Seek His Face!

From left to right: Alex, Nathan, David, and Bekwele. I've gotten to know these guys this year, and it's been nothing but a blessing. Alex (far left) and Bekwele (far right) are in my peer team!

"My heart says of you, 'Seek his face!' Your face, LORD, I will seek."

- Psalm 27:8 

I've been thinking about eye contact a lot lately. Few things signal intimacy, focus, and intention like prolonged eye contact. Few things signal distance, busyness, and shame like being deprived of eye contact. A couple looks into one another's eyes, a parent tells their child: "look at me when I'm talking to you!" Lately, God has been pushing me to remove these things (distance, busyness, and shame) that keep me and the guys I minister to from- metaphorically speaking- looking Him in the eyes.

In my own life, I've been challenged by mentors in how directly I seek God. Do I approach Him in prayer with the intention of seeking Him, or with the intention, merely of praying? Am I so busy and off-kilter that I can't slow down enough to let Jesus in on my thought processes? Am I monitoring my success as a child of God so closely that I put words of disapproval in His mouth before I can even talk to Him? More than any time before, I'm begun to push this envelope with the guys in my life as well. As Jesus says: "few things are needed- or indeed only one." The "one thing" we need is to be with and follow Christ. 

Being in classes for the Apprenticeship has given me more "bricks" to build with than I've ever had in my life, but I'm also realizing more than ever before that it's dangerously easy to start putting new bricks on a foundation of sand. 

Pizza Theology

I'm consistently amazed at how intently our students learn about God. Also, do you see that empty chair on the right there? That's where you were supposed to be sitting :(

Every semester, all of the FOCUS campuses get together for four hours of teaching on a particular theological, Biblical, or situational topic, with an hour in the middle for some food which, you may have guessed, happens to be pizza. The topic this semester was The Second Coming. What I was afraid would be a dicey, difficult, and terrifying lecture turned into a deep message of hope and a poignant call to alertness. Sooooo good!

Meeting New People!

Bad Tattoo outreach at TWU! I really hope this is a candid photo, but maybe they posed like that.

Campus ministry frequently moves with the seasons. August will have you meeting countless new students (occasionally forgetting names after adding 50 phone contacts in a week); March is often more of a time of continuing to pour into the students who have stuck around- a little more to the "maturing" side of "making and maturing disciples." On the surface, there's nothing really wrong with that. 

That being said, I've been blown away by how our students have taken the idea of "being sent" to heart, and have continued to meet new people and invite them to come to FOCUS and to study the Bible one on one. God works year round! 

From left to right: Mateo, Orion (coolest name ever), Reagann, and Chris about to go meet students at UNT. You can't really tell in this picture, but Chris is 6'6". I feel like a child when I stand next to him.

Prayer

• Pray for us to be faithful to minister to and love the new students coming into our ministry! Pray for them to encounter Jesus here.
• Pray for our students and staff to seek God intensely. 
• Pray for our students to work well and rest well during the second half of this semester. It's easy to love motivation when the finish line is in sight!

What We Have Seen and Heard

A photo of our students at Winter Camp this year! It's amazing to think of the stories of how God brought each of these students here.

"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our joy complete."

- 1 John 1:1-4

I'm going to do something a little bit different and start by sharing something we apprentices learned in a class (in a textbook for that matter) and then getting to the good part about what God's been doing in the ministry. You thought you were going to be able to skip the boring stuff, did you? Ha!

The FOCUS apprentices have been reading through the New Testament along with a New Testament textbook by Luke Timothy Johnson and lecture audio from Regent College by Rikk Watts. Before I move forward, I again want to mention how much of a blessing it is to get to learn about God in this way. It wouldn't be possible for me without you supporters, and I believe it really does impact my ministry. 

Anyway. This textbook said something about the New Testament and about the Gospel that has been on my mind for weeks. In the interest of not having a 10,000-word blog, I'll paraphrase:

The people of the New Testament had their own way of looking at the world before Jesus came,

but once they experienced Jesus- and later experienced the Holy Spirit- they had no choice but

to adapt their view of the world and their reading of Scripture to this experience.

That is something incredible about the Gospel. At some point, it goes from being the good news about what God did 2,000 years ago to being the good news about who God is to us, now. The Gospel is happening right now!

The Gospel in Action

This semester, God has been working in our ministry in some pretty unique ways. At a peer team meeting last semester, we took some time to talk to God and ask Him how He wanted to work in our ministry as a whole this coming semester. The next 3 people in a row all said something along the lines of: "God has been preparing us for a time of growth, and we just need to seek Him."

This semester, I've seen people seek God with a renewed vigor, each week having something new to share about relating to Him. I've seen God bring a lot of new people into the ministry this semester who have been seeking a community that can help them seek Jesus. I'm watching God heal a lot of pains and break a lot of cycles of destructive thought, not through anyone's wise advice, but simply through letting us be with Him.

Winter Camp

Winter Camp this year was one for the books! 

• Around 650 students were there- watching them all worship God was so beautiful!
• Geoff and Jessica Mumley, campus ministers from Campus Christian Fellowship in Bellingham, Washington, came and spoke to our students about being sent into the world. Jessica talked about recognizing when we're listening to God and when we're listening to someone else by asking ourselves the question: "Who told me that?"
• Brandon, a staff member / FOCUS director who is a friend, mentor, past roommate, and two-time half-planned vacation buddy of mine proposed to his girlfriend Sarah King. The shrieks of excitement were great.

Other Great Things

Students playing a game at the start of a TWU FOCUS gathering. If only you could hear how loud it got in there. 

• God has been growing the men's side of the ministry at Texas Women's University a lot this semester. This was a challenging area for us last semester, and now God is bringing people in faster than I can keep up. A lot of these guys are excited to build friendships and study the Bible. 
• I gave my first sermon at a Friday Night FOCUS this week! I think God blessed so much in giving this sermon. So many people were praying for me and encouraging me, and it simply felt like I was sharing what God was teaching me with my friends. 
• I got a houseplant for my birthday, and I think it's not dying. I'm relieved by this.

Prayer

• Pray for these new students to get plugged into the ministry!
• Pray for God to help us seek Him with all we have.

A New Season

Our guy staff spent a day hanging out, doing a little bit of hiking, and camping.
These fine men are Cody, Laurence, and Eduardo.

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day."

2 Corinthians 4:16

     Coming into the holiday season, I was in desperate need of a reset. I was out of energy, out of motivation, dealing with anxiety and health issues, and unsure what anyone (including God) saw in me that could possibly have led me to choose to pursue full-time ministry. 

Fortunately for me, God is a fan of making things new!

Campus ministry runs on much more of a rhythm than other occupations. Is it the first week of school? Count on working 60-70 hours. Is it the third week of December? All of your students are gone- you're likely in for some rest and some family time (which is occasionally also restful). So these past few weeks have seen me spending a lot of time reading, a lot of time with family, and a lot of time with God. Through that, God hit the reset button in my heart.

For one, my concept of grace is being greatly expanded. I've always affirmed that God loves me and has grace for me. Yet somehow, I came into ministry thinking God expected me to be a great minister. And if I couldn't do that, I could at least always have my heart in the right place...right? Wrong. Getting to pray and journal through all of my times dropping the ball, getting impatient, not trusting God's Spirit to work, and more throughout the last few weeks has only led me into more of God's love. The FOCUS staff also read through The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning, a book that seeks to breathe life back into the basics of the Gospel for people who have gotten worn down while seeking to follow God.

God also hit the reset button in my life simply as a 21-year-old seeking to grow up. I've learned that inefficiency, negligence, and thoughtlessness are a dangerous waste of the resources God gives you, and when each week presents a new challenge you've never encountered, you're going to want to be organized, well-rested, and healthy. The last month has seen me doing a lot of reworking with these things, as well as discovering the amazing blessing that is the antacid tablet.

All of this has been a reminder that although in November I was just about as discouraged and exhausted as I had ever been, God was still teaching me things, and I believe He was preparing me for a lot of growth. 

Winter Camp

Worship at one of the Winter Camp sessions. I haven't tried to spot myself in this photo, but I'll give a crisp dollar to the first person who does. 

FOCUS kicks our Spring semester off with our most important (and exciting!) weekend of the year- Winter Camp. It is a 4-day camp at Sky Ranch in which students in FOCUS from what is now 10 campuses get together to spend time with one another, learn more about God, and worship their Father. In keeping with the theme of new seasons- I've seen God use this time to change the way students see God, themselves, and others in some pretty meaningful ways, ways that didn't just affect the rest of their weekend, but genuinely changed the trajectory of their lives. It was actually at Winter Camp two years ago that I realized I needed to stop figuring out if and why God might love me, and just accept it. I'm incredibly excited to see what God does in the hearts of students this year.

Keep FOCUS Growing

Many, many thanks to everyone who gave to KFG this year. We set a goal of raising $50,000, and ended up raising over $64,000. The generosity we saw was mind-boggling, both because it was God providing for our ministry to grow, and because I got to see the purposeful generosity of so many people. There are students for whom the most extravagant investment I've seen them make was their gift to KFG. I haven't checked the rulebook lately for college students, but I feel like that's not supposed to happen. Praise God!

Some Bonus Pictures

From left to right: Drew, Mr. Fuzzypants,and Alex. I've been blessed to meet up with these guys every week this school year. Drew is a pure-hearted, loving teddy bear who is incredibly good at showing the love of Jesus through friendship, and Alex is a calm, insightful, humble guy who has approached his first year as a student leader with a lot of maturity.

A handful of our male staff on our one-day camping trip. Being out in nature with such great guys was such a blessing.
Note: "out in nature" in this case means 5 feet from a campfire, 10 feet from your tent, and 30 feet from your car.

Prayer

• Pray for Winter Camp. Pray that God would use this time to strengthen community and help our students to fall more in love with Jesus.
• Pray that we would use the Keep FOCUS Growing money with wisdom, putting it towards God's Kingdom as best as we can.
• Pray for our students as we enter a new semester- this can either be a slow start or a time of jumpstarting growth. 

With love and gratitude,

Rhett

Soil, Roots, and Such

Matt doing a short devotional at our Christmas party while dressed up as the conductor from Polar Express (obviously)

"So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow."
1 Corinthians 3:7 

"This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how."
Mark 4:26-27

What's Happened in the Last Month

Perhaps the two most unique events that took place in the last month were our worship night and our Christmas party. These two nights, followed by our last get together for our student leaders this Monday, all showed the way this community is growing. On Friday, a lecture hall full of students worshipped Jesus for an hour and a half, dwelling on Him and expressing their awe of Him and love for Him through singing, journaling, reflecting, and encouraging one another. On Sunday,  I got to watch our community just have a blast together at our Christmas party. If there's anything you see about Jesus' relationship with the disciples and Paul's suggestions to the churches he wrote to, it's that as Christians we ought to genuinely be friends with one another and actively find life in one another's company. That's definitely what I saw on Sunday. 

In addition to this, I've gotten to have a lot of challenging, stimulating, and beautiful conversations with students, staff, and strangers alike in the last 30 days. Seeing the eagerness and joy of students in our ministry has reminded me of how wonderful it is to find newness in Christ, seeing the humble boldness of my mentors has encouraged me to get out of my comfort zone in ministry, and seeing the difficulty and hardship of people from many walks of life has grown me in compassion and reminded me of why Christ's healing is so needed in this world. 

Our staff at the FOCUS Christmas party. You may recognize me as the one with the worst costume. 

What God's Been Teaching Me About Ministry

God has been reminding me a lot that He is the one who is working in ministry, and I am privileged to join Him in this work. I've spent a lot of time this semester learning to be a better minister, which is something that is necessary and a blessing (trust me, I need it), but I've come face to face more than ever with the fact that no amount of skill, hard work, or "faithfulness" on my part can change someone's heart. My job is to call people to Christ, and He changes people. 

Some Thank Yous and a Reminder

As always, thank you so much to everyone who supports me directly and who gives to FOCUS. 

Also, thank you so much to everyone who has chosen to give to KFG. For those who have managed to avoid the 2,284,858 Facebook posts about KFG, it is an annual fundraiser FOCUS does to keep FOCUS growing called Keep FOCUS Growing. Makes sense, right? Establishing FOCUS on a new campus can take quite a bit of money, so in order to allow our communities to continue to grow and to allow FOCUS to reach new campuses (i.e. SMU,  UTA, etc.), we need help from people who believe in our vision to make and mature disciples on college campuses in the DFW Metroplex! 

So far, KFG this year has been hugely successful! We decided to take advantage of Giving Tuesday on Facebook, and our donors came through and gave $30,000 of our overall $50,000 goal in this one day! The fundraiser will be going through the end of this year, so please consider joining in and putting some of your December generosity towards FOCUS :)

Read more at https://anyfocus.org/kfg/

Prayer

• Pray for the seeds planted in our students' lives to continue to mature as they spend time away from the community over the break.
• Pray for God to watch over our students as many of them go away from their new friendships to their hometowns where they may have had fewer Christian friendships. 

I love you all!

- Rhett

Where God Resides

Our family of churches worshiping together at our all-church retreat. Seeing people from these three churches coming together to celebrate what God has done in their communities is an enormous blessing.

11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing...14 And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:11, 14

Seeing the Body at Work

      As I complete this third month of the FOCUS apprenticeship, I figured I was overdue to take some time to share about the kind of community FOCUS is, and why I believe God's fingerprints are all over it. 

     Over the last month, I've seen students of a wide variety of ages and backgrounds minister to me and to one another in very real ways. During one Friday Night Fellowship (our larger group meetings), we were talking about Psalms of Lament, and how we often see the authors in the Psalms express painful realities and difficult questions to God while still choosing to trust in Him. After the sermon, students were asked to come up to a microphone (in front of ~150 of their peers) and share a sentence that matches the prompt:

"[Lament], but I choose to trust Him."

   

     Pain comes in many forms, so the prompt was left as simple as possible. Over the next several minutes, students shared about illness and death amongst their loved ones, broken relationships, depression, anxiety, and countless other things that often don't make sense. Even as they were sharing these things, it was obvious that God was using the Body to comfort them. 

     Just last night, Matt (FOCUS's director here in Denton, also my mentor, also my friend) preached on humility, putting forth a phrase that has become popular in FOCUS: "humble people honor people." Again, students were challenged to put this into practice by directly encouraging and thanking people who had made an impact on their lives that year. The amount of very real, simple, vulnerable encouragement that went on in that room was beautiful. 

     This is a body of students who truly want to know, follow, and live like Jesus, and I'm humbled that I get to help them in that. 

Nate and Jacob (left and right, respectively) are two of the guys in my peer team. This picture was taken after they finished praying for one another. This time of the semester is always hard in campus ministry, but God has been faithful to give us the peace needed to do His work. 

Peer Team

     My relationships with the group of student leaders who God has put into my life to mentor (which is a joke because they minister to me more than I minister to them) have begun to sprout and bring fruit in ways that I could only hope for at the beginning of the year. All I could ask for from these guys is for them to show up to do what God has called them to do and allow Him to work in their hearts, and I've gotten to see so much more than that. All of these guys are within a year of my age (both older and younger), and the spiritual "acquaintances" that we started with are fast becoming spiritual friendships. One day I might be having a difficult, challenging conversation with a guy, and the next day he could be beating me in an arm wrestle. One moment, I might be reading through Scripture or an article with a pair of core leaders, and the next moment, one of us could say something unintentionally ridiculous that becomes an inside joke. 

     God's goodness continues to be surprising, baffling, and better than the human goodness that I often ask for from Him. 

Classes

The last day of our Old Testament Foundations class. Normally, we have class in a conference room, but Mandy (leftmost) who teaches the class, decided to treat us to a home-cooked meal in her home to celebrate a class well done.

     As we have continued to delve deeper into more classes, I have again been struck by how incredible a blessing it is that God has chosen to keep revealing more of Himself throughout history- and that we get to learn more about Him. The apprentices recently finished reading through the Old Testament, and it's given me a much stronger appreciation for how God shows Himself to be good once you get some perspective, and how I'm so, so thankful for Jesus and a community that knows Him. 

     We also recently started a class called Pneumatology, which really just means "the study of the Holy Spirit," but we call it Pneumatology so we can feel smarter than we actually are. In all seriousness, the Holy Spirit is something that I (and the church traditions that I grew up in) have tended to shy away from or misconstrue. This is pretty tragic, considering how highly Jesus (and Paul) spoke of the Spirit. That being said, I believe God has already begun to reconstruct my view of His Spirit, and I can't wait to see what He shows me.

Grateful

     Thank you again to everyone who has helped me through prayer and financial support. I hope my blogs have been at least somewhat of an encouragement to you. I would also highly recommend that you read blogs from the other FOCUS apprentices this year (Jalen, Caitlin, Eddie, Dawn, and Kristen). You can find their blogs at [name].anyfocus.org. 

Prayer

• Praise God for what He has already done. People are studying the Bible and forging close friendships with Christians who never thought they would!
• Pray for wisdom as we seek to reach out to the male students at TWU. This particular campus is in many ways a uniquely dark and lonely place, and it has been difficult to reach the 15% of the student body who are males. 
• Pray for our student leaders to find peace and rest. They've had amazing attitudes and hearts this year, but many of them are full-time students, work jobs, help with FOCUS, and have families who live far away from Denton. 

Settling In

Last month, I shared my thoughts about how new I was to everything around me.

While this month has not been a particularly easy one, I've been able to see the seeds of ministry and friendship that had been planted over the last two months begin to grow. I didn't realize how much I had needed to settle into friendships and into God's peace until I experienced those things again in Denton.

Fall Camp

The group picture of students at Fall Camp. Such a fun and God-loving group of students. I'm the white dot in the third window from the right. Hey there.

     Twice a year, FOCUS sends their students to a camp ground in Texas to spend an extended amount of time together getting to know one another, worshiping the Lord, learning, and just plain having fun. The first of those two camps is Fall Camp.

     Our theme for Fall Camp this year was the same as our theme for FOCUS as a whole this year: Send Me. We had several students share stories of how they were faithful to God's call, often in ways that were completely unexpected, but also completely unglamorous. It was a useful and poignant reminder to see how God can work through our confused, reluctant to decisions to follow His call. It was also an important reminder that we don't always understand what God is doing through our faithfulness to His callings, even as we are in the midst of following them.

A number of our students playing a game on a field. God blessed us with some surprisingly good weather for a September afternoon in Texas.

     Each Fall Camp, we also have a two hour worship night with our students. Getting to worship with these students while also observing them worship was an incredible blessing. The things I saw and stories I heard of students praying for one another, encouraging one another, and worshipping God more fully and intently than they were used to remind me of what the Holy Spirit can do when a group of people is gathered together to worship God. At the end of the worship night, I realized that I was the most at peace I had been in months. In a season of life marked just as much by anxiety as by growth, this was a much-needed time of rest.

Peer Team

Two guys from my peer team named Drew and Alex. They're pretty brilliant.

     Probably the most consistent blessing and area of leadership growth for me has been in my time with my peer team guys. They are an amazing group of 8 hard-working, God-loving student leaders, and it has been an amazing experience to get to speak into their lives. Like any of us, they all have their strengths and weaknesses, but God has worked very dynamically through their individual willingness to put their strengths to work for the Kingdom and to grow in their weaknesses rather than hold onto them as part of their identity. Imagine the humility it takes to choose to be mentored by someone who is almost the same age as you. 

Two more peer team guys- Bekwele (left) and Ivan (right). Ignore my weird pants. It's a Denton thing.

     These guys have certainly taught and encouraged me more than I have taught and encouraged them. Several of them have taken the time to take me aside or text me to encourage me.

Classes

    Imagine eating a delicious, nourishing meal, but every time you finish something on your plate, someone comes and adds 4 more courses. That's what classes are like in the FOCUS Apprenticeship. But a good minister is a good disciple, and a good disciple is a good learner, so that's exactly how it should be. 

    We've continued to read through the Old Testament, and I've learned more about the minor prophets in the last few weeks than I had in my previous 21 years of life. We've also gotten to spend 4 hours a week learning Christian ministry from a more foundational perspective from Ronnie Worsham, the pastor of Northeast Church. Add a class on leadership habits, a class on evangelism, and class on body stewardship (a hugely pertinent topic in this day and age, especially for college students), and you've got a very busy but very happy disciple. 

Prayer

• Please be praying for the communities in Las Vegas and Puerto Rico, who have both experienced very different, but very real catastrophes.
• Pray for our students and staff as we go deeper into the semester. I've often found October to be a rough month for students, simply because they're going through midterm tests and working long hours at their jobs, but the end of the semester still seems like a long way off.
• Pray that God would continue to show Himself to our new students and guide them towards Him. 
• On a more personal note, please praying for God to give me the peace to work diligently without seeking to exert control over my environment. I've been dealing with a fair amount of anxiety with all my new responsibilities.

New Faces

A few of the many freshmen I was blessed to get to meet over the last week

New Faces
Few things can bring as much excitement- or as much anxiety- as a place full of new faces. When you are freshman moving into a dorm, living away from home for the first time, you are a new face amidst a world of new faces. For some, it's an exciting opportunity to make new friends and enjoy new freedoms. For others, it's an anxiety-filled time that they hope will not be a social repeat of high school.
Both kinds of people need good friendships, and both kinds of people need to know Jesus.

When I started writing this blog, my mind went straight to the idea of new faces for two reasons. On one hand, I've met more people in the past week than I had in any one previous week of my life. On the other hand, I've jumped into ministry in a community in which I am a new face.


Welcoming the "Fresh" Faces

The first Friday Night Fellowship at UNT. The night went so well, and a lot of new students said they loved it!

Welcome Week, or "First Flight Week," as it's called at UNT, is the frantic time in campus ministry (and campus life as a whole) in which new students arrive on campus and spend their first several days adjusting to their new environment. Most campuses fill this week with fun events and free food, which makes it a crucial time for meeting students.
Between three move-in days, two late night Capture the Flag events, several board-game times, and a plethora of other activities I know I'm forgetting, I met a lot of people over the last week. The goal for us as campus ministers is to cast our nets as wide as possible this first week, and then let peoples' varying levels of receptiveness and commitment determine who we end up spending the most time with as the semester goes on.
While a lot of conversations cover the same general details of background, hobbies, and interests, I have met a few people who got vulnerable with me almost immediately.
One freshman at TWU shared about the difficulty of finding friends in college who genuinely cared about him.
A freshman at UNT shared about how he had fallen away from Christ in high school, but that he wants to pursue Jesus and grow in his faith over these next four years.
Another freshman at UNT shared about how he hadn't felt at home in any group on campus until he met the people in FOCUS.

I cannot wait to see how God continues to unfold His plans for these people and lay them on the hearts of the leaders in our ministry.

Learning to Lead While Learning a Community

While I had a fairly large handful of acquaintances and friendships in Denton before moving, I was far from being fully connected with everyone in FOCUS here. As an apprentice and a peer team leader, a huge part of my role is to be a close friend and pastoral voice in the lives of our students. Throughout this past month, I have continually been struck by how much of a challenge this is, but also by how welcoming and humble the students here really are. The student leaders I will be mentoring this year have been enormously encouraging, and it's been a blessing to get to learn more and more about them.
The people here have been faithful to affirm the fact that God has called me here for a reason, and I'm more confident than ever that this will be a year full of fruitful relationships.

Prayer

• Cores are starting this week- please be praying that people would immediately begin opening up to one another and forming deep bonds! (For those who don't know, cores are our gender specific small groups where the deeper friendships in the community tend to be built)
• Pray that new students would have hearts that yearn to know Christ. God can do so much with a willing heart.
• Please also remember to pray for those recovering from the floods in Houston and India. 

Thank you so much to everyone who has been supporting me, whether it be financially, through prayer, or simply through encouragement. I would be neither willing nor able to do any sort of effective ministry if it weren't for God working through people like you, and it's humbling to remember that.

Our student testimony for this month! I got to know Michael a little bit last year, and he is an incredibly selfless guy.