Matt Clark's June Update

Today was the last day of our current internship program. Over the last week all fourteen of our wonderful interns preached their final sermons about what they learned this year. It was such a treat and I can confidently say that each staff member was ministered to during this time. God blessed us with some amazing young ministers this year! We concluded this 10-month journey with a celebratory home-cooked dinner where we enjoyed fellowship and shared our favorite memories throughout the year. It's always a bittersweet time because we are sad to see our interns move on, but we are proud of their growth and excited to see where God takes them next.

We are fortunate to have four of our interns, Aaron, April, Austin and Peter, continuing to work with our larger staff team this coming year. Aaron will be the only one who will be on the Denton staff team.

I'm also excited to welcome Brittany Tydlacka, our new apprentice (we changed the name of the program!) in Denton, for this coming school year. I've known Brittany and her husband, Kevin, since I was a student at UTD. They had moved to Austin, TX, for a while then to Nashville, TN, to pursue a music career. They just moved back to Denton this past week.

Sometime this summer I'll try to get a picture with all of next year's Denton staff team so you can get a good visual.

SICM (Student Institute of Campus Ministry)

Instead of telling you about how great our SICM trip was, I have asked a few students to share about their experience. I didn't really give them much of a prompt other than to share one or two meaningful things they learned or took away from it:

Jon

Upon being invited to SICM, I was somewhat skeptical. I wasn't sure whether I was supposed to go on this leadership conference. I'd heard so much about SICM, however, I still had reservations. It wasn't until I actually arrived at SICM that I knew that Bellingham, Washington, was exactly where I needed to be. I saw God move in such amazing, powerful ways, from the insightful night of worship, to the destined impact of campus evangelism. During SICM, I was encouraged, convicted, challenged, and spurred on by my amazing peers. As a result of SICM, I think differently about what disciple-making discipleship looks like, how crucial evangelism is in our daily lives as believers, and how to invest in spiritual relationships and friendships. Furthermore, I will not only be able to apply what I've learned from SICM in my immediate ministry of FOCUS at UNT, but also with every ministry that I become involved with for the rest of my life. I thank God daily for giving me the opportunity as well as the privilege to experience SICM first-hand.

Tate

SICM was great in so many unexpected ways for me. I experienced God’s grace in such a real way that I pray I will never forget or take for granted. Even before I left for SICM, I was overwhelmed by God’s goodness in His provision for me to go on this trip. God showed me his faithfulness and laid the ground for the rest of the trip before it had even begun. I knew it was going to be good and that He was already working. I could go on and on about what I learned at SICM, but one thing that impacted me the most was seeing God working in and through other students and friends who were there with me. Seeing people’s hearts being captivated and molded by Him was so encouraging. I watched God break down barriers in both myself and others; barriers of fear to step out in faith and boldness in Christ, sharing His love with others. Another thing that became very tangible for me was the idea that God wants to use anyone and everyone to bring His Kingdom to earth and its people; it doesn’t matter what part you play in someone’s spiritual journey, whether you prepare the soil, plant the seed, water the seed, help it to grow, or see the fruit. I've always known that God wants to use me, but I never really knew how. SICM showed me that I can and should do Kingdom work in anything and everything I do. I no longer have just a conviction, but a desire and excitement to share God’s love with everyone.

Hayli

My SICM experience was so impacting and full, I hardly know how to narrow down what I felt like the Lord was teaching me, reminding me, showing me, etc. However, I think the largest, repeated message God laid on my heart was that He is a faithful God that finishes what He starts. I saw the reality of God's faithfulness through 2 large events I'll share, the first being campus evangelism. I had never participated in evangelism and approached it with a timid heart full of preconceived notions. What I learned both that day and throughout the week through classes is that the point of evangelism is really, truly, simply to do God's work by challenging people's world views in hopes that they come to know Christ. I and another student from UTD (shoutout to Daniel), talked to a girl for almost 2 hours, and heard bits and pieces of the ways in which God is pursuing her heart and "planting seeds". She even skipped class just to talk to us! Daniel was able to share the whole gospel with her, and her face lit up like nothing I've ever seen. She was so locked into the goodness of God and His heart to restore His creation to Him fully. While she didn't accept Christ, I was reminded in that moment that the true story of the gospel is all about the fact that God is faithful in tilling the soil of hearts in ways we may never know of or see; He is a God that works behind the scenes to accomplish His will. And because of that, we are able to boldly come before Him and ask for things that may seem (to us) outlandish or 'too big.' I am continuing to pray for her, especially now knowing that our conversation could have opened up a whole new door for her. 

Another area in which I saw God's faithfulness the week of SICM was when I met Becca Johnson, a woman whom my host family knows. Becca is a trauma therapist for victims of human trafficking- which is precisely what I have felt called to do and am studying to do. I have never met another person in the vocation I feel so deeply called to pursue, and was reminded graciously by Abba that He will not call us to something He will not help us complete. He is a God of provision and will provide in ways we can not foresee, in order to guide us where He calls us, because He finishes what He starts.

Josh

Thank you, lovers of our Father, for prayers or payment of any form towards making my walk with Christ--among many others--a closer one. Before the travel to SICM had even started, I had walked a few miles in much larger shoes than my own. I was first committed to raising funds on my own for a time which took action that included working for people I normally wouldn't, helping in ways I never had before, and getting to genuinely know the more visceral parts of people that have been in my story for years. 

Upon arrival, God placed a man in my life who's presence I first questioned and quickly understood to be friendship. To me, he looked like a tax collector. He wasn't raised in a home of Christians and didn't give empty Christian answers to questions. His hunger for Christ, preparedness to listen, and understanding of his past was a perfect image of who Jesus calls and works through. I judged him critically within myself when we first met but now love this man for all his heart can take. This was for me a saving grace, albeit a bit disguised at first, he showed me the multiple planks within my eyes without ever seeing them. The funny part is that he gives thanks for my answers when I know he could have found them almost anywhere but I found answers in him that I may have never learned elsewhere. 

It took a conversation with him outside a playground during lunch in Washington to understand God's call for us both. We were wrapping up a long conversation over discernment and the deep pain everyone feels knowing they're wrong but not knowing the answer is in God. I attempted to end the conversation saying, "We need people who are so enveloped in God that the world finds all its answers in the way those people live." Before I could get out my last word a little boy ran up to me and tags me exclaiming, "You're it!" 

He didn't run off like the game goes, however. The little guy just looked at me and my new brother for a while with deep blue ocean eyes. I finally understood in this moment that God has been building me, answering my prayers, and speaking directly into my life using the least suspected all along. I should've guessed. Jesus, after all, was born in a lowly manger and not on a Tempurpedic California king sized bed. As much as I read and listen, I don't seem to fully grasp an idea until I've lived it and SICM brought me to life in more areas than just this one.

God bless your heart and contribution to God's kingdom, good and faithful stewards of life and love.

Summer

This summer is going to be interesting. It's always a pretty deceptively busy time but with building our leader team (lots of conversations to have), continuing to mentor students we may not normally get much time around during the semesters, debriefing last year & strategically planning for the following year, fundraising, etc. it tends to fill my schedule pretty easily. Additionally, Danielle and I are planning our wedding (big day is July 23rd) and moving her into our new apartment in a few weeks where I’ll be joining her in July. We are excited for this new chapter of our lives!

Please be praying for:

• The Lord to guide us in our student leader selection. We don't want to simply pick the students we like to work with or set anyone up for failure. It's a difficult process and requires telling many people that now isn't the time. Please ask the Lord to fill us with His Spirit as we have conversations and make decisions.
• Planning for this coming year. There are so many things we have to think through to determine if we want to do things differently, the same, or try something new altogether. My Denton staff has already accumulated a long list of strategic planning topics to work through in our weekly summer staff meetings. We can't possibly do that on our own though. We need our Father's help!
• Our staff fundraising so that we can continue doing ministry to the current capacity! We strongly believe that one-on-one is how it's done and we couldn't possibly be able to spend the quality time we do with students if we didn't have financial supporters. These gifts are a blessing from God!

Thank you so much for all that YOU do to support me in ministry. I am incredibly blessed!

Yours for the Campus,

Matt

Matt Clark's May Update

The beginning and end of each school year seem to be the busiest seasons in college ministry. What's interesting about the end of the year is how abrupt everything is just...over. There is so much build up with several events (from our family of churches and FOCUS together) and then in early May everything is done. We had our last official meeting on May 1st, which was our formal event to celebrate everything God has done for, through, and in our community this year. We had a blast :)

At our Spring Formal - Some of the guys I mentored this year!
(From left: Jason, Sergio, Bradley, me, Pedro)

We also had a few hangouts during the week to make sure we got as much time as possible together. One of those was just with our leader team. We spent some time writing encouraging notes to one another. Personally, I really enjoyed the group we had this year - they are so great! I'm so excited for those of them who are graduating and moving into the working world, but I'm also glad we get to keep those who are staying around another year or two. God has blessed us with some really neat kids!

2015-2016 Student Leader Team (Corefas)

While everything is over, it's not over for long! Our SICM (Student Institute of Campus Ministry) trip is fast approaching! The group starts flying out to Seattle this Thursday and we get back to Dallas on the 21st. To remind you of what this is about: we take our potential student leaders for the following school year to this week-long conference as an opportunity for them to learn about discipling their peers. Please be praying for our group to be safe and open to the Lord's guidance. Our hope is for every student to come back equipped to minister other students on their campuses, and then take that experience with them after graduation into all parts of the world!

Another thing to be praying for is our new group of apprentices! You can see who they are and their campus assignments in the image below. And a fun fact: 5 of the 7 apprentices are UNT graduates! That is so encouraging to my staff and me!

Thanks for reading and staying updated on what we're doing on the Denton campuses! I apologize if you have been waiting for my update (apparently 44 of you checked on Friday!). This weekend we hosted a wedding at my house for a close friend so I have been a little delayed from a few normal tasks! At the same time I appreciate everything you do to aid me in doing God's work with college students in Denton. Without you, this would not be possible. Please keep me and my team in your prayers and don't hesitate to ask me for prayer as well!

One last thing: If there's anything you would like me to include in my updates that I don't already, please let me know! Or even if you just want to hear more about something and less about something else. Any feedback will be appreciated! You can either reply to my email or add a comment at the bottom of the post (you can even post anonymous comments). Thank you!

Yours for the Campus,

Matt

Matt Clark's April Update

This past week 12 Christian brothers and sisters from Washington came to visit. Getting to spend the week with these students from Western Washington University was an amazing blessing. There's no way I could explain this fully, but they were some really neat people and they seemed to make every effort to honor us as their hosts. We loved having them!

After our Friday Night Fellowship, at the end of our week of outreach, some of them still had energy!

Apparently, a silly picture is mandatory :)

Getting a sweet treat from Beth Marie's after a good day of outreach!

If you haven't seen any of my previous posts, these students came to Texas during their Spring Break in order to help us reach out to the students on the UNT, TWU, and NCTC campuses. We spent a total of 20 hours having varying conversations about God, faith, life, etc. with students who were willing to talk to us. The display boards you can see in pictures below were a helpful way to initiate conversations by giving people a framework for what we were asking. The boards had questions like:

• Who is God?
• Who is Jesus?
• What is a Christian?
• What kind of a friend should a Christian be?
• What sort of impact should a Christian have on society?

Below each question was a list of possible responses that ranged from a conventional Christian perspective to a conventional non-Christian perspective. Our intention was to make anyone with any belief feel comfortable sharing their opinions with us so we could engage in real conversation about these important topics. Even if all we could do was show someone that having a conversation with a Christian can be a positive experience, that was a win. Changing someone's worldview in a single conversation is unrealistic, but having an impact on someone doesn't need to be so dramatic.

One of my favorite things about campus outreach (just going on campus and talking to people about their beliefs) is the variety of people you get to talk to. Just to give a few examples:

• I talked to a guy who was a single father raising two daughters in Plano (45 minutes away from UNT) who had nearly lost his faith in God, but only recently came to trust Him more deeply because of the impact one of his professors had on him. I hope to keep in touch with him to talk more about a paper he is writing in regard to how our culture responds to Christians vs other religions.
• Another guy I spoke with is a "non-theist" who grew up in a Christian home. He said that has read his Bible all the way through at least 20 times (which I believe based on the physical state of his Bible), but that he has started to realize that it is too hard to believe what it says (or at least that God is good). We talked for quite some time and even though we never really agreed on much, we shared a mutual respect for each other and I'm confident he walked away just as encouraged as I did.
• I also met a guy who worked at UNT in the IT department. He was actually walking past our displays with his daughter, who was talking to someone else. This man shared with me that he is Christian, a part of a church in Denton, has gone through a divorce and remarriage, has come out of a drug addiction, etc. It was neat to hear his life story and get to connect with him at a personal level.

I had many other meaningful conversations - too many to tell! This week was deeply encouraging to me to be able to speak to fellow human beings about who God is and what He is doing in the world. I'm also thankful for the students from Washington who spent their Spring Break ministering to our college campuses.

Lastly, in regard to evangelistic outreach, I wanted to share some general thoughts. It's sort of long, so I'll add this in at the end in case you don't have enough time to read it now.

Spring Showcase

The Showcase is this weekend! It begins at 7:30pm, but be sure to arrive early for the art sale starting at 6:30pm. Tickets are $20 ($15 for students). You can buy them here or at the door. The performances will be top-notch, including vocal, instrumental, dance, and theatrical pieces. You will not want to miss this event if you can help it!

And just as a reminder, this is a fundraiser for our students going to SICM in May. This is the week-long Christian leadership training conference we send our potential new leaders to each year. It's a highly valuable experience for these young disciples!

North Dallas Community Bible Fellowship
2801 E President George Bush Hwy
Plano, TX 75074

My Engagement

The last update I need to make is that I am now engaged! Danielle Rodriguez and I will be getting married at the end of this summer and she will be joining the Denton team as she is also a FOCUS minister. Danielle and I have been dating for a little over a year now, but we had also dated five years ago (for a just under a year) and remained fairly connected in the time between through the FOCUS/Northeast Church community. Needless to say it's been a long journey, but such a great blessing to both of us. We are very excited!


Thank you so much for all of your continued support! Thanks for reading! And I want to really encourage you to read the outreach thoughts below as well. I'd even appreciate comments on them if you have any. I have much more to say on the topic, but tried to keep it very brief.



Yours for the Campus,

Matt

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Thoughts on evangelistic outreach:

I think we often fall into two extremes with this: 1) we are afraid to broach the subject of faith because that person will think less of us or know more than us, or 2) we think we know it all and need to convert people.

Ultimately, God is the only one who can change a person's heart so we can get rid of the notion we have any chance at doing that. All we can do is offer an invitation and let them make their own decision. On the other hand, allowing our fear to prevent us from engaging those around us is a decision to reject Jesus' command at the end of Matthew. Now I don't mean this to be a shameful thing, but more of an encouragement! I've been there myself. Most of us American Christians are evangelistically shy and I don't think many of us really understand what effective evangelism looks like. Part of this is understanding the goal, plus having a reasonable expectation.

The goal, in my mind, is to connect people to God through relationship. He is the author of life, creator of everything! Jesus said that He is the vine and we are the branches. Anything connected to Him will have life and anything disconnected will die. This isn't a matter of good and bad (morality), but relational connectedness (life). It's not about us being good but God being good, a point often missed.

So what is a reasonable expectation in evangelism? Well in a single conversation, not much. We might be able to insert a new question into someone's thinking. We might be able to give them a positive experience with a Christian when all they've ever had previously is negative. However, if this is a person you work with or see on a regular basis, you can have a greater expectation. Perhaps you can develop a deeper relationship where mutual trust and respect is developed. Through a relationship they are more willing to listen to your opinion and accept your personal experience as personal evidence of a personal God.

That's how it works, you know? We exhibit faith in someone by making decisions based on the word of another person. We may go see a doctor by referral from a friend, but do you ever check that doctor's credentials to see if they are actually certified? In a similar way, we trust words in scripture to tell us who God is, but we also trust the words of other believers. The first step toward a trust relationship with God is trusting a good referral. Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." I don't know about you, but I'm naturally inclined to want the truth before I trust someone's word. Unfortunately, it cannot work that way. We will never actually know anything until we actually try it. We can't truly know what comes from following Jesus until we truly follow Him. Through real relationships with other people we can give them a good referral about who God is. We have the potential to attest to the goodness of our God in such a way that an outsider may become interested in seeking a relationship with Him. Again, we aren't in control. We are merely offering a good referral.

As I've thought more about evangelistic outreach I've come up with a simple guideline. This is in no way a template and it doesn't make it any easier. Nor does it always make sense in every situation! The conversations we have with other people will always be unique because every person is unique. We must develop our "dynamic conversation" skills - be ready to go anywhere. Perhaps this will make it simpler for you to wrap your mind around such a complex thing. And this guideline is for talking to anyone, even other Christians. When talking to someone, try to answer two questions:

1. Who is this person?
• What are they about?
• What is their conversational style?
• What struggles are they facing?
• What do they think matters in this world?
• What worldview do they claim to have?
• What qualities do they respect in other people?
2. How can I minister to them?
• How can you affirm them (without validating something you don't believe)?
• How can you connect with them through a similar/shared experience?
• How can you help them (even just a simple service like helping with Calculus homework or giving them a ride somewhere)?
• Can you give them something of value (maybe sharing an experience, encouragement, thought, feeling, etc.)?
• What question can you leave them with?
• What does this person need to hear? And how do they need to hear it?
• What is a truth you have earned the right to say to them? Perhaps suggesting something for them to consider.
• What can you learn from them?

I believe this is roughly the same approach Jesus took when he spoke with people. He had a divine advantage being Yahweh in the flesh though. We can't immediately know people unless the Holy Spirit reveals something to us, but as men and women created in God's image we do have the ability to know others deeply through relationship. When Jesus interacted with people, he always said the right thing - the thing they needed to hear - whether they liked it or not. Jesus was able to say what was needed because he knew the person. If we want to be effective disciples, we must also know the people around us so we can minister to them.

Knowing people through relationship is far more important than becoming a theologian. That doesn't negate the importance of knowing the scriptures well, but even theologians misinterpret God's word. One major problem we face in evangelism is these conversations seem to hinge on logical argument. Both Christians and non-Christians alike believe this. In actuality it's not a logical issue because we are not very logical creatures! The real reasons we believe most of what we believe (especially lies) come from our subjective perspective of our experiences. If we all believed things because of rational arguments, then we would change our mind when someone disagreed with us using a solid argument. How often does that happen though? Have you ever witnessed a Christian-Atheist debate ending in agreement? Aren't we more often unwilling to change our minds simply because we already believe what we believe? This is the main obstacle for all of us, Christian and non-Christian, to encounter God in real relationship.

So my encouragement to you, dear reader, is to engage the people around you. Be their friend, ask about how their lives are going, remember things about them, find ways to bless them. Then let God reveal to you how you can be His voice in their life. You don't need to have deep conversations about whether or not God is real. You don't need to prove the Bible's authenticity. Winning arguments is going to lose the person. Win people's hearts so that they might allow God to step in also. YOU can do this! I believe in you.

Matt Clark's March Update

I'm very thankful for you! I appreciate you taking the time to read about what's going on in the FOCUS ministries in Denton. May the Lord bless you!

Here are a few things of note...

Student Institute of Campus Ministry (SICM)

I wrote some about SICM in my last post but for those of you who are new, it is a week-long conference we take our potential new leaders to every May in Bellingham, WA. Campus Christian Fellowship (CCF), the host of SICM, is a ministry relationship that we have developed over the last several years. They have taught us much of what we know regarding college ministry - they have been doing it for over 40 years!

This year we are excited to take about 115 students from all of our campuses! Last year we had less than 100 people, including the staff. Please be praying for our students to be able to raise the funds necessary for this trip if they aren't able to pay out of pocket. Also be praying that God prepares their hearts and minds for this conference so they get the most out of the experience. This trip isn't intended to simply be a fun experience (although it likely will be), but more of a changing experience that equips each of them to lead and disciple their peers the next year. Additionally, it is potentially the launching point of life-long ministry leadership. That's our vision for these students!

In order to help our SICM students afford the cost of this trip, we are putting together a fundraiser event called Spring Showcase. You may have attended our Spring Showcase last year, but if not, it's a top-notch event. We bring in talent from all across our ministries: musicians, singers, dancers, actors, etc. In addition to the live performances, we will have an art sale in the foyer before the show and during intermission. We have collected pieces from the members of our community with artistic talent ranging from drawing, painting, photography, woodwork, etc. I was blown away by last year's performances and artwork and even had a decent idea of what to expect. This year should be even better because we have made some improvements! There are a few things I'd like to ask you for in order to help out:

1. Please pray that this fundraiser is successful in providing funds for our students.
2. You are invited so come out and support the students yourself!

Date: April 2nd
Time: Art sale starts at 6:30PM; Show starts at 7:30PM
Location: North Dallas Community Bible Fellowship

Purchase Tickets Online: anyfocus.org/showcasetickets

Apprenticeship

FOCUS has decided to change the name of our internship program to the "Campus Ministry Apprenticeship" in order to better communicate our goals. An apprenticeship (or a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and some accompanying classroom work and reading) is more accurate in describing what we are doing with these young ministers. "Intern" tends to have a less positive connotation.

Speaking of the Apprenticeship, this past weekend we interviewed applicants for next school year. We have almost made all of our decisions about acceptance and placement, which is very exciting! Please be praying for guidance as we sort through this.

Parent Night

This is one of my favorite times of the year. It's an evening when many of the parents of our students get to experience our community for the first time. I greatly enjoy honoring those parents for everything they have invested in their children's lives and initiating a partnership with them in God's greater kingdom. Each year we have a time of open sharing where students and parents can talk about how they've seen the Lord working through FOCUS in the lives of students. These stories are the real sermon! By the end of the evening I'll have cried (I'm not the only one!) a number of times from the amazing ways God has changed and impacted people. I may never be able to accurately describe what makes this night special, but perhaps you just have to be there.

I'd like to share with you one of my staff member's comments about parent night that they had written to me in their weekly report. I think it manages to further capture what is so special about Parent Night. In her report, this is in response to "A really encouraging thing in my ministry experience this past week was…"

Last year                ’s mom was absolutely against FOCUS and wanted her to quit. I don’t remember how she stayed in the ministry, but I definitely know it was a source of tension. Both of her parents came to our family night on Saturday. They invited me out to dinner with them as well. At dinner they were just kind of talking to me about how scary it is as your kid goes off to college. You just worry what they’re going to be a part of and whether that organization is actually teaching Christ. Her mom actually told me that she was really nervous when                started coming for that reason, and how it took her a long time to listen to her explain what it was about because her mind was already made up. She just kind of thanked me for our work and said she was really glad that her daughter had some place she approved of to go learn about Jesus. They’re also willing to pay for her to go to SICM. I hear a lot of the student's sides of stories, but it was so encouraging and cool to hear the parent's side. Parents just want the best for their children, and it can be so hard to let them go off into the real world. It just makes everything worth it to know that parents really do see what we do here as good work. I love parent night so much. It’s one of my favorite events that we do.

I couldn't agree more. God has blessed me tremendously through the various relationships I've developed with parents throughout the years. I'm already looking forward to Parent Night 2017!

SSI Week

SSI stands for Spring Student Impact (I think!). Some of the students from CCF (the ministry that hosts SICM) will be coming down to Denton for a week of evangelistic outreach on our three campuses. It's a neat experience because they give up their spring break in order to help us reach the students in our city - wow! They will be here from March 19-26 and we will be doing outreach on campus that Monday through Friday from 10am-2pm. Please keep us in your prayers during these days! I'm looking forward to share how it goes in my update next month.


Again, thank you for your investment in our ministry, whether it be prayers, money, time, or anything else. I am blessed to have you as a ministry partner! Please let me know if there is ever anything I can do for you.

Yours for the Campus,

Matt

Matt Clark's February Update

The Spring semester is well on its way! We are back from Winter Camp and three weeks into classes, core, etc. There's a lot to be thankful for and much to look forward to this semester.

Here's what I'm talking about:

Winter Camp

This year's camp was amazing. It's funny for me to tell you this merely through text, because I don't think I could ever fully convey what I mean! The experience is powerful for a few different reasons: first because we just have so much time to be around each other as a community (basically three full days), second because our student leaders are so purposeful with their time spent around other students which insures everyone is included in fellowship, and third because of the thoughtful and heartfelt words from Rikk Watts (our speaker for the weekend).

If you remember from my last post, or from a few of my posts last summer, I took a theology class in Canada at Regent College with Rikk. Many staff and students have listened to the recordings of his lectures (as well as other professors there) over the past few years. We have come to appreciate their humble and deep respect for God and his Word. This is why it was such a treat to have Rikk visit us. We are glad to consider him a friend and brother in the Kingdom. The words that Rikk shared with us over the weekend were about who Jesus is - we wanted our students to hear Rikk's passion and be enamored by the amazing person of Jesus, God among us. The impact on our students was a tremendous blessing as so many hearts and minds have opened up more to our Lord. Their understanding of who our God is has been stretched and expanded. One of the ideas Rikk shared was that God is not about good versus evil, but about life. That we are trying to be good people in order to be accepted by God, but we simply need to come to Yahweh, the Creator, in order to find real life. Nowhere else can it be found. Anything apart from God is dead. He inspired us to be people who take this life to those around us - that our role as God's people would be to show others his life-giving nature. We have to avoid making it about rules and being good. "God isn't about rule-keeping, but about people-keeping."

I highly recommend listening to the talks from camp because I believe they will enrich and challenge your own relationship with God. You can download the audio here. I would love to hear your thoughts or discuss any of these ideas if you want!

Here are pictures of some of our groups at camp!

University of North Texas

Texas Woman's University

North Central Texas College

All FOCUS campuses!
Includes UNT, TWU, NCTC, UTD, UTA,
Collin College (Spring Creek and Preston Ridge campuses), and Richland College

SICM invitations

SICM, as you may remember from years past, is the Student Institute of Campus Ministry. It's a week-long conference in which we send our potential leaders to be trained in reaching out and making disciples on a college campus. We have a long relationship with the staff who lead that ministry and have learned much of what we do on our own campuses from them. They are, in a real sense, our spiritual fathers and mothers. If interested, you can check out their websites for more information (CCF Ministry & SICM).

Last year we invited 25 students from our Denton campuses to attend SICM. We also had about 20 of our student leaders graduate last year so we barely maintained the size of our leader team this year. However, this year we invited 55 students to SICM! And significantly fewer leaders will be graduating. This is great news for the number of students we can reach next school year! It's also a little scary thinking about how we, as a staff, will be able to support the student leader team. Please be praying about that! We strongly believe in a 1:1 mentorship structure so that our leaders are consistently being poured into by a staff mentor. Also these students will be raising support for their trip so please be praying for that and if you are interested in helping a student pay for SICM, you can do that on our scholarship page. The trip is in May so we are still in the preliminary planning stages at the moment.

Please also be praying for students as they decide whether or not to go on this trip. They have to register by Feb 22nd. It's not for everyone, but we pray the Lord will guide each of them in this process.

Fundraiser results

You may also remember our fundraiser from back in November. We had set a goal of $45,000 and two weeks in to the three-week campaign we were maybe at around 10% of our goal. It was a little discouraging, but we prayed fervently and kept driving forward. Amazingly, as only God can do, the goal was reached...it's unbelievable! We are still in awe. God is so good. He is truly awesome! This money will go toward so many things in helping our ministries continue to grow in the years to come. Thank you so very much for your contribution to our ministry! We appreciate everything you do to support us. You are a blessing from our Lord!

Yours for the Campus,

Matt

Matt Clark's January Update (finally!)

The new year is upon us and it's surging forward!

This past Sunday we met with all of our student leaders for 4 hours to prep them for the semester and continue training them as ministers. It's just incredible that they are so willing to invest that sort of time in ministry during their time off from classes. The Lord has blessed us with some amazing men and women!

Winter Camp

We're getting ready to scoot over to Sky Ranch (in Van, TX) this Friday through Monday for our annual winter camp. We expect to have over 500 people in attendance from all of our campuses! One of the main goals of this event is to maintain the relationships of our larger fellowship - it's so encouraging for staff and students to be able to spend quality time with so many brothers and sisters across the metroplex. For that reason alone winter camp is very special.

It's also an exciting time to deepen our relationship with our guest speaker, Rikk Watts. Rikk is a professor at Regent College in Vancouver. You may remember that I visited Regent College last summer. Well, I was actually blessed enough to be in one of Rikk's classes! He is passionate about Jesus so much that he literally bounces when he talks and even when he lowers his excitement I was on the edge of my seat simply in awe of who God is. I'm looking forward to our students meeting him.

I'll post a picture of all the students from camp in February!

Special Prayer Request

Over the past month or so there have been several tragedies in Denton. Two UNT students were killed - one boy, Ryan, was shot by a police officer in self defense and a girl, Sara, who was shot in the head while driving her car on New Year's. One of the students I mentor weekly knew Ryan since childhood. I'm glad he has people he can go to in order to help him cope. Unfortunately, there are many other students who don't have that support system. Plus I can't even imagine what the families are going through right now. Please be in prayer for the families and friends of Ryan and Sara.

Two days ago a couple in their 60s was found in their home and it's suspected that their son killed them. Perhaps the son is innocent, but the situation is a tragedy regardless. Many people in Denton are mourning these losses and I pray that we don't lose any more of our friends, relatives, or neighbors in such an awful way. I ask that you pray for the family and friends of this couple as well.

Despite these tragic events I also pray that we don't lose hope. May we hope in the Lord, who is faithful even when the world seems too dark. He is more powerful than death, which he proved when he raised Christ from the dead! His light still remains in this world because he is good. He is always good! I read this line in a book last night before bed: "An age is called Dark not because the light fails to shine, but because people refuse to see it." Satan is always trying to keep us in the dark or convince us that the light has gone out. Often it seems like so many bad things are happening in our world that it's just hopeless. Unfortunately, so much of the News is depressing. In politics it's frustrating and overwhelming to think of making positive change. "Evil" seems to be running rampant and "good" is nowhere to be found.

The truth is that there is significant good in our world. The fact that our world exists is AMAZING! The fact that most of us don't die every day is unbelievable (like on the highway, in airplanes, not getting sick, we woke up this morning, children living until adulthood, etc.). Plus we get to enjoy relationships with other people every single day (if we so choose)! So let us never refuse to see the light of God in our world, and let us never forget our purpose to also be that light. God is doing something in this world far bigger than we can comprehend. His ways are higher than ours. We must trust in his goodness despite what the evil one throws in our faces. Our God has defeated death and we must remember that.

Please also be praying for this semester. We have many plans, but I ask that you pray for the Lord to guide and direct us. Core groups and one-on-one Bible studies will be picking up where they left off. Often newer students who go to Winter Camp will be majorly impacted due to the amount of time spent with others in the community (a lot of this happens through the initiative of our student leaders). The beginning of spring semester is another opportunity to meet new students who have transferred or just never plugged into a community in the fall. We are going to try some new things with reaching out on our campuses this semester as well as have a group of students from Western Washington University join us for a week of outreach in March. We are going to have some topical classes for students who want to deepen their thinking on subjects like Old Testament Overview, Culture and Christianity, Science and Christianity, and Rethinking Worship. Over the next few weeks we are going to be determining which students are our potential leaders for next school year, which we will invite to SICM (a week-long conference for training students in college ministry). I'm sure there are other things I missed, but I know having a specific focus for prayer makes it easier on you. 

Thank you so much for your investment into our work here! God is good to us in providing brothers and sisters in the faith like you.

Yours for the Campus,

Matt

Matt Clark's December Update

I hope that you were able to enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday with friends or family. If not, my heart goes out to you. I'm reminded of my sister, Meagan, in India right now. My family and I haven't seen her since January! Yet even though she was missing her family, she still embraced her time with the friends around her to give thanks for what God has provided. I'm looking forward to seeing her this month when she finally returns (briefly)!

Meagan's attitude of her situation combined with what I read in Joshua recently reminds me of how sometimes our expectations when unmet can cause unnecessary disappointment. This can especially be true during the holidays. At the end of Joshua 17, in the middle of distributing allotments of land to the Israelite tribes, the people of Joseph ask Joshua for more land because their allotment wasn't enough. Joshua tells them to go up into the forest to clear out land for themselves. The people respond with excuses and Joshua's final response rebuffs their excuses and he essentially says, "God has provided what you asked for. Take it or leave it." I can't tell you how many times I've looked at my life and thought, "This isn't enough. God, I need more ______." And the Lord's reply is most often similar to Joshua's response: "It's right there waiting for you to just take it!" I think the disconnect is that we don't want to work for it or we expect something different. We fail to see the good things that God has provided for us and instead see how he failed to meet our unrealistic or subjective expectations. This is a problem because we cause ourselves to miss out on 1) the blessings God has given us and 2) a deeper relationship with Him, which is what actually matters.

So my encouragement to you this Christmas season is to look for the good God is doing around you and praise Him for it! We must be careful not to measure the world by our own expectations of it - that's not fair! God doesn't work by our standards but His own, which are so much better! His ways are higher than our ways.

We are nearing the end of our 2nd annual Keep FOCUS Growing fundraiser. This is an important event because it helps provide a means to maintain growth in our organization. As we expand to more campuses and reach out to more and more students, we must grow our staff team. As we grow our staff team, the administrative roles increase and become more complicated. It may not be as exciting to help fund an administrative position as sponsoring a child with World Vision (or something like that), but it's important because of the impact it has on college students. This impact on a few individuals can make a tremendous ripple effect on the lives of many others - in this way, we passionately believe that God will change the world. Sure He is working in many other ways; this is just our calling and we're excited to be called! The money from this fundraiser will go toward many other things like materials for studying the Bible, professional counseling for students who can't afford it, advertising that reaches people we may never have met, etc. - all of which will directly impact college students. I ask that you pray for this fundraiser and prayerfully consider giving. You can either click on the image above or the following link to get more information on the fundraiser and how to donate: anyfocus.org/itsworthit.

Check out #itsworthit to see why our students

think it's worth it to invest in college ministry!

(If you aren't familiar with hashtags, other non-related items may appear here as well)

Denton FOCUS Christmas party!

Our Christmas party this past Saturday was the last large group meeting we have with our students until January. Please be in prayer for students over the Christmas break, as many will be separated from the community. Although not for everyone, this can be a trying time for newer members of our ministry who have just become serious about their commitment to the Lord and will be around family/friends who may trigger a relapse into old ways of thinking or behavior. Also pray for our Winter Camp attendance. We don't have any other events before camp so it's always tricky getting students to sign up. It's a significant event, not simply because of the teachings we have planned, but more so because of the enormous amount of time the students get to deepen the bonds of friendship within their small groups, campuses, and our entire family of 8 campuses. It's exciting for me, personally, to see my friends from the other schools but I'm deeply encouraged by the deep inter-campus friendships our students develop as well.

Speaking of Winter Camp, I want to invite you to visit (even just for a day) if you are available and interested. We will be at Sky Ranch from Jan 15-18. Just let me know if you want more information - I would love to see you there!

Thank you so, so much for all you do to invest in our ministry. No matter how small, I appreciate your contribution. It's people like you that God's Kingdom is built on.

Yours for the Campus,

Matt