I think the main principle going through my head during this first month of August is looking for where God is working and looking to see what He wants me to do to join Him. As you all know, August is the kickoff to the school year where a ton of new students like freshman and transfer students come in as well as older students returning. A lot of people come to college looking for something new: maybe a new start from high school, a desire for things to be different this year of college compared to last, or simply a place to belong. I have been enjoying asking students I meet this question, "what are you looking to get out of your time in college?" because it helps them think about what they want and helps me discern whether Jesus might be something they are searching for. One student told me, "I am looking for a place to belong," which was a great way to talk about the family of God.
This is a unique time for freshman, since this is a few weeks span where they are unusually open to things. Therefore, we kicked off the year by having two whole weeks of events everyday! Because of this, we simply meet a lot of people and it becomes key to discern who is actually hungry for God and who has God been preparing for deeper relationship with Him. It takes a lot of observation and thought to discern!
The heart of our ministry
Our ministry, FOCUS, has two integral things that we are all about: our small groups (which we call cores) and 1-on-1 discipleship. We believe with a conviction that ministry is personal, and that people are the most important thing. After all, people are the only thing made in the image of God, not church, Scripture, nor events. And we think that close relationships with other people are the best way to discover Jesus and learn more about how He is, and then love other people. So, we really push people to get involved in our same-gender small groups and 1-on-1 discipleship relationships.
What did we do?
As I said above, we start the year off strong with a lot of outreach events. These are events which aim to provide students with fun and engaging opportunities to connect with each other, our student leaders, us on staff, and learn what our ministry is all about. These events are the main way that we meet and invite people to come to our cores and start 1-on-1 discipleship relationships. Our whole ministry is about people, and so the events are just facilitated ways to form relationships. As I went through those two weeks, I kept thinking of Jesus’ approach in John 1, where he invites the first disciples to come and see who He is. I approached it as the weeks of invitation; we invite people to something deeper if they want it. We cast our nets wide, as we never know who is interested in deeper relationship with us and Jesus.
We hosted many events from free coffee and tea every morning on campus to a multi-cultural worship night to a line dancing party. A lot of students showed up! The students at UNT are much different than UTD where I went, and the students love to dance and have high energy. I love it. Below are some photos of our events as well as other fun things.
This was the line at one of the days for our free iced coffee event! It was very hot.
This was one event where we had some live music from our musically talented staff.
We had a hangout on the Denton square one night!
This was the turnout from our first Thursday Night Fellowship (TNF) of the year! We had about 300 students show up.
Group prayer over 2 people after they got baptized last weekend!
Me and some guys in the ministry after our 2nd TNF of the year. I don’t know how they got the background to look so dark but I think it is so cool.
It was a tiring few weeks because of how much you have to expend energy and how many new conversations you have. The challenge here is always slowing down for the 1 and making sure to genuinely listen and care for the person in front of you rather than get rushed n the busyness of how people show up to these events.
I lead a core with my friend Uche, who is an amazing man with his heart devoted to God. He has been experiencing a lot of new intimacy and closeness with God recently, and so I view my role with him to be a supporter and encourager of all God is doing in his life as he also seeks to disciple other men with me. I always tell him, “if you think God is wanting us to do X, Y, or Z, then let me know so I can come behind and support it!” Our core has met twice so far, and we have such a diverse group of guys. We have believers and non-believers, various ethnicities, ages, and perspectives. It is a unique problem to navigate, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. No other person but Jesus could bring such different people together with the same goal. Each week I frame our core with the phrase, “we are here to love God and love others.” And so everything we do in core is aimed at this purpose. It is a simple yet powerful way that we can paint the vision for what we want our lives to be about.
This is me and Uche taking a silly picture in the library :)
Who did I meet?
I wanted to share about several guys who I have met who I am seeing God move in; people you are directly supporting with your prayers and finances. I have their names changes for the sake of privacy.
One guy, Tyler*, is a guy who Uche and I met before the first week of school. Uche is so great at connecting with others, and he has a way of making jokes and just being himself, which really opens people up. I was talking to Tyler and he seemed closed off, and then Uche made some goofy jokes and hand gestures, and Tyler’s face literally lit up. I was just standing in awe. Tyler told us that day that he was an atheist, but he has been at EVERY SINGLE EVENT, including core. This is a scenario where God is clearly working, and Uche is going to start meeting weekly with him to help him learn more about Jesus. Tyler is a very influential guy: he makes connections easily, is bold, and is a natural born leader. So we are being very intentional to invest in him. My prayer that I sensed God speaking to me for him was the word, “precipice.” I can see Tyler’s life going in two ways, and feel like this could be a precipice. I can see him becoming an influential leader for Jesus, or getting lost in the wrong influences. I ask you to join in praying for him too!
This is Tyler in the middle! 3 of us went out to eat one night after core.
The same 3 of us went to the UNT football game the next night! It was my first college football game and UNT won by a blowout.
Another guy is Jeremiah*, who identifies somewhat as a Buddhist who was raised with Christian ethics. I met him because he was sitting at a bench watching one of our events. He has a story full of pain and hardship, and God has honestly brought him to a pretty humble place. He knows his life has not gone that well, and is extremely open to anything spiritual. I have been able to meet with him weekly, and last week we read Psalm 139. We talked about God’s intimacy knowledge and care for him, and I gave him the homework of praying to God about what he reads in that Psalm. He has been excited and touched by every event or core he has gone to. He has also met several different campus ministries here at UNT, and has gone to many events put on by them. So God is certainly surrounding him with truth and opportunities to get to know him. He is a very intellectual guy, and so my prayer is that the knowledge he is learning becomes personal and pointed at God, not at himself.
The last guy I will mention is Jackson*, who is a brand new believer! He got baptized 3 weeks ago. He is excited about Jesus and excited to sacrifice things for Him. I got to meet him at our first large group meeting (Thursday Night Fellowship, which we call TNF) and met with him last week to hear more of his story. He has been through a rocky journey in college so far and God brought him to a place where he knew he was living for the approval and acceptance of others. I got to tell him how he has a new identity as a son of God, and that is the primary identity which all else flows from. Now his other identities as a student, roommate, son, photographer, etc. are all conduits by which he can be blessing to others since he is secure in his adoption by the Father. We are going to meet this coming week to go through various Scriptures about sonship!
Prayer Requests
Honestly, my prayer requests revolve mainly around the guys I have met and begun discipling, or about other things I have noticed in myself and people around me.
I ask for your prayer on the 3 guys above, as well as the dozen or more who are in my core. Please pray that the Spirit would cause them all to want more of Jesus, fall more in love with Him, and then desire to be a blessing to others.
Another prayer that has been deep on my heart is that people would prioritize God. I was reading and praying over the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-5) with a student the other day, and I realized that the Shema is really about prioritizing God. Which I feel like in this day, is a lot about how you use your time. It is about putting all other activities below God and people. You have to choose to forgo fun activities and an ideal schedule to be with God and be responsive to other people’s needs. It takes life re-arrangement. I have met several guys who are not at a place where they want to do this. Pray that this would happen on campus!
I have also been praying against the spirit of consumerism which our society is awash in. We can be so programmed culturally to think about what can I get from every situation, and we bring this attitude to God. We think of him as a cosmic therapist or a divine genie, and just want him to do things for us. It can become an entire belief system! I was convicted by this the other day, and was lamenting how present this attitude can be. Pray that this would be extinguished from our campus!
I wanted to include another dark aesthetic picture of my roommates and I :) they are all guys who are committed to Jesus and want our house to be a light to all who come in.
Thank you!
I always want to take the time again for your support of God’s ministry here at UNT. I purposefully call it God’s ministry because He is always at work drawing people to Him, and I am just seeing where I can join Him. But thank you for your care, prayers, and finances. I know each one of you cares about people finding God and about me. So I am very grateful!
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