I love our 1-on-1 study we take people through. It is called Focus on Jesus (FOJ), and there are debates on how to say FOJ. Some say the acronym, some pronounce it as a word in different ways. Each campus of Focus seems to have their own colloquial way of pronouncing it. I think it’s all funny and a harmless little debate.
Jokes aside, you have probably heard me mention it before. Or maybe you have been through it yourself! It covers a range of topics a disciple of Jesus needs to know, from the role of Scripture in our lives to grace to faith to baptism. But it ends with the 10th lesson, called “Sent Into the World.” This lesson is really neat for many reasons, but the main vision we want to give students is that God has sent them into the world.
As Jesus prays in John 17,
“My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one…As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.”
Jesus is talking about his disciples! We are sent into the world to do what Jesus did when he was here, to love people, to preach the Gospel, to pray for healing, and more. We are Jesus’ hands and feet in a very real way. I used to think that was metaphorical or just imagery, and it is of course this, but I really believe that we are the very real presence of Jesus walking around our communities. And in a sobering way, how others receive us is how they would receive Jesus if he were here in the flesh too.
Our love for God always should translate to love for others, and we are not meant to keep it to ourselves. It is safe to stay in a Christian bubble, but it is not what Jesus wants.
Ships are safe in the harbor but it is not what they are built for. -John A. Shedd
This final month of the semester (school is over ending in just a few days with exams) is full of this kind of empowerment ministry. We are getting ready to not see students for the whole summer, or at least not going to walk with them in the same small group next year, and we are taking our prospective student leaders to our annual leadership conference (SICM) in the middle of May. All of these require release. Which for me is a trust exercise. It is hard to let go of that control and being able to watch over someone, knowing maybe their foundation isn’t as strong as you would like or a number of other reasons. So, it really is learning to trust God with them. Even if they end up going a different road than you would prefer or they come to different beliefs than you would prefer. But God loves all and desires all to know him, and for those who trust in him already, he is their shepherd, and he is the good shepherd, amen?
We are letting our students go to go do what we did for them this year. The ones who got led through FOJ now get to lead others through FOJ. The ones who were in cores now possibly get to lead core next year. The freshman who got to be welcomed into the family of God now get to welcome new freshman into the family of God. Those who got baptized now get to baptize others. It is sad because relationships change and you don’t get to see people you love as much. But it is God’s beautiful design. Disciple who make disciples.
God has given everyone the Holy Spirit. As some of my old friends used to say, “there is no junior Holy Spirit.” We all can lead, influence, and preach and show others the Gospel. The kingdom is advancing onward, even though it is invisible, and sometimes it means sacrificing really good things in order to follow the Holy Spirit for the pursuit of those who haven’t gotten the chance to know God yet.
This is all how I also feel about leaving Denton and going to plant new community college ministries at Dallas College. As sad as it is to leave Denton and the family of God up here, I get to sacrifice to go be sent into another part of the world because many people in Dallas College have never had the opportunity for any Christian ministry on their campus. These campuses sadly are all too often forgotten.
What happened this month?
We had our final FOJ’s, cores, our end of year party, and many baptisms! It was such an amazing month to be honest, but very hard to capture it all in words. It makes me very excited to see how God continues to change hearts in Denton. I think our whole pastoral team is very excited about what the future of ministry will look like.
I am only going to be writing extensively about the baptisms, and I think the best way to capture it is in pictures, so there will be many, many photos from this month! Often a picture can communicate so much more than words.
Baptisms
I think for most of us this was the highlight of the month. The end of the year is when a lot of people have finished FOJ and walked with people enough to make decisions to follow Jesus and get baptized. I led a handful of guys through FOJ, and the 9th lesson is about baptism. As I went through that lesson a number of times, I became more convicted that baptism is really crucial. As the images God gives us of Israel crossing the Sea during Exodus, being buried with Jesus and raised to life with him, washing away sins, and receiving the Holy Spirit sank deeper into my own heart, I was hit with how amazing baptism is. It communicates such rich mystery, imagery, and it like a marriage ceremony as people commit to God.
So, I felt passionate to try to have some baptisms in front of our whole community to make it more of a celebration!
Often we have our baptisms at people’s houses, which is great, but I was hoping it could help give our community a greater sense of what God is doing and give people more excitement to evangelize even more.
As I started trying to pull it together, I heard of several students who wanted to get baptized, which was so encouraging. So, what came together was a service we called Washed, a simple name getting at the image of washing away sins. This service took place as our last large group meeting, and we held it at the park. I included the flyer below. Two of the girls could not make that day work, so then on the Sundays bookending Washed we had their baptisms. What an amazing week filled with testimonies. Each testimonies just got me fired up with how much God really is changing hearts with his love. It’s truly amazing. There is nothing else to say. It reminds of various prophets when they receive visions of heavenly things. It is hard to put into words.
Enjoy all the wonderful photos and get fired up like I am!
The flyer for Washed
Jazmin (in the white dress in the center)
Brady (he is taking my spot at the house)
Ben (one of my roommates!)
Amanda
Emmanuel :) what an honor this was for me! He gets the award for best dress baptism I have ever seen
Tionnie
Diego
Amyiah
Emmanuel and I. He is my little buddy. He is an amazing listener, and we both got to bond as we opened up our lives. He has a very pure heart for God and to love others. He is always looking for how to help and treat others well, and he is an inspiration to me! He is also one of the most hard-working freshman that I know.
Emmanuel sharing why he wanted to get follow Jesus and get baptized during the service
Our core came out to support Emmanuel at his baptism
The pavilion was packed full! It was awesome to see so many people come to support these people getting baptized and it made it such a party
Core
Our final core. We spent 3 hours encouraging and praying for one another (which is way over time oops). We went around to each guy and gave an open floor for people to encourage them. The guys called out the gold they saw in each other, whether it was humility, passion for God, or just the life they bring to the group. As many ups and downs this year has had, it felt like a cathartic end to the year to see that.
A silly core photo jumping :)
FOJ’s
I got to finish a number of these studies over the last few weeks, and I just started a new one which will go through the summer! People are excited to study the Bible! We always take photos we finish to show at our large group meetings. It really creates more excitement in our community for going through the Bible.
Joseph and Alan
Emmanuel
Sam
Other Photos
5 of the 6 roommates at Azael’s (middle) birthday. I will miss these guys so much!
Us praying over Azael at his birthday party
Our student leader and staff team for this year
We had our open house night (a time to invite family and friends) at the very nice and large auditorium on campus. We had a very good turnout!
Another open house photo
Our end of year party! We spent a lot of time and energy planning this party for our students, and it was a blast. An exclamation point to end the year. Our theme was Y2K, which is a party theme to dress like the 2000’s. Such a different time for these young students :)
I really hope those photos are encouraging and inspiring like they are for me as I write this. Looking at these again gives me a moment of worship to God!
What has God been doing in the lives of guys this month?
I wrote some about Emmanuel up above, but he obviously made the decision to get baptized. It was so awesome. He and I studied many different Scriptures about baptism to help saturate his mind with imagery for baptism, and he was eager to get baptized. His interest in God had grown throughout high school after a period of ignoring him, and this year he found Christian community when he was not expecting it. He and I finished FOJ and he wants to introduce his sister, who doesn’t have a relationship with God, to the study! He is being sent into the world!
Nicholas is a guy who I met recently over dinner, and he is hungry for God. He is at the end of his freshman year now and got involved with us just in the last month, but better late than never! He has good soil in his heart, which is a Spirit-wrought thing, and he really wants to learn how to have a relationship with God. I love when guys are at this starting point in their walk with God. It’s the fun and exciting beginning! I am starting FOJ with him and will do it over the summer with him, and I cannot wait to see all that God does through it. It’s going to be awesome.
Sam has had an awesome year. He came into college wanting a fresh start, and he was hesitant to come to Focus the first few months because of negative experiences in high school, but he has absolutely turned around. He and I finished FOJ, and he is a widely different person than before. A timid guy now has much deeper roots in Jesus and a passion to help freshman next year have the same experience he had finding God and his people. He has become beloved by our community and brings laughter everywhere he goes!
It is cool to be able to step back and see all that God has done over the whole year with these guys.
Here is another testimony from the ministry at large!
Next Year
Alex, Nahom, Lailah (not pictured), Jessica (not pictured), and I got to visit some of the Dallas campuses for next year to see where God might be leading us to plant at. It was an eye-opening experience and a helpful step in the journey.
I will continuing to reach out to you guys individually about what you are thinking in terms of support after May ends, so please begin to pray and see what God might want you to do. I would love for you to continue to be a part of what God is doing on college campuses through our ministry, just in a new setting :)
Prayer Requests
Please pray for the guys mentioned above in the stories section.
Please pray for:
Emmanuel, for his faith and love for God to grow all the more, and for a special filling of the Holy Spirit.
My study with Nicholas as I start it-that he would stay hunger and eager to learn about God.
Our students to have good summers where they can grow their faith in God and be around his people. Breaks can be very hard for them as they lose their support networks, structures, and possbly are tempted with previous bad habits or environments.
God to continue the momentum with our students next year because we have an influx of sharp new leaders.30 Year Focus Anniversary (continued from last month)
30 Year Anniversary Celebration
We can’t wait to celebrate with everyone in October for Focus’ 30 year Celebration. Our big celebration will take place at CityBridge Community Church in Plano. All of you are invited! And please help us spread the word by inviting any of your friends who are alumni of Focus or with anyone who might like to join.
Also, if you’re an alum, please take a moment to complete our contact update form to ensure you don’t miss any updates.
Thank You
Thank you always for your love to me, and your support of God’s ministry up here through us. I hope this blog has been worship-inspiring for you.
Signal Group
If you would like to get more realtime updates like videos, photos from our events as well as more frequent prayer requests, then please feel free to join my Signal group. Here are some instructions on how to do this!
Download the Signal app on your computer (Windows link: https://signal.org/download/windows/ and Mac link:https://signal.org/download/) or phone(find on App Store), and then join my group using this link: https://signal.group/#CjQKIIujklEZvNmG_EOmTctAzpNzojYf52Hv05-Cgv2Gd7VmEhCyxnKnaP0J84IBhccEcGXO
With love,
Casey