2026 April Update: Run the Race

Running the Race

Over 300 at The Grove!

At about this time every year, the gears are winding down, the fuel tank is getting close to empty, and the motivation to finish well is hard to find. But ministry, even college ministry, can't always be fun and rewarding. It's at this point many leaders are looking at the people they've been studying the Bible with all year, and for some of them they're wondering, "Where is the fruit?" But ministry is not on our timetable. Fruit is not borne whenever we demand it (despite what the grocery store would suggest). God is working even when we aren't, even when we can't see it. So it's around this time that I spend a lot of time pushing my students to ask God for the energy to finish well, to continue on to the end of the school year, remaining faithful to showing up, and trust that the fruit will come even after the school year comes to a close. We have experienced enormous interest in our small groups, large groups, and had numerous baptisms this year. But in our personal ministries, we may at times feel dry. As a community, we encourage one another to continue to run the race to the end.

SICM

But despite our sometimes myopic vision, there is fruit! We are full steam ahead with helping our students raise money to go to the Student Institute of Campus Ministry. A week-and-a-half in Washington to bond, learn about leadership, and grow in fervor for Jesus. We have almost 200 student leaders signed up to go, the biggest cohort yet. It's both exciting and daunting to be planning a trip for this many, and to try to guarantee that even as our ministry grows larger, at our heart is the belief that ministry is personal and Jesus transforms each individual through relationship not through efficiency. Please be praying for our students to have humble hearts ready for the teaching, safe travels, and a summer that only stokes the flame and doesn't put it out. 

Thank You!

William with Caden, one of my students

It's been a while since the last update on William! He's turned two! He is walking, talking, resisting bedtime, cracking jokes, and just lighting up every moment with him. Many of you have been a part of our lives since before he was even an idea in our heads. And it's because of your constant support that we are able to do the ministry we do and have the family that we have. Thank you so much for believing in what God is doing here, and believing in me that I would be faithful to his call to serve these college students!

2026 March Update: My Father is Always at His Work

Winter Retreat

Every year, one of our biggest events is Winter Retreat. All of our campuses get together for four days to worship together, learn about God, and love one another well. As it gets bigger and bigger and the students who come are from all different walks of life, we're tasked with being faithful to the charge that God has given us; we are to make and mature disciples of all nations. So we incorporate students from all our campuses into the service, we integrate different musical styles, languages, and traditions, and we seek to make sure that our students are both welcomed and stretched to grow in our community. Because our God is not a God of uniformity but of unity, that all tribes, nations, and tongues would bow before him laying down our crowns. We nearly maxed out the entire camp this year with over 800 people coming to the weekend. Marty Solomon of the BEMA podcast came and spoke to our students about Genesis, pulling in a lot of his learning of the Jewish tradition, culture, and viewpoint. Pray that the growth and inspiration that our students received from the weekend would be stoked into full fire for the Lord!

Spring Semester

While spring semester does not generally have as much going on as the fall, the beginning of each semester is a special season of new beginnings for the students at college campuses. New schedules, new resolutions, new opportunities. This year we started off the semester in ice. The entire city shut down for a week because of the ice. Schools were canceled and many businesses were shut down because of inaccessibility and risk. While many of us were given much-needed rest, we trust that God is working in reaching the people that the week disrupted from being able to encounter an opportunity to join our ministry. We've continued to reach out and make efforts to evangelize, and our numbers continue to be much larger than they were two years ago averaging well over 200 every week regardless of test schedules; but we trust that God will bring those he has called to meet him at UTD, and we'll remain faithful to telling them of the good news. 

FOCUS Asian Fellowship

One of the major initiatives we've taken this year is to give our FOCUS Asian Fellowship some momentum. It's been a small trickle over the years as I've been working through what needs we want to address at this campus. Between Intervarsity, ACTS, and Epic, Asian Americans have multiple campus ministries dedicated to them at UTD. So, what are we trying to do with FOCUS Asian Fellowship? The strength and the weakness of these other ministries is that they often end up being mono-ethnic. While it's great to be around thos ewho understand you, to have your particular cultural needs and struggles address as the norm, there's not as much reflection and wrestling with how to view ourselves and our culture in the midst of a diverse kingdom of God. How do we live in deep, intimate community with people who are vastly different from each other? What is God calling me to bring to his tapestry of humanity in worship, service, and teaching? So in FOCUS Asian Fellowship, we've been diving deep into a book I read in seminary called Doing Asian American Theology by Dr. Daniel Lee. Hopefully, it levels up our understanding of God and how he sees us and how we are a part of his vision for the earth. It's been so encouraging to see our students engaging in material that even I struggle to understand as a graduate of seminary. They are eager to bless and be blessed by a continual pursuit of God!

30 Year Celebration!

Our 30-Year Celebration is just around the corner and you're invited! Please help us spread the word by inviting any of your friends who are alumni or with anyone who might like to join.

If you’re an alum, please take a moment to complete our contact update form here to ensure you don’t miss any updates. We can’t wait to celebrate with everyone in October. Our big celebration will take place at CityBridge Community Church in Plano.

Thank You!

There is so much to be thankful for every year of ministry that I get to do. God is ever faithful and keeps bringing more and more students to know him each year. We put in crazy hours at crazy times every week for our students. There's never a normal week because God doesn't stop after 5pm, he "is always at his work to this very day" (John 5:17). And I'm so thankful to get to be a part of it because of your generosity.

December 2025 Update: Family and Friends

Christmas Service

Each semester, it feels as though time has flown and we cannot believe that the end is already here. In a few shorts months, students that we had no idea existed have become an integral part of our lives and our ministry. As we finish the semester, we try to celebrate the holidays together. To a family, celebrating Christmas without one another is not an option unless all other options have been exhausted. Even if Christmas needs to be moved off December 25th, we flex to our families. Here, we move Christmas to early December so that we can be together and celebrate the birth of Jesus together before we all leave to our respective homes. 

Friendship

One of the greatest challenges in our society is the absence of friendship. Loneliness and lack of friendship is even more widespread in the male population. There are a few culprits that share the blame for this: lack of vulnerability, lack of openness, and fear of judgment. Men don't share their feelings with one another, we don't communicate much with one another, and when we do we're often judged as weak or effeminate and lacking masculinity. Unfortunately, that results in a population that isolates themselves, insists on self-protection, and lacks anyone who truly knows them except maybe their wife if they have one. But Jesus says, "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another" (John 13:35). While it absolutely applies to all of his disciples men and women, we should be careful to observe that when he says this he says it in a context of exclusively men. Not only that, he says it right after he has washed his disciples' feet. So love is not a feeling that we just feel, but an action we do for one another. Men, more than any other, need to heed this advice. To help our students grow in this, we regularly heat up the value of vulnerability and openness, to invite others into their lives and to grow in trust that their affection will be returned. At the end of the first semester, I suggest to all of my small group leaders to have an encouragement time, where the group takes time to encourage each person on how they've seen them grow and how they have become more like Jesus. It often goes well enough, though with a bit of discomfort and the encouragements may not be as deep as they could be. It is surprisingly vulnerable to tell someone else how you feel about them. And it's in those moments that friendships shift from just a fun experience this year to having the potential to last a lifetime. Vulnerability and openness is not just about confession or about sin, they are also about opening up our lives to including someone else, to overlap our lives so that we might know and be known. In that way, our love becomes deeper and more genuine as we are loving each other as we are and not as we wish we were. And in turn, that invites us to experience God's love even deeper, that we might understand how deeply he knows us and how deeply he loves us. 

Thank You!

Thank you so much for your investment in students here, that they might get to experience love like this. God is saving a generation from emptiness to fullness, and I thank you all for participating in that mission. It's because of you I get to be a part of it too! I pray that this holiday season is full of rest, rejuvenation, and healing for you and your families.

2025 November Update: Deepening Family

When the semester comes to an end and the holidays approach, the academic demands increase as classes wrap up. So as exciting as Thanksgiving break and Christmas break are, the consistency of attendance with ministry fluctuates drastically. Students are pelted on all sides by expectations, growing pains as discipline is needed, and an anxiousness to go home. We stress the necessity of still treating this community of Christ as family, and as such the necessity to celebrate the holidays together. One would only miss the holidays with family under extreme circumstances, and we should be no different. "For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother" (Matthew 12:50). Many small groups are wrapping up with a Friendsgiving to eat together and celebrate. And then we as a whole ministry will finish with a Christmas service in December.

Pizza Theology

We had Dr. Rikk Watts come out again to speak to our students on the Gospel of John for Pizza Theology. Dr. Watts has become more and more integrated with our staff and our ministry over the years since first coming in 2016. His vast biblical knowledge and his deep devotion to Jesus has been essential to the growing understanding of God in our ministry. Ov
er 450 students came to listen to him. If you're interested in listening to what he taught, you can go here! One of our values is to think and understand our faith at the level of our highest education. If you've received a college degree, you've proven that you can learn at the college level. So, why wouldn't you learn about your faith at the college level as well? 

Keep FOCUS Growing

During the month of November, we host our annual fundraiser, Keep FOCUS Growing (KFG). There are a lot of things that are required to run a ministry. Many of y'all support me and allow me to spend my time with college students and other pastors, training them up to be ministry leaders and "thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:17). But behind us ministers on the frontlines, there are background supports that need to exist for us to do what we do. Administrators, financial software, website hosts, outreach materials like food, games, sports equipment, Bible study resources, and lots more are all necessary to keep this ministry running. Not to mention the funds needed to plant new ministries at the many unreached campuses in the area that have no campus ministries presently at them. Y'all have been so generous to me, but permit me to ask even more boldly if you would consider giving to KFG here. We have $75,000 of matching funds available if we can raise it!

Thank You!

Regardless, thank you so much for supporting me and enabling me to invest in generation after generation of college students. Jesus continues to change lives, flipping things upside down, and the world has been marked forever by his impact. Thank you for being a part of what God is doing here, and I pray that you would see some of the harvest that God has brought!

2025 October Update: A New Generation

The Grove

God is good and this new generation is showing up like crazy. Two months into the school year and it feels like we've just started to get our heads above water. There has been such a huge response in terms of students interested in Jesus and being a part of Christian community. Two years ago we were averaging around 150 students coming to large group on Fridays. This year we're averaging around 250! The number of students who attend our small groups have historically been double the amount that attend on Friday nights and this year is no different. We have over 500 students in our small groups learning about Jesus and learning how to love one another as friends like Jesus called us to. 

FOCUS Asian Fellowship

This year we hard launched our FOCUS Asian Fellowship for Asian Americans in FOCUS. It's a place to share in our cultures with one another, bring our whole selves to the table, and process what makes us Asian Americans before God. Please pray as we keep developing this community and providing a place for us to be vulnerable and share in our highs and lows. 

The Getaway

Our fall retreat, called the Getaway had its highest attendance ever as well! Which bodes well for the relationships that are being built in this ministry. Something in this generation has an openness to spirituality and talking about God. They want to know who he is. It has also produced a different issue. So many have not grown up in church or have only the slightest experience with organized Christianity. Including some of our leaders! They have come to know Jesus and devote their lives to him in the context of college and campus ministry so they're quickly having to learn on the fly, just like Jesus' 12 disciples! And that puts even more on us as their pastors to return to the basics, covering foundational disciplines like how to read the Bible, how to pray, and how to give. It's an exciting time and a very foundational time, so please be praying for us!

Thank You!

Thank you so much for all your support! As our family grows, both biologically and spiritually, I grow more and more appreciative of how faithful my supporters have been to enable me to do this ministry. To have a son and be able to take care of him even as I do God's work here at UTD is a privilege that I don't take lightly. Thank you so much for your continued belief in me and in what God is doing here!

2025 August Update: New Year

 
The Beginning

We put on Move-In Parties for the freshmen every night for the first week! I estimate we met over 2,000 freshmen over the course of the week! 

It's the beginning of the year! There are no tougher weeks, no longer weeks, and no more 

Another capture of a move-in party!

exciting weeks than the first two weeks of school. As students move in and start their year again, they are often excited to be in college and open to new friendships and experiences. Those who have grown up in their faith are looking to see how they'll live it out in this next phase. Those who have only dipped their toe in the church are considering whether they'll continue or whether they'll seek something else. Those who have never considered church may encounter one devoted disciple and have their whole life turned around. The possibilities are limitless, and God only asks us to be faithful and to be bold. A few years ago, I said that the goal was that all 30,000 students at UT Dallas would be personally invited to encounter Jesus, that every single student at UTD would know they could get to know God if they wanted to. Historically, our ministry has probably reached about 2,000-3,000 students with our events at the beginning of the year. This year, we're not yet done and I'd say we've reached about 3,000-4,000. This is only possible through the students who heed God's call and choose to show up each afternoon, and each evening, even after a day of classes and/or work, and put themselves out there to reach their peers on this campus. It's been an exciting time and in the coming weeks, we'll see how God uses these efforts to bless this campus and this student population!

Changing Culture

For the first time we put on a UTD Olympics event and about 250 students came!

Last year, after years of prayer, thinking, and deliberation we switched up a lot of things in our ministry. The values remained, but the methods were tweaked. Each previous year, our students would hit the beginning of the year hard and have a great turnout on our first Friday night meeting. And then we would do our best to try to bleed out as little as possible, slowly losing numbers throughout the year as people were taken by school, busy-ness, or just flagging interest. I believed that that was simply inevitable. Almost as if devotion to God was something that needed a shot of energy and then we had to just hold on as long as we could, spilling as little of it as possible. But last year, we dared to consider that what had been true for over a decade, didn't have to be true. That perhaps the beginning of the year wasn't the mountaintop experience of God. That perhaps, it was only the beginning. And we could become more excited as we climbed this mountain with God, becoming more like him as we climbed with him. Last year, we ended the year with more students than we started with! An indication that our students were catching the vision of spreading the good news, not because they had to but because they were excited to. Our hope this year is for that to continue to be true. One year does not make a trend. One year does not change a culture. But it could. We're praying for a lasting transformation that only Jesus can do in our students. And that we would be listening and faithful to where he's leading us. So please, be praying for our students as they share the good news, invite others to their small groups, and continue changing the culture within this ministry and the campus. 

Thank You!

Our second annual Paint 'n Sip event brought over 600 students!

Thank you so much for all your continued support! Because of your generosity, I get to do another year of campus ministry. I get to continue to watch over another generation of students who are seeking God and who are sought by God. I won't lie, it's been a different journey being a campus minister and a dad at the same time. But I do believe that God had been preparing me for the change for years and it's only through his gospel that I can understand how to be successful at both. Thank you for all that you do, and pray for a great year for these students that is full of Jesus!

2025 July Update: Summertime

Preaching

A few of our students trained at our leadership conference! 

Recently I had a friend ask me for one of my sermons. It's not a common thing for me to share my sermons. Now, they're all available online whether through my church's website for those that I preach there or on Spotify for the ones I preach at FOCUS. But preaching is both a very spiritual and a very performative action. We step into a space that historically was the place of the prophets, or the rabbis, or people's parents. We speak and teach the word of God to people, with all of its weight and significance. There's also a performative aspect to it. Unlike my one-on-one conversations that are individualized and free-flowing, a sermon requires preparation. Preparing what I will communicate and how I will communicate it, in such a way that will sufficiently convey the meaning and considerably impact the most people. Like a piano piece practiced and prepared before a performance, a sermon is a piece that is practiced and prepared. This one simply attempts to directly convey the word of God. 

And it's that unease of defining it as a performance that keeps me from wanting to share my sermons unsolicited. It seems to communicate, "Look at me!" When the whole point of a sermon is, "Look at God!" However, without sharing them, sermons simply become personal musings. Thoughts to entertain and selfishly hoard, excluding community from our interactions with and learnings from God. Each of us has sermons to preach, whether from the pulpit or in our daily lives. When we follow Jesus closely, we look like him. Luke 6:40, the student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher. So when we say, look at me, hopefully people will also look at God. 

We had three baptisms at our last Friday night meeting!

So with that said, here's a sermon that I preached back in February if you'd like to read it. My friend has generously hosted it on his site. We used technology to transcribe it and AI to clean it up. It made up a title that is not the actual title of the sermon, and it added some headings that it thought would summarize sections of my sermon, but other than that it's a pretty faithful transcript of my words. If you'd like to listen to it instead, the recording is here. I hope you'll get a small view of what God is like and how we handle topics like this with our college students.

Summer

Baptism 2 of 3!

In other news, summer is well underway and our weekly large group gatherings have gotten enormous, nearly 400 students each week. It's reflective of how much God has been doing at each of our campuses this past school year that they're still excited to spend their break with one another learning about Jesus. We are wrapping up leadership conversations and selecting student leaders for our small groups next year. It looks like we'll have around 70 student leaders for this next year. Again, the Lord has been working on raising up students who are committed to changing the campus and helping others know Jesus. 

Prayers and Thanks!

Baptism 3 of 3. All of them will be leaders next school year!

Please pray for the plans that we are making for the new school year! Pray for the hearts of the incoming student leaders and the new students who are coming to our campuses as freshmen! We never know what all God is doing, we just try to stay aware and faithful as we see him moving. Thank you so much for all your support! Each year during the summer, I see how generously God provides and has been providing through all of you faithfully giving each year. It is what enables me to preach and minister to others and what has encouraged me to grow as a disciple in ways I never anticipated. Thank you all so much for all your support!