Building the Team and Living the Mission | SWO25 Staff Orientation

Brody Holloway | SWO25 Staff Orientation

In this kickoff session for SWO25 staff orientation, Brody lays out what it means to live out Snowbird’s mission. He challenges staff to memorize the mission statement because it explains why we do what we do—and helps unite us as one team.

Brody unpacks three big truths that shape Snowbird’s mission:

1. God is Sovereign – He has all power and freedom. He doesn’t need us, but He chooses to use us to share the Gospel.
   
   
2. God’s Word is Central – The Bible is clear, true, and powerful. We teach it straight and trust it to change lives.
   
   
3. We Have a Job to Do – God calls us to be faithful, to serve, and to love well. We put our hand to the plow and don’t look back.

Everything we do flows from these truths—and it should lead us to worship. As you finish the semester and get ready for summer, let this message shape your heart and mindset. Let’s live the mission together.

• New Book, New Staff, Same Mission | No Sanity Required
• Colossians 1:28-29
• Psalm 115:3

Transcript – Building The Team, Living The Mission

Here’s what I want to do I want to give you all some thoughts tonight to take with you as you go back finish your semester, get back into whatever you got going on. I want us to all get on the same page before we get back here, we’re kind of, there now, there’s been a lot of consistency with how we’ve gotten to this point, there’s been the application process, but for some of you that are returning staff, that process looks a little different than the first year folks, the element application looks a little different. What we want to do tonight is we want to start to get everybody on the exact same page okay and the way we’re going to do that is we’re going to challenge you first, if you haven’t already, to memorize the mission statement between now and when you get here this summer. It’s super easy, it flows really good and as you understand why we do things the way we do things, it makes it that much easier to unpack it or to memorize it. Skip, I don’t know if you all know skip, raise your hand Skip. Skip’s, back there in the back. Skip was one of the first people that memorized the mission statement and skip works in maintenance and construction and the reason I point that out is because this matters.

To everybody that works at Snowbird. This is not just for our summer staff our institute. This is not just for our teaching team, everybody that’s here is here because of what that mission statement says, whether you work in maintenance or construction or food service or transportation, in your time in REC, your time counseling students, working with students, the mission statement drives everything that we do. Those two verses hold up the mission statement literally like line by line and we typically will unpack that during staff training, but what I want to do tonight is I want to give you three things that come out of the mission statement and those two supporting verses that I want you to burn in your memory in the next five weeks, so that when you come back here, it’s locked in, okay and it’s three things that have to do with what we hold high at Snowbird. So, high view of these three things, a high view of the sovereignty of God, everybody say sovereignty, we believe that God is sovereign and here’s what that means Psalm 115:3 the Lord our God, is in his heavens and he can do whatever he pleases. Our God is in the heavens, he can do whatever he pleases.

So, when we talk about the sovereignty of God, we’re talking about two things, primarily, now there’s a lot that comes under the sovereignty of God, but two things as we’re thinking about preparing for the summer. The first one is the freedom of God, he has total freedom to do what he wants to do, he can do whatever he pleases, total freedom to do whatever he pleases. The second piece to that is the power of God and you might think of the authority of God, both of these sort of, his authority to do what he pleases, but then he has the power to accomplish what he has the freedom to do. It’s very important, because there’s, a lot of things you and I might want to do and we may have the freedom to do, but we might not have the power to do it, or the authority to do it and so, God has those things. So, we hold a high view of the sovereignty of God. I want you to press into that over these next few weeks. God can do what he pleases, he has the freedom to do it, he has the power to do it, there’s a verse in Matthew. I believe its Matthew 19:26, Jesus looked at them and said, with man, this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.

Jesus says that right at a time where a lot of his most faithful followers have sort of, hit a wall and they’re not able to accomplish a ministry task, which is very fitting for where we’re going to find ourselves. There’s going to be a lot of times, it’s like, I don’t think I can accomplish what I need to accomplish and in that time, I need to remember nothing’s impossible with God. The things that we’re going to face over the next weeks and months there are going to be times where things and situations and circumstances and conversations, you don’t feel like you have the wisdom. You don’t feel like you know how to walk somebody through something. You don’t feel like there’s any hope for a situation that they’re in. Nothing is impossible for God okay, so we hold a high view of the sovereignty of God. Now, where does that connect to our mission statement and our key verses? Well, let’s go back to the mission statement we proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You cannot hold a higher view of God than to proclaim the Gospel, can you? Romans1:16, a lot of us can say this verse together. You, probably some of you have committed his memory. I’m not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes so, we hold a high view of the sovereignty of God and that is seen in the fact that the first line in our mission statement is that we proclaim Christ.

Because, we believe that through that proclamation, God has the freedom and the power to save people and people’s lives are going to be saved while they’re here, we also see it through the exposition, here we go, him we proclaim, so our main primary verses, hold up, our mission statement, we proclaim Christ because the Scripture has called us to proclaim Christ. So, we hold a high view of the sovereignty of God and that’s seen in our proclamation. It’s seen in our proclamation, second thing that we hold a high view of and that’s the Scripture, we hold a high view of the Scripture. Now, the Bible says of itself, there’s a lot of within the Scripture there’s a lot of commentary on the Scripture. So, if you were describing yourself and you’re describing yourself honestly, you know yourself better than anybody else. So, you could give, now that can be awkward. When somebody’s like, tell me about yourself? You ever been around those people? A little bit awkward. I typically say we’re not that kind of, friends yet, that’s not where we’re at in this friendship, but if you’re going to explain or describe yourself to somebody, you know yourself best. When God is explaining his word, he explains it best.

So, what the Word of God says about the Word of God is the clearest description or explanation of Scripture and so, we hold a high view of the Scripture. 2nd Timothy 3:16, very familiar verse, all Scripture is breathed out by God, it’s profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness, we believe several things about the Scripture, we believe everything that’s in that verse we teach the Word of God. Where do we see the reproof? Well, the reproof is the idea that the Word of God brings conviction and correction in our lives. It brings conviction in terms of me believing what I’m saying, The Word of God gives strength to my faith, correction and for training in righteousness and so, my sanctification is not going to happen most effectively, most efficiently, if I’m not in this book, we expect the people that run weed eaters and swing hammers at Snowbird to be in the Word of God every day. They won’t last here if they’re not, not interested in highly skilled people that don’t love Scripture I don’t care how much you love DeWalt Tools, Milwaukee Tools, Glock pistols, F250s, what your favorite kayak is, what your favorite harness is, what your favorite mountain bike trail around here is and I love to be here and go mountain biking or go paddling. I love to paddle on the old coe and sometimes I go down and paddle some of the bigger water. I love.

That’s all great. It really is we got some lunatics here that’ll just for fun, go run for 15, 20, miles. They’re crazy. They love to do it. You know what, you’re going to love to do, what you love to do. There’s nothing wrong with that. I love to do. There’s nothing wrong with that I love to do what I love to do there’s things that we all enjoy, but the main reason that we’re here is to take the Word of God and as it shapes our lives and overflows out of us, see other people’s lives changed. You can’t do what you do without the Word of God, not at Snowboard Outfitters and if you’re a Christian, you’re really not going to be able to do it in the public square, in the marketplace and in higher education or anywhere else. So, we hold the high view of the Scripture. Now, within the high view of Scripture that we do hold, we believe a few things about the Scripture, we believe that the Word of God has clarity; we believe that it has authority; we believe that it has sufficiency. What does that mean? It means there’s nothing missing that God didn’t intend for us to know, he didn’t leave something out. God wasn’t like dad gum. I closed the book and then, I wished I would’ve added this other thing, or it’s not like that. There’s no we’re not waiting on a sequel. It’s not book one in a series, it is sufficient.

Then, we believe in the necessity of Scripture, people have lost their lives making sure that the Scripture was preserved and translated through the generations and what we have is the most amazing gift that God could give us, in our Christian lives in the Word of God. Where do we see that in the mission statement? We proclaim the Gospel, so that comes from the Scripture. The Gospel is from the Scripture. So, the first line reflects a high view of the Scripture, so does the next line through the exposition of Scripture, the way we teach the Bible from the stage, the way we teach the Bible in share groups and small groups. The way we teach the Bible on Mondays in the summer and staff worship is that we believe that there’s only one proper way to teach the Scripture. When I say proper, that might not be the best word, maybe faithful. The most faithful way we can teach the Scripture is to just say what the Scripture says, to explain it, to apply it, to give illustrations, to share experiences, but for the message of the Scripture, the passage, the text, to be our message to those that we’re ministering to. So, we see it in the mission statement, there in the exposition of Scripture. What about in Colossians 1 warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom. How do we do that? Through the Scripture, what is a warning? Well, it’s a warning from Scripture. I’m not going to give somebody…

Like, we may give warnings like, to preserve life, don’t unhook from the three man swing. That would be a warning. So, we warn, there may be warnings we give people, but when we’re talking about what we’re doing at SWO the warning everyone and teaching everyone that’s important, because some ministries love to warn. They’re known as like, maybe you might have heard of them as hellfire, damnation, something like that. They love to preach a heavy handed Gospel and then, some ministries, really enjoy wisdom. They love to teach life lessons and they love to give application and maybe they’re a little gentler with the way they handle the Scripture. Where the Scripture warns, we’re going to warn, where the Scripture imparts wisdom, we’re going to impart wisdom, we’re not going to say anything the Word of God doesn’t say and we’re not going to go around, under or over anything that God has put in front of us and we don’t apologize for that. So, we see it there. What about in the second verse? So, let’s go to the third thing. This is the last so we hold a high view of the sovereignty of God, we hold a high view of the Scripture and we hold a high view of our responsibility, we’re called to be faithful, we’re called to speak the truth in love, we’re called to be conformed to the image of Christ.

We’re called to put our hand to the plow and don’t look back. Luke 9:62 no man who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God, Jesus says and he says that right after a bunch of people make excuses for why they don’t want to do the work that God’s put in front of them and so, we hold a high view of our responsibility. I want to read a passage of Scripture that, for me, is very empowering Colossians 1:28 and 29 we’ll see where we hold the hobby of Scripture in that, but I want to read from 1st Timothy 6:11 – 16. I want you to listen to the call to action. How many calls to action in this one passage? But as for you, oh man of God, flee these things, call to action, Pursue righteousness, call to action, pursue godliness, call to action, pursue faith, call, Pursue love, call, pursue steadfastness, call, pursue gentleness. See that word pursue, is a call to action in each one of those words. Okay, let’s go to the next verse, fight the good fight of the faith, call to action, take hold of eternal life, call to action, which you were called and about which you made the good confession to call to action, we confess that Jesus is Lord in the presence of many witnesses, I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, the words I charge imply you’re going to be called to action, to all things and of Christ Jesus who, in his testimony before Pontius Pilate.

Made the good confession to keep the commandment, keep. What’s that mean? Guard, protect, defend the Word of God, keep it unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time, he who is the blessed and only sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone… Now he’s going to now erupt into worship. The call to action for the believers should always drive us into worship and study of the Scripture should always drive us into worship, so it drives him straight. So, he goes from fight to good fight, pursue this thing, pursue that thing, take hold of this thing and then, all of a sudden, he’s just worshiping God and he’s proclaiming that Christ alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see, to him be honor and eternal dominion, amen. So, the call to action is not a call to busyness. It’s a call to worship, we were made for worship in action, in ministry and in faithfulness and obedience to the mission statement it SWO this summer and to Colossians 1:28 and 29 is a call to be faith to the Lord and that’s an act of worship and acts of worship will lead us into proclaiming and declaring worshipful things and we see that there and where do we see it in our mission statement?

Through the exposition of Scripture, where do we see work? Well, we see a call to action in how we handle the Scripture, but then also in building personal relationships. It’s not easy to build personal relationships, is it? Especially with people that maybe initially not be super interested. So, we’re called to work, to cultivate and build relationships in order to equip the church. If we’re partnering with churches and we’re equipping churches that takes a lot of work. It’s a call to action. It takes a lot of work. Where do we see that in Colossians 1:28 and 29? We proclaim Christ. That’s a call to action. So, what are we talking about? High view of our responsibility, it’s the third one, high view of our responsibility. What is our responsibility? To proclaim Christ, to warn people and teach with wisdom, so with gentleness, but with firmness, with discretion, but with wisdom, with precision, not generality, so that we might present everyone mature in Christ. Next verse, for this, I toil. Now, what does that mean? Sweat, labor, look what he says, struggle, the struggle of ministry is the most difficult, yet the most gratifying struggle that any of us will ever experience in our lives there’s no earthly struggle that’s going to bring more gratification so, we struggle with all his energy that he powerfully works within us.

When you find yourself at the end of yourself and you don’t have the energy for the fight, you don’t feel like moving forward, you’re frustrated, you’re discouraged, like Jesus is going to give you the energy that you need. So, that third piece is that we are called to take action so we hold a high view of our responsibility. Now the last thing I want to do is sort of, tie this together and say the struggle that every Christian has at one time or another and that some of you may have even tonight hearing this terminology, but definitely as you start to dig deep in Scripture, is, how do I sync up? Watch this. This is so cool. Sometimes God just gives you a word, like gives you something that just makes your day, makes your week, transitions, transforms a season of your life. That’s what’s happening to me in this season of life, through this thought that I’m getting ready to share high view of the sovereignty of God. God does what he pleases, he has freedom and power to do it so, someone might say. Well, then why should we work? Because, we’ve already seen high view of our responsibility, we’re called to action. So, if we believe God is sovereign and has all power and all authority and all freedom, then why does he need us? I don’t know, but he says to do it, we’re called to action, we’re called to preach and proclaim and God chooses to use us to do the ministry work. How do we reconcile these two things, one and three? We reconcile them with number two because the Word of God tells us.

That God is sovereign and it calls us to action and it has been said that you do not have to reconcile friends the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man are both biblical truths that matter to us. Therefore they are friends and when you get to a point in your life and you will, especially with these topics. These ideas, these things that we hold high, where you’re trying, I can’t figure out if God is sovereign and he’s going to save who he saves and he’s going to do what he does and then, but I’m supposed to preach and proclaim and what is it, is it God’s going to do it, or is it this person’s got to surrender and submit? Well, it’s both and there’s a mystery that surrounds it. Let’s look at Romans 11 because what does the Word of God always do? It drives us towards worship. What do the labor and the work of ministry do? It drives us towards worship. If you’re working all day and all that you’re thinking about is fishing or hunting or okay, you talking about myself I don’t whatever your thing is, ball, school, a relationship, work, after class, whatever like as we’re going through our day, there should be constant revisiting in our minds and our imaginations in our affections of these three things.

I believe God is sovereign and I worship him because of it and I believe the Word of God has power for my life and so, I dive into it daily and I believe that I’m on mission from the time I breathe my first morning breath and walk out the door, I’m on mission in obedience to Christ and his call and so, Romans 11 what happens is, after wrestling with these things, Paul’s wrestling with it. In Romans 9 and 10 and 11, he says, I don’t know what to do with this and I can’t totally make sense of it all, but I know this Romans 11:33 who has known the mind of the Lord? Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. So, he says, there’s a depth to it. How unsearchable are his judgments, how inscrutable are his ways. That means, like there’s certain things we can’t even search when it comes to the depth of God’s wisdom and knowledge I don’t know how it always works and comes together. Well, that’s okay, because I’m in over my head. See that word depth? I’m in over my head. Let’s go to the next for who has known the mind of the Lord. You know what we can know of the mind of the Lord, what he chooses to reveal to us? What can you know of God’s mind that he doesn’t choose to reveal to you? Nothing, it’s why I asked that question. There’s things I don’t understand.

There’s, things I don’t know, there’s things I can’t reach, there’s things I cannot attain 35 or who’s given a gift to him that he might be repaid. God doesn’t need us, we’re not paying him back, we’re not buying our salvation, our call to ministry, we’re just being faithful with our hand to the plow, for from him and through him, he now erupts into worship, for from him and through him and to him are all things to God, be glory, forever, amen. We just worship the Lord when you can’t make sense of where’s the responsibility of man and the sovereignty of God and how’s it all fit, I don’t know, but since we hold a high view of Scripture, it does all fit, but sometimes it fits in the mystery and you don’t have to be scared of the mystery, love the mystery, bury yourself in the mystery, hide in the mystery and know that in this life and even through an entirety of your growth in eternity, because you will grow and I will grow when we’re in eternity with the Lord and as we grow more and more in our Christ likeness and eternity and as we grow more and more in our knowledge of who he is, we will never attain the knowledge that he has. Did you know that who’s known the mind of the Lord? I don’t know.

But, he says he loves me and he tells me to proclaim the Gospel and I know that it saves. Why is Christianity the way and no other faith or system of belief is the way? Because, there’s one savior who’s risen from the dead and that’s the savior we proclaim. How did he rise from the dead? Because, God is sovereign and he can do what he pleases and he can take a dead man who died under the weight of your sin and my sin, he can bring him to life, having defeated that sin, buried it and left it in the grave and so, that’s who we proclaim. That’s what we proclaim. It’s how we proclaim. So, I want you to hold on to these things over the next few weeks. Three things, high view of sovereignty of God, high view of those things will drive us in the mission statement and in Colossians 1:28 and 29 this summer, you can literally, seriously you can just study and marinate and spend time on that those truths over the next few weeks and it’ll really enrich your life and I think, prepare you for what we have ahead of us and it’s going to be awesome, let me pray and we’ll sing a couple songs.