Serve by Design

This past week, I was privileged to be involved in two ministries that united people near and far. My services, as a care pastor for our church, as well as a law enforcement chaplain with the state police, have given me unique opportunities to minister to others. I was privileged to officiate at the funeral of Terry Nydegger on Wednesday. Terry served the New Berlin community as Chief of Police and the Sangamon County Rescue Squad for a combined record-breaking 48 years of service! The Stars and Stripes credit: adobestock.com The life and service of Chief Nydegger was memorialized and widely celebrated across the county and state for his five decades of self-less dedication. His numerous skills and achievements were remembered along with his calm presence, hands-on experience, and steady leadership. He rescued and saved many lives and guided countless individuals through challenging circumstances as a SWAT team medic and member of the dive team. For the eight-mile motorcade from the ...

Last Monday was Senior’s Day at the Illinois State Fair. For several years now, Monique and I have leveraged our retirement age and the privilege of free admission for old folks! It was a beautiful midmorning as we entered the main gate with delightful anticipation and a little extra energy in our step. We knew the location of our favorites for food and exhibits! Our eyes were also alert to any available benches, along the way, for rest and people watching. This was our annual visit to the fair! It was a couple of hours later, after our visits to Vose Korndogs and the Pork Pavillion, that we had doubled back for a momentary respite in the Coliseum to watch the draft horse and pony show. As we sat there looking at some of the horses being groomed, I noticed what appeared to be a feat of physicality and creative achievement. One of the contestants was a cute older grade schoolgirl. She was curiously lying on her belly straddling the backside of a very large horse. While facing downward...

As you faithful readers have certainly noted, I have been at “low power mode” for the past two weeks since the blog anniversary article. I needed to take a break from writing due to a preaching opportunity, a graveside service, two training events, and two fellowship events to support other ministries in our busy church life. It has given me a welcome opportunity to recharge spiritually and reset for the fall! "Hard to look more relaxed!" - FB Comment by Marc K. One of the training events was our annual staff retreat where we spent the day off campus in a beautiful and nearby setting at the denominational conference center. It was my third opportunity to retreat with fellow staff members and receive training and instruction in “building a volunteer culture that thrives.” The leaders were in-house, but I thought several times, “This subject is so relevant that these leaders should ‘take this on the road’ and do conferences for other churches!” The day-long training included ...

Greetings, Readers! You will notice that today’s article looks a little different from my usual musings. This is the eighth anniversary of this work in progress. It all started in August of 2018 when I asked our tech savvy son, Marc, to help me set up a blog on my personal website ( www.mjkministries.com ). At the time, I was not sure how long this effort would last or that anyone would even read what I was writing. But to my surprise, God has blessed in an incredible way! Blogger At Work! As of this writing, Serve by Design has logged over one million and ninety-one thousand pageviews since its inception. The site regularly averages 45,000 pageviews each month. This issue represents the 400 th article! I have repeated this maxim a few times over the years, “Writers need readers!” I am grateful to each of you who take the time each week to open this devotional blog, read or scan through it, and then share your reflections. You are a blessing to me! Your verbal and written interaction...