Another Year Bites the Dust

Last night was our End-of-Year Party for the UTD ministry, and tonight is our final meeting with the leaders. This group of students has been such a delight to work with, and I'm sad to see so many of them moving on to their next endeavors. At the same time, though, we have an incredible group of younger students growing up to replace them, so I'm very optimistic about the coming years! God continues to bless this community.

These are the corefas that Peter and I mentored this year. What an amazing bunch! Not only are they great ministers, but they are so kind to us and so much fun to be around. 

Thanks for your investments in reaching UTD students this year. At our last Friday Night Fellowship, we had open mic sharing about what God has been doing in our community this year. If you have time to listen to it, I know you'll be encouraged:

Last Friday Night Sharing (Part 2 is a lot more personal, but if you have time there's a Part 1 as well.)

Student Testimony
This month our testimony comes from Richland College.

Catherine Long (Sophmore, Richland College, Echocardiography)

"God has used the community in FOCUS to make me a better friend to those around me. Throughout high school, I struggled with making genuine and lasting friendships. I had certain people I would spend time with, but there was no depth to our relationships. By the time I graduated, I sadly realized that I had no peer-friends who cared about what I was going through. In addition to this, I found it hard to empathize with those around me. It was a difficult experience that taught me the value of true, real friendship. During my first semester of college, I was involved in a car accident with my parents and three younger siblings. Those next two months were some of the darkest times of my life. I recall sitting in the emergency room and my small group leader, Nicki, calling to see if I was okay. I can’t remember what either one of us said, but I do remember in that moment feeling loved and cared for in a profound way. It was so precious to me. After some time in the ministry, my youngest sister, Emily, told me that she didn’t know what healthy friendships looked like until she saw how I interacted with my co-fa. God was shaping the kind of friend He wanted me to be, and through it, He was impacting the people around me! I am so excited to go on this journey that God has called me to: loving and serving those around me like Christ!"

Finishing up Christian History Class

I've spent a significant portion of my time this semester working my way through 2,000 years of Christian History with our apprentices and with our 1st & 2nd-year staff ministers. We used Sarah Williams' History of Christianity I & II as the foundation for our discussions, along with other readings and activities. I think at first those young ministers struggled with the material because they couldn't think of anything to DO with it. It's always a temptation to want immediate practical applications for what we study. But as we approached our current day, we all began to see how these things fit together, and how our own story is just a part of a much bigger heritage.

I grew up in a tradition that didn't value that heritage very much at all. We talked a lot about getting the church back to the 1st century, but had mostly disdain for centuries 2-18. In fact, I'm not sure that we thought there were actually any true Christians in the church until we came along in the early 1800's! :) It has been powerful in my own life to learn about my older brothers and sisters who have passed the batons of true faith down through the ages. True, there are many stories of those batons being dropped in tragic, and often infuriating, ways. But for each of those, there are stories of others who came and picked them back up to run faithfully again the race marked out for us.

Our Christian family has engaged so many different cultures and languages and time periods and peoples. We've rethought our faith over and over, finding new, and often better, ways of thinking about God and ourselves and this world. More than anything for me, this study has been humbling. I realize the tremendous debt of gratitude I owe to so many who did their best without so many of the advantages I have. They did their best, even when their best wasn't very good. And God, with grace overflowing, did what He does best--He made their paltry efforts good enough, and He allowed the leaven of the gospel to continue to work its way through the dough of this world. I can't wait to see what this place is like when the Master Baker is done with it.

And something funny to end with...

The seniors at UTD made a video to thank the staff where they imitate us. The first half is funny, then there's a different senior sharing about each of us. It's pretty amusing.

Great Things Happening

My Amazing Staff

The 2016-2017 FOCUS Staff Team

This amazing bunch of disciples is the staff I get to work with to impact nearly 1000 students this year. I couldn't ask for a better team! I remember praying for just one more quality person to work with me at UTD, and God has blessed me with nearly 30! I wish I could tell you about every single one of them and the incredible work they do.

Spring Showcase Was a Big Success!

Our Spring Showcase to raise scholarship money for SICM was a huge success! The performances were amazing, around 1000 people came, and we raised about $18,000 in one night! That will go a long way toward helping pay for the trip. We're over a month out and are closing in on having the whole thing paid for. Thank you to those of you who came out and supported these budding leaders!

I'm not sure how well you can see how big the crowd was from this picture, but it was huge!

A Week of Outreach on Campus

The week before that we hosted 10 students and 2 interns from Western Washington University for their annual Student Spring Impact (SSI) trip. They spent the week partnering with our students to reach out to students at UTD, Richland, and TWU-Dallas. They met so many students, hung out with them, and engaged them in meaningful conversations. We've had new people joining cores and having ongoing spiritual conversations because of that.

We've been experimenting this year with outreach activities that better fit with our core values of real relationships and deep community. We still want to have spiritual conversations with people we run into on campus, but we want those to turn into lasting friendships where we can model the love of Christ. As we've tried out outreach based around fun activities like board games and spike ball and coloring books (it's like Welcome Week but in the Spring!), we keep hearing from students who are lonely and have no friends. I'm so thankful that God has put His people on campus and has given us the desire to welcome new friends into our hearts and lives. I can't wait to watch these new friendships bear good kingdom fruit!

The SSI crew from Bellingham sitting on the UTD welcome sign.

Student Testimony

Jon's story illustrates how often campus ministry involves helping young people process life and make plans that will bless them in the future. So many of our young people don't come from families that have the knowledge and experience to help their kids navigate college and career. I love hearing stories like these!

Jon Smith (First Year, North Central Texas College, Web Design)

"When I first moved to Denton, I wanted to find a church group that I could connect with like the one I had back home. I prayed fairly frequently for a church at first, but after a few months I gave up. I started to feel extremely lonely and somewhat depressed without my former church family nearby. A little over a year later, I was invited to FOCUS by my roommate, Brad. At that point, I wasn’t a student so I felt strange going to FOCUS. But Brad was persistent, and he invited me to his Core as well. It was in that Core that I began to feel the sense of community I had lost. I had a group of guys opening up to me and giving me the opportunity to do the same. 

"My Corefa asked me about my plans and goals for the future and I told him, at that time, I didn't really plan for the future. He asked me about school, and I told him I wasn't interested in school. I thought it was silly and a financial waste. He brought this conversation up multiple times, and I always shut him down by telling him I had no reason to go to school, but I could tell it was important to him. I finally asked him why he cared so much about something I couldn't care less about, and he told me he cared about my future. 

"I finally decided to hear him out, and he started talking to me about North Central Texas College. We researched NCTC together and found it had programs I was interested in. We also knew that FOCUS was wanting to build a ministry there. I was afraid to become a student, still using finances as an excuse, but so many people were willing to walk me through the financial aid process. After making the decision to become an NCTC student, I committed to being a leader as well. God not only answered my prayer for community, but also radically changed my life as a student and a disciple."

Thank you for committing to benefit these young people by serving, giving, and praying. So many of them you may never meet, but it is my conviction that God sees every single person you impact directly or indirectly, and He never forgets!

Hallie, Pizza Theology, and Prayer

Hallie's Story

Hallie Tran (Junior, UT Arlington, Nursing)

"I grew up in Vietnam with Buddhist parents. My aunt shared the gospel with me and my brother, and I became a Christian when I was around six. Looking back, I can see how God was pursuing me and leading me to grow in my relationship with Him by giving me a desire to go to church.

When I came to America, my host families helped me grow in my faith. My parents came to visit me and my brother after a couple years. My parents thought that because we were thankful to God, we were not thankful to them, and they were really angry. They were in Vietnam working hard to provide for me and my brother to go to school in the States. They made us choose: we could stop following God and they would continue to support us financially, or we could follow God and He would support us. My brother and I chose God. I didn’t know how I was going to be able to transfer to UTA, but God provided a way. My parents, after my aunt spoke with them, decided to continue supporting me until I graduate. My relationship with my parents has changed a lot since that conversation. In some ways, I feel like they disowned me and my brother. My parents aren’t really my family anymore. But FOCUS has since filled that role, and the people in this community have become my family. FOCUS has challenged me to go outside of my comfort zone and invest in people. It has been a safe place for me to have hard conversations. Because of FOCUS I have deep friendships. I was accepted to a nursing school in Florida, and seriously considered going, but decided to stay at UTA because I saw what God was doing on this campus. I have so much to be thankful for and can see the great things that God is doing in my life and in those around me."

Pizza Theology on Race

The view from my seat in the back at Pizza Theology.

Last weekend we had our spring Pizza Theology and over 400 came to think deeply about the topic of race, ethnicity, and culture from a Christian perspective. Two of my UTD staff guys, Peter and Sirak, did the primary teaching, and they were amazing! Peter laid out a biblical vision of race from Genesis to Revelation. Sirak (who is also a sociology professor at Richland College) laid out some sociological and historical foundations for how we think about race and the current state of affairs. In addition, we had 13 testimonies from within our community that reflected some of the incredible diversity we encounter each day (including one from Hallie who is highlighted above). Each of those testimonies included a pastoral word, and I was blown away by the pastoral insight and skill of our students. We are truly raising up a generation of leaders!

One recurring theme was the importance of listening. We often repeat Stephen Covey's axiom to our students: "Seek first to understand, then to be understood."

If you have an interest in the topic, the audio and study guide for pizza theology are posted here.

Request for Prayer

We have been very blessed, but in a community of 800+ students, there are always some really tough things going on. Here are a few:

• Suicide - We always have students grappling with suicidal thoughts. This semester we have students who have checked themselves into psych wards for their own protection, students with close friends and family members who are suicidal, and students who are grieving over loved ones lost to suicide. Please pray for special grace for these students and for all those who are are seeking to love and support them.
• Death of loved ones - We have students this semester dealing with the recent or impending deaths of parents, not to mention grandparents and other loved ones. Please pray for God's comfort in their mourning.
• Recovering from abuse - In our recent student survey, 12.5% of our students said they had been the victim of some sort of physical abuse, and 19.8% said they had experienced some sort of sexual abuse. 1 in 5. So many of these students are opening up about these experiences for the first time and just beginning to process them. Please join me in my prayer is that God would heal those wounds and redeem those experiences. Another of our axioms from Alan Pickering: "Your misery can become your ministry."

I could go on and on, but I say this to remind you to pray for these students. And pray for us too, that we can effectively minister Jesus Christ to them and not fall into the trap of just being amateur counselors instead of true pastors.

Thank you for your prayers. Thank you for doing what you can to bless these students. Together, we're having an impact on so many.

SMU, Here We Come

First off, we had a great Winter Camp a couple weeks back. So many good things are coming out of it, with many students making important decisions and seeking God more than ever before. One of our UTA students made a video highlighting the experience and I wanted to share it with you so you could get a picture of what it was like:



Student Testimony

Josh is a student that I had the pleasure of mentoring during his first year as a student leader. He's a great guy who has invested in our younger students the past three years, and he asked for the opportunity to share his story!

Josh Carpp (Senior, University of Texas at Dallas, Mechanical Engineering)

"Before coming to college, I was in a desperate search for friendships. I had been the unfortunate recipient of a drug-induced fight. One night, people who I thought were my friends got high on cocaine while we were hanging out. All it took was a dispute over petty differences to send one of them over the edge, and it ended with me getting choked until I passed out. Thankfully, God brought me through that alive. However, this incident led to bitterness, rumors, and the loss of mutual friends. So, I ended high school not having many people that I considered friends. After all that, I was ready for college.

"Going into my Freshman year at UTD, I made it a priority to seek out friendships and Christian community. I found out about an event that FOCUS was having during welcome week and went to check it out. There I met Sagar Gandhi who, after just one conversation, invited me over to his house to play FIFA (a soccer video game). I was taken aback by this generous invitation and willingness to invite me into his life when he knew very little about me. I decided to go to Sagar’s Core and get more involved in FOCUS, where I developed strong friendships. Praise God for Sagar Gandhi’s invitation, the friendships I have made, and for how much leaders in FOCUS have taken time out of their busy schedules to pour into a broken and unimpressive sinner, like me, ever since!"

Starting SMU

We've been given an amazing opportunity to start a ministry at SMU in partnership with Canterbury House (a ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas). We've been praying for years about starting a ministry on that campus, but because private schools are so different and have a number of barriers to entry, we knew it would have to happen in God's timing and in His way. The second half of 2016, He rolled out the red carpet for us! Canterbury has a building next to campus and a heart to reach people with the gospel. However, they don't have any students or campus pastors. So they've invited us to combine resources and run that ministry. Laurence Glenesk will stay on our UTD team but will be spearheading our work at SMU as we get started.

Tonight we had our first event down there to pray about what God is calling us to. We already have personal connections with a number of interested students from this event and from other connections, and Laurence will be following up one-on-one with each of them. Please pray that God will show us exactly what He's calling us to, will continue to open doors and provide connections, and will get us ready to launch something awesome in August!

Our First Full-Time Administrator!

Isabelle is great!

As of January 1, our general admin Isabelle has moved from part-time to full-time! She has been working with us most of 2016 while she finished her degree at UNT, and we are so excited to have her focusing all her energy with us moving forward. She's sweet, competent, spiritual, and fun to work with. She supports our on-campus pastors, and she will be doing some pastoral ministry with us along the way as well. During her time as a student, she led core, led the entire worship team in Denton, and helped us start our ministry at NCTC. The need to have someone full-time is a testament to how much our shared mission has grown these last few years!

To those of you who pray for this ministry and to those of you who invest financially, thank you for your support and for helping make all this happen!

Winter Camp is this Weekend!

We're gearing up for our biggest event of the year. We have around 550 people registered already and they're still signing up. Please be praying that the Spirit would move powerfully this weekend. We have a lot of students coming who are still investigating Jesus and a lot more who are Christians but are on the fringes of discipleship and Christian community. Winter Camp can be catalytic for spiritual growth and decision making. We're looking forward to seeing what God does--He always shows up in a big way!

And if you'd like to come out to visit our camp this weekend in Van, TX, just let me know and I'll get you the details.

Student Testimony
I love our student testimony this month. Not only is Chiazo one of our amazing student leaders, she's a senior who has served our community on two campuses. When I think about how the Church in America is losing over 75% of our young people as they move through college, I rejoice at every story like this where a young person's faith flourishes and becomes about impacting others in the crucial college years and beyond. And we have so many stories like this that we could tell!

Chiazo Akagha (Senior, University of North Texas, Choral Music Education)

"Before college, I spent a vast majority of my time at church, from volunteering to mission trips. After graduating, I was nervous about what Christian community would look like now that I had to find it for myself. I prayed for a group of friends who cared about me. I was at the gym six weeks into my freshman year and while I was working out on the treadmill, something made me turn around (while running 80% speed) and I saw a banner for FOCUS. I visited that Friday night and stayed because people sought out His Word, ways to practice His teachings and made Christ-likeness a lifestyle- specifically, Autumn Priestley, a senior at the time I joined FOCUS. I constantly asked myself 'why would someone who’s about to leave college want to spend time with me?' She spent time with me because of the lessons she learned through FOCUS. As I make my transition into the 'real world' and becoming a teacher, I will remember to seek to understand and then be understood when working with students, parents, and other teachers. I will look at my students and love them. I will consider their needs and provide for them, whether that means that I attend their sporting events or support them through tough times. I will show them who Jesus is through my teaching, patience, and discipline on and off the podium. It’s because of my involvement in FOCUS that I am able to know what it looks like to be a disciple in the 'real world.'"

Thanks for partnering with me and the other FOCUS pastors so we can invest in students like Chiazo. That investment will pay off in so many ways, on and off campus, in the years to come.

Update on the Keep FOCUS Growing Fund: We've reached about $46,000 of our $55,000 goal! Amazing! We still have some donations coming in and you are still welcome to invest in our #next20 years if you'd like.

Keep FOCUS Growing!

We only have a few days left for our Keep FOCUS Growing Annual Fund. We're trying to wrap up raising $55,000 by December 31. Our monthly giving basically allows us to break even (hopefully!) each year. It's this money given at the end of each year that allows us to expand and do new things.

As we grow to at least 10 total campuses in 2017 (SMU, here we come!), we have bigger administrative needs. An image that's in my mind is that of a train and its tracks. If our campus pastors are the train bringing good news to students, then our admin team are the ones laying the tracks so they can get there. We are planning to bring on our first full-time administrator in January (to work with a couple of other adjunct people) to help support our growing staff of nearly 30 pastors.

We also will need extra resources to reach out on our newer campuses. We don't do nearly as much free food and such as most other ministries I'm aware of, but some of these campuses have very little in the way of campus life, and putting on events can be a great way for us to meet new students who need to know Jesus. And as we expand, having a little extra in the bank allows us to bring on incredible new staff and not worry about whether they are able to be fully fundraised by August 1. We want them on campus full-time as soon as the students arrive, not spending those precious first weeks of the school year meeting with potential ministry supporters.

I know many of you have given to this fund in past years and I am so thankful to you. Without this fund, we would be having a much smaller impact. I ask each of you to pray about possibly giving an extra gift this week, whether it be $3 or $300 or $3000.  Everything you need is at anyfocus.org/next20. I also ask you to pray that God will provide everything we need. He always has and I'm confident He will.

I wanted to wrap up with something one of our students, Stephanie, shared with the UTD ministry about why she gave to keep FOCUS growing:

Stephanie, one of our UTD student leaders

"Like countless others, I see this community as my family. What it stands for, I stand for: inviting people to find a home for their souls with God and his people. Families are reciprocal: each member contributes what they can for the good of the whole. Somebody cooks, somebody washes the dishes, somebody takes out the trash. Not everybody does equal work, but that’s ok and you do your best. Everyone is cared for. This is one way to think about giving: providing for your spiritual family for the good of the not only individuals but the whole. I see the “keep FOCUS growing” initiative as providing the extra for the strangers who are not yet part of our family. It’s adding extra seats to the table and making extra food for those family dinners."

I love that image--adding extra seats to the table and making extra food for the family dinner. I pray that we all have that effect on God's final banquet.

You've Gotta Read This Student's Story

I loved reading Sammy's testimony this month. This is why we do what we do!

Sammy (Freshman, Collin College - Spring Creek Campus, Nursing)

"My name is Sammy and I am a freshman at Collin College. During this past summer I went through a dark stage of my life. After a rough break up I was left feeling depressed and alone. On July 27th the depression had become so bad that I attempted suicide, and I didn’t tell anyone about it. A month later I heard about FOCUS through Matt at a Welcome Week event on campus, and after having a conversation he invited me to FOCUS. My core group and FOCUS helped me see I wasn’t alone; they showed me the love of Jesus and it drove me to become a Christian. I’ve learned how much Jesus loves people and how he cares for everyone. I’m closer to God than I have ever been before, and I feel loved in a safe community. God has changed my life through Focus!"

The Annual Fund

The past two years have seen us pioneer ministries on 3 new campuses and reach out to hundreds of new students with the good news of Jesus. One of the main things making all that possible has been our annual year-end fundraiser. It allows us to invest in student outreach, put pastors on campus who would otherwise have to spend time support raising, and generally seize opportunities that the Lord puts in our path. 

The Keep FOCUS Growing Fund will play a huge role in what 2017 looks like as we pray and consider what to do at SMU, how and whether to expand our Collin outreach, how to grow our presence at UTA, and how many of our amazing young apprentices to bring on to our long-term ministry staff. These are important decisions that will have major repercussions over the next 20 years!

So I'd like to ask you to do 2 things:

1. Pray for God to provide richly for the mission to these campuses. He has always given us what we need, and we are confident He will continue to do so if we continue asking in faith.

2. Maybe the Lord would want you to be a part of the answer to that prayer--would you consider giving a special gift? You can go to anyfocus.org/next20 for everything you need to know.

We'll have our last Friday meeting this week--our Christmas devotional outdoors in the middle of campus. We are looking forward to sharing the powerful meaning of Christmas with each other and with students who walk up and join.

Pray also for our students as they go home for the Christmas break. Many come from difficult family situations, and all of them will have the opportunity to reflect the light of Christ to their family and friends. It can be an amazing time of growth or a step backward--let's pray God moves powerfully in and through these young people.

Thank you for your prayers and gifts and friendship toward me and the students and ministers in this community. You play a crucial role in this mission to the campus.