With a grassroots initiative and some “divine intervention,” Cassopolis natives Ryne Nickel, Austin Francis and Ryan Stover hope to give the community’s youth a chance to come together and worship every other Thursday night.
Thursday Night Truth, also known as TNT, first began when Nickel, 20, formed the idea on the campus of Central Michigan University, where he attends college. After some thought and discussion with his father, Nickel approached Francis. By way of divine intervention, Stover, 21, had also contacted Francis, 23, about his baptism, and after a few days, the trio moved forward with the idea. In an effort to unite local teens and young adults with the same purpose, Thursday Night Truth was born.
“We want it to be a ministry, definitely,” Nickel said. “But we don’t want to be tied to a specific denomination or church; we’re hoping to gather with anyone who is on fire for Christ.”
With an open call to anyone from any church or denomination, the group has been working diligently over the last few months to secure musicians for worship and volunteers willing to give their testimony. While forming the concept seemed easy enough, the group has met opposition along the way, struggling to gather resources and spread the word.
“You can say we’ve met Satan’s opposition a few times,” Francis said. “It’s been difficult to get band members to commit and we had struggled to find a place to hold it.”
After looking at the option of gathering at Southwestern Michigan College’s campus in Dowagiac, the group decided to hold the first event at Cassopolis’ First Church of God.
“Pastor Dan (Connelly) has been awesome in giving us a starting place,” Francis said. “We were looking for a communal place to get this going and the whole time he was offering us the space, his sound equipment … everything.”
While the first event will take place at the First Church of God, Francis and Nickel said they hope to meet at other churches in the area, also.
“We aren’t connected to any specific church, so we’d like to hopefully get together at other places in the coming weeks,” Francis said.
While the current plan is to extend Thursday Night Truth throughout the summer, Francis and Nickel hope future leaders will come forward and possibly make the event ongoing.
“Ryne goes back to college in the fall and we work jobs,” Francis said.
Nickel said that’s where a core group will come in.
“Once we’ve got it going, we’re hoping those core people will come in and grow and hopefully want to keep it going,” he said.
With the kick-off event coming this week, Francis and Nickel said they’ve spent a lot of time focusing on not only the plans, but also making sure they were doing the right thing.
“We’ve spent a lot of time praying about this and the future of it,” Nickel said. “If we’re doing it for God, but not asking God what he wants us to do, then we’re missing the whole picture.”
Thursday Night Truth begins 7 p.m. June 14 at the First Church of God, 21083 Spencer Rd., Cassopolis.