He shared 5 key convictions:
Conviction #1 -- The size of the harvest depends on how many leaders you have. (Matt 9:37-38)
He said, "The impact of my life will depend, not on how hard I worked, but on how many leaders I raised up."
Conviction #2 -- Live for the next generation. (Psalm 71:18)
Conviction #3 -- Identify the budding leaders around you and take them to God in prayer. (Numbers 11:10-17)
Conviction #4 -- Instill the 5 loves into your budding leaders. (Mark 12:30-33--Loving God with heart, mind, soul, and strength, and loving your neighbor)
Conviction #5 -- Never do ministry alone. Always have budding leaders around you. (Acts 4:13)
I can't think of a better way to capture the drive behind the FOCUS Internship. If we are going to plant vibrant Christian communities on every campus in the DFW area (not to mention that UTD alone could easily use 50 more full-time Christian missionaries), and also send out well-equipped, pastorally-minded men and women leaders into the church-at-large, it's imperative that we continually invest in young leaders, giving them extra time to study, think, experience, and minister. Sometimes I'll have students ask if there is a cap on how many student leaders we need. The answer is a loud "NO!" There are over a hundred thousand students just on our few campuses, and we need as many qualified leaders as we can get.
It's out of that conviction that we have recently accepted 9 young disciples into our internship for the 2014-2015 school year. They are an outstanding bunch, and I'll be introducing them further in the coming months. We also have three of this year's interns returning for a second, more focused year of internship exploring campus ministry as a career, and two of this year's interns joining our longterm staff.
I know that sounds like a lot of people! But we are confident that we can give each and every one a great experience, and that they will produce lasting fruit in the lives of college students on these campuses. They have already proven themselves to be discerning, fruitful leaders. I'd ask you to start asking God to provide the money to make it happen. He always has, and I'm confident He will again!
I also wanted to share with you an anonymous letter that came in the UTD student offering last week.
My thanks to you, for helping make this possible for students like that one, through your friendship and prayers and financial support. This is truly a team effort!
P.S. I was invited to two UTD student baptisms this month. I've included videos below if you'd like to watch them!
