Helping at SMU

This time each year I'm thinking heavily and having many conversations about our pastoral staff for the coming school year. Even though freshmen won't show up for another 6 months, we've already been thinking and praying and talking since December about leadership for our campuses. Around 8 of our current pastors will be transitioning off, another group of new apprentices will be coming on, and some of our campus pastors will be making new commitments and/or changing campuses to fill key needs. With 60 pastors on the team, it's a lot to think through!

Arguably the biggest transition coming up this summer Garrett's transition to full-time church leadership. Many of you already know what a key role he has played in our mission. Besides Mandy and me, Garrett is our longest serving campus pastor on the team. He has led many of our campuses--Collin, the Denton campuses, and now SMU. He has mentored many of our key leaders. He is so very talented and passionate for the Lord. He's going to be hard to replace! But his next assignment is an outgrowth of his work with FOCUS, leading a church in Richardson that has SMU and UTD students as members. He also plans to continue some of his work with SMU athletes as the Lord has opened a key door to him on the swim and football teams, as well as with many of the coaches.

In preparation for the transition for the FOCUS ministry there, Mandy and I are investing some time and energy at SMU this semester. I'm starting to work with the men who will be on staff next year as well as coaching their preachers and leading their student leader meeting. What an amazing group! It has been so fun to work with them so far. This week, we studied through 1 Timothy 4, looking at what the Apostle Paul has to say about both legitimate and illegitimate leadership. False leaders try to take control, adding to God's commands by forbidding and forcing. True leaders speak God's truth and lead by example. These students were so eager to participate, ask questions, and learn. It gives me great confidence for the years to come! Please be praying for this transition. Garrett has only been there a few years, so there are still students who remember the last director transition when Garrett replaced Laurence. I'm praying we manage it in a way that cares for these young adults and provides stability and direction.

Asa is an SMU graduate and our apprentice on that campus this year. I've been helping him prepare and deliver a sermon series on Christian community, and it's been so good! He's staying on next year and will be our first SMU alum serving as a pastor there!

Thanks for making my work possible and for being so flexible as my role flexes to the needs of our overall mission! I am still working at UTD, still meeting with student leaders, and still doing a lot of the Bible teaching there, but I will also be investing in SMU for the next year or so while we get new leadership off the ground.

Student Testimony

Winter Retreat and The Start of the Semester

We just got back from Winter Retreat yesterday, and it was such a great weekend! We had our largest group ever (somewhere around 830 people), an amazing experience learning from guest speaker Marty Solomon, and so much time to practice loving one another and worshipping Jesus.

Marty gave five keynote talks taking us all the way through the book of Genesis. As much as I've studied this book in the past, I was not prepared for how much I learned! I told a friend after his third talk, "I don't think I've ever heard a sermon preached about Isaac (the patriarch) much less cried through a sermon about Isaac," and yet that's what happened. Marty brought a Jewish perspective to understanding this very Jewish book, and opened our eyes to see more of God's heart in these stories. It gets me excited to listen to his Bema Podcast where he goes into more depth on these things.

If you'd like to listen to (or watch) these lessons, they are available on Spotify.

Marty really used the space available to him on the stage. The students were so engaged with his teaching!

I wish you could have experienced the energy in the room during worship. This is definitely a new generation rising up!

There's no great way to capture all the people at the retreat, but we packed the place out! I'm wondering if we can get one more year of doing Winter Retreat with all of our campuses together.

I also spent a good amount of time doing outreach to a future generation of FOCUS students as staff and alumni visited with their kids. What a treat!

One new experiment at the retreat was our optional "Ask Unc" session ("unc" is what Gen Z likes to call older people), where students lined up to get one on one time with Ronnie or Garrett or me. I had students wait nearly 3 hours to get 15 minutes asking me questions. It showed me that we need to do more of that! There is truly a hunger for wisdom and God's word in these students.

I also got to do some Bible teaching on dating and marriage at the retreat, something we try to do every other year at least. (You can find those talks on our Spotify as well as Marty's) We had some scheduling challenges that made it feel a bit rushed, but I've already gotten some good feedback and great questions from students.

Thank you for all you do, all your prayers, and your generous gifts that empower me to spend my time investing in young adults. It's bearing good fruit, and what we've done together so far is only the beginning!

Student Testimony