I got a call yesterday. The long-range planning committee at the church has been in contact with the builders and they plan to be on site this coming Monday morning. We are going to break ground.

That’s an interesting phrase. It means we are going to start to build. It makes me wonder, though, how much other ground needs to be broken around this campus.

We need to break ground in the African American student body. We need more contact and more input and more outreach. We need more leaders and we need to hear more stories. We need to break some ground.

We need to reach out to our international students. We have students from Nepal and from Azerbijan. We have instructors from Spain and Mexico. We have a student from Nigeria. We are inviting them to worship with us this Sunday but we need to do more. We need to hear their questions about our faith and let Jesus be the answer. We need to make them feel at home and listen to their stories. We need to break ground.

I need to break ground in my own heart. I need to follow the leading of the Spirit and spend my time reaching out to students and faculty with the gospel and with love. I need to be more deeply involved in the lives of my children and my wife. I need to minister out of joy and not obligation. I need to immerse myself in the word of God and let that speak through me. I need to find more ways to be more like Christ in my everyday life. I need to break ground.

What about you? Breaking ground means a new start. It means potential for growth. It means getting ready to see God build something that you’ve been longing for and praying for a long, long time. Breaking ground is a monumentous occasion. Isn’t it about time that we all broke some ground?