Raising Up Leaders

 

Raising Up Leaders

 

Hiking with staff and alumni

    Summer is wrapping up and that means preparations for the school year need to finish too! During the summer one of our biggest projects is building our leader team for the next school year. For some ministries, there's an application process. However, we opt to talk with our student leaders, help them assess what leadership qualities are, identify potential leaders, and then go and talk to them ourselves. Too many people self-select themselves out of the leadership conversation because they've never been told they could be a leader. They might be on the quieter side, they may feel like they don't have enough biblical knowledge, or they feel like they're not confident enough. But we know enough about God to know that whom he selects to be a leader is often surprising. Someone willing to love him and his people and put in the effort to show that and grow in that could be a leader. So, we spend much of summer talking to these students, identifying if this is a good year for them to step up, speak into any doubts or insecurities they may have, and call them to a big commitment to lead this next year. Many say no for various reasons, but a lot say yes. They commit to showing up consistently, to preparing purposefully for their small groups, for doing their best to disciple others to love and follow Jesus. What we call them to, what God calls them to, is no half-measure thing. 

Hello from our weekly Summer FOCUS!

    Many leaders feel overwhelmed their first year. We meet with them at least once a week to go over what ministry they're doing and how they're feeling about it. We try to support them as best we can, but diving deep into the care of people is not a flippant thing. However, we trust that over the year they'll find the reward God has prepared for them, in the form of relationships, in the witnessing of transformational growth that only God can do, and in the deepening of their own walk with God. I have a leader who was doubtful about leading his second year but seeing one of his guys baptized towards the end of the school year gave him the motivation to do it again. Now, moving into his third year leading there was no doubt in his mind. He told me, "What else would I spend my time doing?" When you dive deep into integrating ministry into your life, you find yourself unable to envision life without God. He becomes wrapped up in every conversation, every relationship. These students experience what I experienced as a student in this ministry, God transforms you into someone who looks more like him. There's nothing like having a front row seat to watching him work in people's lives and participate in that. And that's what these leaders will get to do this next year.

 

Thank You!

 

July 4th with students and alumni

    Thank you so much for being a part of this! Without your support, I wouldn't be able to do what I do. It's because of your generosity I get to have these conversations, I get to challenge these students to take a leap of faith, and we all get to mature in Christ. So thank you so much for believing in me, believing in this mission, and trusting God to take your gift and multiply it for his kingdom!

June Update: Graduation!

Graduation!

Hey guys, big news! Over the past five years, I've been attending Fuller Theological Seminary to get my Master of Divinity degree. It's been a grueling, time-consuming, but rewarding experience to grow in understanding and faith and get to learn from amazing professors and classmates. It was both stressful and helpful to do ministry full-time at the same time as going to school for ministry. I got to learn about God and turn right around and apply the things I was learning to real life and real situations. Now finally, after many late nights and hundreds of pages of writing, I've finished! A big thank you to my directors who put up with the crazy hours I was putting in, my coworkers and family who looked out for my physical and mental health, and my wife who let me cancel dates and crawl out of bed after we said good night so that I could finish my homework. Thankful for the experience, and thankful for the end of this part of the journey! A lot of my coworkers and my family flew out to Pasadena to attend graduation. Both Brandon and I got our degrees this year and attended commencement. 

 

Summer Planning

Over the summer, our biggest projects are planning for the next school year and selecting our leader team. Planning for the school year involves considering what values are we heating up for our community. We have to ask ourselves the questions, what is our community good at and what does it need help in? In a college ministry, turnover is so quick that values can just as quickly disappear if they aren't heated up and stressed year to year. Not only that, but the culture of students changes quickly as well. I only graduated 8 years ago and already this generation of students is not the same as mine. They like different things and are attracted to different things. So, we as a ministry have to adapt to that and speak the gospel into their culture. Ministry is never static! 

 

Student Leaders 

And as we select our leader team, we look for students where God has ignited a passion for learning, for loving people, and for serving. Not everyone who wants to lead should, and there are plenty of people who would never volunteer to lead who are called to lead. And it's our job to heed God's calling to select the students who we believe will guide the next generation well. We talk with dozens of guys and girls seeking those who would lead others to Jesus and not to themselves or to an organization. It's a lot of work, but it sets each year up for success if we put in the work now. So, please pray as we select our student leader team for this next school year!

 Thank You!

Thank you so much for your support! It's because of your support that I have had so many opportunities to learn and grow and minister to so many people. This degree is just a reflection of what God has been doing in me and what you have invested in. My prayer is to be a minister in all areas of my life even as my focus is on college students, and that God's life and light would be evident to all people.

Finishing Well

 

The End of the School Year

 

The school year has ended! The 2022-23 school year has come to a close and it is always a whirlwind to wrap up the year. Students get to finals season and it becomes a stressful time for them. Our student leaders do so well juggling all that they have going on as well as focusing on ending their Bible studies and transitioning their relationships with their peers from the school year into the summer. It's tough to go from seeing someone multiple times a week to not at all for a couple months! And it's difficult to see how important it is to make that transition well when tests and papers are hanging over your head. But they manage it so well, and I'm so proud of them. 

Parking Lot Graduation

 

Part of the end of the year is Parking Lot Graduation. A few years ago during COVID, we had a little worship night at a Walmart parking lot for any students still in the area. We would set up a little speaker in the back of my truck and little pods would show up in their cars and SUVs and park in two lines across from each other. We would worship together, each from our own little vehicles in the lot. At the last one of the year, I knew that graduation ceremonies had been canceled at nearly every school in the nation and many of our students there were seniors and had missed that opportunity to be celebrated. So, I threw on Pomp and Circumstance, told our graduates to line up at one end of the parking lot and announced their names one by one as we cheered for them as they took their graduation walk. This sparked an annual tradition of Parking Lot Graduation where we all crown into the parking lot and cheer for the graduates who are part of FOCUS. It's such a special time (and much more abbreviated than normal graduation) where we get to celebrate our graduates. Many friends and family come out to see their student take the walk in this dimly lit parking lot, surrounded by their ministry friends who cheer loudly for every single person walking the lot. 

 

SICM

 

A bit of an overlap with the end of the year is the transition to starting summer. And summer is kicked off with the Student Institute of Campus Ministry (SICM). Every year, we bring students to Washington state to attend a leadership conference put on by Campus Christian Fellowship at Western Washington University. These students are identified by their leaders in the previous year as people who could potentially lead this coming school year. They get a week of training in campus ministry: the gospel, leading small groups, asking good questions, leading Bible studies, campus evangelism, and more. This year, we've brought over 100 students eager and excited to learn how to lead others to Christ during their time in college. So pray for energy! Pray for open hearts and minds! Pray for deepened relationship! This is often a pivotal moment in their lives where they catch a vision for ministry, not just for college but for the rest of their lives. 

 

Thank You!

 

Thank you for your support! Campus ministry and being with these college students is so rewarding. They are funny, immature, quirky, idealistic, eager to serve and grow, and the transformation that Jesus enacts in them is so powerful. It's because of your support that I get to be a part of that process and help guide these young individuals to pursue Jesus. I'm excited for what's to come and I can't wait to talk to many of you this summer!

2023 March Update: To Reach 30,000 Students

 
Hey all! Another month, another ministry update! We're smack dab in the middle of the semester with midterms and spring break coming up, but here's how the students have been doing!

Diversity on Campus

One of our young staff pastors had the idea to put together a show to celebrate black history and to help our black student population be seen on this campus. UTD's demographic makeup is 32% Asian American, 22% Anglo, 22% international students, 13% Hispanic, and 5% Black, with biracial and other races comprising the remaining 6%. It's a very diverse campus, but with Blacks making up so few of the student population it can be challenging to feel heard or understood. There are no Black ministries on campus, so we've had the opportunity to provide a space and a ministry for them to come and belong without having to hide their culture. It was a great turnout, a lot of work, and so many students both Christian and non-Christian were blessed by the talented people our pastor found to be a part of the show.

Vision

We also began implementing a new vision to reach all 30,000 students on our campus. It can be so easy to get comfortable and complacent with the size we've always been, doing the things we've always done, and not making any waves. However, I don't believe that that is what God wants from us. There are so many students at UTD, and so many new ones every year, that we have a unique opportunity to help them find Jesus and grow closer to him. We've been casting a vision for our large group fellowship, started a new sermon series to explain the gospel and its ramifications, and posted advertisements all around campus.

Advertising

Surprisingly, our advertisements have been making waves around campus. It's sent small pockets of the online community into arguments about the signs. These signs contain questions such as "Does Jesus care about politics?", "Does Jesus care about my gay friends?", and "Does Jesus care about me?" These signs have been ripped up and stolen, sometimes lasting only a few hours before being vandalized. These questions are hitting a sore spot for our society because these are the questions people are asking and think the church has answered. However, they fail to realize the depth of Jesus' love and grace for them and instead run straight to what the world frequently offers as a response: hate. Hopefully, when we implement the next part of our advertising plan to tell them, "Yes, Jesus cares about you," "Yes, Jesus cares about your gay friends," and "Yes, Jesus cares about politics," they might have ears to hear the Lord who is calling them to him. 

Thank You!

Please pray as we continue to try to reach this campus! 30,000 students, and our few hundred in the ministry are just a drop in the bucket. But we hope that all 30,000 every year get an opportunity to meet Jesus and make a decision for themselves to follow him or not. Thank you for all your support, and I hope to see many of you this summer!

2023!

The holidays seem to whiz by! I was able to see my parents this Christmas season, which has been a rarity the past decade because of work and family schedules. It was so nice to have home cooking for two weeks and get to show my parents the faith community we have here in Texas. I pray that the holiday season was equally enjoyable and restful for you and your families this year. 

Students Over the Break

Over the break, we've been able to keep up with students even more than previous years. We set up devotional groups that met up weekly on each day of the week. Naturally, when we get out of routine and structure we have difficulty being productive, spending time with God, or doing many of the good habits we develop over a semester. So those groups were meant to combat that and help and encourage one another to be good disciples over the month-long break. It has been great getting to see the students online over a period of time when contact can just suddenly go dead. And it's been great for them and us in remembering to be like Jesus even when the demands of life are very different.

Winter Retreat

Coming up this weekend, we have Winter Retreat! (That's our rebrand of Winter Camp.) It's exciting to have one after having to cancel the one two years
ago and nearly having the campground cancel it last year and only being able to do it at limited capacity. We have almost 550 people attending which is both daunting and exciting! Please pray for our worship leaders, our speakers, and our students to be listening to God and seeking to grow and start the semester well with the heart and eyes of Jesus. We're eagerly anticipating how God is going to use this experience to change lives!

Thank You!

Thank you all so much for your continued support and kindness towards me. I am so thankful for what I get to do and how you guys support me in that. Please let me know if ever there is anything I can do for you!

Christmastime is Here

The End of the (Calendar) Year!

 

Our mascot Temoc "Claus"

The holiday season has arrived and that means we're arriving at the halfway point for the school year. What does this mean for ministry? It means that students are beginning to feel the urgency of their growth, their Bible studies, and their friendships with each other. What a school year gets to do for our students is place a deadline to this season of their life. Next school year they may be graduated, they may be in a different small group, they may not have the same schedule as their friends. So, this season of friendship with these other college students has an expiration date. Now that doesn't mean they're no longer friends with each other or that they will no longer talk to their former small groups, but the touch-points they have this year may no longer be there. This creates a sense of urgency, to appreciate each other now, to make the most of their studies together now, to deepen their friendships while they still get to see each other multiple times a week. We get to take advantage of the finite school year and use it for God's purposes. They still have one more semester, but knowing this semester had an end for them, they're more aware that this next semester will come to a close before they know it as well. The students are going into a well-deserved break after their finals. They're looking forward to their families and Christmastime, but they'll also have the first extended period away from each other and we hope that absence will make the heart grow fonder! 

Christmas Party and Service

The students doing the "Whoosh"

Before they leave every year, we always do a Christmas party and a Christmas service together. We believe that we celebrate the holidays together with family. If we didn't celebrate together, what does that mean about how we view our relationships with each other? So we love putting on a party where students can come together and enjoy funny games, traditions, and sing fun Christmas songs together. We always end with a "We Whoosh You a Merry Christmas". (Because the symbol for the UTD Comets is the "Whoosh". We also get to do a Christmas service because it's important for us all to remember Jesus during this time as the main focus. We can get wrapped up in the gifts, lights, and celebrations and miss the baby boy who came to save us all. 

Thank You!

In some ways, Christmas is a time to be more thankful than even Thanksgiving. This is a time to remember and be thankful for the sacrifice that Jesus made for us by coming down to Earth. I also always want to remember your sacrifices in enabling me to do ministry with these students, to get to witness what God is doing here, and to continually pour into new leaders year after year. I am so grateful for your faithfulness and belief in me to do God's will here in Dallas. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, that God continually blesses us with his character of love and mercy through his people and his creation. Love you all!

Come and See What God is Doing

After a crazy season of planting, now it's time for those seeds to be taken care of. If a small group leader hits the ground running for welcome week, when September rolls around they should end up with a group of 10-15 people who barely know each other. The ironic thing is that if they've cast their nets wide, they have a diverse group who knows them well but may never have met each other. So, September and October become the months for those guys or girls to begin to develop bonds. It can feel discouraging at times as people opt out because it isn't what they were looking for, the inclusion of Jesus is too much, other priorities in life get in the way, but when our leaders stick with it eventually they come out the other side with a group that is closer for having invested the time in each other's lives. That's the phase of ministry we're still in! People are getting to know each other, letting down their walls, trying to become good friends to one another.

Fall Camp

One of the ways we help our leaders develop those bonds and build momentum is Fall Camp! It's just a 24-hour overnight retreat for them to bring their small groups to, learn about Jesus and how he has impacted their peers, and have fun together. We're always excited to see how much a simple overnight experience can do for depth of relationship. Just brushing your teeth next to someone and sleeping in the same room together develops a brotherhood/sisterhood and an intimacy that weeks of hanging out can't do. Already we're hearing positive feedback on how students related to the testimonies of their peers, how Jesus saved them or led to a better life out of cancer, drug abuse, unfulfilled lifestyles, and complacent church attendance. Please pray for God to continue impacting lives, and that these guys and girls would learn and grow to love one another as Jesus has shown us to.

Family Night

Coming up on October 15th, we have our annual Family Night from 5:30pm-7:00pm! This is the one week a year we move our fellowship night from Friday to Saturday to enable families, friends, mentors, and any family figure to come visit and see what kind of ministry their child/sibling/friend is a part of. Alumni are also invited! This is an opportunity to share in the vision of God's kingdom and we're always excited to join in unity with others over that!

Thank You!

 Thank you guys so much for supporting me in campus ministry! As this starts the 8th year of doing campus ministry, it has gone through ups and downs and various challenges, but what has been faithful throughout is the support of God's people in his mission here. I appreciate the trust and care you put in me to be a part of God's work with college students, and I hope I always communicate that! I always look forward to the next time I'm able to see y'all and catch up!