Preach Christ Crucified

Hi everyone! Welcome to my ministry update for the month of December! This month has been a really great end to the semester and God has been faithful in some really cool ways. This month, all of the Focus Apprentices gave sermons with the topic "This is My Gospel." This was a challenging assignment for me, as it is really difficult to condense all that Jesus means to me into 20 minutes. I rewrote my sermon about 5 times, but I finally wanted to settle down and focus on what it means that Jesus died for us, and that the cross changes the way we live our lives.

Because of the cross, we know that God isn't distant. We know that he is willing to go through suffering, to live among his people. They say the best leaders are those who don't call you do anything they won't do, and Jesus shows us that he is a God worth following because he has already paid the highest price for us. If you want to read my full sermon, here's a link:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-dpMLIVTSsjw9gAsyROE7gnAP0471AN0I0gzm-_VoVQ/edit?usp=sharing

Me preaching at the NE Church

The apprentices were asked to plan an outreach/service event this month. We chose to do an event where we invited students from our campuses to write and draw Christmas Cards for students in a Children's hospital. It was super successful, and lots of students participated. We also met 3 students who wanted to get involved with out ministry. God was really faithful through the whole thing.

Two pictures of the Christmas Card event at the Central Park Campus

We also wrapped up our small group, called Core for the year. We celebrated by sharing our favorite memories from this year and reflecting on where we want to grow next year. It was so encouraging to listen to all our guys share how they were seeing God work in and through them. We finished with some s'mores and it was just a really satisfying way to end the semester. A guy we met at the Christmas card event earlier that day came to Core that night and told me it was one of the top 10 experiences of his life and that he was so happy to find a community of guys that really loved him. He's become super involved in the last 2 weeks and is really enjoying the community.

A really bad picture of our core around the campfire

Keep Focus Growing, our annual fundraiser, was super successful! Thank you so much to anyone who gave to that. Thank you also to all of you who partner with me in ministry financially and through prayer. You all are such an encouragement to me!

Prayer Requests

• Pray that the students would continue to follow God and honor him over the break. Pray that they would show Christ to their families and friends as some of them travel or spend more time at home.
• Pray for the students at the Central Park Campus in McKinney. Pray that more students like Neil would join our ministry. Pray that non-Christians would begin to be attracted by Christ and the love we have for one another.
• Pray that I would spend my break well, using it to focus on God and come back recharged to love and serve students well.