Why We Do Ministry

    

    It has felt like an incredibly short semester. We only have a couple weeks left with our students before the year is out, and we're trying to make the most of it.

Behind the scenes of Showcase

Community Building

    In some ways it has been event season for us. With more and more of our students getting the vaccine, and with students doing better with following social distancing guidelines in general we've felt better about hosting more outdoor events. This has been very needed in our community. One of FOCUS' strengths has always been our tight knit community, and this year has certainly put that to the test. But it is so exciting to see our students showing up to these events hungry to meet and connect to others. Hopefully this is just a foretaste of what next year will look like for us! Some of our best things we've done recently have been the Social Justice Q&R we put on, the Easter Celebration event which was so much fun, and Showcase which raised around $25000 to help train up our leaders for next year!

Some of our students hanging out at a park a couple weeks ago

Why we do ministry

    A question I've been posing to some of my guys recently is why do we do ministry? Why spend a good chunk of our free time hours on meeting up with people, going to events, praying, reading scripture, etc. Why do that all if it's not essential for salvation? It is a question we all have to ask ourselves at one point. Do we go to church and call it good, or do we live a life that completely revolves around Jesus and discipleship? For me so much of this comes down to a get to vs a have to mentality. Very similar to what Israel often fell into. They made everything into a have to. Looking for what they had to do to make sure God wasn't angry with them, and then settling for that. They looked at their walks with God with a have to mentality. You have to follow all these laws, have to do these appointed festivals and practices. But they completely missed the point of all those things. They missed that God was calling them and us to something higher. They missed how much they had been given, and what heart response that should produce. They missed the grand adventure that the Lord was calling them into. The missed the get to mentality.

Our social justice Q&R panel. For some reason we did not get photos of the 70+ students who showed up

    We get to do ministry. We get to meet with people every day and talk to them about Jesus. We get to talk to our Lord and learn more about Him. A have to mentality isn't all bad because there are things we have to do for sure. But oftentimes its a starting line, not the finish line. That is one of the things I want to leave my guys with. I want them to be able to go into the next season of their life with the attitude of 'I get to follow Jesus' because if its not about you and Jesus at the end of the day, but about you and some set of rules you'll only be at the starting line. 

Prayer Requests:

Pray that we finish this semester strong and help our students have a great summer focused on Jesus

Pray that stuff continues to open up and allow us to start meeting on campus again

Pray for us as we select next years student leader team