Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full

Weeks of Welcome

The years just come faster and faster each time. It feels like not long ago since we did our last sprint for the beginning of the year. If you've read any of my previous August blogs, or been in campus ministry, you'll probably know that the beginning of the year is the busiest time of the whole year. The pace of the year is set by what we choose to do and what we fail to do in this crucial time. Our aim is to bring the light of Christ to the campus. This isn't just about "salvations", it's about life to the full. Not just about a decision made in college, but also the decades after. And for all the freshmen just arriving on campus, it starts now. So every single day for two weeks, we set up on campus, whether it's an event or just going to the dining hall. Over the course of those two weeks, thousands of students come and meet us. And though only a fraction will choose to stay, we hope that each one will remember that they had a fun memory in college because some Christians chose to be there for them. 

The Grove

It all culminates with our opening night of the Grove. This ends our intense weeks of outreach and signal the beginning of our season of discipleship. Cores will start this next week as well. And every year, our students get bolder and bolder in asking people to study the Bible one-on-one with them from the very beginning. It's such an exciting time because we have no idea who is going to say yes. As Jesus invited widely and called many to follow him, so we do too. But oftentimes we don't know who is going to be the ones to answer his call. So, we ask everyone! So many surprising people show up who I don't expect, people who seemed to cool to come, people who are wrestling with God, people who are just beginning their seeking journey for Jesus. If I were to predict who would come and who wouldn't, I'd have a terrible track record. But we see from Jesus' ministry that he invited many, and it wasn't the religious leaders who followed, it wasn't the rich ruler who had kept all the commands, it was fishermen, rich tax collectors, and violent zealots, and others who responded and became the pillars of the church. Praise God that he sees the heart, we just need to be faithful!

Thank You 

As hard as these weeks are, as draining as they can be, it's all worth it because of who Jesus is and what he has done for these students. Thank you all so much for supporting me that I can do this work and be a part of influencing a generation to live like him. 

One more additional piece of news: Emily is pregnant! Number two is on the way, due in late February, and it's a girl! Prayers for the school year and for this pregnancy are very needed. Excited to welcome another addition to the family and navigate what ministry and two kiddos looks like!

2026 June Update: Less Leaders, More Servants

SICM

A few of the boys at SICM

We've finished out the year with our students! Many of them have returned home, excited to rest but also already excited to start a new year of ministry. At the end of the school year, we turn right around from finishing finals to going to the Student Institute of Campus Ministry (SICM) up in Bellingham, Washington. It's a week-and-a-half long trip to train up our potential new student leaders. This year, we brought over 150 students with us, the most we ever have. With many of our campuses growing, including UTD, we have had to expand our operations year after year. They come so excited to learn about ministry and how to lead others. 

Leadership

Baptism!

A few months ago at a wedding, I was sitting next to a missionary pastor from Lebanon. He had been traveling to and from Lebanon for over two decades, and I asked him what he would say to a young pastor. He told me, "The church needs less leaders and more servants." In a culture obsessed with leaders, we often lose sight of what good leadership actually is. In Matthew 25, James and John with their mother go to ask Jesus to give them positions at Jesus' right and left hand. They want to have the top two leadership positions in Jesus' kingdom. Jesus says they are not for him to grant. But when the other disciples hear about this exchange, they get angry and are themselves vying for those positions. Jesus responds to them, "'You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.'" (Matthew 20:25-28). Leadership was forever changed because of Jesus. Good leaders don't rule and exercise authority. They don't cry for others to submit to them. Real leaders serve. Because that's where real change happens. That's what we hope to develop in our leaders. Not the desire to lead. Not the accumulation of power or influence. We hope to develop in them the heart of Christ, the heart of a servant. That they may see their peers on these college campuses and see people to serve. That one day they may go out into the workforce and serve those around them. And that they would go home and continue to serve their spouses and their children joyfully, because the Son of Man showed them how, how to give his life for many. 

Thank You!

Our final large group fellowship

Leadership isn't about power. Being a pastor isn't about a job, being liked, or having followers. What I strive to be every day is a servant like Christ. And in doing so, be like him in setting an example that has changed the world. I know that many of you are doing that same striving daily. And there are good days and bad days, but in the end we know there is no other way to live, because all other ways lead to death. Thank you so much for all your support in what we do here. I am so grateful that you would serve these students in this way.

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! 

2025 January Update: New Year, Same God

Work-Life Balance

Hey everyone, I hope the holiday season was a blessing for you. It was William's first Christmas, and he definitely got spoiled by his friends and family. Ministry is not a career for anyone who wants what the world considers "work-life balance". As much as we dream of a steady even amounts of work and play each day, our lives rarely resemble that. And the more we dream and pursue it, the more we are disappointed when our expectations are not met. Instead, there are seasons of hard work that can only be done in that certain season. Long days and long nights. The first month of the school year is like that. Students are more open than any other time, it's a time to set the pace and the culture for the rest of the year. We can't just spread out the work evenly to later months, because the whole atmosphere of the university has changed by then. So, we go hard for weeks, sacrificing many things in our lives in order to pave the way for the rest of the year. And then we get to winter break, when most of our students have gone home to their families. There's still ministry to be done, many students do stay in the area. But even they are caught up with family functions, spending more time with their friends, out of their normal school routine. So we too, as ministers, get to spend more time with family and friends and enjoy the slower pace for a bit before things get hectic again.

Winter Retreat and The Grove!

The first hectic thing of the semester is Winter Retreat! It's out biggest event of the year and it was our largest ever this year, almost 700 students attended. The previous largest group was just over 600 and that was pre-COVID. So, God has been blessing us with more momentum as we reach more and more students. This year our theme was Following Jesus. A basic one, but always a necessary one no matter how old we are! As always, the students were eager to learn and to grow and to grow closer to one another. We've already seen some momentum from Winter Retreat as we got back into our first Grove meeting of the year on the first Friday night of the semester. We had 226 students in attendance, our second-highest number this year, only following 240 from the first week of school (back to the long days and long nights)! While the beginning of Spring Semester is not the same as the beginning of the school year, it still does have a bit of a similar feel of new beginnings. New resolutions to be more committed, to pursuing God more deeply, to joining a community and we want to capitalize on that. It's not about the numbers, but it is about being faithful to the students whom God is working in. And on a campus of over 30,000 students, we're only just scratching the surface!

Thank You!

So, please be praying as we enter into another season of hard work, long days and long nights. We want to be faithful to what God is doing here, and there is no way we should allow laziness to dictate which people get to hear about how God is moving. Thank you so much for your trust in me and in us to do what God has called us to do. Your support is a vote of confidence that we will be faithful to God's mission vision here at UTD. Thank you!

2024 November Update: Loving God's Word

How do you get a generation that is extremely biblically illiterate to become lovers of God's word? That's a question we've been asking for a few years. More and more often we have students who grew up in the church be unable to identify who Saul, David, or Solomon are. They don't know the stories of Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob. They don't know who Samson is or any of the judges. They have heard the names of some disciples but couldn't tell you that Paul wasn't one of them. Many of them have never read an entire book in the Bible. Here's how we try to address that issue!

Pizza Theology

For longer than I've worked for FOCUS, we've done Pizza Theology twice a year. We get to spend hours diving into a biblical topic. This semester, we invited Dr. Rikk Watts, a retired seminary professor, to teach our students about 1 and 2 Samuel. Dr. Watts has taught our communities multiple times over the past decade and regularly teaches our apprentices every year in their studies on the New Testament. His understanding of Scripture and love of Jesus has deeply impacted our staff and our ministry even if this generation of students don't know it. What they got was more than even we bargained for. He didn't just teach on Samuel, he challenged and opened our eyes to why God might choose stories and narratives to be the genre in which he would communicate to us in his book. As humans we are defined by our stories and when we read the Bible as it is and not as we want it to be, we might be able to define ourselves by God's story. It was an awesome experience that I know will bless our community for many years to come.

Scripture Smackdown

To capitalize on that momentum, we implemented a competition for our students that we have named Scripture Smackdown. A battle between the sexes on reading the Bible. They are awarded points for reading entire books of the Bible (this is not a memorization verse competition, but a steeped in the Word competition). We incentivize consulting other resources and reading it aloud with others to heat up the value of hearing the Word as it was originally heard: out loud and in community. We know that this is only one step towards becoming like Jesus, that simply reading does not in itself create disciples, but our students have attacked the challenge with fervor. In one week they've read 138 books of the Bible already. And the only prize is a small engraved plaque on a trophy signifying who won this year. We're very happy with how much they're already getting each other in on it, and we hope God will produce a lot of fruit from this!

Thank You!

This year has been an exciting year of innovation and change. The world has changed a lot and what has always worked for us has needed to adapt to the needs of a new generation. But it's only thanks to you guys that I get to be here and a part of it. The gospel message of God's love to the world has not changed, but the ears and the minds that hear it have. So, in a reflection of God's example, we step towards them rather than have them climb their way to us. Thank you for believing in the kingdom vision here, and I ask for continued prayer for the ways our community is growing, that it will take deep root in our students' lives and that they would follow Jesus for the rest of their lives. 

2024 October Update: The Grove and The Getaway

The year of the rebrand continues on as we attempt to embrace Gen Z as they are and rather than push them to be something they're not, meet them where they're at and bring them towards Jesus. The Grove continues to build momentum as students are excited about coming together and fellowshipping with one another. They've loved the challenging teaching, the new song repertoire by the worship band, and the care we put into establishing the Grove as a place to rest from the week and reorient towards Jesus.

The Getaway

We also rebranded our annual fall retreat to The Getaway. Historically, it's been a small group-oriented event that deepens bonds within the small groups that come. However, challenges arise when some small groups have few to no members who end up coming. This year, we decided to rethink our goals and that resulted in a new vision of wanting our larger community to form and deepen bonds with one another, without a focus on the small groups. As individuals get to know others in the community beyond just their small groups, their dedication to showing up and participating increases as well. They end up encouraging one another, feel empowered to reach out to one another for support and for advice, they spur one another on to love and good deeds. This new emphasis on the importance of God's greater community has been taking root in our community and hopefully will bear great fruit as the year continues!

Baptisms!

The baptisms keep rolling. Every week there seems to be another baptism. God is pulling us out of the muck and into his saving grace. Whenever we study the Bible with anyone, we make our intentions clear, that not only are we reading the Bible to get to know Jesus but that they'll be brought to a decision point on whether they want to follow Jesus or not. Jesus is not a museum exhibit that we learn more about, he's a person who has extended an invitation, "Come, follow me." And we cannot ignore that invitation, we can say yes or no. And praise God that people are saying yes!

Thank You!

Without your support, I could never be a part of and bear witness to what God has done at this campus and in this community. Thank you so much for all your support, for the prayers and the donations that enable me to serve these college students every day. After nearly 10 years, God continues to show up for me and for them to make us more like Jesus every day. 

2024 August Update! Another Year!

 

Welcome Week

The students love 9-square!

The year has started! And just as it starts every year, this year is no different. We go hard from sun-up to way past sundown in order to meet students and give them a great first experience at UTD. Some of these students will end up joining our ministry. But the vast majority will not, and that is their choice. The gospel, though, is that God loves them where they're at and wants to be with them. And if he wants to be with them, then we do too. So, we pursue and we put ourselves out there and we make them feel welcome at this campus. Over the course of the two weeks, we probably meet between 1,000 and 2,000 unique students. A lot of students, and yet a far cry from the over 30,000 that attend this university. Our hope is that each and every student would be invited to know Jesus at some point in their college career, and this is the planting season when they are most open to that invitation. 

The Grove

We fill up the classroom!

This year we have rebranded our Friday Night Fellowship meetings to The Grove. We found that FNF meant a lot to our members, but was unmemorable to our campus. So to begin with, we wanted to articulate our values for this meeting so that we would have a clear vision. Those values boiled down to rooting deep in the word, branching out to others, and bearing fruit of a transformed life. This is how we came to the language of The Grove! It required buy-in from our current students who were attached to the old language, but they decided to follow the new direction. And it seems to be connecting because we had 240 students show up to our first meeting! For the past few years since COVID, our first meeting numbers have been around 170-190. So this is encouraging to see that something we're doing and something int he culture is shifting to being willing and open to engage in Christian community.

Core

Our cores, what we call our small groups, have started this week and will continue to build foundations and momentum for their groups in these next few weeks. Please be praying that students get involved in this part of our ministry where they are able to grow deep in their friendships and grow in vulnerability with one another. This is the core of our ministry because so much happens when we choose to live life together like Jesus lived life with his disciples. That time together changes us to be more like him when we choose to follow, so pray for great groups!

William

William and his cousin!

With both myself and Emily back at work (and intense work!), we've been getting in the routine of dropping off William at daycare. It's quite a change in schedule to account for dropping off and picking up! He's been loving getting time with his cousin though. He's been such a happy baby, no sicknesses, no issues, and generous with his smiles. He's waking up in the wee hours of the night, but on the scale of babies, he's been quite kind to us. Pray for continued healthy growing for William and for energy for Emily and me as we continue to power through by the help of the Holy Spirit and God's gift of caffeine.

Thank You!

Thank you all so much for another year on the team. It's because of your support and generosity that I'm able to continue to minister to these college students and pass on a Jesus-loving culture from one generation to the next. Looking forward to a great year, one full of problems and opportunities that God will use to grow his people! 

2024 June Update: Summer

Hey everyone!

 Summer is here and often people ask what do you do in the summer? Well, there's still students around so there's still ministry to do! However, thank God that the pace is more relaxed than the school year. During the school year it can often feel like a sprint. You have 10 months to build a deep relationship with many of these students, and often by simply acting like Jesus you become the best friend they've ever had. By being purposeful in your questions and authentic in your care through the good and the bad, you become one of the closest confidantes for most students that come across your path. However, that requires a lot of time and energy. And it's meant to set the stage for them to see an example of Jesus like that and become that kind of an influence on others. So the summer comes as a change of pace, because it's impossible to grow at that pace forever. Just as God created the world to have seasons of growth, harvest, and rest, so do our lives. Summer is the chance for those relationships to rest in their growth, to enjoy the harvest after 10 months of growing, and for us ministers to rest a bit before getting up to do it again in just a little while. That doesn't mean I no longer meet with students! There are still a couple that I keep going in the summer because of their needs, and there are new students that I may not have gotten a chance to meet in the school year! But a lot of time becomes dedicated to support-raising and getting to catch up and visit with old friends and maintain the fields of my life that may have been left untended during the school year.

JaM Camp

Emily, William, and I were able to help out our church’s kids camp called JaM camp that is hosted in Oklahoma. It’s a long drive and a four-day trip so it was a commitment, but it was a great experience and ministry is more than just for college kids. 

Service

 Our college students still get opportunities to serve and be together over the summer. Here’s a crew that helped out a church take down VBS decorations. What college students lack in finances and experience they make up for with strong backs and willing hearts!

Thank you!

 Thank you for all your prayers, love, and support. It has been a sweet summer working on integrating my family and ministry so that I can continue to do what God has called me to as a college minister and now as a father. But it’s because of all of you that I get to continue this journey and be like Jesus to so many kids who need him. So thank you all so much!