Jeremy L. Berg

“I will remember the deeds of the LORD;
yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago” (Psalm 77:11).

We gain the confidence to face an uncertain future by remembering the faithfulness of God in the past. We are entering a season of uncertainty. Keri and I are preparing to close another chapter in our life of ministry together, and begin a new chapter soon.

Yet, our current chapter at Faith Covenant Church came unexpectedly and all too suddenly for me. When we arrived at Faith in the fall of 2007 I wasn’t ready to close the book on the previous chapter of ministry in Mound. We were seeing a genuine movement of God explode in my hometown, as The Revolution ministry I planted was steadily gaining steam.

But the Lord had good reasons to suddenly drop the curtain on this Act and open another door in Burnsville. While the fire of the Spirit was burning bright in the efforts of this new ministry, the flame in our home, personal lives and marriage was flickering and growing dimmer by the day. For our first 2 years of marriage we held 6 part-time jobs simultaneously between the two of us, trying to make ends meet, while also planting a new ministry. Can anyone say, “Burn out?”

God’s grace led us to Faith Covenant.  God’s call is leading us onward.We needed a place to restore some balance and rhythm in our lives. We needed a place to grow in our marriage.  We needed a faith family of fellow Christian friends to share the journey with. We needed to gain some financial stability. And Faith needed a tall senior high director and his amazing sidekick to love on and minister to the most amazing group of teenagers south of the river!  It has been a short but beautiful chapter in our story.

But I still never closed the chapter before it. So, this February following the news of our coming exit from Faith Covenant, I decided I needed to do something I have been meaning to do for the past 3 years. I need to capture in words the story of the most formative chapter in my life.  I needed to close that previous chapter before I could think about closing this current chapter of our life at Faith.

So I rented a cabin up north, took a week of vacation, kissed Keri goodbye and headed up north with some candles and my laptop. I locked myself in this cabin and for 4 days I sat at my computer attempting to write a personal memoir, a spiritual autobiography of sorts. My soul lifted as I rehearsed the faithful deeds of God in my past. I gained new confidence to face the uncertain future by reflecting on the supernatural provision of God in days gone by.

Over the next few months I will be sharing some of what I wrote at that cabin on Tuesdays and Thursdays in this long series — 30 posts or more — I’m calling “Divine Summons.” This is the story of how God took a confused college kid looking for a stable career and transformed him into a bold apostolic leader willing to do almost anything to bring a fresh movement of God to his hometown community.

This is my story.  Well, I take that back. This the story of how my story collided with God’s bigger Story and flipped my world upside down and inside out. This is what happens when one finds themselves among the company of the divinely summoned.