Follow Me

By Dick Schroeder

Haunted by the disillusionment and despair that plagued my generation in the early 1970’s, I dreaded graduation from Montana State University in less than two months. The future of the world, and my own future, looked pretty grim. I decided to spend this April evening at a concert by one of my favorite rock and roll singers, Barry McGuire. I even arranged things so I could run the sound system for the show and get in free.

Barry’s first song rocked. “I Don’t Know What You Came to Do, But I Came to Praise the Lord.” “Hmmm. I don’t remember that song on any of his albums,” I thought.

In his unique foot-stomping, string-breaking, gravellyvoiced performance, Barry sang his songs interlaced with stories about how Jesus irreversibly transformed his life. Sometime during the concert, this Jesus that I had heard about and who had lived 20 centuries earlier became real to me. Jesus literally stood in front of me and kindly, but with authority, commanded, “Dick, follow me.” Instantly, the years of college futility fell off. I was filled with the Holy Spirit, and I knew my purpose in life was to follow Jesus.

Chi Alpha sponsored the concert, and I was immediately plugged into an on-fire community of Jesus-lovers. Within six months, I left for a year of much-needed training in Youth With A Mission Hawaii and returned to Bozeman to work with Wayne Snyder, pastor of XA. Without realizing it, I was being groomed for leadership. A year later, Wayne resigned. It was at this point that I believe that God was calling me to lead the campus ministry. Wayne confirmed it.

In the fall of 1976, I asked the Lord for the vision of what He wanted to do through XA. The critical element of vision propels us to a significant life, much like uranium fuels a nuclear reactor. Without a vision, the people perish. Three of us spent a day together in prayer and fasting and God clearly spoke to me from Psalm 2:8, “Ask of me and I will surely give the nations as your inheritance and the very ends of the earth as your possession.”

It was as if God took a yellow highlighter and circled the MSU campus. I was to ask for MSU as my inheritance. God then promised that He would bring students to MSU for us to offer His healing, train them and then send them out as laborers to the very ends of the earth. Consequently, all of our plans and activities ultimately focus upon this purpose. Over the past three decades, Jesus has faithfully called hundreds of students into His service, releasing them into their God-given ministry. Dozens of students are currently working effectively in many diverse nations, in full-time ministries around the world.