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!