Skip to main content

Summer Ministry (and one of my most recent sermons)

 

Summer has begun, and with it, Summer FOCUS. Around 375 college students from all across DFW are gathering together every Thursday night to worship God and be sharpened and encouraged in their discipleship to Jesus. This summer we are doing a series of teachings on Maturity. I had the honor and opportunity of starting off this series for our students just a few weeks ago. Feel free to listen and watch if you'd like to get a sense of the messages God is allowing me to share with the students here through your partnership. Summer Focus Sermon on Maturity The sermon starts around the 32:00 minute mark.

Hayli and I had the opportunity to take a couple of our girls from focus and our church our to lunch a few weeks ago. It was great to hear how God has been working in their lives. And I'm so thankful that Lucy gets to grow up participating in church community like this.
Our church has started summer book club. Both our older adults and our current college students are participating. This is only one of the groups going through the book. We probably have 60 people collectively reading "The Master Plan of Evangelism" by Robert Coleman. This has been a hugely influential book for me in understanding the importance of raising up disciples for the world, and leaders for the church. I've been highly encouraged to hear all these young people express their desire to take a greater part in the fulfillment of the great commission. The aim is that from this book club, many of these people would feel inspired and equipped to more effectively make disciples of the next generation.

I didn't have a picture of Aeneas but I wanted to let y'all know about a young man I've had the opportunity to study the bible with one on one this summer. We just met at the end of May and together we have already read the sermon on the mount, the entirety of the gospel of Mark, as well as the first 6 chapters of Luke. He is continuing reading the gospel of Matthew on his own time and is about halfway through. Today he showed me his first attempt at writing a sermon. Aeneas had not read the bible for himself prior to our time together and now he is writing sermons. His eagerness to learn and internalize and share what he's learning is so evident of God's spirit at work within him. Thank you for investing in Aeneas and so many like him. I can't thank you enough for your partnership. Don't forget to read the student testimony below! It's one of our UTA girls this month and it's such good news.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Learning From the Wise

Dear Friends, Thank you for taking the time to read this ministry update. This winter season has been particularly encouraging and I am excited to tell you about what is coming up soon! The month of December began with a celebration. The school semester was coming to a close quickly so we threw our annual Focus Christmas party in the first week of the month. Talk about Christmas come early. The event was filled with sweet memories, worship, and funny skits put on by the various weekly core groups. Watching those skits is always a highlight of the year as everyone in the core often participates and everyone gets to see each others silly sides. A couple of guys at the UTA Focus Christmas Party. In the bottom picture, one of the roommates couldn't make the event so the rest of the guys thoughtfully chose to find a way to include him in the picture, no matter what.  Once the semester was over and the students went home for the holidays, I had a lot of time to read. Over the ...

Rejoice in the Lord always! I will say it again; Rejoice!

A lot has been happening this month, in the ministry, in the lives of our students, and in my own heart as I continue to learn what it means to be a missionary and a minister of the Lord. I can't wait to share all of it with you. I pray that you find it encouraging and ultimately that God is praised and exalted because of it. Ephesians 3:20-21 " Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,  to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." These are just a few of the guys in my core group that I get to lead every week! Peter, Jacob, and Saurav. I love each one of these guys dearly and I so enjoy getting to meet with them every week and hearing their heart. I meet one on one every week with Jacob, we've been reading through a book called "Experiencing God" this semester recently and it has been very helpful in aligning our ...

When Miracles Are Common and Pizza Theology

  A student shared this at our most recent Thursday Night Fellowship and I thought it was so beautiful that I wanted to share it with you. "In Focus, Miracles are happening all the time. People are becoming saved, like I was a year ago, through this community, and equally miraculously people are becoming more like Jesus, like I'm still learning to do. But God is using this community to bring about those miracles. And I know that this all can feel common to us, especially those of us who have been around for a while, but if we are in a community where the miraculous is common , we should thank God for that community." That was shared by a student named Josh Krause who I have the pleasure of studying the bible with over the duration of this school year. I have been so encouraged by his willingness to keep learning about the grace of God and respond by living out of that reality. And I was doubly encouraged when he shared such a beautiful and praise filled sentiment with th...