Ministry Minded: A Podcast by Step Up To Life · Step Up To Life

The Men Behind the Mission

·53 min·3 clips

A baptism in a junior high pool was followed by a clap of thunder.

The host opens by framing Ministry Minded around the gospel, theology, and the highs and lows of Christian ministry. Gary Koenig and Ray Donsler are welcomed into the studio, along with Link and Nick. The conversation quickly settles into memory. Link says the two men were crucial to the inception of Step Up to Life. The host adds that they were integral to how God built the ministry in its early days. Much of the discussion stays with the work that usually happens out of sight. Graphics come up. Marketing comes up. The materials that were created and recorded along the way come up too. The story keeps circling back to those pieces as part of how the ministry reached where it is today. Nick Bank gets a quick on-air joke as Dr. Nick. The room keeps its relaxed, familiar tone. A baptism memory then takes over. A former Air Force pilot wanted to go under the water in his flight suit because that had been the god of his life for many years. The telling adds that he flew Thunder Jets and Thunder Chiefs and had done more missions in Vietnam than he was supposed to do. The scene lands on the day itself. There were no clouds in the sky. No storms were predicted. When he came up, there was a clap of thunder that made everyone feel like the Holy Spirit had come down on them. The conversation also goes back to the time before the church had its own building, when the team was meeting in a junior high school pool across from Ron Colley and searching Elkhorn and West Omaha for a building that would work.

As heard by us

A close look at Step Up to Life's early days, shaped by ministry memories, practical work, and a baptism marked by thunder.

This episode returns to the people and early work around Step Up to Life, with Gary Koenig and Ray Donsler in the studio as the host and Link trace how the ministry took shape through graphics, marketing, and the materials made and recorded along the way.

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Why you'd press play

For when you want ministry history, behind-the-scenes ministry work, and one baptism story with a clap of thunder, told by people who were there.

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