A Life of Service

 One of my core beliefs is that we are all called to serve, if we are Christians.  That is not just about "full time vocational ministry".  It is not just till we "retire".  If we are followers of Jesus, we are supposed to be serving and need to be for our own welfare as well as the benefit of the Kingdom.

I was reminded of that this week with the news of Dick Houston passing away.  Dick was 88 years old and had been a College Minister in Georgia prior to his "retirement".  Just a little over a month ago, Dick contacted me to ask, if I had copies of "The Campus Minister" which was the professional journal of a now defunct group, The Association of Southern Baptist Campus Ministers.  I did not and referred him to some I thought might.

Shortly after that, Dick contacted me to tell me that he had gotten them and since he believed they were a valuable resource, he had posted all of them on line at student.org.  He was 88 years old and he was still trying to benefit the college ministry community.

In sharing his obituary on Facebook, I commented that Dick was the first College Minister I ever heard talk about using computers in your ministry.  I attended a session where he spoke of logging attendance at all of their meetings and then knowing who had and had not been to one of their events in the last two or three weeks.  Then, they could check on them and encourage them.  That was radical stuff then.  NOBODY was using technology like that in every day college ministry. Now College Ministers use SnapChat, GroupMe, etc, etc. every day. We would not dare have a college ministry conference without something on technology.  It has become that normal and everyday use.

Joe Graham, State College Ministry Director for Georgia, said of Dick, "Dick Houston was one of our pioneering CM's here in Georgia.  He tried and perfected new ideas before others even knew they were ideas."  I love that, "before others even knew they were ideas".

A month before he died at 88 he was doing "college ministry work".  He was fulfilling a life of service.  I pray that we will all be challenged by that example....no matter what our vocational calling is.  AND, let's be about perfecting some ideas before others even know they are ideas!

Arliss Dickerson's new book, ALMOST EVERYTHING ABOUT COLLEGE MINISTRY, is available at amazon.com.  Type in his name or the title.