Thursday, March 20, 2025

Prepping for Pizza Theology!

One of my roles on staff is overseeing our larger teaching times, including our two Pizza Theology events each year. This spring we looked at what the Bible has to say about money and possessions. I've noticed that most Christians, including students in our ministry as well as the pastors on my staff, have some general idea of what the Bible says about giving/generosity but a very limited sense about money in general--the entire gamut of spending, saving, giving, hospitality, contentment, enjoyment, etc. We wanted to speak into that looking at the whole of Scripture (as best we could in less than 4 hours!), so different teachers from my team took different sections of the Bible--the narratives, the wisdom literature, the Old Testament law, Jesus' life and teachings, and the New Testament letters--to try to unpack what they might say to Christians today about money and possessions in light of knowing God.

We had well over 400 students come to learn!

First Baptist Plano graciously hosted us again this spring. Their deacons even jumped in to help serve all the pizza--unasked! They are incredible hosts and so generous with their building. It's obvious they love college students!

Our culture is very hush hush around money, and this privacy has had some unintended consequences. I talk to many young people who have no idea about their own parents' finances and have never discussed money with them. Even many Christian parents don't talk to their kids about money at all. Churches are so afraid of being seen as only talking about money in order to get money, that they fail to show how the Bible speaks to one of the most anxiety-producing, but also opportunity-producing, parts of our lives. The scriptures have SO MUCH WISDOM for us if we are willing to do the work of not oversimplifying their messages to find rules and easy answers. If this isn't something you've studied recently, I highly recommend you take the time to listen through some of these talks. I know you'll be blessed as I was! Also, I gave the first one. :) 


Thank you for your prayers and supporting me to spend time investing like this in the lives of young people--this kind of work will pay dividends for God's kingdom in the decades to come!

Student Testimony






Friday, February 21, 2025

Finishing Well

It's been a heavy season in some ways. Many have been asking for an update on my mom: she is in a rough spot after whole-brain radiation a couple of weeks ago. The treatment she was on was not stopping the cancer in her brain, so my parents decided on this course. It's really affected her short-term memory and caused a lot of confusion and fatigue. It's our hope that within a couple more weeks some of those side effects will recede significantly, but there's no guarantee of that. Despite all of that, she is so sweet and kind and mostly seems to feel good. My dad has been an amazing servant, taking care of her all hours of the day and night with us trying to relieve him a bit each day. He is a superstar, and his example is inspiring.

I also got an update from Brady Bobbink a few weeks ago that he is officially retiring from campus ministry. While he will no doubt continue to minister to many people as opportunities arise, he will no longer be on staff with UCM. In his update he was saying "thank you" to the many men and women who prayed for and funded his ministry at WWU for over 50 years--I know their faithfulness has left a rich legacy that will continue in thousands of families for generations. I know that partly because I and our ministry here in Dallas are just a small part of that legacy!

All of this has me thinking about one of the leadership axioms we teach our student leaders and try to live by as pastors--Finish Well. This axiom is about realizing that we are often most remembered for how well we finish our time in a relationship or organization rather than for how things go in the middle, or even for our greatest accomplishments. I'm sure we could all tell stories of people who did some great things, but finished poorly and left a trail of broken hearts or a mess to clean up. We could also all tell stories of people who had some rough patches along the way but got it together and finished well. We tend to remember those people much more fondly, even if their overall contributions may have been less!

Every one of us will at some point finish our current job or assignment. Every one of us will at some point wrap up every relationship we are in. Sometimes those endings are a surprise and totally out of our control, which reminds us to live with a sense of urgency. But often, we get choices around how to finish. Will turn in my 2 weeks notice at a time that leaves my team in a lurch? Will I cut off a friendship abruptly just to make a point? Or will I be committed to finishing as best I can in every situation?

It's a decision we make now. For the student leaders, their commitment to lead a small group on campus ends with the school year. For some that simply means it comes at the same time as final exams, while for others it's finals plus transitioning out of college to a new phase of life. So it's an easy time to justify slacking off. But year after year these students amaze us with the way they step up to the challenge of loving and serving their peers well right to the end of the year (and beyond). I think a part of that is because we get them to think and pray about what finishing well would look like, and then ask them to commit to it.

Maybe you sense a change coming in some area of life. Or maybe you feel settled and happy right where you are! Either way, I encourage you to decide now to finish well to honor our Lord who finished his own assignment on earth, even though the hardest part came at the end. And I pray that, Lord willing, I can someday (many years in the future!) write my own announcement of retiring from paid ministry knowing I've run my race well to the very end. 

Thank you for joining me in this exciting work. I think we are still just working on the first floor of this great project we are building together, and Lord willing, we will finish well!




Sunday, January 26, 2025

A Celebration of all that God is Doing

I was thinking about how to describe our recent Winter Retreat, and the above phrase came to mind. Being out there with over 700 people had me reflecting on the state of our mission. Growth can be exciting but also brings its own pitfalls--have we compromised the message to grow? Are we losing what makes this community what it is? We're more diverse than ever before, but that too can be fraught with hidden challenges.

The day I got back, I got an email from an alum who had come out for a day to speak at the retreat. His observations have stuck with me all week:

"This generation of students blew me away. They were so kind and sweet. I saw so many taking notes, engaged with the talk. I was looking at pictures from winter camp 2012 as I was getting photos for my slides and I scrolled through just laughing at all the board games, and Kuub, and volleyball and honestly just a whole bunch of nerdy white people things we were doing. Then I showed up to winter retreat this year and there is an entire building of people doing arts/crafts, a dozen people doing a hardcore workout, two dozen doing an Afro-dance class. I texted my wife and said “how is this winter camp.” I told her I wanted to write you an email but before I did I wanted to find the write adjective to describe the students. I couldn’t come up with a single word or two, instead it’s more of a title. These students are 'the ones that frustrate the cynic.' Maybe it’s just me, but in every interaction with the students I couldn’t find an ounce of cynicism in myself. I was so hopeful after each interaction, so eager to know how the rest of their journey goes but content with just the slice I got. The cynic in me had a frustrating weekend as he came home without a thought to sleep on. I know getting a group like that takes years of culture setting, praying, hard work and support. So thankful we got to interact with them."

I think he said it beautifully. This is all just a work of the Spirit, and it's one that we all, you included get to take part in. God is good to us! Please be in prayer for these students as we get back into the semester. Just this first week back, we've dealt with hidden sin being confessed, deep conflicts between students, students making new commitments to God, addiction, purposefully divisive behavior, theological questions, and new false teachings on campus. That's just a little bit of it! But we don't panic because God's got us. I hope you'll take a moment to celebrate how God is working in and through you to bless young people with the good news of Jesus!









Student Testimony




Prepping for Pizza Theology!

One of my roles on staff is overseeing our larger teaching times, including our two Pizza Theology events each year. This spring we looked a...