Laying Groundwork for Next Year

I'm in the middle of some of the busiest months of my year. We're wrapping up annual reviews with my amazing staff, finishing up interviews for the 2015-16 internship, putting our group together for the annual SICM trip, and preparing to host 2 teams of students from Washington at the end of the month for outreach on our campuses--all on top of my regular schedule of appointments and teaching. I'm looking forward to the students leaving for Spring Break so I can catch my breath!

We have an outstanding group of potential interns this year, and I can't wait to share with you about them next month. As for SICM, we invited and are taking our biggest group ever! I think we'll take 77 students and 13 staff from our various campuses to be trained in campus ministry. Please pray for good airline prices as we will be buying lots of tickets in the next couple of days. (The group rates were ridiculous this year, so we are buying them piecemeal and averaging the cost for the students in hopes of saving money.)

And UTD has a bumper crop for SICM--55 of the 105 total students we invited are from UTD. So I'm really excited about our leader team for next year!

This was the first group that went to SICM back in 2002 (Leah Farmer Lorenz, me, Debra Boswell Bottoms, and Brad Davis), paid for in full by Glynn Lively. It's overwhelming to think how that investment has paid off, in so so many ways. I can't wait to share with you the picture of the 90ish people that will go this May to be equipped for ministry. God is good!

For those of you in the area, we have a special fundraiser coming up this month to help raise money for SICM, the Spring Showcase.  This will be a concert and art show held on March 28 at 8pm at Legacy Church in Plano. It will feature some great musical talent from students and also have student art available for purchase. We have some amazingly talented people across our community--I'm really looking forward to this event!

If you are interested in going, all of the students going to SICM this year are selling tickets or you can buy them at anyfocus.org/showcase.

Here's a taste of last year's concert--one of my favorite performances.  And Ana is singing again this year!

Post by Charles Guo.

February was a tough month in some ways--students struggling with oppressive thoughts, finding out about significant illnesses, and some tough staff transitions. As always, I covet your prayers for this community. Pray for us to put on the full armor of God and stand firm (Ephesians 6). Please pray for Jacob who will have surgery to remove a brain tumor in the next week or so. I'm praying God will move and the doctors will not find what they are expecting. Thank you for praying! And thank you to those of you who partner with us financially to make it possible for me to invest in the lives of young people.

Winter Camp 2015

I can't imagine how Winter Camp this year could have gone better. We had nearly 500 people gather to worship, learn, pray, and play together for three days. I'm still hearing great feedback from students who were impacted, energized, and equipped to return to their campuses as maturing Jesus people. We see from Jesus' ministry that growth in numbers doesn't mean much by itself, but I'm encouraged that of those hundreds of students, only a handful signed up separate from one of our core groups. That tells me that nearly every student started the weekend tied in to the community with leaders who know them and are investing in them personally. (And hopefully they ALL ended the weekend that way!)

This was the big group--well over 400 college students plus some siblings and friends in their last year or two of high school, FOCUS staff people, and some alumni and supporters who came to help minister and bless students.

And here's the UTD group whooshing! Note there are a couple of alums in the bottom right corner with a little future Comet. Leah and Jared, the parents, are past leaders who have had a huge formative impact on our ministry--Leah was even one of the first 5 students involved!

Our speaker was Dr. Iain Provan, an Old Testament scholar from Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia.  He spent the weekend unpacking for us the goodness of God and His plan as revealed in the Old Testament. In keeping with our "Words of Life" theme this year, he spoke on Words about Creation, Words about God, Words about Being Human, Words about Suffering and Evil, and Words about Hope. He also did a nearly two-hour open Q&A on the Old Testament. Even though it was billed as an optional event, well over 300 students were in attendance.

Iain Provan

I think these words from Nikki, one of the UTD students who became a Christian this past year, capture it well: "Iain Provan's lectures were by far the best I've had thus far (sorry Brandon!). As one of many who did the [FOCUS Summer School of Ministry class] for Genesis, I couldn't help but take pages and pages of notes while Iain was speaking. It blew my mind to get not only his perspectives on some of the things discussed in the class, but just to dig once again below the surface of such an important piece to gain insight on a different approach to Genesis was mind blowing!! I definitely will re-read the application commentary and do more research just to see what else is out there!"
Since our students are studying at public colleges and universities, they typically don't get to study the Scriptures at a college level. Two things Iain said stick out to me: "Every Christian needs to be educated to the level of their ability" and "It's kind of scandalous to have a higher degree in something else and still be at level one in our biblical understanding." It's our intention to continue to bring in scholars as well as pastors as speakers at our various events to better equip our students for a lifetime of Christian service.
(Regent, a graduate school of Theology, describes itself as transdenominational, evangelical, and orthodox, with its first priority being to remain true to the orthodox faith as recorded in the Scriptures. One of their main focuses is on equipping and training the whole people of God, not just professional pastors. I've probably recommended it before, but the bookstore has a website where you can purchase mp3 recordings or CDs of many of the classes. If you have a commute or take long walks/runs in your regular schedule, this might be a great way to use that time to develop your ability to "love God with all your mind." You might start by searching for Iain Provan on regentaudio.com.)

A couple quick updates:
FOCUS 140 funds - We're still looking at how to best use the money raised to keep FOCUS growing in 2015. We're planning to overhaul our website and create an app to get ready for more campuses and more students in the next 5-10 years. We've been gathering an amazing team of staff and students to move to Arlington and launch the ministry at UTA, and we plan to buy them supplies for outreach and also subsidize a team-building and planning retreat sometime this summer.

Rooms at UTD - We now have rooms for every Friday night this semester...except for next week! We have some great churches in the area who have offered to host us so we may move off campus for that one night. Please say a prayer that we don't have these problems again in the Fall!

Thank you for your gifts and prayers to make all these things possible. Together, we're blessing a lot of students. I hope it's a blessing and encouragement to you as well!

So much to tell!

Prayer Requests

We're back from our Christmas holiday and school starts Monday at UTD.  With that right around the corner, I have a couple of big prayer requests:

1. Winter Camp is January 16-19. This can be a pivotal moment in the year for so many students, so pray that everyone who needs to be there chooses to come. Getting everyone there is a big job for our entire leader team.

2. We are having a lot of trouble getting rooms reserved for the semester on campus at UTD. This came out of left field since we haven't had trouble like this in years. Pray for God to give us favor with the administration and break this logjam so we can have our Friday night services on campus.

I know the university is struggling to keep up with rapid growth and is doing their best to accommodate the needs of all the various groups. To give you some idea of the incredible growth UTD has experienced, take a look at this graphic:

These average SAT scores are among the highest in the state, which gives you an idea of the kind of bright students I get to work with at UTD!

FOCUS 140 Update

The next thing I want to say is that our First Annual Keep FOCUS Growing Initiative (#FOCUS140) has been a huge success! To date, we've raised

$29,863.19!!!!!!

This is so exciting for us as we look toward pioneering new ministries at UTA and NCTC and increasing our impact where we have already planted. Thank you, thank you, thank you to those of you who participated, shared the news, and prayed for it. We are working now on how to most effectively put that money to work for the kingdom, and I'll work to keep you posted on how we use it.

The Contemplative Pastor

Yesterday we got back from our winter staff retreat. With our staff spread out over a few cities in the area, this is one of our few opportunities to share vision and minister to one another, and it's a critical experience for our interns every year. Over Christmas break, everyone on staff read The Contemplative Pastor by Eugene Peterson.

The book was good for me on a number of levels. It's very meditative. He gives three words he thinks describes good pastors--unbusy, subversive, and apocalyptic. (Not three I would have picked!) He writes poems and reflects on poems. He talks about "the ministry of small talk" and tells the story of a sabbatical he took to pray and play and write.

One of the most powerful ideas for me came when he was talking about John writing Revelation as a pastor to his churches: "St. John is terrifically urgent, but he is not in a hurry." I think that describes Jesus' and Paul's ministries as well: urgent, but not in a hurry. When I get in a hurry, I miss opportunities and do sloppy work. When I get in a hurry, I don't notice Zacchaeus up in the tree. When I get in a hurry, I get to the next challenge before God has fully prepared me for it. Please pray for me that I can match God's pace in my ministry and life with Him.

New Friends

Lastly, a couple of stories. At our first FOCUS meeting at UTD this past fall, I got to meet an amazing young woman. She grew up in the Bahamas and completed her first two years of college at the University of Miami. She told me in that first encounter that she transferred to UTD because God told her to, but she didn't know why. Reminds me of Abraham picking up and moving because God said "Go!" No one had really discipled her up to that point, but the Lord had clearly been mentoring her. I've loved getting with her every week to discuss the scriptures and hear how the Lord is moving in her life. She's definitely one to watch--the Lord has big plans for her!

Part way through the semester, her boyfriend, who had already graduated, found a job in Dallas and moved here. After a few weeks, he asked if we could study the Bible together. He has a Christian background, but had never read the scriptures on his own. Each week I assign him a new book of the Bible to read, and each week it takes us nearly 2 hours to cover his questions and thoughts about it. I love reading and discussing the scriptures with him and seeing his sweet heart for the Lord. So far, he has read Matthew, John, Acts, 1 Corinthians (twice!), and now Genesis. After reading Matthew and John, I asked him what stood out to him most about Jesus. He said he noticed how Jesus didn't treat everyone the same--the ones who didn't know anything were treated with great mercy while a higher standard was applied to those religious leaders who should know better. I was blown away by such a profound insight into the heart of our very good and just God. He's an amazing young man, and I'm excited to develop this friendship in the Lord.

I've been so encouraged by getting to spend time with these two. They are like so many young people today, drifting in and out of churches waiting for someone to invest in them and raise them up to lead in the kingdom. Thank you for sending me to spend time with them, and for bathing this ministry in prayer; together we are planting many seeds and harvesting good fruit!

The Keep FOCUS Growing Initiative

I've been reflecting on all that I have to be thankful for this week. I'm thankful for the country I've been blessed to grow up in, with all its freedoms and opportunities. I'm thankful for the family I was born into, that I could "from infancy know the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus" (2 Timothy 3:15). I'm thankful for the great schools I've gone to and for finding a home in Dallas. I'm thankful for the Lord always providing plenty for me and my family, and even more than we need.  I'm thankful for God's grace through Jesus and for His presence through the Holy Spirit. I'm thankful for my many incredible friends, for my health, for meaningful work, and for a mission field ready for harvesting. I'm thankful for every one of you who has joined my support team through prayer and through your finances--it's such an honor to partner with both you and God in the lives of college students.

When I reflect on those blessings and so many more, I'm reminded of Jesus' words: "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked" (Luke 12:48). We are blessed to be a blessing!  And having been blessed so much, I want to "live a life worthy of Lord and please Him in every way" (Colossians 1:10).

The thought of starting new kingdom work at UT Arlington and North Central Texas College is daunting. But I see God moving and inviting us to join Him. Will you consider joining in this special initiative? Some of you already give consistently and might want to give a special gift toward this new mission. Others of you have been waiting for a specific opportunity, and this might be the one! Or maybe you know a student at UTA or NCTC who has been looking for a Christian community to be a part of.  I invite you to be in prayer for these campuses and to pass along any message you hear from the Lord. Watch the video below that some of our students made--they're catching the vision too!

Something to be praying about--FOCUS @ UT Arlington

One of the convictions that I started college with is "Look to see where God is working and join Him." It comes from Jesus saying in John 5:19 that "the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing." If Jesus can't do anything meaningful on his own, then it's a good bet Brandon can't. It was with that conviction that I joined FOCUS at Richland College my freshman year, even though I was a UTD student. It was because I saw God working in their lives that I chose Leah Farmer (Lorenz), Mandy McWilliams (Lanciani), Kris Green, Beth Johnson (Lynas), and Tiffany Palmer as my close friends that first year, even though only Mandy was a fellow UTD student.  But, the Lord brought them all to UTD at the start of my sophomore year, and FOCUS at UTD was born.

Fast forward to 2014, and that UTD ministry has helped start ministries at 5 other campuses and trained scores of leaders for the kingdom. God always knows what He's doing!  Over the course of this year, I've started seeing His hand moving toward UT Arlington. I've had at least 10 people call me or one of my staff to ask about the possibility of starting a ministry there--students who plan to transfer there or go to grad school there, students with friends or siblings going to UTA, alumni interested in doing the FOCUS internship if they could help start a ministry at UTA.

UTA has been on our radar for a long time and has always been a part of our vision--to launch campus missions at every campus in the DFW area. But the timing has been up to God. Over the past few years, I've only been asked about UTA a handful of times, so having so many people talking and praying about it this year definitely has me asking if now is the time! 

I recently met with the InterVarsity director at UTA, and he was super excited about the possibility of us sending a team. He said the various campus ministries are working closely together in unity to reach the campus for Christ, but he estimated that they are impacting about 1% of approximately 33,000 students. The need is great and the workers are few!

Will you join with me in praying and seeking God's will for FOCUS concerning UT Arlington? You might use this page of UTA facts to focus your prayers and get to know the campus. This would be a big move across the city. We would need to send the right team of staff and student ministers. We would probably need to start planning in January in order to be ready for the 2015-2016 school year.

Also toward that end, we will launch our first annual "Keep FOCUS Growing" Initiative in the second half of November. Our staff has fundraised to get us through this year, but we are asking God to provide the resources if He wants us to launch a major new campus ministry. So we'll be inviting our students, alumni, current supporters, and anyone else to consider giving a special gift to help us grow our impact in 2015. Keep an eye out for #FOCUS140 in the coming weeks. 

Thank you for joining me in prayer and for joining with me financially in this work. You are making a difference in students' lives!

I want to end with a picture from our second annual Church and Campus Leadership Conference yesterday. We spent the day training hundreds of leaders and future leaders on visionary leadership. We had a lot of new students (including many freshmen!) invest a whole Saturday in order to become a better leader.  That's a good sign for what's to come! 

Coming off of Fall Camp

About a month into the school year, we take the UTD students out to a camp to deepen relationships and help them catch the vision of being followers of Jesus in college. This year our theme was "Defining Moments." As you know, life is full of moments, but some are moments of disproportionate influence on our present and future. When we were planning the weekend, one of my staff members said, "When I look back on my defining moments in high school and college, I wish I'd been better prepared."

I wish you could have heard the four students who shared their testimonies of defining moments. They all did an outstanding job of ministering to their peers! Raquel, who transferred from Richland College, shared about moments leading up to answering the call to leadership, something she had never envisioned for herself--"My biggest defining moments were when I gave up."  Gave up control. Gave up on her own plan.

Kimberly shared about a defining moment when she asked God for friends at UTD. But He told her He would give her more than that, a Christian community that reflects the love Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 13! She grew up not being loved and not being loving toward others, "But now I get to be a leader and love others!" Your prayers and financial investments help build this community that gives students the chance to catch the vision themselves!

Kimberly and Raquel are the two in the middle.

Jalen shared about growing up as a good Christian kid, but not really getting what Jesus was all about. He talked about looking down on and judging others, and about how he wanted Jesus to save him, not tell him what to do (anyone identify with that? :). But after facing his own sinfulness, he realized, "I have the capability of being obedient to Christ one small step at a time." What a powerful message! Sometimes what Jesus asks of you may seem too big and too hard. But with His Spirit, you are able to obey one step at a time.

Jalen. I'm not sure whether he made this face during his talk.

Stephen reflected that what has defined him was a series of seemingly small things--deciding to attend a conference, a conversation with a friend about his purpose in college, showing up at an event. Maybe you are holding off on doing something "small" because it scares you for some reason or because you just haven't made a final decision. I encourage you to decide right now to be obedient. You never know when something small might end up being one of the defining moments of your life. If the Lord wants you to do something (this, of course, must be tested against His will already revealed in scripture), then you can know with certainty that it's good.

Stephen sharing in front of the group.

For so many students, a camp like this is a defining moment--when they make a friend or a decision that changes their life, when they hear the good news of Jesus for the first time, or when they get their first taste of real Christian community. Thank you for helping prepare these young people for the defining moments that are racing toward them. My prayer is that each of us will be purposeful in investing in young men and women. They aren't just the church of tomorrow; they're the church of today, and the world is in desperate need of men and women of God.

Stories to Start the Year

Over the last month, I've heard some stories that I know you'll find so encouraging.

The first was in an email from Amy Knoles, a FOCUS alumna. She has played many roles in our ministry, but one of the most important was that she took the challenge a decade ago to help start our ministry outreach at Collin College. She was the first women's leader for FOCUS on that campus, and she felt very unqualified. But she stepped out on faith and did it anyway. One other key thing to know is that Amy has always had a soft spot in her heart for her much younger cousin Crysta. She has made major life decisions around being able to be near and invest in Crysta.  Crysta recently started college:

Brandon, 
The other day Crysta was talking to me about going to Collin FOCUS for the first time and meeting people. A lot of people asked her how she learned about FOCUS and .... she proceeded to drop my name and tell them I was her cousin. Haha! Not that any of those students would have a clue who I am, but she liked getting to tell them I helped things get started at Collin. When I got off the phone it really hit me how amazing it all was. She has a ministry to go to on that campus because of something FOCUS did all those years ago...something I got to be a part of. For the first time it was really personal. It wasn't just amazing to look at the ministry...Crysta is actually in it! My family gets to experience God and family on that campus. It's because of people ... who have visions for people and hearts that follow God. God has rocked my world lately. This really encouraged me! So excited for what God has planned for Madison and Evan when they get to college ;-)
Thanks for everything, 
Amy

Amy's twins Evan & Madison--future FOCUS student leaders!

The second story is a little more sensitive, so I'll leave out some details and names. We recently got this message from an outstanding young lady we were planning on having as a new student leader this fall, explaining why should wouldn't be able to come back to school: 

After graduating in 2006 I focused on helping my family and began working ... until I got the opportunity to be the first person in my family to pursue a degree and go to the University of North Texas. My family has always struggled financially, and with me no longer working the strain has become even harder on my mother. Last year she got a title loan to help pay her rent, and recently her car, which is the only car my family had, was repossessed. Unable to pay my housing balance from last semester of $4,502.55, I thought I would be able to use my financial aid for the Fall 2014 semester to go towards that. I recently found out from the school that this isn’t possible and that the balance would have to be paid before my financial aid could be released. This past summer my family was basically homeless as they couldn’t afford to live in the apartment I had been renting before I left my job. We moved from hotels to inns and finally my sister’s house, so this amount isn’t something my mother can pay. My brother (who is also unable to attend college because of our financial situation), my mother and I were blessed to be able to move into a one bedroom apartment where I share a room and bed with my mom while my brother sleeps in the living room. The biggest loss for me isn’t just the opportunity to finish school but that I was able to make such great relationships with people and really start walking on the mission I feel God had set forth for me. One of my best memories was getting the chance to organize a conversation evangelism walk with one of my good friends. Five years ago when I was working for a company that made me feel trapped I never thought I would have the faith to go out and talk to people about God and the grace he gives us. I feel no matter what, that God has shown me so much in the small amount of time I spent in college, I’m just hoping and praying for the opportunity to continue that. I do feel that delayed doesn’t mean denied.

We started praying, and before we could come up with a response, another STUDENT who heard about the situation anonymously paid the $4500 bill. When we said we'd try to find others to help pay part of it, she told us "no," that God asked her to pay it all and that's what she wanted to do. So that young lady is back at school this fall and is leading a group of young women to know Jesus better!

I know many of you give financially to this mission, and I want you to know these students don't just take--they're becoming extravagant givers. They see your example and have taken up the challenge. And if you want to be a person who we contact when a worthy student is struggling financially, I'd be happy to put you on that list!

I could tell so many more stories from these first few weeks. I met with one of our incoming student leaders for UTD near the end of the summer, and he shared with me about how he's been praying for months for a past girlfriend, that she would have godly women reach out to her. That girl goes to TWU, and guess who our TWU minister met while she was out "randomly" approaching students? 

And at our first UTD Friday Night Fellowship, I met a young lady who came to UTD because God called her to. She applied and moved from Florida this summer in obedience to that call. I asked if she had any idea why He wanted her here, and she said "not yet." Pretty impressive faith! One of the principles I live by is "look to see where God's working and join Him." Well, it's obvious He's working in this young woman's life, so I'm getting involved.  We started studying the scripture together last week, and I hope you'll join me in praying for that study.

Our first FNF.  That's me preaching down at the front. Look how tiny I am!

God is always at work, and He's doing powerful things through your financial gifts, your prayers, and the ways you minister to the students and staff who are taking the gospel to these campuses. Thank you!