Reflections

We had a wonderful time Saturday celebrating all that God has done over the past 30 years in FOCUS! If you got to attend, I hope that I at least got to say "Hi!" If you didn't make it, you can still watch the whole thing (including the music) here or a clipped down version with just the talking here.

Thank you to all of you who have served, led, given, prayed, encouraged, participated, and otherwise been a part of this mission work!

I like to say FOCUS's values have stayed the same over the past three decades, but obviously that isn't exactly true. I think they have stayed the same at the core, but have matured. They are the same in the same way that I'm the same person that I was 30 years ago--yes and no. 

There's so much about those early years that I'm thankful for and so much that I remember so fondly. 

I often talk about our values as a ministry being 1) Jesus is Lord, 2) Real Friendships, and 3) Raising up Leaders. I think those describe us so well and help focus what we do day in and day out. But I think another real value in the FOCUS community is flexibility. Things that are rigid crack or break under pressure while things that are flexible can bend and adapt. The same goes for people and organizations.

Jesus may have been getting at the same principle when he talked about old and new wineskins: "And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins" (Luke 5:37). For old wineskins, their stretching days are over. They are too brittle and inflexible to receive something new. 

Over the years, God has taught us many new things and led us in new directions. 20-year-old me would be surprised to see the unity we have among Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox Christians in FOCUS while still being deeply committed to Jesus and the Bible first. I could not have foreseen the coordinated dancing of Gen Z students in worship or their excitement to sing songs in Spanish with Hispanic brothers and sisters. But all of these are consistent with our core values--they just had to be flexible.

In my youth group, we used to sing a little song called "My Eyes Are Dry," and it has stayed a part of my own devotional times over the years.

My eyes are dry
My faith is old
My heart is hard
My prayers are cold
And I know how I ought to be
Alive to You and dead to me

But what can be done

For an old heart like mine

Soften it up

With oil and wine

The oil is You, Your Spirit of love

Please wash me anew

With the wine of Your Blood

I love and pray this image of God softening me, and us collectively, as the years pass. I don't want to be an old wineskin. I want to be ready and flexible for whatever new and better thing God has for me. "You can't teach an old dog new tricks" they say. But we're not dogs, and we aren't learning tricks (thank you Ronnie). I don't know if I'll make it 30 more years to be at the 60 year celebration, but if I do, my hope is that FOCUS doesn't look either exactly the same or completely different. My prayer is that we continue to grow up, looking more like Jesus and walking faithfully with him through changing times while staying true to the calling he has already given us.

I haven't shared a picture yet of this great pair of core leaders I get to meet with every week this year--Logan and Chase. I love meeting with them! They ask great questions and love God and their guys.

Student Testimony

Up-to-date Details for the 30 Year Celebration

Friday Night (23rd) at UTD, join our students at The Grove (formerly FNF) for a night of worship and teaching in good ole Hoblitzelle Hall.

Then, the next morning, come meet up in the Founders 2nd Floor Atrium to get extra time to talk with campus pastors and alumni. We will have campus tours led by current FOCUS students, so come see all the new buildings that have popped up since you last visited UTD. :)

For the actual 30 year Celebration, here's what the event will look like
- Doors open at 2pm so come and catch up with friends old and new!
- There will be cake and punch, lots of old photos, and a display of past FOCUS tees in the lobby
- There's no childcare but they have a kids indoor jungle gym available, so bring the kids! We plan to have a coloring activity for the kids as well.

The Celebration program will feature:
- Worship with songs from the past and present
- Student Testimonies
- Stories celebrating what God has done the last 30 years
- Sharing the opportunities and challenges we foresee for year 31 and beyond!

Quick Updates

We are off to a GREAT start. Lots of one on one Bible studies are underway and even more getting started in the coming weeks. Nothing is more transformative than God's word. Please pray for all these Focus On Jesus studies. A lot of these students are teaching the Bible for the first time, and I know it will be transformative for them as well as those they are teaching. One thing I'm seeing more than ever before is young Christians with some church background who have never read ANY of the Bible. It's fun seeing how they react to actually hearing Jesus' words for the first time!

Sarah's pregnancy is going well, and she's feeling better now that she's in the second trimester. Thank you for all the ways you support us and our ministry!

Remember you can RSVP or order 30 Year Celebration merch here: https://anyfocus.org/30year/

Here are some things that have been going on:

We had our first UTD Corefa Retreat in over a decade, and it was a huge success. Almost all of them were able to make it. Care Church hosted our sessions and we stayed at The Drury Hotel nearby. The students had a blast and were able to bond as a team. Connecting as a team was a huge goal since it has gotten harder and harder as we've grown.

The campus ministers from all the campus ministries at UTD had lunch this past week, as we do at least yearly. Of course, not everyone could come, but this is a great cross section. By God's grace, there is so much affection, love, and shared mission across all these groups.

Just wanted to share one little glimpse of the work our team is doing on 3 campuses of Dallas College (the Dallas county community colleges). God has given us great favor with administrators and students alike. Multiple students have shared how they've never in their lives felt so loved, never had this much fun, and generally see Jesus turning their lives in a new direction. Pray for students at our three campuses--Richland, Eastfield, and Mountain View.

Kole and Joe are one of the core leading pairs I get to meet with and mentor this year. They're awesome! I love talking with them each week. They love learning more about the scripture and bring great questions about their ministry. They both take initiative to get to know the guys in their small group (no so small actually with like 25 guys!). Kole is my apprentice this year and I think he already has 11 FOJ studies set up. I don't think my brain could take teaching that same material over and over all week, but he loves it!

Obligatory photo with my little buddy William. He told his mom that I'm his "favorite friend" so I've decided he is mine as well. We went to Stonebriar Mall one Saturday to give his parents a break and rode the Merry-Go-Round multiple times. And the escalator up and down countless times. :) Most of our discussions are about dinosaurs, so I'm brushing up on my dino names.

30 Year Celebration Merch

I’d love to invite you to join us for our 30 Year Celebration! We have an entire weekend of celebration planned, and I would love for you to be a part of it. Whether you were a student in our ministry, a longtime supporter, or you joined us somewhere along the way, you are part of the story of this ministry.

At UTD, we are inviting everyone to join us for the Grove on campus that Friday night at 7pm, and also for a meet & greet and campus tours Saturday morning. The campus is always changing and there's lots of cool new things to see!

With the 30 year celebration we are selling some limited edition merch. Every item sold goes a little bit towards supporting our mission on campus. The deadline for ordering shirts or hats is September 30!

You can RSVP or order 30 Year Merch here: https://anyfocus.org/30year/

Back for Another Fall Semester! (plus big news at the bottom)

I always love this time of year, even though it's exhausting. We're doing events every single day and meeting hundreds and hundreds of new students. Our Denton director Ryan told me that they had about 375 students at their first FOCUS service last night (UNT starts a week earlier than UTD). I heard from Casey, who is leading our Dallas College planting team, that at a student orientation event this week, the president of the college came up to our table, handed his card to our team, and said "We're glad you're here. If you need anything, contact me directly." Wow! 

We also had a big breakthrough at Collin College on some of the challenges we've had getting reservations and rooms. Sarah was able to meet with a higher up person this week after reaching out to the Board of Trustees with the problems we're facing. By the end of that day, all of our requests had been approved!

I heard from one of the young women pastors this week about a conversation with a freshman in the dining hall: "Ella and I went together today to meet new people and we bumped into a girl named Nariah who came and joined us to eat. We got to get to know each other some and she pretty quickly opened up about her life and some of her struggles. She was asking us how to deal with negative thoughts that she has about herself--feeling like her past and present sins make her unworthy to be a part of Christianity. I got to ask her 'how do you think God views you?' And she paused and said 'honestly, I don’t know.' Ella and I got to share about God’s love and how that has to be where we start from to start unraveling  lies we’re believing and also got to pray over her. She was so grateful that we came over because she hadn’t made any friends on campus and is excited to come to our events and get involved!" (Eating in the dining hall without a dining plan is expensive but SO EFFECTIVE at connecting with new students, especially ones like Nariah who might not be bold enough to go to an event by themselves but still need to eat! One generous couple gives money every year to pay for bold young believers to show up and meet new students meal after meal. What a cool ministry!)

I love it because I get to hear SO MANY stories like this. We have a couple hundred young leaders going out on these campuses as missionaries, and they are impacting so many people at a pivotal moment in their lives.

Thank you for praying (and paying!) to make these stories a reality. The Lord is using our partnership to advance his kingdom!

These are the FOCUS pastors across our 16+ campuses this year! Phenomenal group.

At our staff retreat, I got to do some teaching on why we do things the way we do them, reflecting on the example of Jesus. 

For UTD, we had a training day for the 26-27 core leaders. Laurence is teaching about God's will for our lives in this picture. We have over 60 student core leaders at UTD this year, plus a bunch of other leaders for various outreach groups!

This will give you an idea of how crazy our first couple weeks at UTD is. We have events every day, plus daily tabling on campus to hand out coffee, meeting people in the dining hall, and just hanging out with people we've already met. These student leaders hustle!

Some of our leaders hanging out with freshmen the first day of move in.

We try to have a constant visible presence in areas where lots of people are passing by.

I wanted to mention this crew for a special prayer request. Taylor, Asa, Renee, Angel, and Tania (in the front) are our missionary team at SMU this year. It's a big deal because their long-time director Garrett has transitioned to leading a church. So they're on their own this year. But they are killing it! They have pushed past car breakdowns, a fall down some stairs, and lots of hot afternoons to be present and love new SMU students. Please be praying for them to remain in the Vine and bear much fruit.

And I'll just drop this here... Big changes coming in March of '27! Pray for me!

Student Testimony

I'm Recommitting for 5 years!

This Thursday night is our annual licensing and commitment ceremony for our pastors. You may know that our pastors commit for a certain number of school years at a time, which provides a lot of stability for the students. Well, it's my time to make a new commitment, and I will be committing to continue serving for another 5 years. While I fully plan to keep at this work for as long as I can work, 5 years is the maximum commitment that we let our pastors make at one time. It's a very meaningful ceremony, and I'd love for you to come by if you'd like to! It's during our final Thursday Night FOCUS of the summer, so you would also get to see the students, join in worship, and hear me preach! I'd love to have you join and pray for me as I prepare my heart for the next half-decade of ministry.

Thursday, July 30, 7:30 pm @ Care Church (1504 E Campbell Rd, Richardson, TX 75081)

More Details on the 30 Year Celebration!

More Good News

We had two baptisms this week! Bible studies from the school year are still finishing up. Thank you for helping make these positive decisions for the Lord a reality!

Madeline baptized Drea!

And Siena baptized Emily! The Phase 8 pool is now regularly used as a baptistery! 

Onward Toward Maturity

Maturity is a hard concept to really get our hands around. We sort of know it when we see it (at least sometimes--I'm always wary when a young people describe themselves with "I'm mature for my age" ha!), but if asked how to measure it, we can struggle to come up with a good metric. Paul wrote that "[Jesus] is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ" (Col 1:28). So the point of ministry is bringing people to maturity by preaching Jesus. Still easier said than done! 

At our summer FOCUS meetings, we are exploring the concept of maturity and what it takes to get there. Even at 47, I've found it very challenging! I wanted to share Austin Gage's sermon that kicked the series off with you. It's well worth your time to listen! 

Thank you for your prayers and gifts that invest in maturing these young adults. The world needs more people who look Like Jesus, and together we are a part of bringing that to be!

As for me this June, I'm in the thick of meeting with students to have conversations about being a leader in the coming school year. It's always fun getting to know these young guys and seeing their heart for the Lord and their willingness to make big sacrifices to be a blessing to others. Please pray that God will assemble exactly the team we need for the year ahead.

Update on the Lawsuit

I've had some people asking about the status of the lawsuit over the recent state law limiting students' First Amendment rights on campus. There's not much to tell. The federal court put an injunction in place back in the fall against many parts of the law being enforced at UT System schools. There is an appeal in process against that injunction which is slowly making its way through the US appellate court. Pray that the injunction will not be lifted! And that students' rights to practice their religion freely on campus would ultimately be preserved.

In related news, there is also some movement on an important bill in the US Congress. The Equal Campus Act of 2025, is set to be marked up in the coming week in the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. Its current language reads “None of the funds made available under [the Higher Education Act] may be provided to any public institution of higher education that denies to a religious student organization any right, benefit, or privilege that is otherwise afforded to other student organizations at the institution (including full access to the facilities of the institution and official recognition of the organization by the institution) because of the religious beliefs, practices, speech, leadership standards, or standards of conduct of the religious student organization.”

This would go a long way toward providing clarity and consistency across the nation, protecting all students' rights to exercise their faith on campus. I'm praying it becomes the law of the land!

Some Pics!

These are the 7 students currently at June SICM. Not pictures are the two campus pastors who took them. Even more potential leaders for our mission to these campuses!

Peder and James are two of the UTD leaders who I don't know very well, but they invited me to going hiking one morning a couple weeks ago. I had a blast getting to know them and especially hear how positively they think about the last year leading core and the impact they were able to have.

I got to have lunch and catch up with these two beautiful UTD alumni, Rohit and Kelsey. I miss having them at UTD, but it was encouraging to hear how their faith and commitment to the Lord is still growing. Plus, their kids are so sweet, well-behaved, and SUPER cute.

I also got to hit up the zoo with friends, including most importantly my little buddy William. When I got in the car on the way there, he said "Now we have the whole family!"

Summer FOCUS on Thursday nights is in full swing! Once again CARE Church is generously letting us use their building. They are amazing to us, and the students are loving it and bringing friends!

Student Testimony