Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

New Girlfriend Liz and her xmas-holiday-sock-cookie


A picture from inside Daryl's studio where members of UNITED are rehearsing for the National Staff Conference in January

Happy holidays everyone! I hope that the end of the year is treating you well. If you haven't already please download and read my newest prayer letter for the most recent updates about my life and my ministry! Thank you for all your prayers! Ministry at MU has been growing in some unexpected ways and UNITED has been hired to do worship for the National Staff Conference in January! Thank you, thank you and thank you again for making this possible!

SLU Worship Team Explores Authenticity

Today we just had our second meeting in a series of songwriting workshops that I hope will help the students discover how they engage with music/art so that they can:

1. develop a more mature personal understanding of how God can minister to them through their gifts
2. help them lead people into worship through knowing how to communicate better

The meeting went exceptionally well (I like that word) and I was super excited to see them having a lot of fun doing the different creative writing exercises we did. Please continue to pray that things will go well as we continue to keep our little creative journals together.

What's been going on lately?

It's been a while since my last post so I wanted to just quickly share with you some things about the last couple weeks.

CATALYST - ACCELERATING LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT!
I was asked to be on the planning committee for our leader development seminar that we put our leadership teams through. Last year over 100 students from Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas learned about Discipleship, Authority & Self-Management; this year we're focusing on Witness & Vision.
After our first planning meeting last week I'm genuinely excited about the potential of Catalyst this year. A lot of leaders, both young and old, struggle with the use of vision and knowing how to translate that practically into our daily lives. I'm confident that the new structure of our seminar heavily focuses on helping us to really understand and gain experience in practically being a witness and working towards vision! And it sounds a little nerdy but I'm excited about that =).

NEW STAFF TRAINING: GOOD TO GREAT
Those of you MBAs may recognize the name "Jim Collins", the author of the book "Good to Great". We spent a week breaking down our paradigms of what ministry should look like and developing a healthy concept of what it would look like to have the "things we do" connect more to "who we are" in a way that is life-giving to the people involved. We also discussed how to apply some of Collin's learnings about operations and people in business to the ministry world.
What this means for Mizzou is for us to be creating a community of believers that aren't just there to be in Christian community but are together to learn what it is like to grow through being a witness for God to the people around them. Whatever we do, even at cost of size and growth, we are going to try and focus our efforts to both modeling and challenging Christians to be relevant witnesses in the community.

UNITED SEEKING MORE FOCUS
Please pray for an upcoming meeting between some of us in UNITED that are trying to establish a new focused direction for the new organization. We've had some loose dreams for the first half of this year but now it's time to crack down and gain a little more clarity on our mission as a worship leader development organization so we can more effectively work toward that goal.

CHURCH DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES
At InterVarsity we believe that by creating great leaders for our chapters today we fuel excellent leadership in the churches our students end up joining. Sometimes though we get the opportunity to partner in more direct ways. A couple worship leaders & directors have approached me for help concerning worship in their church - specifically working with their worship teams / leaders. Please pray that God guides me well as I start to talk to them about specifics.

UNITED WEBSITE LAUNCH

After much work, re-work and a lot of "learning the hard way" the website for UNITED is finally up and running at www.untiedworship.com !

I'm hoping that the website will become sort of a connection hub for worship leaders to help each other, mentoring, encouraging, collaborating and otherwise just being in community with each other. Much of UNITED is geared around worship leaders helping worship leaders and building a growing knowledge of the art from there.

Most recently we are starting a discussion that came out of an experience at Fall Conference.

Click here to download the article.

Some prayer requests

During your personal times with God this week if you think of me please be praying for a couple of things:

1) This is a busy week with Fall Conference at the end and I'm already very tired. We are taking 240 students to Kansas City and among those are also a number of "curious seekers" as one described herself that are interested in exploring Christianity.

2) I signed up to be a community group (small group) leader with my church to get to know more people there and to serve in a small way. However they wanted us to sign a paper saying we agree with a number of various issues that I could not sign primarily because of the inclusion of a statement about "Male Headship". Please be praying for me as I am in process with them about it.

3) Ray Deng, one of the worship leaders I disciple, is going through a rough patch in his faith and has been having a very pessimistic attitude for a while. Please pray that he will see God at work in his life and especially that his interactions with God continue to grow beyond the bounds of simple legal/systematic obedience. It is a good place of growth he is in but also pray that people around him would receive it well as it disturbs some of the younger people to see one of the senior leaders apparently shaken in his faith.

Worship in STL

Phew, what a crazy Labor Day weekend! I was telling Daryl earlier today I wish that churches & religious organizations weren't so obligated to do so many things on the holiday so we could rest too. Well, I guess it is a great opportunity to reach out to new people. Anyway, Wash U had a praise night Saturday where one of the worship leaders I disciple was leading. It went really well even though they had a couple of technical problems, the place was packed and stayed packed (ie. no one left midway through haha). We ran out of chairs as over 100 people flooded the event. The praise night also served as a 'get to know more' about ACF, Harambee and One Voice - the three undergraduate ministries at Wash U here in STL. I came to Christ through One Voice so I'm a little bias but it was great to see so many people in fellowship and having a great time that night.

SLU also had a BBQ and praise night that I led worship for yesterday (Labor Day). Things went really well in the end even if it was a little awkward being outside and worshiping in the middle of a bunch of Sorority house meetings (it must have been the perfect location to get together with people). But overall, I think it was great and there were quite a few new faces who all hung around afterwards to get to know each other.

Thanks for all your prayers! I go down to Mizzou on Thursday but will be trying to take it easy Tomorrow after the crazy weekend.

First days @ Mizzou

I'm currently sitting in a little coffee shop in downtown Columbia, MO right next to Mizzou, the campus where we are planting a new chapter. There are over 25k students at Mizzou and not many of them know Christ. This past weekend I spent two whole days hanging out with students in AAA (MU's Asian American Association) and volunteering with their Unificasian (Unification & Asian -- clever huh?) event that helps to connect Asian minorities to each other in the huge rush of incoming freshmen the school sees every year.
I met a bunch of great people and we had many sign up to come to our Bible Study that InterVarsity recently started here with the help of IV volunteer Andrew Moon (a philosophy grad student). Many who signed up aren't Christian but ARE very much interested in learning about Jesus and what the Bible / Christianity is really all about. It's amazing to see such openness in them, especially considering that not far from this coffee shop today an old school 'evangelist' named Brother Jed is bringing the 'fire and brimstone' message. I am blown away that despite that the Holy Spirit is moving in people around the campus that I have met who honestly want to know Jesus. One guy named Wataro the other day who opened up to me about his spiritual journey and how he almost became a Christian before learning that I worked with InterVarsity- then he said "wow, it must have been fate that I ran into you because I don't normally talk about faith and spirituality".
Please continue to pray as we have our first GiG tonight of the semester (GiG = Group investigating God -- a Bible Study for non-believers). Thanks!

~31 new followers of Christ @ SD Conference

~31 people either made first time decisions or re-commitments to follow Christ during "Pursuit" in South Dakota. Daryl and I are at the airport waiting to catch our flight back from leading worship there this week. It was a great time of not only praising God but getting to know a lot of great students with a passion for sharing Christ with others. We met a lot of new friends but also met a lot of people who are interested in being mentored through UNTIED - the worship ministry Daryl and I are founding. Thank you all for your prayers and God bless!

Michael - Moving from Worship Leader to Team Leader

Michael is a more experienced and skilled worship leader than the others I am working with in Iowa. I enjoy working with him as it is a great place to push the envelope but also readjust the focus of growth to developing the worship team around him. Michael is approaching the point where in order to maximize his own development he needs to start thinking about raising up those around him. I also think this will also help him to grow as a worship leader who's influence goes beyond the short time he spends in the spotlight on stage. Please pray for Michael as he has a lot to think about in terms of time managment and beginning to draw his team together as a real team and not just a group of people serving together.

Leah - William Penn Worship Leader

Just met with Leah this morning here in Pella, IA. Leah is currently a Junior at William Penn University and passionate about worship. Specifically, Leah was telling me this morning how she God has changed her through her time at college to be less focused on herself and to see her ministry as caring for others. He has also given her a heart for justice & restoring joy and purpose in our times of worship. Please pray for Leah, that God will give her strength as one of the few Christians in her school and that He will continue to reveal to her His plans for how He will use her at William Penn.

As a side note - William Penn has recently placed some very difficult requirements on campus ministries mandating that they collectively only have one time of ministry during specific time that is overseen by the campus ministry department. Please be praying for that also.

Leading Worship @ IV Conference in SD

This is a sneak peek at the conference Daryl and I will be leading worship @ next week. Currently, I'm still in Iowa but will be leaving Thursday back to STL after meeting with Leah and Michael on Wed. Tomorrow I'm going to be doing some reflecting on today's meeting with Morgan and preparing for Wednesday. Please continue to pray for these busy next two weeks.

Meeting with Morgan goes extremely well

Thank you all for your prayers! I just wanted to post a quick update to say that I finished my first meeting here in Pella with Morgan and was blessed by her desire to develop her team and her openness in talking about things in general. We did a lot of work this morning and met for about 2.5 hrs and I feel like she no longer feels like she is in over her head which but instead is excited about trying out some of the things we talked about which is great. Please continue to pray for her as she is actually moving to Cedar Rapids later this week to start her internship at Coe College where she will be leading worship and developing the worship leaders there.

Meeting with students & staff in Iowa

Next week I'll be leaving for a few days to different parts of IA to continue to grow United's ministry. I'll be meeting with a few student leaders who do worship at William Penn University & Drake University as well as a staff who will be in charge of a worship team at Coe-College for the first time. I plan to meet with them all individually to oversee both their individual development as worship leaders & their development of their respective worship teams.

While I'm in Pella, IA I'll also be helping Central College to redesign their sound equipment setup for their large group which has over 200 students attending weekly! Please keep us all in your prayers next week.

Here's a little about each of the leaders I will be meeting with:

Leah is trying to start a worship team at William Penn. She has a heart for diversity and reaching those different from her (around 1/2 of the chapter at WP is made up of ethnic minorities). Leah is also concerned about leading worship for the first time in college and getting others to help her at WP.

Michael is an experienced worship leader at Drake University. He is also extremely passionate about worship and reaching others through his music. He is currently undergoing difficulty with getting the rest of the team as on board with a holistic approach to music and not just being a member of the band / playing out of a service aspect.

Morgan is coming on staff this next year at Coe College and was asked to lead the worship team there since she plays guitar. She is a little anxious about leading worship as well as developing her team but is excited for the school year to start.

Please keep all of them in your prayers as well. Thanks again!

First Visit to Mizzou!

This past Tuesday was my first trip out to Mizzou to meet Andrew Moon, our IV volunteer out there, for the first time. Jean and I got there around 3pm and hung out with Andrew all afternoon, just the three of us. He was extremely excited to see us and really needed another mature believer to talk to about a lot of challenges he was facing in leading his GiG (Group investigating God).

Some of the students from Mizzou came over around 5pm to go swimming & dinner and then we had a Bible Study with them from 8-9:30pm. There were seven non-believers that showed up that night and they all stayed from 5- 11 (we played some games afterwards). A couple of them even came to AABS for the first time and really enjoyed it.

Personally, Jean and I were both very impressed with the kind of non-believers that Andrew had coming to AABS. They had already made the mental switch from Cynics to Seekers* and were some of the most open minded non-believers we'd ever met before! What's more is that quite a few of them aren't in the original study which means that the group is continuing to grow in the summer.

The best part is that I met a couple of non-believers there that I hope to meet up with continually over the year to help them get more time to dig into specific questions & issues they have about Christianity and God. Please pray especially for Vince and Will, two of the people I hope to start meeting with regularly.

*Cynics to Seekers is one of the "conversion points" that we think of in InterVaristy. The complete picture is:
Cynic → Seeker → Follower → Minister → Leader → World Changer

Student Testimony - UNITED Worship Ministries

One of the students I mentored last semester wrote this and I wanted to share it with you all. Thanks again for your prayers & support, without you none of the work I do would be possible.

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My worship training experience with Jon really developed how I look at musical worship from a leader's standpoint. I have always felt a strong connection to God through musical worship, and because of that and my musical ability, leading worship is something I have been involved in for several years, including three and a half years with IV. For the first half of my senior year I thought our worship 'team' was pretty good, but I knew we needed something to take it to the next level, so to speak. Then I went to Urbana and realized what true worship could really be like. It was amazing to be there with so many people and still experience God in a very personal way through the musical worship.

The spring semester after Urbana, Jon came on as a staff member at SLU IV with the main purpose of really developing our bunch of musicians and vocalists into a true worship team that leads the chapter into deeper relationship with God through music on a regular basis. While on the surface the means by which our team was developed may seem sterile and clinical, the result was a real evaluation of how musical worship must be done in order for it to truly minister to people where they are and bring them into a place where they experience God. The semester of training with Jon really took our group to the level where it could be effective as a ministry.

-Nathan Clark, SLU Alumni

UNITED continues to grow

Just got back in town last week from almost a month of slightly hectic travel and it's good to be back home. I wanted to update you all on some of the recent developments with UNITED, the worship ministry within InterVarsity that I am working on. The college branch (that I am in charge of) is growing rapidly, expanding to 6 campus ministries at five different college campuses: Washington University, MO; Drake, IA; William Penn, IA; Coe College, IA; St. Louis University, MO. The most recent project is planning a worship workshop for ACF - please keep it in your prayers as I work with their worship leader to put this out.

We're also working on a FAQ publication that allows younger leaders to seek help from more experienced worship leaders. I thought I'd share one of the questions with you:



How do I learn new songs that are multicultural / multiethnic?

We have a lot of diversity at my college, and I want to be able to do new stuff, but not just the stuff I know. I want our worship to be very diverse…but I don’t know how to learn new songs and be effective at leading them.

(Leah Doolan - William Penn University, IA)



SOLUTION
The challenge with multiethnic worship is that it often comes across as inauthentic and poor-quality which, especially if you are trying to bridge racial & ethnic gaps in worship, is often received poorly and results in insulting or distancing yourself from the very people group you are trying to reach out to. This is because that multiethnic worship is not just about learning new music and songs, but learning how to minister to people of a different cultural background than your self.
To do this you should focus on the following:

1. GET TO KNOW THE PEOPLE YOU ARE TRYING TO REACH – spend time with them, go to church with them, seek to learn what worship looks like in their cultural context by immersing yourself in it.
2. SEEK OUT A MUSICAL ADVISER – especially if you are not proficient at your instrument or a certain singing style, look for someone who leads worship in the culture you are trying to reach and learn from them (church is a great place to find these people).
3. TAKE THE TIME TO PRACTICE – create a practice schedule for your self and spend at least 30 min a day going over one or two songs that you are trying to adapt for your worship community. Only after you have mastered these songs and have a basic fundamental understanding of what makes worship work for the culture you are trying to reach should you try to teach it to your team. The only exception is if you have someone from that culture in your team, then you should have them help you learn and teach the song to the rest of your team.

Teens @ Chinese Gospel Church

Thank you for your prayers! The talk @ CGC's Teens went very well. I ended up talking about the relationship between 'Apologetics' and 'Evangelism' and how they share the commonality of being about serving others vs. adhering to a sense of duty. So we talked about getting a heart for the lost and spent some time doing an exercise examining stories we had experienced where God transformed us along our own continual journey to know Him more. I also used a couple of videos from InterVarsity's new evangelism training to help relay some of the more abstract concepts I was trying to explain to them.

I'll be going back there this Friday to lead worship while my boss is speaking; please continue praying for us.

ONS Snapshot #5

Thank you for your prayers. The extended worship session last night was a very powerful experience for many here at ONS. One staff was even delivered from some very painful experiences in his past that had begun to take control of his spirit and weigh him down daily in his walk.

Also yesterday was the evangelism experience that all 127 new staff here at ONS participated in. As a group saw three people make decisions for Christ and had hundreds of great conversations with people though most importantly many of the staff gained a value for evangelism and good spiritual conversations in general.

Today is the last full day of ONS and we have it rather light in terms of worship. Tomorrow we'll be playing one final set in the morning and then we will all be traveling home. Please continue to pray for our safety on the road back!

ONS Snapshot #4

Today is the start of a new week and is going to be a very challenging day for many of the staff here at ONS. York Moore will be leading the staff in learning about "conversational evangelism" which although very different than "contact evangelism" has some negative connotations to a lot of people. "Conversational Evangelism" is much more engaging, conversational and pastoral than "Contact Evangelism" which is more one-on-one preaching. This afternoon many of the staff will be going out on U. Washington's Madison campus to do some conversational evangelism in pairs. Please be praying for them as although this is often a great experience for all and changes the hearts of many involved - it is often a difficult journey for many.

For a non-believer's perspective on Conversational Evangelism check out this blog entry I wrote last year when I took one of my non-believer friends along with me

Please also be praying for extended worship this evening and that myself and the worship team can discern what the Holy Spirit wants us to do.

ONS Snapshot #3

It's finally the Sabbath period for ONS which means we get a bit of a break from the intense program. However, break in the program means more work for the worship leader as I try to continually improve the team's ability to minister to the diverse crowd that is InterVarsity. This coming Monday we are going to be inviting some of the people in ONS who are music ministers onto the worship team as guests to better connect with some of the different worship cultures that exist here. I normally never do something like this because I believe in trying to minimize the craziness that can be a 'worship team' by having people who are on a worship team with me be involved for longer terms than one day. This time I made an exception because we are working with mostly staff who tend to be fairly mature. Please pray for me as I try to get a lot done with a lot of people in just a little bit of time. Thanks again for all your prayers and support!

On a side note, there has been a lot of interested in the United College ministry here at ONS and I've also received numerous emails from those worship leaders I am coaching asking various questions about worship and their teams while I'm away. I've a meeting today with another staff in the East Coast area that was wanting to do something just like United - hopefully I can feed him some ideas or help him out in some way; please pray for this meeting also.

ONS Snapshot #2

Today, we had a lot more time to practice and work ahead as this first week is a little light on worship once we're past the first day. God has shed a little light on my strengths and weaknesses as a leader in the challenging task to teach my team a number of different worship and musical styles that are outside the box of what they normally do. I seem to excel at earning trust and setting up a good team environment but sometimes I struggle to find words / ways to explain some of the things I want to communicate when it comes to specifics.

We had some very rough spots in our practice today which I am uncertain of rather to push for excellence or just settle for where we are at. Please continue to pray for me as God continues to refine me in my ministry.

Students Feedback From Catalyst

Since Catalyst (our regional leadership conference) staff have been reading written feedback from students that attended and God met them in some amazing ways. Here are a few of the things they wrote:

"[God] took away my doubts about being a leader"

"[God] Delivered me from lies I had been believing about myself."

"Jesus gave me peace with the changes on the leadership team and gave me a vision of huge growth for next year and after I leave."

"HE reassured me that he can use me despite my weaknesses and reminded me that he rejoices over me."

"[God]Showed me my strengths in leadership and also my weaknesses in my relationship with Him and in my responsibilities as a Christian (such as evangelism)"

"Being affirmed that it is normal to feel inadequate and have doubts. This was my first time being in a place where so many people were on fire for God. Usually I feel alone."

"He reopened my heart. He showed me how apathetic I was being and I’m excited to see the changes He’s going to make in me over the next year."

"He showed me the image of resting with Him instead of being a busybody."

"He made me realize I don’t need to be shy or afraid."

"I learned so much about myself and my perception of God and how that perception was hindering me that now I’m experiencing a renewed sense of freedom and peace that is immeasurable."

"I was initially hesitant about taking up this position of leadership that I’ve been put in. However, Catalyst helped me realize that although I’m weak in my own strength, I am strong because God is with me."

Snapshot of ONS

DAY I
It's been one exhausting day. The morning was busy with meetings, setup and getting oriented and the afternoon was non-stop practice and sound checks. Today I spent a lot of time with the worship team - teaching people new styles of music & new ways of leading worship as many on the team are feeling stretched. It's a tough job trying to connect with such a diverse group of leaders that are in InterVarsity. I was telling Daryl the other day that I hadn't noticed how much I learned from our experience at Urbana until now when I'm trying to teach it.

I'm beat - just got out of 4 meetings since we finished and am ready for bed. Thanks for your prayers despite all the things that went wrong tonight God still came through and I believe it is because of prayers. Here are some ways God answered prayer today: i. even though the ppt wasn't working people were still worshiping as evident by their postures and general response; ii. the worship team itself is quickly bonding into a fun little community.

Please keep praying for us! Goodnight everybody!

New Staff Orientation in Madison

Thanks for your prayers for us at the Byron Cage concert. It went very well even though we didn't get a sound check (the entire sound system was different) and had a few technical issues, people still responded fairly well. Currently, I'm in Madison, WI, getting ready to lead a worship team for InterVarsity's national new staff orientation over the next 10 days. Tonight is the first evening and I am a little nervous as the stage isn't even put together yet so we haven't had a chance to practice anything together. We will probably not have much time today and one of our team mates doesn't arrive till 5:30. Please keep us in your prayers.

Last night I took the team out for dinner and to walk around the city. We all come from very diverse backgrounds: non-denominational churches, a Lutheran seminary, a young woman who desires to be a nun, to name a few. Hopefully, as we learn to work and worship together we'll be a great team to reach the diverse community that is InterVarsity staff. I'll keep you updated over the course of the next couple weeks.

Byron Cage Concert

Daryl Black, myself and others will be opening for Byron Cage's concert this coming Thursday, June 14 @ Abudant Life Church. You are welcome to join us there for an evening of worship and praise!

Purchase tickets through MetroTix

New Website - New Mission

Hope you are enjoying the new website! My ministry with InterVarsity has changed since last year. I will be assisting with a new chapter plant @ Mizzou and mentoring a number of worship leaders at various colleges around the region in partnership with UNITED WORSHIP MINISTRIES. I hope to tap the resources of UNITED to better disciple and train worship leaders in InterVarsity who often feel isolated and under great pressure in their respective chapters. Feel free to download my most recent prayer letter or read my new case for more information about these new ventures.



Global Day of Prayer
The global day of prayer was excellent! Over 2000 people showed up in St. Louis to join the millions around the globe in prayer this past Sunday, May 27. Daryl, myself and a few friends were honored to be able to lead them in worship and were blessed later that day as God healed 4 people in the crowd of everything from paralysis to chronic hearing loss! Praise God!

New Leaders Step up @ CATALYST '07

Last week (May 13-18) was "Catalyst", Central Region's leadership development training for our student leaders from MO,IA and KS. About half of the students attending were new leaders and God used the weeks activities to encourage them to step up and not feel overwhelmed by the responsibility of being an IV student leader.

This year we focused our training on the topics of:
*Authority - redeeming authority and our fears about being under authority or a person of authority / influence in someone's life
*Discipleship - knowing how to choose someone to disciple and how to help them grow into the person God wants them to be
*Self-Management - passionately following God's call without burning out or becoming a work-a-holic

I led worship at Catalyst as well as helped develop part of the curriculum for the Authority section of the week. Please pray for this coming weekend when I will be helping to lead worship at the Global Day of Prayer in STL at Bush Stadium (www.praystl.org).

InterVarsity CityLights in the news

Local TV station KPLR 11 did a news spot on CityLights, a program our students participated in this spring, where they served in the inner city to help those often ignored by members of "productive society". Not only did God use many of them in their service but God grew many of their hearts for the people they met. Click here to read the article.

SLU InterVarsity 2007 Slide-Show!

We're having a little end of the year party on Monday. This is a little slide show that will be shown there. I think the greatest accomplishment this year at SLU was to really see the students start to enjoy each other as a community. That alone has been a great witness to non-believers on a campus that has a culture of independence and individuality. Thanks again for your support!

Urbana 2006 Live Worship CD Released!

The CD is out finally! Click here to listen to some samples or to buy it online! Thanks again for all your support & prayers for Urbana!

FYI the group of people formerly known as the "Urbana 2006 Worship Team" are forming a ministry called "UNITED". UNITED is NOT a band but rather a ministry that seeks to empower other worship leaders around the country. It is mostly an idea right now but I will keep everyone posted about what evolves.

The Ministry in Iowa

Back from the trip! I left last Monday and returned last Thursday in the afternoon. Thank you all for your prayers - I definitely felt them. Here are some of the ways that God showed up during my trip:

Protection on my travels
A deer ran in front of my car on a dark Iowa highway and caused me to swerve and skid all over the 2 lane highway. Thankfully no cars were near me and the car stayed on the road and didn't hit any of the obstacles that could have been laying off the highway. No damage was done to me, the car or the deer but I did leave some awesome skid marks in a snake like pattern in the middle of I-63 =).

Two student leaders @ William Penn University
Please continue to pray for Leah and Jenerro who will be trying to start a music ministry at their local InterVarsity chapter @ William Penn. Our first couple meetings went extremely well and I was blessed to see God already at work in growing their hearts for helping others to worship God at the University. Their goal is to do their first worship set together at the end of the semester at the last large group. I will be following up with them and their campus staff, Sherami, and will keep you posted. Here is an excerpt from a letter Sherami sent to me:

I'm so grateful for your passion & initiative in helping the students start worship at Penn. It's so nice having someone who understands empowering students & is willing to continue working w/them. ... I can already see the potential leadership growth as I've spoken with Leah and Jenero! You blessed us tremendously - thank you! - Sherami, IV Staff @ William Penn

One Student Worship Leader @ Drake
Drake University already has a worship team but had just gotten a new worship leader who is extremely gifted as a worship leader but is facing some challenges and frustrations in sharing his passion with those on his team and in the chapter itself. We had a great conversation and I look forward to continuing to mentor him and be a resource to empower him to improve the quality of music ministry leadership at Drake. He recently wrote me a short email:

Hey Jon, I want to thank you for coming and talking with me last week. It was really a blessing to be able to speak with you about things others wouldn't understand. I feel like I was able to learn from what you shared with me as well. I'm exited about practicing your thoughts about how people interpret worship through the worship leader. ... I'm looking forward to hearing back from you. - Michael, Worship Leader @ Drake

Thanks again to everyone for your prayers. Please continue to pray as I follow up with these students and work to help them lead others in worship.

Worship & Music Ministry

Just a quick update / prayer request. I am going to Iowa today to help staff start a worship team @ William Penn University & to assist in the growth of a worship team at Drake University. Please keep me in your prayers. It seems that God has a lot on my plate in the realm of worship lately:

Urbana '06 Worship Team - December '06
Start Worship Team @ SLU - January '07
Daryl Black Worship Concert / CD Release - February '07
Asian American Staff Conference Worship Team - March '07
CityLights Spring Break Worship Directory - March '07
Start Worship Team @ WP - April '07
Coach Worship Team @ Drake - April '07

and coming up...

Urbana '06 CD Release - April/May '07
Catalyst (140 student leadership camp) Worship Director - May '07
National Orientation for New Staff Worship Director - June '07

Please do keep me in your prayers this week. I hope this goes well, it is really a first for our region to have staff help others in the area of worship & music ministry.

Happy Easter everyone!

SLU Goes Bowling to Build Community

Sometimes the best things to do to meet new people are to enjoy the simple things in life. Like hurling a 10lbs ball down a wooden alley to smash into things. A couple of the SLU students put together a bowling night to build community between some InterVarsity regulars and others on the fringe of our community. We had quite a few fringe people show up and had a great time bowling together.

We decided to quit after one game and run out and get some ice cream and just hang out and talk afterwards (no pics of that - sorry!). One non-believer commented how she loved hanging out with this group of people that could just have fun wherever we went and without anyone in the group feeling left out or like an extra. The two students that put the bowling night together are hosting a movie night next week - please pray that it goes just as well!

City Lights 2007!

CityLights is always an excellent experience for students that changes the way they see God at work in the world. Too often we see Christians who aren't willing to step outside their own comfort zones or beyond their dreams of a comfortable life to help those less fortunate than them. CityLights takes students from around the country and transplants them into the heart of the inner city in St. Louis where New City Fellowship (a local church that partners with us) places them in workgroups where they will not only get a chance to serve those around them but also be challenged in their ideas of justice, diversity and faith.
Since we started CityLights nearly 40 students have relocated to St. Louis to continue working / living amongst those in the inner city who they developed relationships with during their Spring Break. For SLU, many students felt challenged to reach out to people that SLU generally tries to keep away from their campus: the poor, the widowed, the abused, the addicts etc... Students at SLU are continuing to think about how to spread their new found heart for the city & for those less fortunate than themselves to others around campus who generally think of projects like CityLights as a gold star on their resume.

On a more personal note, at CityLights, I had the opportunity to lead worship with over 20 students from different cultural, ethnic and musical backgrounds. On a more personal note it became more clear to me how God has grown me in the past couple years as it was much easier to coordinate this large group of students and keep a fun, energetic atmosphere than it had been for me before. Many people at CityLights were blessed by the worship team I directed - staff commented that most of the transformational work they saw being done in their students was done during the times of worship we led. One student even commented that "this was the best worship I'd ever experienced, thank you!".

Asian American Staff Conference

So every 3 years all the Asian American staff get together, network and address certain ethnic specific issues as well as common issues that it is helpful to go through with other people of the same cultural upbringing. This year it was held in San Francisco so we had some beautiful weather during the conference.
Personally, I had a great time there for three reasons:
1) I got to work with a great team of people doing worship and gained yet more insight into how different people lead. Erna, the worship director for the conference, was on the Urbana 2003 worship team and is a great worship leader. I enjoyed her sense of where the spirit was going and assertiveness to change the schedule in order to do God's will. I also met another young staff named Audrey who has a heart for worship and is working on developing her own worship curriculum to better the training teams receive. I hope we can compare what we both have in the future.
2) The focus group I attended was incredibly helpful and insightful in shedding light onto how one might transform their job on staff to something that is a more custom fit to their specific gifts / call by God. I hope that I, like a few others in InterVarsity, can eventually create a custom position on staff where I can work on the issues that concern me most as opposed to being called to do everything under the sun.
3) I networked and met a number of interesting people - a few of which have a similar desire to work in a more specialized capacity within InterVarsity. I was also invited to put together and team and lead worship at ONS (orientation for new staff) this coming June - of which I'm very excited.

Overall the experience was great if not very tiring as I spent a couple nights up very late trying to get our sound equipment setup and working properly (seems to happen at many conferences I'm at). Please be praying that I get an opportunity to run in a more specialized field in InterVaristy because I feel very strongly that it would benefit both me and the people around me.

1st Talk

Hello again supporters! I gave my first talk @ SLU this past Monday. I exposited on Ephesians 2:11-22 where Paul is addressing the church there about how they are trying to define themselves as Christian believers. The people there at the time believed that God did save people through grace based upon His original covenant with Abraham. However, they believed that because the promise was made to Abraham and his offspring, the Israelites, it didn't apply to those who weren't directly related to Abraham --- unless, they were marked through circumcision, therefore identifying them as 'children of God'.
There is of course something wrong with that picture. Paul corrects their thinking in Ephesians 2:11-22 by redefining the power of Christ as the force that identifies and unites us as a body of believers -- not circumcision. Today this means that Christianity is NOT about quiet times, devotionals, Bible Studies, Laws, church attendance etc... which is revolutionary for many students at SLU.
To help the students process through this rather abstract concept - we spent 30 min at the end of the evening in reflective worship where students were also offered the opportunity to write on a piece of parchment paper something they wanted to offer to Christ that was a pattern of this world they felt trapped in. We then tied these pieces of paper to a tower of incense (in the OT incense represented both God's presence and purity) to help us better picture our prayer being offered to God as symbolized by the smoke and the Holy Spirit poured out among the people as symbolized by the scent diffusing in the room.
Please continue to pray that the students will continue to strive to define themselves as believers by the transformation Christ does in them - by the breaking of the usual patterns that exist in today's society.

What? Evangelism?

Friday, Lee (a Sophomore on the Worship Team) and I went out to see if we could have spiritual conversations* with random people in the food court at SLU. First we met Daniel who was raised Catholic and goes to mass weekly but believes that "you can't really know God". We talked for a while and Daniel explained a little more about what his faith meant to him and about a necklace he wore of two saints: St. Andrew and St. Jude to remind him about his family.

Then he suddenly became interested in knowing more about me and what I do and I was able to share with him the story of how God has pursued and continually pursues me to do the things that I do. I shared about how no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't escape the things that God was calling me to do in life - though I may not have recognized it at the time. Right before we left, we learned that Daniel is on track studying 4 different majors from Psyche to Spanish to International Affairs.

Next we had a very interesting conversation with a table of people including Mike, a self proclaimed atheist; Kimmy, who believes in a god or some higher power of some kind but can't describe what that god would be like; and Mark, a non-practicing Catholic. For around thirty minutes we swapped stories and learned about each other's spiritual journeys from when Mike decided god is a myth to when Kimmy had a deep spiritual experience at a Catholic retreat.

Long story short, we had a number of great spiritual discussions and met four great people. The best part? Lee asked if we can do this every Friday for the rest of the year! Please pray for us all that God would continue growing our hearts for the lost!


*Spiritual Conversations: evangelism done on the belief that the Holy Spirit is at work pursuing all people and that evangelism has twin goals of spreading the message of the gospel and changing the heart of the messenger. This is an essential discipline to practice with non-believers that you know and have only just met in order to develop compassionate hearts for the lost.

Urbana 06 - Video made by a group of students

This video was made by a group of students sent to Urbana by Midway Church Vietnamese Alliance - It gives a great little picture of some of the things at Urbana.

Urbana 2006 LORD YOUR ARE GOOD

Video of "You are good" shot at urbana by some attendee

Urbana 06 - Personal Reflections

Everyone asks me how it was and there is so much to say... Here are a few short stories that I think were really meaningful to me while at Urbana:

It's opening day and we're doing our first onstage rehearsal which is being coordinated with the dance teams for the opening ceremony. Things are going horribly - we are all making lots of simple mistakes and I am stressing majorly over a couple of new parts I'm supposed to play that I just learned hours before hand. Afterwards, I'm talking to our drummer, Bill, and basically feeling like things are falling apart and we're going to blow it. He reminds me that God has the power to cover our mistakes but honestly -- it just seemed too simple. The reality was that I didn't have time to practice that part and I just couldn't focus on the huge stage.

Then right before we went to opening night we were praying and I remember Betsy specifically praying that God would enable us to be free to worship Him despite the many distractions with the pressure and the huge arena etc... I suddenly felt at peace. Then the strangest thing happened....

Later that night when we were playing the opening song I totally blanked when we got to the new part. As I started going into a panic I looked down and saw my hands playing the right notes in perfect timing ... it was like I was watching myself from a distance. Then I felt God saying to just trust Him and everything will be fine. It still sounded too simple but it was backed up by the reality that God was there on stage with me and that in an unexplainable way He was playing through me. Thanks be to God for such a blessing.

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The other story is much shorter... The whole conference I was disappointed that my parents couldn't be there to attend. I felt like they were missing out on an important milestone in my life / a glimpse into what I do and where my heart is. One of my good friends on the worship team, Melissa, her parents decided almost last minute to come to Urbana. I met them and they were so encouraging to all of us - then on the last day after we had finished I went to wish them a happy new year and her mom gave me a big hug and kiss and said "this is from me" then she gave me another hug and kiss and said "this is from your mom who couldn't be here". I nearly fell over.

So Melissa's parents, if you're reading this then thank you so much for your love and care for all of us on the worship team. It was a blessing having you there with us all.

Picures from Urbana 2006!!!

Thanks for all your prayers! Here are some things I've heard from attendees:

"You guys [the worship team] are challenging me to rethink what God's church should look like in the world"

"I feel like my eyes have been opened to how selfishly I've been living my life for me and nobody else"

More stories to follow - enjoy the pictures, thanks again and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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