I Graduated!

I think I'm done with degrees. I know I'm done with footnotes! I finished my coursework back in December, but I (and Peter along with me) finally walked across the stage on June 10 in Pasadena, CA, where Fuller Theological Seminary is located. It was a very special and spiritual ceremony, and I was moved to tears when we sang "I Give Myself Away" in the middle of it. I was moved to a different kind of tears sitting through 400 names being read, but at least it's over!

I couldn't believe how many people got to come to our graduation so far from where any of us live. It was such a blessing to me! A number of people from the FOCUS staff, my wife and parents, and Peter's entire family got to be there. The special thing Peter did to get that red stole hanging down was just being Asian American. But the special thing he did to get the red hood (around his neck) instead of my white one was taking 50% more classes than me!

I've been reflecting on seminary and its value and place in campus ministry. Because campus ministers typically come straight from the secular university (for example, I have bachelors and masters degrees in business from UTD), relatively few have a seminary education and almost none start their ministry with one. A big part of going to seminary for me was answering my questions about it. I have a couple of initial reflections.

1. There's incredible value in studying slowly while actively being a minister. I thought I would not like online school as much, but what was unexpected was that, rather than sitting in a classroom with a bunch of full-time students, I was actively learning alongside a bunch of full-time ministers. We were trying to figure out how to use what we were learning realtime. I got to be in classes with church pastors, other campus ministers, missionaries, chaplains to various hospitals and prisons, Salvation Army officers, youth ministers, and more. They brought a richness to what I was being taught, but so did talking it over with the university students and alumni I get to meet with every day! I loved taking this degree one or two classes at a time, slowly pondering and integrating what I was learning. 

2. What we've been doing in FOCUS all along for education is REALLY GOOD. We've long had a commitment to continuing education for our pastoral staff. We are always reading, listening to lectures, or otherwise pursuing deeper understanding of the scriptures and ministry leadership. Our staff reads multiple books together each year, and our commitment is to graduate level learning. We believe that if we are to lead university students, we should be operating at their level or above. Fuller has expanded our list of resources and given us new topics to explore, but I believe anyone on our team for a few years will ultimately come out ahead of someone with a one-and-done seminary education before they start their ministry career.

I am soooooo thankful for this education, and I assure you I'm using it every day. Through your gifts, the ministry helped pay for it and gave me the time to devote to it. It has raised my game in teaching and leadership, and I'm passing that on to these younger pastors that I mentor. I've gotten to do things I never thought I'd get to do, like make my own translations of scriptures from the Greek and Hebrew! I know it will take a few more years for all of this learning to sort of settle in my heart and mind, but I'm committed to blessing our mission what what has been invested in me. So thank you!!

SICM!

SICM was a huge success, as usual. We are busy meeting up with all these wonderful students and talking to them about making a commitment to serve and lead their peers next year. The future is looking bright!

This is the group we took to SICM from FOCUS this May. The crazy thing is that it doesn't include about 5 people who were not there at the moment and another 5 we sent in June!

This is the group of guys Peter and I hosted (minus one) at a house in Bellingham all week. They are all UTD guys--a really neat bunch!

Student Testimony

Stories from the Year

Last Friday night we had our last FNF, which is always one of my favorite nights of the year. Instead of a teaching time, we open up the mic for students to share about how they've seen God working this year. The stories are so sweet! Here's the prompt we use:

We always cover the "ABCs of Sharing" to help make the time as meaningful as possible.

You would have been so encouraged to hear the students sharing on Friday night, but you still can be! Just click here to listen students share about the impact the Lord has made in their lives through your prayers and generosity!

In other news, I joined in this year's Parking Lot Graduation ceremony to celebrate my new seminary degree!

Since I was walking, Rhett handed out the "diplomas," which are actually a letter of blessing and sending from our pastors to the graduates.

We had 43 graduates this year from UTD alone!

Student Testimony

Thank you for loving young people into God's kingdom!

Links from Last Time

I realized that when the email when out, it didn't have the links for any of those videos or audio! I got too fancy in making my blog. You can always click through the email to get to those things if that happens again. I'll also include them again here. (Hopefully it works this time. If not, I'll have to call IT. :)

Here's the audio from our Pizza Theology on Wisdom, linked on Spotify:

Here's the senior epistle from Kim:

And here's one from Jared:

And as a bonus, here's a pic of me and my UTD directors team when we all wore pink for Easter Sunday!

Wisdom for Dummies

Over the weekend I got to do part of the teaching for our Spring Pizza Theology entitled Wisdom for Dummies. Three of our younger pastors helped us look at the messages of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job, and then I finished by looking at the idea of wisdom more generally. Prepping for this message was especially meaningful as I got to spend a significant amount of time quizzing Ronnie Worsham and Brady Bobbink for their insights. It was a great night of teaching attended by hundreds of our students. It's well worth a listen if you want to take the time!

I received an incredibly encouraging email from an alumnus the other day that reminded me of the importance of teaching times like this--how formative they are to young people learning to think like a Christian. Here's an excerpt:

I was listening to a podcast I subscribe to that’s based in the Dallas area. They were talking about a church down there that hosted a worship night and then the pastor started preaching for full acceptance and support of the homosexual lifestyle, basically saying it’s blasphemous to separate two people in love. My podcast was discussing the importance of being able to think and reason through scripture so we’re not led astray by false teachings.

Immediately I was overwhelmed with gratitude for the solid foundation I gained upon coming to faith in FOCUS. The biblical literacy I learned, let alone the ability to create family culture and disciple others, while there has greatly impacted the trajectory of my life. For that I am profoundly grateful.

Thank you for supporting this important kind of ministry. The church (not to mention the world!) needs more men and women who are equipped and experienced at thinking biblically, carefully, and deeply about the tough challenges that face us. That's slow work, but it pays off over the long run!

Senior Epistles

Every year we let our graduating seniors at UTD write and read letters to our community in the last weeks of the school year. They are so encouraging! I wanted to share a couple with you here. I think you'll see how much your support impacts young people and how much wisdom they have gained in these years!

Student Testimony

Help Protect Our Mission in 8 Minutes or Less!

The US Department of Education has recently announced plans to remove existing protections for religious student organizations at colleges and universities across the nation. Their reasoning is that these rights are already protected under the Constitution, so students can take their colleges to court if these rights are infringed upon.

However, most 18-year-olds are pretty unaware of their rights and have neither the desire nor the resources to sue their own college. And we've seen that before the existing language was put in a place a few years ago, universities were inconsistent in how they protected or did not acknowledge these rights.

Would you be willing to take 5-8 minutes to write a personal comment on this proposed change before March 24 (the deadline for comments)?

We've put together a website that will show you exactly how to do it and give you some ideas of things you might say. It does not need to be long, but ideally it would be personal and highlight one of more reasons why the DOE should give colleges guidance in protecting the 1st Amendment rights of students.

We want to generate hundreds of comments from our network alone!

Here's the website that explains everything: anyfocus.org/campusaccess

(one quick note: when it asks you "What is your comment about?", that's just a weird way of asking what category you are in. You will most likely put student, parent, or individual.)

Thank you!

Encouraging Posts

 A couple weeks back, one of our student leaders shared these screenshots from a Facebook group for UTD Parents that her mom is a member of. These are in response to parents worrying about their kids being lonely and not finding good friends. I found them so encouraging!

And then this was posted on Instagram by a new student in Denton. This is the vision guys! Thanks for being a part of it!

Funny Videos

I meant to share these last month. Our staff always makes a funny video for the opening of our big Winter Retreat. This year the joke was all around inflation and our pastors trying to make some extra money. (It's in 2 parts, but only a few minutes total.)

Checking up on Focus on Jesus studies

In February each year we pause to take stock of the FOJ studies we've started that year. At UTD we have completed 17 studies (completing is always a miracle haha), have 95 studies that are currently happening, and another 12 studies that began and have stopped for some reason. That's 124 students that have been receiving weekly one-on-one instruction and discussion about how the gospel intersects with their lives, usually in addition to discussions in Core and biblical teaching on Friday nights. It also means so many of our students are the ones teaching those studies! They are getting real experience ministering to their peers and sharing the good news of Jesus!

Officiating a Wedding

I don't do as many weddings as I used to because I work on such an amazing team of pastors, but it's always special to officiate for people who are special to me! This past weekend, I got to officiate Cullen Capili's wedding. Cullen was in my Core back in 2009-2010 as a freshman, and I got to study FOJ with him that year. We've stayed friends the many years since he graduated and went on to become a physical therapist. Congrats, Dr. Capili!

Why are those lights so shiny!?

Student Testimony

Thank you for your support, encouragement, and prayers! You make this ministry possible and share in its fruit!

A Tough Month, But Also a Blessed One

We've had a number of tough things happen this month. Three days before our Winter Retreat/Camp, our biggest event of the year, we found out that Andrea's mom (Andrea is one of our pastors at UTD) has cancer that has metastasized in a number of places. Andrea was even scheduled to speak at the retreat. That same day our administrative director Paul was injured playing sports and required surgery. We made it through the retreat, and then a few days later, while at FNF, two of our students leaders (one was Mick who I introduced last month) got the news that their 18-year-old brother had died in a car accident. I got to drive the boys down to be with their family in Houston that night and go down again for the funeral. So many hearts are heavy in our community right now. I could tell a number of stories that aren't as dramatic but are very painful to those involved. Would you stop and pray right now for the Lord's comfort for all of these young people as they navigate grief and loss?

Winter Retreat itself went so well! We were at a new location that I think will work well for us for years to come. Our messages were preached by FOCUS pastors from 1 John. We also did a special extended session on Theology of Work and Vocation, helping the students think about how their careers fit into God's plan for their lives. All of this content is available on Spotify if you are interested.

The Impact of Our Shared Ministry to Young Leaders, continued

Jadon (left) and Paul (right) are the other pair of core leaders I meet with weekly this year. They are incredibly thoughtful and insightful young ministers. I'm so impressed by them!

I asked Jadon and Paul to share in just a sentence or two how being a leader in FOCUS is impacting them:

Paul writes, "One way I am learning from being a leader in FOCUS is realizing how true community is not something that always comes naturally, but often takes effort to build, resulting in support and love."

Jadon said, "Being in FOCUS has taught me the importance of intentionally pursuing others as a means to community building. Growing up, my friendships required very little conscious effort in order to maintain, but learning how to be purposeful in my relationships has helped me mature and enhanced my relational depth."

Thank you for all the ways you invest to make this ministry to students possible! I think it will pay rich dividends for the Church in the years to come.

San Diego Visit

I missed the annual Dallas ice days during a visit to San Diego last week! Among other things I got to travel with my good friend and coworker, Garrett Davis, as well as connect with some amazing UTD alumni who I miss very much!

Got to hike with Luke Anderson, one of the sweetest and most loving guys I've ever met. He was in my peer team a few years back.

Spent a few hours with Daniel Colina, such a wise young man of God. I was deeply encouraged to see how he is passionately pursuing the Lord in a new place and season. It was chilly, but the beach was beautiful!

Garrett has been my friend for well over 20 years at this point. He's a good one to have! FOCUS is blessed to have all of his gifts from the Lord serving our students and pastors.

Student Testimony