Thinking Ahead to New Leadership

Well it's summer, and that means lots of conversations are happening with young men and women about stepping up to lead a Core in the coming year. It's a big commitment, probably 12-15 hours a week, but we never have trouble finding students to serve. They work with a partner to meet new students, recruit their own small group, plan a weekly meeting, develop their group into a community of spiritual friends, wrangle them into our larger community, and offer a one-on-one discipleship experience to each member. Some of them are doing all of this at 19 years old! It's no wonder they grow so much! It makes me excited for the future of the Church, knowing that we are sending out skilled and experienced leaders into so many different churches, workplaces, homes, and other environments. At UTD, we already have 23 guys who have committed for the year, and another 6 that are still prayerfully considering. Please pray that God will prepare these young men (and their counterparts among the women) for the opportunities ahead and that He will be preparing the hearts and minds of the students they will meet in August. I'm confident that divine appointments are already being booked!

I recently read a very compelling reflection on Luke 5:36-39. (You can read it here)

He told them this parable: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’”

The author posits that we have missed the point of this teaching of Jesus because we haven't paid attention to its context, a meal at a tax collector's house and questions surrounding the differences between the disciples of Jesus and the disciples of the Pharisees. What if this is not a comment about the old and new covenants of the scripture but rather commentary on why Jesus did not choose his disciples from among the best and brightest religious minds of his day? I won't recount the whole argument, but it has me thinking about what Jesus was looking for in those he "called to be with him" so he could "send them out to preach" (Mark 3:14). 

Jesus didn't play it safe, taking the ones who already knew the right answers. He didn't pick apathetic men and women, but rather passionate ones--sons of thunder who wanted to call down fire from heaven on people who wouldn't listen, a zealot who wanted to overthrow Rome with violence, people who wore their questions and even lack of faith on their sleeve. He included a betrayer, a denier and a woman who had been demon possessed.  He was doing something new, and he wanted people he could shape, who were eager to receive his message and adapt to it. 

Choosing these core leaders is not as significant of a decision, but it is significant. They are sent out two by two as well. They do not know what they will encounter, but there are still sick to be healed, truths to be preached, and demonic forces to be encountered. These young disciples are just as raw; they struggle with big questions, deep hurts, and very real temptations. But like those original disciples, they show up and step up, facing their fears and making sacrifices for the chance to be a part of whatever Jesus is doing. And like Jesus, we try to prayerfully and discerningly give them a chance to be a part of something amazing. 

Last night I sat with one of those young leaders from last year as he tearfully talked about a painful relationship with a deeply hurting guy he has built a friendship with. "Why me?" he told me he'd been asking God. Why? Because it's important work, Spirit-work. Every year we see our axiom come true: "Your misery can become your ministry." I get to build deep friendships with and mentor young men of all races and from across the globe. I get to sit and hear their heartbreaking and deeply private stories of abuse and personal failure; I get to celebrate with them their victories and triumphs. Why me? I guess because when I got the invitation I said yes. And now I get to extend that invitation to a new generation in my little corner of God's kingdom. It's one of my favorite parts of campus ministry. We never know what God will do next!

Some Big Staff Transitions

This is more for those of you who know a lot of the staff. Feel free to skip this section if these names don't mean anything to you! 

For a campus ministry, our staff team is amazingly stable over the years. Even yesterday I had a director from another ministry at UTD asking for insight on how to make this a viable long-term option for his staff so he doesn't lose them just as they gain some experience and wisdom! But transitions do happen, and God is so faithful to us through those transition periods. This year we had some long-term staff members transition off the team to new opportunities. Leah Lorenz (one of the founders at UTD!), Victoria Seiler, and Casey Worsham all transitioned off of our admin staff. Leah and Victoria will be spending more time with their kids, and Casey is stepping up to full-time hours as lead pastor of East Plano Fellowship, the church he helped start in 2020. We are sad to lose them, but I can very confidently say that they each left us in a significantly better place than when they started. They set up systems, refined processes, resourced creative solutions, and built key relationships. As a result, we are going into the coming year with a significantly leaner admin team (both in people and overall staff hours) supporting a bigger ministry than every before (a lot of that is also due to our amazing admin director Paul Ueng). 

On the campus side, after a time of prayer and discernment, Jalen Quintana (one of our UTD alums) has left our UTA staff after a few years to pursue opportunities in software engineering. He has been such a huge help over the years in laying the foundation for our ministry in Arlington (as well as a great friend to my wife!). Rhett Hayes is leaving UTD after 5 years to take Jalen's place in Arlington and lay groundwork for a TCU plant in the future. While we are losing Rhett, we are getting Laurence Glenesk back! Laurence worked on our team for years but then left to pioneer a ministry at SMU. The SMU ministry is stronger than ever, but Laurence is looking to work closer to home now that he has two little ones, and we are excited to have him back on our team! Garrett Davis will be overseeing the SMU ministry moving forward. 

Student Testimony