So this post is way overdue, but it has been a busy six weeks. I did want to fill everyone in on my weekend in Vegas. It was back in January, over the Martin Luther King Day Holiday. It was such an amazing honor to attend Student CPx Concnetrate(Church Planters eXperience) along with my friend Evan DeChant.

Student CPx is a collaborative effort from Campus Church Networks and several groups of friends from across the nation. It’s mission is to train, equip and release impartation to students to make disciples and launch simple churches centered on their campuses. Last summer, my friend Lee went to Lawrence KS for the 2 week training and came back telling me about how he felt so at home and connected with Erik and Jaeson and the rest of the CCN crew. Lee then invited me to go with him in Janaury to Vegas for a weekend follow-up. As excited as I was at the thought of going to Las Vegas with Lee and hanging out with a bunch of sweet Jesus loving people, I really didn’t think that would work out.

Then, in early November, I received a call from Erik Fish one night while I was making dinner. (It was a Chinese stir-fry in case you are wondering) Erik filled me in on the vision of connecting with others from across the nation that shared the same heart and calling for seeing the Kingdom go forward on campuses. He shared about how he sensed God raising up spiritual moms and dads to love, nurture, equip and protect student leaders as they were raised up and released into their destinies. I was now weeping in the kitchen, and no it was not the onions. I felt so connected to what Erik was sharing. Then he made a statement and extended an invitation. The statement went something like this: “Hey Bro, I have just been sensing that this is the stuff that is in your heart, and maybe God is raising you up in your region the same way that he is doing it with others.” Those weren’t his exact words, but that was the point, and it wrecked me. It felt like destiny calling…

The invitation was to come and spend the Martin Luther King holiday weekend in Las Vegas for SCPx. I told him I wanted to come and would ask God to make a way. Erik continued to call and lovingly pursue me about Vegas. I was encouraged and humbled by the phone prayers and text messages that let me know he was believing for God to provide for me to be in Vegas. Miraculously, God did make a way for me to get there, and from the moment Aaron Snow (who led the missional church that was hosting us in Vegas) picked us up at the airport, I felt a sense of belonging and connectedness to this special group of people.

The weekend was amazing, with more sweet stories than I could tell in this post. There were two things though, that were especially significant to me. One was the heart among the leaders to share life together and build spiritual family. Not a spiritual family with one of us at the center, but a family connected to the Father’s heart by our love for Jesus and the unity of the Spirit. Yes, there were spiritual fathers and mothers there, but we met as brother and sisters, and as friends. I was so encouraged, and in fact disarmed by the way that the CCN leaders expressed no desire to control or recruit people into an organization. There was an awareness that the Holy Spirit was not calling us to build a mega ministry, but rather that we would be a family of friends and a network of networks. For certain, there is much for us to learn and share together, but with freedom and support from each other as we each run our leg of the race. In a way, I feel like I have found “running mates”. Those who I can intentionally, but naturally share life together with as we pursue the Lord together.

The second thing that stood out was that this was a God thing. The word “movement” gets thrown around a lot these days, but often only in a hyped up way. (I remember Lee and I talking in November about how if a movement doesn’t move, it is a stationary.) This is definitely not the case with this crew. There is a sense of God’s breath and multiplication on this group of simple church planters, that it is both humbling and exhilarating. From watching students lead training sessions, to witnessing new birth and students baptizing and commissioning students and hearing testimonies of students who were planting churches in dorms, architecture studios and nearby neighborhoods, this is a movement that is moving… FORWARD.

From a personal point of view, I sense that God is directing us to spend more of our time, investing into student leaders in the Pittsburgh/ Youngstown region. Already, we are seeing students stirred up to see the Kingdom of God come on their campuses to the worship and praise of Jesus. We are believing that God is raising up a network of student led, simple churches that will bring the light of Jesus into our region in a way that pierces the darkness and reflects the face of God.

Yes, it feels like destiny is calling… I say “Yes, Lord… I’m in.”

Part of the family...

A couple of weeks ago I entered a post called “Countdown to the Call”. In it I made some statements about how important this gather in Nashville on 7.7.07 is going to be. YEAH! TURN THE VOLUME UP ON THAT! Please check this thing out at the call’s web site or at fastandpray.com. I can tend to be dramatic at times, but I hate hype. Still, this may be the most important day/ season of a generation.

I really believe this could be a day of “biblical proportions”. I have been reading Psalm 50 this week. In verse 5 God says “gather all my saints to me who have made a covenant of sacrifice”. He is calling heaven and earth to recognize who he is and worship Him. God is jealous over His creation, and is longing for His people to really belong to Him.

God is ordering things right now. He is bringing up issues in my life and inviting me, pleading with me to deal with these issues. He wants us to walk away from other gods that we have given a place to, and enter into a monogamous marriage with Him. Twice the word “order is used at the end of Psalm 50. First, God says that He is going to set things in order, but in the last verse, He says that He will show “the salvation of God” to those who “order their conduct aright”.

This is not a time to “do what we feel”. Now is a time to recognize the truth of God and to respond to Him with a whole heart. Don’t think you’re e ready for that yet? Just move towards the Father’s Call as much as you can. Let His strength meet you and draw you further into His presence and purpose than you ever thought imaginable. Your destiny depends on it.

So, I don’t know what you are doing next weekend, but change your plans and go to Nashville. God is gathering a nation to Himself. I really believe that future generations will look back at this day as a watershed moment in history. Don’t sit on the sidelines. Be there. Be a history maker.

(The following is part of an email that I am hoping to have ready to send to some of our friends that are connected to college campuses. It is not done, so you won’t get the full picture, but I wanted to go ahead and post this part now. It tells a little of why we are interested in building relationships with students and a sliver of where we are going. As you read this, know that we don’t pretend to know exactly how things are going to unfold in the fall. We are also not planning to start a new organization to do campus ministry. We are looking to invest into the lives of student leaders. I hope to have the email completed by the weekend and when I finish it, I will re-post it here. Thanks.)

I just wanted to throw out a bit about something that has been out on the horizon. When we move to Western PA, it was to be and do church for people that didn’t do church. When I was asking God “Why Western PA?” I really sensed that He was inviting me to check out how many colleges were in the area.

I knew there were a lot, but I was blown away at the number of campuses within a hour and a half of our home. There are over 250,000 students and scores of campuses. I really believe that students are the prime resource of our region.

When we moved in 2002, I tried to make campus ministry work. I failed. But little by little we began building relationships with students, and while we never launched an official college ministry, we began to notice that many of our most life-giving relationships were with students.

Over the past several years, I began to get a bit more intentional about these relationships. We now have good relationships with student leaders on about 10 campuses in the Pittsburgh/ Youngstown region. While we still don’t now exactly how things are going to unfold, we sense that we are entering into a season that will see this be a prime focus for our life.

I am writing this to introduce some of what we know so far, and to find out if there is any interest out there in building some deeper, more focused relationships. So… If you know any students who are in love with Jesus, please refer them to this post. (Especially those who live or go to school in Eastern Ohio or Western PA)

A little of what we are thinking…

A new approach to campus ministry. – We are not so much interested in starting a new “campus ministry”, but we are very interested in seeing students and campuses transformed by the love, presence and power of God.

I see campuses as apostolic training centers. Don’t get freaked out by the word “apostolic”. When I use that word, I am speaking about a people that live with a real understanding that we are called to be a “sent people”. Jesus told His disciples, “Just like the “Father has sent me, I am sending you.” I believe that there are certain people that specifically operate in the function of an apostle, but I also believe that we as followers of Jesus are called to live an apostolic lifestyle.