Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Ministry with Cadence — Nate Johnson
54 Plays3 months ago
Having served for years with Cadence in a variety of roles, spanning different continents, age groups, and military branches, Nate Johnson shares his perspective on the unique and special ministry of Cadence International to the military community.
Learn more about Cadence: https://cadence.org/
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to 'In Cadence' Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to In Cadence, where we talk about what it looks like to share the gospel in our lives with the military community. Join us as we talk about what God is doing in the lives of our service members and how we can be a part of
00:00:17
Speaker
it.
Meet the Hosts and Guest
00:00:24
Speaker
Hey Hutch! Hey Cleggger! Welcome to our podcast and quick set the scene for you. We're actually sitting in Hutch's office back here in Denver, Colorado.
00:00:35
Speaker
little bit of a gray plus sunshine day. mean, gray for Colorado, but let's be honest. I can see blue It's mostly blue sky out there. That's right. like You're absolutely right. And that third voice you're hearing is Nate Johnson, who's joining us this morning.
00:00:49
Speaker
Hello. It's good to have you. Nate has been with Cadas for quite a while. I met Nate first in 2006 in Japan. You don't remember that, do you? Yeah, clearly it marked my life. Yeah, thank you very much. That's how most people respond to me telling them when I met them.
00:01:06
Speaker
ah But then we got to reconnect in Germany and then also got to connect in Spain. So our paths keep intersecting and here we are in Colorado together.
00:01:17
Speaker
With a trip to Africa together in the midst of Absolutely, Kenia. That was fun. welcome. Welcome. Yeah, buddy. And it's been since Germany for us, but it's good to have you here. And the Lord's been gracious to keep us closely connected in our cadence experience over the last, it's been 17 years now for me and getting there for you, man. It's it's up there.
Nate Johnson's Cadence Journey Begins
00:01:40
Speaker
I'll let you share that. But um why don't you tell us how you got connected with Cadence? So I first heard about Cadence in, it was probably 1996. And i was interning at a church and that church was having a missions conference.
00:01:57
Speaker
And Dick Patty and Paul Bradley were well, Paul Sandra, Dick and Margaret, were missionaries with that church that they'd been supporting. And so I was really, really high technical VHS to VHS, pulling pieces of their stories um along with a lot of the other missionaries. And so that was my first really glimpse of Cadence and what Cadence was about. But then during that missions conference,
00:02:24
Speaker
Someone asked Dick to recruit me because their daughter had been an intern with Cadence. And so Dick ah pulled me into my office and showed me the old Cadence Tri video.
00:02:36
Speaker
ah And so really, for me, he was talking about student ministry. And, hey, would you be interested in considering going overseas and doing student ministry?
00:02:47
Speaker
what What's the Cadence Tri video? It was, I mean, this is an old video. This is, I mean... It was, i think one part was, was hospitality house. One part was student ministry. And I don't know what the third part of the try was.
00:03:03
Speaker
and it wasn't try like effort. It was try like Trinity. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Trinity. Trinity. And he probably put it in a VHS. Oh yeah. who did it Oh, absolutely. I mean, it was high tech, man. I mean, cutting edge. Yeah.
00:03:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:20
Speaker
And so he said, hey, are you interested in doing this? I went in the summer of 1997 and did internship in Heidelberg working with Josh and Christy Patty, where my wife had come back to ah from being at Multnomah.
00:03:37
Speaker
But wasn't your wife at the she was my she She was a volunteer ah the time. So real quick, you were dating of the volunteers? I was a volunteer. I had ask like seven people.
00:03:49
Speaker
I really did. I had to ask. I know I had to ask Jeff. I think I had a Mark Kelland and Josh Patty ah and and i't maybe some others in there, too. And finally, they said that the actual word was good luck.
00:04:03
Speaker
i So like she's probably going to say no to you, but go ahead and try. That's awesome. Yeah, the rest is history. So that summer, both fell in love with Luis and I fell love with military student ministry.
00:04:15
Speaker
It was my first ever military connection. And so that summer was and incredibly eye opening for me because I have been working at a church in Southern California.
00:04:27
Speaker
And honestly, all the kids were like, why would I want Jesus? My parents will get me whatever I want. Hmm. And instead, I met these kids that are like, oh, my dad or mom may go off to war, you know, in Kosovo or Bosnia at the time. yeah And that caused them to ask a really different set of questions that absolutely drew me in.
00:04:47
Speaker
That's my cadence story.
Roles and Service in Cadence
00:04:48
Speaker
That's cool to hear. um you've You've had the unique, i not so much unique, but just a broad experience of serving on the field and serving leadership in leadership capacities with cadence.
00:05:00
Speaker
But you've also served in student ministry and adult ministry. So first, just what are the places you've served and what are some of the different roles you've had in cadence? Okay.
00:05:10
Speaker
So our first, I mean, intern year, there were the intern years because, you know, both that summer and then I went back and did a short-term fill for Josh and Christian Haubert. And then Louise and I started first in Wiesbaden, Germany, where we worked with Army, the Army doing student ministry.
00:05:29
Speaker
And we're there for five years from 2000 to 2005. Then we moved to Yokosuka, Japan, mostly working with Navy students and families from 2005 to 2008.
00:05:41
Speaker
And we were asked to come back to Europe and were the field leaders for the student ministry from 2008 to both Army and air Force mostly.
00:05:54
Speaker
And then we said, all right, it's time to transition. We'd known all along that we wanted to do house ministry following student ministry, like really from the get-go, that was our plan.
00:06:05
Speaker
And so we transitioned from K-Town Ramstein to Rota, Spain. And we were there from 2013 2018 and slash Air Force submarines. And we...
00:06:17
Speaker
and working navy slash air force slash submarine and then we Transitioned again to Travis Air Force Base from was 18 to 22.
00:06:31
Speaker
And then we transitioned from and that was all Air Force. And then we transitioned from there to here and been here for about a year. And here doing. So we are the Westpac field leaders.
00:06:45
Speaker
It's great to have you in Colorado. It's great that we get to be able to come in and sit together and be able to do this. So welcome. Welcome back
Challenges and Opportunities in Military Ministry
00:06:52
Speaker
to Colorado. It's different being in military ministry, but not in a military community. like there're but Even that has another change. It's not just a role of leadership, but a a different role.
00:07:05
Speaker
different experience, different engagement in in the same ministry with the same heartbeat and the same things that we do. But yeah I would say even to distinguish ah stepping back for a minute, but you've been in student ministry and adult ministry. That's not an uncommon journey for Cadence Missionaries. There's a lot of ah staff who have done both. right And so compare and contrast those. What's been your experience with those two areas of ministry?
00:07:33
Speaker
I really expected it to be more different than it's been. and I honestly, in fact, I think that a number of people that when they asked me, you know, hey, what's it like? I said, it' it's so much better. It's it's like, and in a lot of ways, it's similar to student ministry.
00:07:49
Speaker
There are some more complex dynamics in couples and, you know, obviously different issues that you're dealing with. You're dealing with them with greater complexity because there's more years of those patterns at the same time, there's no permission slips. And just that alone. I remember going on retreat and being like, well, if you, uh, miss our time, then find your way home because that's when we're leaving. Love it. And it was really, really, there was a lot of freedom in that you're, you're grinning and nodding because you, you've lived it. oh So it really is different.
00:08:22
Speaker
Uh, ah Military ministry is interesting because it's such a greenhouse for bad decisions. You've got more money than you've ever had, more freedom than you've ever had as a young soldier, sailor, airman, Marine, whatever.
00:08:34
Speaker
And all of a sudden you have these opportunities to make these bad choices and to be a place that people can make good choices and to have the opportunity to invest. I remember when I, we always had volunteers that we discipled young Marines and were doing Bible studies with them from the very beginning, but because because they were serving with high schoolers, we forced a couple years gap. You had to have been out high school for a couple years. So there was a difference. And when we started doing Bible study with Marines, just opening up the door on our base, we were like, oh, they're the exact same age as our seniors. There is no tangible, realizable difference here. Yeah, for sure.
00:09:14
Speaker
yeah and And I think ah Similarly, like it really mattered to us to have a great, you know, in in having student ministry, your, your volunteer staff, like that same, you know it carries over your ministry team.
00:09:26
Speaker
Those are the people you're pouring into. That's what you, those the people that get the most of your time and the most of your energy and then students as well. But as you're pouring into them, they're pouring into other people in the same way that, you know, you have that, that inner core of people that are your service servant team and whatever you want to call it.
00:09:44
Speaker
So that's student to adult ministry. and Now you've also had the experience of field ministry and field leadership, which really have some significant differences. How would you describe those differences between field ministry and being a field leader?
Field Ministry vs. Leadership Roles
00:10:00
Speaker
because And you were, you're a field leader now for adult ministry and you were a field leader for student ministries too. Yeah. So some of the differences there. I've used the analogy of, you know, being ah ah on a football field. And, you know, when you're, when you're on the field, you're really, you're in the game, you're playing the game. And when you're the field leader or, you know, so we can go up.
00:10:23
Speaker
You're the coach and you're looking from the side. We mean we can go we go other people and we can go GMs. We can really blow this you know this analogy way out. But I think it's the difference of watching on the side and seeing – you see things and you see trends or you see how the defense is lining up. You see what kind of plays are being run.
00:10:44
Speaker
And there's an ability as the as the as the coach slash field leader to kind of see some some things and even to watch players and watch their tendencies and all those things. That, you know in being the field leader, I think it's it's seeing maybe just ah ah it's a different perspective.
00:11:01
Speaker
But we're all playing the same. We're all going the same direction. where We're trying to move together. um you mom My success is the player's success. And so it's, you know, it's you know we we don't ever really get to do the coach press conference.
00:11:16
Speaker
But, you know, brag on your players a bit is a pretty fun thing. You're like, oh, my goodness, so-and-so is doing this so well. And so I think... it's seeing that But it's also seeing where maybe there's some deficiency or there's some training or, oh, we need to do some we need to so practice drills on that.
00:11:35
Speaker
It certainly is my desire and everything in me is to help us to do the best that we possibly can But that's different. I mean, I remember running the plays. And it's not that it's not that someone else couldn't be the coach. Other people can see those things too. yeah But it is the ah reality that I have a different vantage point.
00:11:56
Speaker
and And being aware that sometimes my vantage point, you know, there's a player that might go, hey, coach, this route is always open. Let me run that route. Yeah. Let's do that. That's the best idea I've seen all day.
00:12:08
Speaker
And so I think there is that crosstalk back and forth, but it's just a difference. It's not better worse. It's just side to side. i I love the analogy because one, I'm coaching high school basketball right now and I still play basketball. Yeah. And your thought that is it's just a different vantage point.
00:12:25
Speaker
When I'm in the game, I don't see some of the things that a coach has seen. And when I'm the coach, I'm looking at it from a different vantage point. Yeah. And we've got a lot of great leaders in cadence who are doing field ministry.
00:12:36
Speaker
Right. hundred percent. Who could coach. Absolutely. And yet your role right now is to be the coach. That's
Cultural Transitions and Cross-Cultural Living
00:12:43
Speaker
for a season. That's what the Lord has asked me to do. That's a great analogy.
00:12:47
Speaker
um I want to circle back to another analogy. You haven't mentioned it today, but it's one that really, when I first moved overseas, you said living cross-culturally is like a constant low-grade fever. Right.
00:13:01
Speaker
Would you describe that one a little bit more? Cause it's stuck with me for years. You know, i think I felt it everywhere this season. I definitely felt it more when we lived in Japan and when we lived in Spain because the rest of culture was so different. Yeah. um And so, but even stateside, I mean, I think that there's times that, that in living and working with military because we're outside of the system, there's always something that my brain has to process. Yeah.
00:13:29
Speaker
I'm a stranger in a strange land. And we feel that all the time because we are, you know, this is not our home. So it makes sense that we'd always feel that. And yet there are times that we feel it for sure in greater measure. And so dealing with visas and paperwork and, and all of the pieces of living cross culturally, it's really amplified. And so I think we, I know I did. And I know that my, you know, I know that my wife did and,
00:13:55
Speaker
you know, other people around us, you just feel that ah this is, this takes more energy. And you've lived not just in one spot overseas. i mean, count in America, you've been in three continents and yeah four countries. yeah And, and so you've,
00:14:13
Speaker
you've kind of bookended it with time in the States, but you've had this very extended time overseas living that low-grade fever. But I'm just kind of curious, the the transitions, not just from overseas or stateside, one or the other, but even moving from one country to the other. And what are some of the challenges that ah come with just managing those transitions, especially for your family? Because at so many of our cadence staff, ah we've managed those transitions, not just for ourselves, but for our family, for those that we love that are close to us and and even helping supporters understand what is this little grape fever like and how am I going to get through it? hu
00:14:51
Speaker
yeah There's different kinds of transitions, right? You know, there's Younger kids versus older kids. Those are really different experiences. You know, I'm really feeling that you mentioned before as you were talking, I remember which of you said it, but we're talking about leaving a military culture. This is the first time 20 something years, 22 years that we've lived outside of the military community.
00:15:13
Speaker
That has been that's rocked us in a way that other things didn't. um In fact, I think that might have been a harder transition than moving back from Spain to the U.S. because we're still in that military community.
00:15:29
Speaker
And so all of sudden leaving that military community, that's really been that's been different. And. You know, each time and place you go, even even if you're in a place for a long time, then you've got the rest of the community leaving around you. So there's still transition. and Again, that low grade, there's always some sense of transition.
00:15:47
Speaker
And, you know, now getting older, you know, i'm I'm feeling there's also transitions of life stages as well. And so you've got, you know, multi ministry, we transition. o So I think that our sub motto, I don't know that's our sub motto, maybe, maybe it should be maybe it shouldn't be.
00:16:06
Speaker
But i you know I think each location is unique. Each military community is unique. The people you're serving are unique. So there's uniquenesses. it's almost that it's hard to It's hard to give all the specifics because there's just too many too many variables.
00:16:21
Speaker
But there are the constants, and that is... you know, how do we adapt? How do we learn to thrive in this place? What what does, you know, engaging with the people in healthy ways around us look like? You know, how do we still share the gospel and still share our life and in whatever piece or place we're in It's really interesting to hear you say that maybe the transition from military community out of military community has been more challenging than from a different country back to your original country.
00:16:51
Speaker
Well, and I think... I'd hear people that were leaving the the ministry that they were in, you know, moving back to the, you know moving back the States or moving whatever, their new duty station and hear them talk about, man, that's been, that's been rough.
00:17:09
Speaker
And I, you know, just the the pieces of, of that, I think, you know, as, especially as people retire, I think I heard it the most often because it was leaving the the known comfort of a military community.
00:17:26
Speaker
It's a great way to say it. Yeah, and I think we've all experienced that, those transitions, the changes, As things move around us, we really do have to find stability in the Lord. Absolutely. And and I think there is something that drives us towards that. And being being out of there's always going to be change going on, disruption in our lives. But the intensity of that, I think, is something that...
00:17:53
Speaker
I think for many cadence missionaries, it really, it does. It draws our dependence back to Jesus in a very real tangible
Finding Stability in Faith
00:17:59
Speaker
way. Like it it drives a desperation in us that maybe in other environments we wouldn't have. I think that's one of the blessings of the hardship of walking in obedience of the call to ministry. Right. Absolutely. And and I see that in so many of our staff. I hear that in you now. Yeah.
00:18:14
Speaker
Yeah. it makes the focus of this is not my home. Yeah. You know, the eye there's an eternal home that, you know, I want to be in the presence of Jesus and I look forward to being in the presence of all these all these saints that have, you know, we've been with at various points of our journey.
00:18:30
Speaker
And there is something that's incredibly sweet in that that is really, i think, has has often been something I've run back to because of the transitional nature of our life.
Exploring New Scriptural Perspectives
00:18:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:43
Speaker
Well, shifting gears a little bit and we're wrapping up our time here, but were just recently sharing with me a reading plan that you were looking at. And, you know, we've all done tons of reading plans in our ministries and we've got kind of a ah long list behind us, but this was new to me and it really intrigued me. I was wondering if you would explain what that is as we wrap up our time here, because it really intrigued me. Sure. Yeah. So I, you know, in a desire, i think we all have a desire as we're doing ministry with different folks. You know, I have a group of guys that I have been ah really trying to get them to, to engage in scripture more than they have.
00:19:18
Speaker
And so I, Decided to to take the navigators five by five by five. And it's just the the idea is that you do five, five minutes a day, five days a week. And there's five other things of ways to dig deeper.
00:19:31
Speaker
And so that's the five by five by five. And so reading, you know, one chapter a day through the New Testament, it's 52 weeks. And i was like, all right, yeah, that sounds great.
00:19:43
Speaker
But I've, you know, I've done that before. And, you know, is there something different? And so the difference for this one was ah someone else just said, hey, what if you think through four tracks, one with each of the Gospels?
00:19:55
Speaker
And so track one is looking at Matthew, Hebrews, Matthew. And James um in the first in the first tracking kind of thinking of like, OK, the fulfillment, ah the fulfillment of the Old Testament and the new covenant and just kind of thinking more. ah Brian, you you said kind of ah a what I'm trying to remember what you said. at There's just kind of an Old Testament Hebrew Jewishness to that tract. That's for sure. Matthew in the Hebrews.
00:20:22
Speaker
uh versus a gentile look at right new testament yeah so that would be the first the first look uh second the second track or the second look is is looking at mark and first and second peter and just kind of thinking through you know peter's testimony and with jewish converts and again kind of similar to that first one but ah a riff off of it as as as peter's going through A third being starting in Luke and then doing Luke and and Acts and then really all of the Pauline, you know, all Paul's writings.
00:20:56
Speaker
And just thinking about, again, ah a Gentile riff on that yeah similar similar thing, but certainly a Gentile look or look ah to really to to speak to the Gentiles. And the fourth one being John's gospel and all of John's writings and, and, uh,
00:21:14
Speaker
Into Revelation. Into Revelation. So it's kind of John and then John, John, John. John, John, John. john John's Revelation. Yeah. You know, and it's it's fun. It's just a different. Absolutely. Again, it's a different take than I have have really done. And I'm really excited that to walk through it with a a group of guys and to kind of talk through, okay, what do you see? And as we're reading through this.
00:21:33
Speaker
How would people find that track? Did you create it? I mean, I mashed two things together. so Holy like cow, you were making this sound like you found this some great author. I thought, you know, Billy Graham put this together and you found it. No, it's the great Nate Johnson. The great Nate. No, I mean, I stole, you know, someone once said that, you know, the secret to great ministry is obscurity of source. So if no one knows where you came up with you know, who came up with it first, you sound really great by Stay tuned for part two of this interview where we get the obscurity of ministry secrets.
Podcast Wrap-Up
00:22:05
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:07
Speaker
Nate, it was great having you in here. It's fun to be here. and We're just grateful for you guys joining us. we We love Cadence. We love our people. Nate, thanks for being here, sharing a bit of your story.
00:22:22
Speaker
Hach, you got the exit music queued up? Yeah, absolutely. Doot, doot, doot, doot. to
00:22:32
Speaker
Don't laugh, Nate. They think this is real. Come on. This is real. This is music. Wait, I'm off key.