Change Fall 1987

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Nature produces few displays of power as dramatic as a Rocky Mountain thunderstorm. A clear and beautiful day can quickly turn threatening as unstable air masses begin to rise to greater altitudes and produce thundershowers or hailstorms. As the storm gathers overhead, the giant thunderclaps sound like dynamite charges going off in the attic.

In Steamboat Springs, the small mountain resort where I live, the highest buildings have atop them a series of lightning rods. One such building is the Thunderhead Lodge, atop Mount Werner. The lodge serves as the upper terminal for the famed high-speed, eight-passenger Silver Bullet Gondola.

As I paced the parking lot outside the condominiums at the base of Mount Werner on August 11, 1986, I was sure I wouldn't see the completion of the gondola, which was being installed over the summer. But that wasn't the only thing I didn't expect to see completed. Following just twenty-one months here, I had resigned my church and was planning to leave the ministry.

Now, just seven days away from pulling out of town in a moving van, I was struggling with a continuing sense of God's call to reach this mountain community with the gospel. Following an hour of intensive prayer, I climbed the stairs back up to the condominium where my family and I were staying for our final week of ministry. I couldn't help but notice an ominous electrical storm brewing over the nearby peaks. It reminded me of the stormy nature of my ministry as I had attempted to lead a historic congregation through a process of revitalization.

I had arrived in Steamboat Springs in October 1984, just in time for the ninety-fifth annual meeting of the congregation. My ministry at Euzoa Bible Church began with an innocent-enough ...

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