Where is Your Field?

For Coach Andy Lutz, the answer has made itself pretty clear over the past 19 years – his mission field is Hastings high school. It’s his classroom and sports teams.

Coach Lutz attended high school in Willmar, Minnesota, where he took part in FCA under Coach Pete Aus. He went on to play football and study social studies and secondary education at Bethel University. Coming from a long line of pastors – his grandfather, father, and three uncles – it would have made sense for Lutz to follow that same path. But Lutz didn’t feel called to vocational ministry. He knew he wanted two things for sure: to work with young people in some capacity and to coach, so when the opportunity arose to teach at Hastings, it seemed like a good fit.

Fast forward 19 years. Lutz has been married to his beautiful wife, Melissa, for almost all of those 19 years and they have three children. You will still find Coach Lutz walking the halls of Hastings High School, pouring into students through teaching and coaching, but even more so through his role as the FCA Huddle Coach at the high school.

As he puts it, “I see my job here is to be an FCA advisor. It just so happens that I teach and coach on the side. (The perk is that I get paid for those things.)”

Jesus calls all of us to be His witnesses, to live missionally – loving people and making disciples who make disciples. (Acts 1:8; Matthew 28:18-20). Wherever it is He has placed you, He asks you to do this.

So, where is your field? Is it the board room? The teacher’s lounge and hallways? The hospital rooms? The front desk? The coffee shop?

The parable of the sower in Matthew 13 encourages us to keep sowing seeds. It is not for us to determine or predict what soil will yield us the best results. We are called to sow.

That is what Coach Lutz has done – he has sowed and sowed, and then sowed some more. In the beginning, there wasn’t even an FCA present at Hastings. It began with 5-6 students meeting at Perkins once a month for bible study and fellowship. It started small, but it started. From there, coupled with their faithfulness to work that field, has sprung the FCA which is present today. 50-60 students attend the huddle meetings. Student leaders demonstrate vulnerability and real love – sharing their testimonies and struggles, inviting others into this crazy love Jesus offers.

The Fields of Faith event in the fall is one of the hallmarks of Hastings FCA. People from all over the community come together to hear stories of God’s transformative love, to worship together, and to pray together. The mighty ways God has used that event is spurring them on to see how they can move that one night forward. It is leading them to a discipleship focus – really being intentional in training and equipping their student leaders to reach the next generation.

Coach Lutz, his fellow FCA advisors, and the student leaders are doing what God asked – to keep sowing. You better believe God is faithful to His word. He is moving, opening opportunities, and working in ways bigger than they could have ever imagined.

Let this be an encouragement to you. Pray for an awareness of where God has placed you and/or what your heart is called to. Ask Him for new, fresh eyes to see that this is your field.

Will you work it? Will you keep sowing and planting even when it looks like nothing is happening? Or the progress is so painfully slow you lose patience?

Keep praying. Keep meeting. Keep loving. Keep discipling. Keep showing up.

Trust He is faithful.

Trust He will soften, change, and grow.

Trust Him to take your yes and use it for His purposes, to multiply it for His glory so more may come to know Him personally.

Dear brothers and sisters, work that field.