MAD Goals

The Greater Boston Area

I received a very impact-full text late last week. It came at a great time--and on a day when I really needed it. It was from my friend, Jeff, in Boston. Thirty years ago--in the early 80's--he was an undergrad at the University of Denver. He had committed his life to Christ there at DU. He became one of my student leaders--a member of the CA "Team" for several consecutive years. He also became a loved, "adopted" member of our young family. Today he serves a professional counseling role at a county outpatient resource in the Boston area.

His text included this: "...I want you to know I used something in my group yesterday that you, Richard Brandow, taught at one of our Campus Ambassador's retreats. It just came to me. It was that goals should be MAD...measurable, attainable and definable. I hope one of my clients remembers it 30 years from now!"

Wow.

That was both really humbling and exquisitely challenging...for sure! May God grant me--and you too--the opportunity to influence many more "Jeff's" in the course of our lives. "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep for that which he cannot lose." Jim Elliott

Dick 

My Missions Door website

Of Hair and Worship

Yup, a barber pole

Think about this with me. I get to the barber every two weeks. You? As a general rule the ancient biblical character, Samson, never darkened the barber's door. He was a Nazarite from birth (Numbers 6:2) and a biblical Old Testament Judge. He actually worshiped GOD by not cutting his hair. It was a vow he swore to keep from his childhood. If you've not revisited that story for a while, check it out in Judges 13-16.

When I was younger, Samson  was a bit of a  puzzle to me. I saw him as physically STRONG and morally weak. I said "weak"--not corrupt. Now, as an older adult, I look at him through a different set of lenses. I observe, for example, that Samson was amazingly used by GOD despite his singular weakness. Even way back then--in the Old Testament--God demonstrated His GRACE in Samson's life, because it wasn't until his vow was compromised--until Delilah cut his hair--that his amazing strength t-e-m-p-o-r-a-r-i-l-y left him.

So I ask myself, "what do I love?" How does what I love influence the way I am spending my life--my day-to-day? Why? Because as a child of God (John 3:16) I too have a vow, a love-obligation to worship HIM. Just like Samson, I am privileged to serve the gracious eternal GOD with all my strength (Romans 12:1,2.) as he was similarly privileged to do. Throughout his amazing life Samson was obedient to his vow--with just one short and painful vow-related slip-up. 

Can I say that about me? Nope. For me--and for Christ-followers in general--perhaps even more jaw-dropping and encompassing than Samson amazing life and experiences--is my awareness that God has called me to worship HIM through and in my life-style choices (John 4:25 & 14:6, Philippians 2: 5-7 and Romans 12: 1 & 2, again). Worship, by God's grace, becomes my life-style and effects all my daily choices. So, it's not about hair cuts per se, or about Sunday-go-to-meetings, praise songs or musical worship events, what movies I see or the books I read, or about Bible memory, do's and don'ts of all kinds, "the company I keep", or my career or vocational choices, etc. It's about all of those things and no one of them in particular and influences them all in general (e.g., Matthew 6:33).

So the next time I visit my barber I'm going to look in the mirror, think of Samson, and then ask myself, "Hey bro, how's your worship goin...today?

Dick 
PS: Here's a fun, virtual "barber visit"

Step-by step forward

This support-raising effort sure isn't for the faint of heart. There us so much on the line for me, for Judi, for our future...and for the potential impact I can have and bring to students on the CSM campus. 

I know that God knows all that, and that's very reassuring, but this effort to build a team of friends who partner with me to get there, and then be there, is a huge GUT check...every day. Its back and fourth both painful and exhilarating, so I have my good days and not so good ones...the gut check ones.

So, I revel in your prayers for me through this process...and of course I get really excited when the staff in the Missions Door office emails me to report a new pledge. I am again reminded...
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and don't lean on your own understanding...." Proverbs 3: 5&6.

Dick

Helping In A Deep Hole

About 6' Down...and counting

This spring I began the challenging task to dig a l-o-n-g French drain on the west side of our house. It was about thirty feet long, 30 inches wide, and eight feet deep! Yup...that was a hole...a little over 22 cubic yards of dirt--and rocks. And to shorten a long dirty story, I got about a third of the way into the project and had to get some help, no thanks to a developing knee situation that summarily required surgery.

So I paid some highly recommended college age or college focused guys to help me forward the job; as it turned out--three brothers. Coincidentally all of them had connections to the Colorado School of Mines. They helped me get the job finished in fine order and we had a great time working together--well, they worked and I hobbled around, convalesced and talked (as they worked). Ha

At one point in the process one of them was asking me about my ministry experiences at DU. In my response we discussed the CAIRD program at DU and how it came about. I told him how I saw so many of my student friends devastated by sudden personal pain and disillusionment with that horrific news--that their parents were divorcing--and how it prompted me to create a faculty sponsored outreach to these men and women. He got all quiet and said, "Wow, that happened to me and my brothers, too."

So, I told him more about CAIRD, about it's informal nature, student leadership, students-supporting-students through some really emotionally painful and stressful times, like just going home for weekends or holidays, for example. He responded with a, "Wow, that would have been a great blessing to me and to many of my friends on the CSM campus." 

Pray for me...maybe you'll help me get there to "...extend a cup of cold water to these..," your cup through me (Matthew 10:42).

Godspeed,
Dick
Missions Door website

Is Old-er More Beautiful...Relating to Those Twenty Somethings?

Lana Del Rey

So how am I supposed to relate to these twenty something men and women? I know for a fact that several college-focused ministries retire their staff in their 50's. They've decided age doesn't relate. In a cultural environment so dedicated to young and beautiful (click there), and old is stodgy and stuck, that decision might make a lot of sense, but it makes anxious has-beens and cast-offs of what was once handsome and beautiful. 

Lana Del Rey's popular song, summarizes the crucial question...
And will you still love me
When I'm no longer young and beautiful?
Will you still love me
When I got nothing but my aching soul?
I know you will, I know you will
I know that you will
Will you still love me when I'm no longer beautiful?
Will you still love me when I'm no longer beautiful?
Will you still love me when I'm not young and beautiful?

Clearly, our universities and colleges across the country don't buy into that "old doesn't relate" and it's no longer beautiful decision. If they did, the bulk of their professors would be...well...much younger. So, if the question we're really asking is about the variety of really effective ways we can create to reach into the hearts of collegiate men and women, then age actually offers advantages! Consequently, I'm realizing, Wow LORD, maybe you've carefully prepared me for THIS....amazing opportunity!

And that confidence has already been confirmed. Where and how? In the recent statements made by "my" students (since since those DU days) at Rivendell College, at the University of Colorado, and in my work with Centers for Christian Study International. I've been in collegiate-related trenches with some amazing students through the past three decades....so maybe I'm even better now than I was some years ago!? 

While I was at the University of Denver I really did learn some things, and I was able to do some really fun stuff with the students. Yes, some of those times were pretty physically rigorous. Admittedly, that more rigorous stuff won't figure as prominently into my personal ministry plan this time around. But my younger team members can and will do those things. Thank God for "team." I am already prayerfully anticipating the men and women God will raise up to play those roles to compliment this effort at the CSM!

Through the years at DU, CU, CCSI, and most recently at Rivendell College I looked for "itches," and I soon become an"itch scratcher." We did some really fun and practical stuff to address obvious--and not so obvious--student's needs. Those successes opened all kinds of doors for other ministry-related efforts and some shoulder-to-shoulder experiences with students, faculty, and staff--especially at DU. They paved the way to some amazing campus-community relationships and huge opportunities to share the Good News of the Kingdom. With God's blessing I anticipate seeing some of that happen at CSM. 
Examples?...

• DUELIX...A university-wide mentoring program for juniors and senior students matching potential professionals with seasoned area professionals and respecting disciplines and passions.
• CAIRD...A university-wide support group experience for undergrads and grad students nursing the wounds of parental divorce.
• Volunteer Investments of time and professional skills to help students and staff in the counseling and career center at the University under institutional supervision.
• The Man Class...a 12-week tutorial and discussion format about male-female expectations and communication enhancement in general and in dating
• Smarter Romance...a dating paradigm, seminars, and an appropriate Biblical dating posture that helps couples appropriately and best answer the question, "Should we continue this relationship?" 
• Leadership Development opportunities through the the Dean of Students offices at DU.
• The Peak Leadership Program at CCSI and Rivendell College matching students with Boulder area field ministry opportunities.....
• E-Cubed...Engineers Reaching Engineers with the gospel; students, professors, and old-new alumni.

Not as pretty but...

I'd like to be on the campus in the fall, 2014. If you know me, and you have not done so already, please do these four things for me, starting initially with some thoughtful prayer: 1) Go to the Missions Door website; 2) Read through my bio page and consider, "Is God challenging me/us to be a 'behind-the-scenes' partner in Dick's ministry at CSM"; then, 3) after your careful and prayerful consideration, make your decision. If you say, "Yes," then, 4) Go back to the Missions Door web page, above, and sign-up.  Please join me; I will be thrilled to have your ongoing prayer and financial support!

Next time:  We'll see...God knows!

FYI...I'm going to use this blog to help me keep you up to date on what's happening on my way to ministry at the Colorado School of Mines (CSM). Please subscribe to this blog...and it will come to you automatically. (At the top of this blog where it says "email address" enter yours and click, "submit.")

A Promontory Challenge

Haystack Rock, Cannon Beach, Oregon

A lot of open beach and one BIG rock!
Appropriately called Haystack Rock this huge chunk of old lava casts a tall shadow on one of Oregon's most scenic beaches. I suspect the length of the beach stretching North and South from its promontory totals perhaps three miles. It's that space, punctuated by this big central rock, that makes its presence both imposing and magnetic. It beckons people and it looms taller and more imposing with each encroaching step.

The noble quest I am embarking on right now influences me in much the same way Haystack Rock influences the people of Cannon Beach. I feel God's call to begin a creative ministry on the Colorado School of Mines (CSM) campus in Golden, CO. The size of the financial challenge to raise the necessary monthly support looms tall above me--just like that Rock. 

And here's a thought...If I was young, maybe in my thirties or forties, I'd have time on my side. As things are--the mature, vital, and strategic age of 66+!--triggers my resolve to address the support-raising challenge head-on and very efficiently--and comparatively quickly!

So, as things are right now, I have run the beach and stand squarely at the Rock's base. I am about to begin picking my way up and up its scraggy face step-by-very careful step. Perhaps within the next nine months, God willing, I will joyously plant my victory flag atop its crusted old crown...and survey the expanse of open beach below. Yah...so easily said, but it still looms above me as we speak. 

Reading this blog you probably know something of my strengths and weaknesses...an old friend? By the grace of God I have "learned to learn" from many of my failures--and even now not yet all of them. Nevertheless, I am excited to have a huge cache of tools and a tall list of skills to bring to the CSM community. But I know this is a "we" challenge, one that will demand a team effort from its start. It will be seasoned with the spices of self-sacrifice for us all. Where and how it will take me--us--toward the future's finish (II Timothy 4:8)? It's something only God knows.

Please prayerfully, purposefully, join me in this quest to lovingly influence men and women in the name of Jesus Christ on the Colorado School of Mines campus. Right now my need is: 1) For your prayers as I put together a creative and strategic accountability team to help me get there; and 2) for your monthly financial commitments. (Please go to my Missions Door web site to sign-up...thanks!)

Next time I will address several questions I suspect will be asked about my quest. For example, "Yup, you're not a young buck any more, so how do you expect to relate effectively to these 20-something men and women!?"

That should be fun.
Dick

"Where he leads me...I will follow...!?"

I am fresh back from a weekend spent with a rag-tag bunch of guys in the mountains of Colorado's front range. Wow, what a weekend! Suffice it to say it was a challenge to me--body, soul, spirit, and mind--exactly as it was designed to have been. 

Shortly after my return I wrote a response to some of them: "My experience this past weekend surpassed my expectations too. It's interesting because what I thought I needed to happen did, but not in the way I expected. I'm still processing that and I expect I probably will continue that effort for some time...and I may need more help with that effort(?). For sure, and among so many other things, I came away with a renewed sense and appreciation for the power and support of a "band of brothers." It was and is profoundly appreciated. Thanks so much for your part in that! And yes, those early AM events were indeed tall punctuation marks in the poem about an amazing weekend."

"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood and being one traveler long I stood and looked..."

 Actually, the big reason I chose to attend that highly attested men's event was about a goal. I wanted to get some timely, personal, and providential insight. With Judi's support I have been weighing the idea of my returning--re-applying--to the organization that brought us to Denver in the first place. In that instance, in February of 1980, we moved from the Pacific Northwest to start a ministry on the University of Denver campus.

 The weekend's outcome--as I intimated quoting myself, above--is affirmative: I am now officially in the application process to return to Campus Ministry(!) under the auspices of Missions Door (click on that). At this point I...we...have no absolutely clear idea what the future holds for me re., application acceptance, immediate time investment, and talents to be employed. So, I covet your prayers and your input/discussion as we genuinely seek God's quiet and wise leadership. 

If you have something on your heart that you believe He wants you to tell me, please call, text, email. For such gestures of friendship I offer my preemptive thanks!

So, I close this blog update with this quote from The Book of Proverbs (16:9) : "The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps."

Dick 
720-350-2992
rkbrandow@msn.com