Building a Vision

A Vision Statement for our Community

I want to share with you a part of my vision for this community as a college ministry. This is something I wrote and shared with our college students at one of our fellowship meetings this past month. I thought I would share it with you too!

We are not a community that ignores sin. We don’t hide in the dark in fear of being exposed and rejected by the community. We don’t speak with hate and gossip for our fellow created ones. We don’t have to be poked and prodded to work hard for God, or to show up early, or to stay late. We don’t grumble and complain, and do nothing about it with no care for ourselves or others. We aren’t passive and careless about people and issues in our community; tip toeing in the shadows so that we can avoid having to love and speak God into people's lives.

So who are we? For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. Ephesians 2:10. We envision a community living in freedom to learn and grow in their understanding of God. We want to see students growing in their identity in Christ, living in freedom as redefined, reborn, authentic disciples of God. We want to equip students to do the good things that God already planned for them to do. We believe in a God who wants to save us and be the Lord of our lives by the grace he pours out when we believe in him. This salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so we won’t boast in it, but we will boast in Christ! The only good in our community is because our God is good! This is the kind of community we envision. Students who have given all of themselves to God. Students who know they are saved by his grace and not their own good. Students who are on fire and passionate about our creator and the ones that he created.

Fall Camp 2015

We had some great speakers! We had a guest speaker come and talk about defining moments in our lives and how to give those moments to God. We also heard a few testimonies from our students. 

We had an awesome extended worship night. We had several stations with different activities they could do in order to relate with God. At this station they wrote down a lie they have a hard time not believing and on the other side they wrote a scripture to combat it.  

During our extended worship night we stood around in a circle and worshiped with the ability to see our brothers and sisters in Christ praising God!

Free time; sidewalk chalk art. We have some creative people!

Free time; playing volleyball. We have some coordinated people too!

We also like to be silly. Alex, 'Mr. Cool!'

Enjoying the great weather!

In this picture you can see people sitting with a partner. At our camps we do something called "Walk and Talks." We give everyone about 45 min to go on a walk with someone they don't know (of the same gender) and grow in a deeper relationship with more people. We believe that one-on-one is how its done! In a one-on-one setting you can get to know someone more personally and at a greater depth than in a larger group.

Leadership Conference

Once a year we get all of our leaders across our churches and various ministries together and we talk about our values, goals, and vision. This year we talked a good amount about friendships. We believe that as we continue to grow, genuine Godly friendships are what will keep us united. So we talked about how to do that and what that looks like. We value spending one-on-one time with those we want to disciple, befriend and invest Gods love in. In those one-on-one settings we can have accountability, be challenged, encouraged and grow in deeper relationship. 

What to be praying for in November..

NCTC: We have still been meeting more and more students and have students who are getting involved! We have had some trouble reserving a room on campus where we could meet. So we are still inviting those we meet to join us at UNT. At some point we would like to have a monthly fellowship meeting at NCTC. Be praying that we can be creative and that God opens doors and allows us to see what he wants a community to look like at NCTC.

Keep FOCUS Growing and Going Initiative: If you haven't liked our Facebook page, you should! Through our Facebook page we push a lot of announcements, prayer requests or events we have going. So like our page and stay in touch with what all is happening in FOCUS across all 8 of our campus ministries.  

Monthly Testimony: Each week we have a student or alumni share their testimony on our website and we also have prayer requests for our ministry in general. Click this link and check it out!