. Every year students are challenged to lay aside all comforts and fears and follow God where He leads, leaning on Him for boldness and strength. Year after year, God continues to show Himself faithful and true as He works through us to accomplish His mission. Not only does this trip help students to lean on God and see Him work through them, but it also shows the power and grace of prayer. Everything that we do is doused in prayer: we pray for each other individually and as a group, we pray before our work projects, we pray over our VBS, Teen Nights and the Community Event, we pray for individuals in the community and we keep a prayer notebook so that we can look back and see all the ways that God has answered our prayers and praise Him for the work that He does. Needless to say, this is one of the most stretching and growing things that we do as a youth group, and I am so excited to jump in! Our trip dates are July 19-26. If you would, join us in prayer for our ministry and for the ministry of Maamawiitawin to the community of Grand Portage. There is a spiritual darkness in Grand Portage and the people desperately need to hear the truth. Praise God that He uses broken vessels like us to bring the glorious riches of the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

Looking Ahead In the fall of 2016 we will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of our church. We have a pictorial record of the first 40 years. If you have photos of events from 2003 to the

present please share them with us. You may put them in mailbox #48 but do not write on them. You can place a label on the back or on a separate piece of paper telling

about the event. Or you can send them electronically to the office email: office@mountofolives.net.

Trip to Jordan By: Pastor Duncan Ross

As you know, the church sent me to Amman, Jordan for the first three weeks of May. If you

haven’t heard the details and would like to do so, I have chronicled my journey in a paper that is

available from the office upon request. I recorded my journey because I believe the church has

a right to know what went on with me over there as you were sponsoring this trip. I again want

to thank all of you for this privilege. Based on my experience, I decided to dedicate this article

to provide three reasons why sending one of the pastors to the mission field on a regular basis is

very fruitful for the local church. Please think about these truths I recently experienced

firsthand.

The missionaries are much encouraged. It’s probably impossible for the average church-

goer to know how lonely it can be on the mission field—at least, it was for me. Yes, it’s

much less intense in this age of skype, email and air travel, but the personal cost remains

high for those who leave this land to follow Christ. You are placed in a land where you

can’t speak the language and for most of us acquisition of language—especially one like

Arabic (what I heard on my trip) is a very trying endeavor. It’s very difficult to grasp this

dynamic when living in a place where you are able to communicate with just about

everyone. The diet is different and it can play havoc with your digestive system as your

body learns to cope with a completely new array of bacteria. Family ties are stretched

greatly as you are painfully reminded that you’re missing out on the celebration of all the

important family milestones—holidays, birthdays, first days at school, birth of your first

grandchild, etc… All of these factors and many more conspire to make visits from folks at

home an indescribable treat. This is also encouraging to the missionary because it gives

them a rare opportunity to show you the material object of their passion—their work

among the people group to which they have been sent. Missionaries love talking about

what they do and showing visitors what it is that so impassions them.

The pastor’s heart is much enlarged for both the sent missionaries and the people to

whom they are sent. My visit to the Middle East very much changed the shape and

frequency of my prayers for the work in Jordan and for our missionaries and that is only

one of many ways my soul was impacted by the trip.

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Facilities and Grounds Ministry Team By: John Franzen

Lights are being replaced in the education wings. The fifty year old fixtures are being replaced with energy efficient LED fixtures. Men of the church work together to accomplish the tasks that we are able to do ourselves without the expense of hiring the work done. This may not seem like a spiritual function but it is. Each member of the body is gifted by God in different ways. We all need to exercise our gifting so that the body functions as the Lord desires. The Lord has led our church to invest His resources in a building to provide a place for ministry to take place. That investment needs to be maintained and many of us in the body can participate in that work. There have been monthly work-days in the past when the body is encouraged to come out and participate in projects around the church on a Saturday. Some of you have participated in those workdays. Thank you! The Facilities and Grounds Ministry Team is proposing that during the summer months most Monday evenings will be a time for the body to join in work projects. We also would like to announce that there will be a list of needed maintenance projects maintained by John Long, the Facilities Manager. Those who have time any day during the week and desire to work independently can contact John and find out what work needs there are. The building is showing its age in many ways and can use a helping hand from those of us who attend here. If it sounds like we are asking for help, that is because we are asking for help. Many hands make light work. You may not be a skilled construction worker but you have skills that are needed whatever those skills may be. How we maintain our facilities and grounds communicates a great deal to our visitors and neighbors but even more so to the Lord. The Facilities and Grounds Ministry Team is looking for additional members who would be willing to meet on the first Monday of the month and help give direction to the needs and solutions of this important ministry. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord. I Corinthians 15:58

Faith, Family & Fellowship

By: Rachel Hart One look at Emily Johnson’s petite, athletic frame and it was easy to see, this mother of five, once went to Saint Cloud State University on a running scholarship. She and her husband Nathan passed on that love of physical activity and the outdoors to their five children: Ben, Moriah, Jenna, William and Ava. Rather than watch television or go their separate ways, this family decided they would mountain bike together—even in the winter. Emily laughed when she described what their Sienna van looked like when all seven bikes and a car box were mounted to the van for a vacation to Copper Harbor, MI. “My nephew came out to greet us and just laughed,” Emily said. To hear Emily tell the story, she had an idea very early on what her family life would look like. “I’m sort of a dreamer, but an intentional dreamer. I’m an intentional person, who has been inspired by the dynamics of the family, and I had a specific vision for that.” That vision focused on what Emily described as, “cultivating the appetites of the home.” She worked to create a desire in her children for faith, as well as a desire for the enjoyment of the family as an end or pleasure in and of itself. “In our home, it’s just the simple fact of enjoying each other’s presence and whoever is there,” Emily said. She summed it up in one word: contentedness. Emily credited this inspiration to a book by R.C. Sproul that spoke to “The Duties of Parenthood.” She cautioned the word ‘duty’ sounded so sterile, but the ideas behind it were warm and thoughtful. It moved her to think about the atmosphere of her home and the relationships in it as important aspects of parenting that could be easily overlooked if life got too busy or if the family’s members operated too separately. Nathan and Emily have been rewarded for their intentional efforts to keep their family engaged with each other. “They [the kids] are each others’ best friends,” Emily explained. She has home schooled her children who range in ages from five-years-old to seventeen-years-old. She confessed she never imagined herself home schooling. However, Emily said watching an older sibling do it, gave her the confidence she needed to decide when her kids were just toddlers. As a home-school mother, she said she didn’t have to undo a lot of attitudes that were brought from the outside into the home. “The most challenging dynamic is tending to the needs of both ages,” Emily said. She teaches the grade school level and the high school level at the same time and tries to engage their wide range of interests. Recently, Ben attended Lake Superior College as a high school student to get an early start on college credits. “He thrived, but that was really different keeping tabs on something so totally foreign to us,” she said. The bigger adjustment was that Ben and Moriah saw much less of each other.

Ben and Moriah had always had similar interests and common friends. They both participated in the league of Minnesota High School Mountain Biking and they both competed as Nordic Skiers on the Duluth East team. In all areas, Emily said she tried to encourage her children to maintain a thoughtful balance. She wanted them to befriend people outside of their home school and church groups. Emily wanted them to be salt and light that just radiated authentically in all places and all circumstances. Not long ago, Emily said they got a chance to model that philosophy. The Johnson’s restored their historic home and the twin home beside theirs and it has created opportunities for new relationships. Due to the interest shown in their home, they got a lot of drop-in company. “It’s just a part of who we are now and we just hold it [the house] loosely. It’s the Lord’s outpouring,” she said. They looked at their home as a way for people to see their lives and experience hospitality for the sake of getting to know strangers. She said just two weeks ago, she pulled into the driveway and there were 8-10 people in her yard who wanted to see the house. This spirit of open hospitality has extended to the neighbors. “It is the old fashioned day-to-day things they like; having them in for tea, helping them on a project and accepting them for who they are and trusting the Lord to work,” Emily said. The family seemed to have a wide range of interests, but brought it back to one guiding factor. “I tell them to remember who they are representing at all times—Christ,” Emily said. She has worked to read the Bible to her kids and create a home that has a Christ-centered focus. “I’ve always had a bent for Christ. Even younger, I would always seek out relationships that would develop that, “ Emily said. However, she didn’t have mentor-type relationships until she reached college. In fact, she and Nathan met at Campus Crusade for Christ at Saint Cloud State University. Just as Nathan was finishing up a degree in Psychology, she was starting a degree in Education. It was at Campus Crusade for Christ that Emily said she and Nathan got additional mentor-ing and discipleship before they were married. She said Nathan received mentorship at camps throughout his childhood that she wished she had had in her own childhood. At Mount of Olives, Emily said her children have these opportunities. There are even opportunities for missionary work every summer when the church goes to Grand Portage for a week. Emily explained Ben has done the trip for several years and Moriah will go this year. “He really has a heart for service,” Emily said. As she wrapped up the conversation, she began to talk about how much they enjoyed coming back to Mount of Olives after their experience church planting. “There is nothing like having long-term relationships and roots,” Emily said. I was so inspired by her intentional dreaming and aim to create a contented life for her family. May God continue to bless this family and create more opportunities for them to be salt and light. In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen.