3 things for you to do

SICM was last week, and I think the experience was summed up in a question one of the UTD freshmen asked me the last evening of the trip: "Is SICM always this amazing?" My answer: "Yep. That's why we keep coming back every year." SICM isn't just a great experience--it produces great fruit. Consistently. Thank you for praying for these students and to so many of you for financial support that makes these experiences possible. I'd love to tell you more about the conference in person or on the phone. Just ask!

These are just the UTD people we took to SICM. I love training this many new leaders for our campus!

In addition, when we sent the students back home, some of the staff guys and I drove on up to Vancouver, BC, to take a summer course at Regent College. I'm halfway through a class called "Interpreting Matthew," and it has been a great experience so far. I'm not quite ready to condense down what I'm learning because I have so many things going on in my head. But I'm recognizing again how much our faith and our scriptures are ultimately about God's character--being a Christian is about getting to know God and becoming like Him. Intimacy with God is both the goal and the means to that goal, both the end and the means.

I have 3 quick things you can do to help our ministry:

1. Pray for some key job searches at UTD

Some key positions have opened up at UTD that have the potential to deeply affect the ability of Christian missionaries to work effectively on campus. Our president, Dr. Daniel, is taking a higher job at the UT System level (read about it here) and a committee will be formed soon to conduct a nationwide search for a new president. In addition, the Dean of Students position and Assistant Dean of Students position are both open right now as well. Please pray for the women and men involved in filling these three important positions. Those decisions have the potential to radically shape campus ministry at UTD in the decade to come.

2. Amazon Smiles

If you shop on Amazon, you can start your shopping at Amazon Smiles (each time) and a portion of every purchase will go to support FOCUS. You can click on the link below to connect your account and then change any bookmarks to Amazon Smiles instead of Amazon. Everything costs the same and works the same, with the exception that on your phone it doesn't work through the app, only through the browser. I've been using this for a few weeks now and it works exactly the same as before! You can also click here if the image above doesn't show up.

3. Change out your internship prayer sheet ... because we added Albert!

I have some great news--we have accepted one more intern for the 2015-2016 school year. We knew that Albert Rodriguez was interested, but a number of things had to fall in place with his education to make it work this year, so we waited until May to have him apply and interview. He's an amazing young man, and I've been praying for him to try out ministry for the last couple years. I know many of you have started praying regularly for our incoming interns and their support raising. If that is you, please switch out this new prayer sheet for your old one.

If you'd like a larger version of this image, I can share it with you.

Your prayers are important. I'm convinced God works powerfully when his image bearers ask Him to in Jesus' name. My prayer for you is that you would have a blessed summer, and that your intimacy with God would grow in this season.

New Interns!

Our 2015-2016 class of interns has been selected and it's an outstanding group of young people. Some are graduating and joining our staff immediately, while others are leaving the marketplace to return to campus and further their impact. All of them have at least an undergraduate degree. I hope that you will save the image below and use it to pray for them over the coming months as they prepare for their internship to start on August 1. Here they are!

More and more young people are being drawn to the FOCUS internship experience each year, helping us reach more and more students with the good news about Jesus. And the need is huge! I was reminded of that again today when a student coming by wrote this on one of our evangelistic discussion boards at Richland College:

The apostle Peter wrote, "Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8). The enemy is at work, but Jesus is at work too, and in Him students and staff and professors can find life to the full. Pray for this young man and others like him. It's probably only a matter of time before one of our campuses experiences a tragedy of some sort, but let's pray for God's deliverance and for hurting young people to have powerful encounters with Jesus' people both on and off campus. Thank you for sending missionaries to the campus through prayers, encouragement, and financial support. God is moving and you are a part of it!

My prayer for you is that you will find a tangible way to love a young person this week. Let the Spirit guide you in that--stretch yourself and take a risk. If there are things I can be praying for you specifically, please let me know.

The Tail End of 2014-2015

March was a busy month, but a better one. This time of year is always packed full of exciting stuff. Students are making commitments to the Lord and deciding to get serious about secret sins and issues. Student leaders are having meaningful conversations and preparing the final challenges and words of encouragement that they want to deliver as they disband their cores and send people off to summer or to graduation and beyond. Students see the end of the year approaching, and that sense of urgency creates all sorts of opportunities for meaningful ministry.

I've reflected over the years how these arbitrary finish lines can help people change and grow so much. Please take a moment to pray that every one of our students who is contemplating a change for the better this April wouldn't let the opportunity pass them by.

I had the opportunity to attend Alphonse's baptism a couple weeks back. He didn't grow up knowing about Jesus, and UTD was the perfect place to get to know him! Some of the guys were reaching out to him and inviting him to lots of stuff and trying to get him to study the Bible with them. At the same time, he noticed that one of the girls living in his hall, Tiffany, always wore a cross necklace. When he asked her about it one day, she didn't say "It's a Christian thing" or "My mom gave it to me." Instead, she took the opportunity to share with him the story of Jesus and His sacrifice and what it meant to her. Alphonse shared about how pivotal that moment was at his baptism, and I got to meet Tiffany because she came to celebrate with us! God is good, and he is working through His people all the time.

I thought you'd find this brief video of that baptism encouraging. The guy baptizing him, Grant, is one of the seniors I'm mentoring this year, and he will be a part of our team to pioneer FOCUS at UT Arlington this fall as he moves over there to work as an engineer for Bell Helicopter.

We also had an amazing Spring Showcase fundraiser for SICM this month. We raised nearly $9000 to train new leaders this summer, and had a great time with some incredible performances. One of the students who went to SICM last year took a couple minutes to explain the value of that trip. If you weren't at the Showcase, I encourage you to listen to him explain it and catch (or re-catch) the vision for the Student Institute of Campus Ministry.

Lastly, we are having our spring Pizza Theology for the students tomorrow. The title is "The End of the World as We Know It: Heaven, Hell, and Everything In Between." I have the task of teaching on the Biblical doctrine of hell, and preparing has been very challenging. But I'm excited to share what I've learned. I've been pondering the idea that in the scripture, doctrines are for something; they serve specific purposes. And just like using a tool for the wrong job risks damage to both the tool and whatever you are working on, I think using doctrines for different purposes than the scripture does risks both theological and pastoral damage.

In the scripture, the doctrine of eschatology (the study of last things) is used both to warn and to encourage. It is a warning to those who benefit from injustice. It is an encouragement to hold on for those who suffer because they follow God. And yet I wonder if this is what we always use this doctrine for. I think we are tempted to use it to figure out exactly when these things are going to happen and exactly what they will be like, perhaps to be ready but perhaps to simply satisfy our own curiosity. I think we are tempted to use the doctrine of hell to guilt people into mission work. Maybe we can safely extrapolate these ideas from what the scripture says, but I think we get into dangerous territory when we use these teachings and ideas in different ways than the biblical authors who originally penned them for us. I encourage you in your own study of scripture to reflect on the question of what teachings are for, and how we might best use them to God's glory.

I'm so thankful for each of you who pray for me, for students, and for all who live and work and learn on these campuses. I'm thankful for those of you who faithfully support this mission financially. Thank you for partnering with me!

Quick update

I asked for prayers concerning ticket prices to SICM the other day. The group rates we were getting were well over $500 per person, and I told the students to be ready to pay $500. But we were able to get them for an average of $355, less than last year. That means we saved each student $145 and around $13,000 for our entire group of 91! Thanks for your prayers.

I also wanted to include the official advertisement for the Spring Showcase:

Laying Groundwork for Next Year

I'm in the middle of some of the busiest months of my year. We're wrapping up annual reviews with my amazing staff, finishing up interviews for the 2015-16 internship, putting our group together for the annual SICM trip, and preparing to host 2 teams of students from Washington at the end of the month for outreach on our campuses--all on top of my regular schedule of appointments and teaching. I'm looking forward to the students leaving for Spring Break so I can catch my breath!

We have an outstanding group of potential interns this year, and I can't wait to share with you about them next month. As for SICM, we invited and are taking our biggest group ever! I think we'll take 77 students and 13 staff from our various campuses to be trained in campus ministry. Please pray for good airline prices as we will be buying lots of tickets in the next couple of days. (The group rates were ridiculous this year, so we are buying them piecemeal and averaging the cost for the students in hopes of saving money.)

And UTD has a bumper crop for SICM--55 of the 105 total students we invited are from UTD. So I'm really excited about our leader team for next year!

This was the first group that went to SICM back in 2002 (Leah Farmer Lorenz, me, Debra Boswell Bottoms, and Brad Davis), paid for in full by Glynn Lively. It's overwhelming to think how that investment has paid off, in so so many ways. I can't wait to share with you the picture of the 90ish people that will go this May to be equipped for ministry. God is good!

For those of you in the area, we have a special fundraiser coming up this month to help raise money for SICM, the Spring Showcase.  This will be a concert and art show held on March 28 at 8pm at Legacy Church in Plano. It will feature some great musical talent from students and also have student art available for purchase. We have some amazingly talented people across our community--I'm really looking forward to this event!

If you are interested in going, all of the students going to SICM this year are selling tickets or you can buy them at anyfocus.org/showcase.

Here's a taste of last year's concert--one of my favorite performances.  And Ana is singing again this year!

Post by Charles Guo.

February was a tough month in some ways--students struggling with oppressive thoughts, finding out about significant illnesses, and some tough staff transitions. As always, I covet your prayers for this community. Pray for us to put on the full armor of God and stand firm (Ephesians 6). Please pray for Jacob who will have surgery to remove a brain tumor in the next week or so. I'm praying God will move and the doctors will not find what they are expecting. Thank you for praying! And thank you to those of you who partner with us financially to make it possible for me to invest in the lives of young people.

Winter Camp 2015

I can't imagine how Winter Camp this year could have gone better. We had nearly 500 people gather to worship, learn, pray, and play together for three days. I'm still hearing great feedback from students who were impacted, energized, and equipped to return to their campuses as maturing Jesus people. We see from Jesus' ministry that growth in numbers doesn't mean much by itself, but I'm encouraged that of those hundreds of students, only a handful signed up separate from one of our core groups. That tells me that nearly every student started the weekend tied in to the community with leaders who know them and are investing in them personally. (And hopefully they ALL ended the weekend that way!)

This was the big group--well over 400 college students plus some siblings and friends in their last year or two of high school, FOCUS staff people, and some alumni and supporters who came to help minister and bless students.

And here's the UTD group whooshing! Note there are a couple of alums in the bottom right corner with a little future Comet. Leah and Jared, the parents, are past leaders who have had a huge formative impact on our ministry--Leah was even one of the first 5 students involved!

Our speaker was Dr. Iain Provan, an Old Testament scholar from Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia.  He spent the weekend unpacking for us the goodness of God and His plan as revealed in the Old Testament. In keeping with our "Words of Life" theme this year, he spoke on Words about Creation, Words about God, Words about Being Human, Words about Suffering and Evil, and Words about Hope. He also did a nearly two-hour open Q&A on the Old Testament. Even though it was billed as an optional event, well over 300 students were in attendance.

Iain Provan

I think these words from Nikki, one of the UTD students who became a Christian this past year, capture it well: "Iain Provan's lectures were by far the best I've had thus far (sorry Brandon!). As one of many who did the [FOCUS Summer School of Ministry class] for Genesis, I couldn't help but take pages and pages of notes while Iain was speaking. It blew my mind to get not only his perspectives on some of the things discussed in the class, but just to dig once again below the surface of such an important piece to gain insight on a different approach to Genesis was mind blowing!! I definitely will re-read the application commentary and do more research just to see what else is out there!"
Since our students are studying at public colleges and universities, they typically don't get to study the Scriptures at a college level. Two things Iain said stick out to me: "Every Christian needs to be educated to the level of their ability" and "It's kind of scandalous to have a higher degree in something else and still be at level one in our biblical understanding." It's our intention to continue to bring in scholars as well as pastors as speakers at our various events to better equip our students for a lifetime of Christian service.
(Regent, a graduate school of Theology, describes itself as transdenominational, evangelical, and orthodox, with its first priority being to remain true to the orthodox faith as recorded in the Scriptures. One of their main focuses is on equipping and training the whole people of God, not just professional pastors. I've probably recommended it before, but the bookstore has a website where you can purchase mp3 recordings or CDs of many of the classes. If you have a commute or take long walks/runs in your regular schedule, this might be a great way to use that time to develop your ability to "love God with all your mind." You might start by searching for Iain Provan on regentaudio.com.)

A couple quick updates:
FOCUS 140 funds - We're still looking at how to best use the money raised to keep FOCUS growing in 2015. We're planning to overhaul our website and create an app to get ready for more campuses and more students in the next 5-10 years. We've been gathering an amazing team of staff and students to move to Arlington and launch the ministry at UTA, and we plan to buy them supplies for outreach and also subsidize a team-building and planning retreat sometime this summer.

Rooms at UTD - We now have rooms for every Friday night this semester...except for next week! We have some great churches in the area who have offered to host us so we may move off campus for that one night. Please say a prayer that we don't have these problems again in the Fall!

Thank you for your gifts and prayers to make all these things possible. Together, we're blessing a lot of students. I hope it's a blessing and encouragement to you as well!

So much to tell!

Prayer Requests

We're back from our Christmas holiday and school starts Monday at UTD.  With that right around the corner, I have a couple of big prayer requests:

1. Winter Camp is January 16-19. This can be a pivotal moment in the year for so many students, so pray that everyone who needs to be there chooses to come. Getting everyone there is a big job for our entire leader team.

2. We are having a lot of trouble getting rooms reserved for the semester on campus at UTD. This came out of left field since we haven't had trouble like this in years. Pray for God to give us favor with the administration and break this logjam so we can have our Friday night services on campus.

I know the university is struggling to keep up with rapid growth and is doing their best to accommodate the needs of all the various groups. To give you some idea of the incredible growth UTD has experienced, take a look at this graphic:

These average SAT scores are among the highest in the state, which gives you an idea of the kind of bright students I get to work with at UTD!

FOCUS 140 Update

The next thing I want to say is that our First Annual Keep FOCUS Growing Initiative (#FOCUS140) has been a huge success! To date, we've raised

$29,863.19!!!!!!

This is so exciting for us as we look toward pioneering new ministries at UTA and NCTC and increasing our impact where we have already planted. Thank you, thank you, thank you to those of you who participated, shared the news, and prayed for it. We are working now on how to most effectively put that money to work for the kingdom, and I'll work to keep you posted on how we use it.

The Contemplative Pastor

Yesterday we got back from our winter staff retreat. With our staff spread out over a few cities in the area, this is one of our few opportunities to share vision and minister to one another, and it's a critical experience for our interns every year. Over Christmas break, everyone on staff read The Contemplative Pastor by Eugene Peterson.

The book was good for me on a number of levels. It's very meditative. He gives three words he thinks describes good pastors--unbusy, subversive, and apocalyptic. (Not three I would have picked!) He writes poems and reflects on poems. He talks about "the ministry of small talk" and tells the story of a sabbatical he took to pray and play and write.

One of the most powerful ideas for me came when he was talking about John writing Revelation as a pastor to his churches: "St. John is terrifically urgent, but he is not in a hurry." I think that describes Jesus' and Paul's ministries as well: urgent, but not in a hurry. When I get in a hurry, I miss opportunities and do sloppy work. When I get in a hurry, I don't notice Zacchaeus up in the tree. When I get in a hurry, I get to the next challenge before God has fully prepared me for it. Please pray for me that I can match God's pace in my ministry and life with Him.

New Friends

Lastly, a couple of stories. At our first FOCUS meeting at UTD this past fall, I got to meet an amazing young woman. She grew up in the Bahamas and completed her first two years of college at the University of Miami. She told me in that first encounter that she transferred to UTD because God told her to, but she didn't know why. Reminds me of Abraham picking up and moving because God said "Go!" No one had really discipled her up to that point, but the Lord had clearly been mentoring her. I've loved getting with her every week to discuss the scriptures and hear how the Lord is moving in her life. She's definitely one to watch--the Lord has big plans for her!

Part way through the semester, her boyfriend, who had already graduated, found a job in Dallas and moved here. After a few weeks, he asked if we could study the Bible together. He has a Christian background, but had never read the scriptures on his own. Each week I assign him a new book of the Bible to read, and each week it takes us nearly 2 hours to cover his questions and thoughts about it. I love reading and discussing the scriptures with him and seeing his sweet heart for the Lord. So far, he has read Matthew, John, Acts, 1 Corinthians (twice!), and now Genesis. After reading Matthew and John, I asked him what stood out to him most about Jesus. He said he noticed how Jesus didn't treat everyone the same--the ones who didn't know anything were treated with great mercy while a higher standard was applied to those religious leaders who should know better. I was blown away by such a profound insight into the heart of our very good and just God. He's an amazing young man, and I'm excited to develop this friendship in the Lord.

I've been so encouraged by getting to spend time with these two. They are like so many young people today, drifting in and out of churches waiting for someone to invest in them and raise them up to lead in the kingdom. Thank you for sending me to spend time with them, and for bathing this ministry in prayer; together we are planting many seeds and harvesting good fruit!