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.

Wrapping up in CA

I had to post this picture from an art exhibit at Azusa Pacific Univ. Amazing.

Today I wrapped up all my connections w/ people concerning CYC. In the morning I met w/ Josh Griffin, high school pastor at Saddleback. What a great guy. He is pretty pumped about CYC and they'll be looking into implementing it. Josh is a Star Wars freak. I love SW, and am really into it, but Josh is sick. He started and owns TheForce.net, and has written over 30,000 articles about SW. That's right, you read it correctly, 30,000. Woah. (He's also met George Lucas. Jealous)

I met with the chair of the Practical Theology Dept (isn't all theology 'practical'?) at Azusa Pacific University. His name is Dick Pritchard, this guy is impressive. He told a story of faith about God's provision that I'll never forget. If you want to hear it, let me know if you see me. It would take too long to post here, but it's worth hearing. We came up with some pretty exciting ideas connecting Azusa and CYC. Hopefully more to come...

Then I met w/ Mike DeVito (probably no relation to Danny, he's too tall) who is the National Network of Youth Ministries south west regional coordinator. He oversees all of the youth workers in the NNYM's constituents in CA, AZ, HA, and NM. He's going to be taking CYC to all the leaders in these areas, and has a gathering in Las Vegas coming up where he'll promote CYC. He, like everyone else, loves the simplicity of the concept and how it engages churches/ministries/youth workers in local communities to work together for a common purpose.

Heading home tmrw, can't wait to see the ladies in my life.

Today was better than yesterday

I'm posting this late at night PT, so it's crazy late EST. (my time zone back home)

Today was extraordinary. I was able to meet with Fern Nichols, a mom who had a passion to pray for her own kids that has spread to 130 countries and countless thousands of moms who pray for their kids who are in school. Moms In Touch Intl. began through this woman of faith and is one of those ministries that touches soooo many people but you never hear a lot about it in a lot of circles. Thank God for her faith and the faith of moms who faithfully pray for their kids.

Fern was so excited about hearing of CYC that she literally came out of her chair a few times. She said one of the most encouraging things to me when she said "You sitting here today are an answer to our prayers to see a younger generation of intercessors rise up in our country." She prayed for me, and I again was reminded by God that this dream will become a reality.

Then later today I meet with Chuck Klein. This is a guy who's been with Campus Crusade since '69. Wow, that's a long time. Again, I admire his longevity and giving his life to students. He coordinates a coalition of around 50 ministries in what's called Campus Alliance. Campus Alliance is a coalition movement of ministries that seeks to reach every student in America.

The leading team of this coalition met toady and talked about CYC and then I was able to meet personally with Chuck afterwards to discuss a partnership between CYC and Campus Alliance. This is a perfect match and CYC will be heavily promoted as a strategy for student led prayer through the overall mission of Campus Alliance to reach every student in America.

They are updating their web site, and we will be featured on it. When it is updated, I will post it.

BTW, here is the post of Bruce Wilkinson's message from Sunday I was talking about. However, this is strange, the message posted on the web site is the first service, and is totally different from what he talked about 2nd service, the one I attended. What is peculiar about this is that he completely changed what he said for the service I attended. Hmmmmm.....sounds like the Holy Spirit to me.

What happened today with See You At The Pole

Today I went and met with the staff of National Network of Youth Ministry (NNYM) in San Diego. I drove along the coast and realized it was the first time I've seen the ocean the entire time I've been here...from the car. NNYM do a lot of things to connect youth workers all over the country, they also give leadership to See You At The Pole (SYATP).

Doug Clark, director of SYATP, has given direction to the movement since it started back in 1991. I became a full time youth pastor in '93, and have been a regular part of SYATP since. It was honor to meet Doug. I've never really known the people behind the scenes of the movement, but it felt rather historic to me to meet the man behind the curtain. So I felt like I met a hero today when I met Doug. There's something inside me that has great admiration to people who have given their lives for students. I met several of these veterans today around the offices of NNYM.

I had lunch with Doug and Alon Banks, who I've met previously (also on staff at NNYM), and they paid which was nice:) We discussed the history of the SYATP prayer movement and where it's going, as well as the connection between SYATP and CYC. I continued to marvel at the parallels of philosophy that both movements have, and the kindredness I felt with Doug's heart for students praying.

I get the sense that there's a lot more to explore with SYATP and CYC.

After that I was fortunate to be there on their staff meeting day, and had the chance to share the vision of CYC to their staff. There was a visual sense of their excitement and approval for the vision of students praying on every campus across America. I know many of you prayed for this meeting, and I could sense it and God's blessing on it all today. They did a video shoot with me about CYC, and I had coffee with Kevin Boer (also with NNYM), and then made the 2 hour drive back to Fullerton.

Doug had some things to say about CYC, check it out.