I can't hold it in

I've hesitated from saying much publicly about something that is "political" in nature, because I know the risk I take in expressing my strong opinions on controversial topics. But you know what, I can't stand being silent anymore, and I hope no matter what you may think of the current health care discussion (yea, nay, don't care, other), you'll hear me out.

Let me go back to a couple of other moments and places in history. England was a society in which slavery was seen as an issue that divided the Church, and the mid-1800's in America, where the same issue ripped our country into a dividing war. There are different types of evil. One type is what you can call 'institutionalized', meaning that it has made its way into the systems of society. And unfortunately, the economy is the primary driving force behind most institutionalized evil. To be clear, slavery, both in England and America was institutionalized evil in both societies. But because of financial factors, it divided many well-meaning Christians. Sadly, many Christ-followers turned their heads to the evil of the basic human right of freedom.

I thank God that some people were willing to put their reputations on the line and stand up against something that was morally wrong and yet legally "right." These people didn't settle in and accept this evil as something we have to live with, they stood up for what was right, and usually at great expense.

Today, it frustrates me to no end to hear believers (and many I have great respect for) merely dismiss moral issues that are conveyed in our society to be political and therefore because of its association with politics and politicians have nothing to do with the issue. Worse yet, are believers that simply accept evil as something that will exist until they leave this world or the end of all things when God makes all things right. But wait...weren't we called to bring healing and the Kingdom of God to this world...not retreat or settle for injustice, especially for the 'least of these'? About a year and a half ago, I spoke to a nationally known ministry leader that was surprised that I had any hope that abortion would one day be overturned in the US. I could tell he thought I was naive to even think this way.

But overturning institutionalized evil isn't unprecedented, as we see from our two examples in America and England on the issue of slavery.

Thank God that in the past many brave men and women didn't settle for slavery being legally right and yet morally wrong. Yes, there are many believers engaged in the process on important issues today, but unfortunately they may not represent the best of us. (on both sides)

What happened yesterday with the passage of the health care bill was morally wrong, not necessarily because of it's supposed connection to a more 'socialistic' approach to the medical care, but because it is most likely may be the biggest proponent of expanded abortion on demand than anything since Roe Vs. Wade. (yes, when you know the details of the bill, that really is the truth)

From judging him on his record, our most pro-abortion executive in history has absolutely no intention of limiting the death of innocent babies. In fact, he is fulfilling his campaign promises to expand abortion rights to unprecedented levels.

No matter what you think of the health care debate, at least agree with me that this bill will contribute to our moral decline simply because of abortion issue and the lives it will destroy.

God give us the courage and clarity as followers of Jesus to stand up against the institutionalized evil of abortion, no matter what political party we may affiliate with.

speaking at Kentwood Community to MS students last night

Wow, how cool it was to be back on stage at our student center at KCC last night speaking to middle school students. They are such a blast, so much energy in the room I love it.

I was able to do what has become my 'regular' teaching on Nehemiah 1 and the comparison of the wall of Jerusalem to schools today. I love watching students wheels turning when they realize that for many of them they are so used to being surrounded by the brokenness of the environment of their school that they've become numb to it. I literally see the revelation of the Holy Spirit on their faces when we begin to discover that the biggest challenge to schools being healed isn't what we typically think of...drugs, gangs, violence, racism, etc.

I believe according to the principle from Scripture in 2 Chronicles 7:14 that the BIGGEST CHALLENGE SCHOOLS FACE IS FOLLOWERS OF JESUS WHO DO NOTHING. I'm asking God to raise up a generation of students who will repent for this attitude of blame towards those who are lost and need the Answer instead of realizing that THEY ARE THE SOLUTION!

What's amazing is that students from literally all over the country are responding to this message and hearing God's voice of challenge to do something, that something being prayer! From California to New England, north to south students are going for it.

Last night, when it came time for the commitment, once again the students came through. I asked them to commit to showing up 1x a week for prayer at their school and stand signifying that they would. When it came time for the decision, almost every student stood up. Now I realize some may have stood out of pressure, or out of emotion. But I have to tell you, most students stood without hesitation when it came time, which tells me many of them are serious about.

There was buzz afterwards with students and there has been on Facebook already since last night.

Pray for these students at KCC.

What a privilege to be involved with this work of God from students at my church!

The latest

A lot has happened since we last met here. Life is coming so fast right now that it's hard to remember to sit down and post all that's going on.

On the CYC front...

There are actually too many things to list that have happened, but here are a few highlights.

See You At The Pole and CYC are talking, which is a real good thing. I connected with the national FCA office recently, and they are considering promoting CYC to their network, which would be huge.

Moms In Touch, an organization I connected with while I was in CA, recently promoted CYC to all their state coordinators, and someone passed on an email that went out to their network that promoted CYC. This isn't a small network, they have thousands and thousands of chapters just in the US alone.

I'm currently working on trying to connect CYC with a handful of music festivals this summer before we try and hit all 60 of them next summer of '11.

On the NTS Camp front...

We had our last face to face meeting before this summer in Chicago at our new 'north' site for NTS. There were 15 of us there and there was some serious energy in the room as we talked about this June.

We've added several new churches to the mix, which we are excited about.

Poetice is trying to swing bringing our friend Richmann from Zambia with an orphan choir that will help us in worship a few times each week to celebrate changed lives through Reach4Life.

We celebrate our 10 year anniversary this year of NTS, some cool stuff on tap for that too.

On the Never The Same (non profit) front...

We are working on several funding strategies...keep praying for this. Lots of ideas, not enough time and focus to do them all.

We continue to move forward in partnering with Grey Matter Group, a marketing firm that has a heart for what we are doing.

I'll post this again, but I am wanting to bring together a group of people, particularly passionate about CYC together for a 1x a month prayer time on Saturday nights for an hour of prayer.

Here are the dates:
march 20, april 24, may 15.

I'll remind you later. For those on Facebook, keep an eye open for an invite.


CURRENT PROJECTS:
-"21" 2011 tour/promotion for CYC
-2010 summer internships for CYC
-funding options
-camp planning
-possible west coast NTS Camp for 2011

HOW YOU CAN PRAY:
-funding, we are almost out
-continued partnership with See You At The Pole
-protection for the Eckart family, spiritually and physically

This weekend in NH

I spent the weekend in New Hampshire. (whenever I say the name of the state, I think of Bob Wiley saying "New Hampshire?". If you've seen "What About Bob?" you know what I'm talking about) I spoke at a weekend retreat at Monadnock Camp, right at the base of Monadnock mountain, the most climbed mountain in the United States, and 2nd in the world only to Fiji.

It was a powerful weekend, and God was at work. When speaking I could definitely sense His Spirit at work in an unusual way. I've head a lot of people say that in general New England is a tough place for the church to grow. It has a low church attendance percentage as well as low charitable giving rates in that part of the country. I didn't notice this in the response of the students, although it was a weekend retreat. In fact, about 20 students gave control of their lives to Christ for the very first time, and almost half of them (about 75) committed to show up at their school 1x a week and pray for their school. (the attached video if students praying in groups for their schools as we ended the weekend)

Kelsey wrote on my Facebook page today: "And also. thanks sooooooo much for such an amazing weekend. our youth group at crossway has changed so much for the better and its an amazing thing to see. and as connor said were all soo excited to start a claim your campus group at our school and are very excited. so thanks soooo much for all you done this weekend!"

I met the band SiLOam, a Partridge family type situation, where the parents manage the band made up of their four kids. Wow, their band was amazing, and I really connected with them. They love the idea of CYC, and will be partnering somehow with us to spread the CYC message in their travels. Check them out on MySpace. I'd definitely like to work with them in the future and hope to connect them w/ NTS Camp somehow.

I also met with Foad, the FCA regional director for New England, and we are connecting with the national office of FCA to talk about possibilities.

Hangin with me over the weekend was Rob Reynolds, a former colleague from Kentwood Community Church student ministries. It was great to hang with him. He is heading to New Zealand this August with his family to serve at Cession church. For those of you who know Rob, you'd be comforted to know we spent free time watching dumb videos online:)

A Prophecy about Jeff in 2007

I want to tell you about one of those moments I had that changed my life.

I've told some people about this story. I was reminded of it today as I met with a dear friend and prayer partner. He is always telling me "even a blind man could see that God is behind what you have been called to do." I thought I'd share it with you, to share part of my journey with those of you who have been interested in what God has been doing in my life leading up to now.

Let me set the stage, it was April 2007. Me, Arianna and the girls were with the high school students from Kentwood on a spring break trip in Dallas. Randomly through a mutual friend, we hooked up with a ministry, they gave a presentation about what they were about, and then they split up their team and prayed for our students. John and Tracy Eckert, (close spelling but no cigar) the leaders of the ministry, offered to pray for our family.

So...when this couple got done praying for us, Tracy said something like, "I felt as if God spoke to me two things about you when I was praying." One had to do with our daughter and an area of her giftedness that she felt God had revealed to her. What she mentioned about our daughter matched perfectly with something we've seen in her since she was very young. Keep in mind, she hadn't ever met us until about an hour before.

So that got my attention.

Also, backing up...during this time I was in conversation with another church about an opportunity to minister there, and was feeling a bit up in the air at the time. It was one of the few times in 10 years that I considered leaving KCC.

Then she shared the second thing she felt from God. This blew me away.

She said in effect that within two years God was going to do something through my life that would that would have greater impact than I could ever imagine. I remembered this daily for about a month, but then over time kind of forgot.

This was the first week of April, 2007.

On April 18th, I was invited through a friend to attend a meeting of national youth ministry leaders discussing the future of America as it pertained to youth. So about 10 days after Tracy had felt God was telling her this about me, I was sitting in this meeting in a room with leaders who were (and still are) way out of my leadership league talking about an entire generation of students changing our nation for God. It was during this meeting and afterwards that God began to expand my calling to see an entire generation call out to God for repentance for our nation for it's past sins and for His Hand of favor to bring about a movement of His Spirit across our nation.

Ironically, it was my child hood friend, Matt Lockett, who referred me to this ministry in Dallas, who snuck me in to the meeting in DC, and who helped me start up Claim Your Campus back in 2003. He lived in Denver at the time. Little did we know at the time what would become of this idea we talked about on the phone. Today Matt is the Grand Poobah of Bound4Life, which is changing the face of the pro life movement.

And then, two years later...it was 2009. This was the year God called me out in His timing to take the model of CYC to catalyze students praying across the nation.

Isn't God amaziing?

CYC 2010/2011

I met yesterday with Grey Matter Group, a marketing firm here in GR that has been walking alongside me in this journey and encouraging me. This is an incredible company that does some amazing work. They (like many people God has brought alongside me in the process of this calling) have been instrumental in helping me think through and process the vision and strategy of CYC.

Since coming back from CA, things are much clearer for the direction in rolling out the vision for how God will spread CYC to become what He wants it to become. In a nutshell, 2010 is the foundation year for the movement, and 2011 will be the year it will explosively take off. There is a lot of work to do this year to prepare for 2011.

God is aligning the people and resources in preparing the way. I keep thinking of what can happen when over 1 million students are regularly praying on their campus for their community and our nation. This can change everything.

CYC and CA/Reflections from my trip

I've already had a lot of people asking me, "How was the trip?" I've laid low a couple of days, mainly trying to get back on a different time zone schedule.

In the bigger scheme of things, this trip very well could be a turning point in the CYC movement. God allowed me to met with some pretty powerful and influential people, and it seems at just the right time. I sensed that God had gone ahead of me and prepared the way for these major connections to happen.

More than that, I sense a defining vision that is pretty specific for the movement. I cannot say much publicly that details this as of yet, but I can say that coming back home I know there is a particular direction that CYC is going to take to accomplish the mission of students praying on every campus every day in America. I do feel like I've come down from the mountain so to speak, with the tablets and an even more focused vision. (or maybe I've been paying too much attention to Steve Jobs and the iPad)

I want to thank those of you who have been praying for me, and for my family. We are going through a lot of transition still in our family and I definitely can sense the spiritual attacks of the enemy surrounding us. Please continue to pray for our protection in all aspects of our family. We appreciate this so much.