It’s true I pastor students, middle school students to be specific. It’s a new gig for me and one i enter into with excitement and some biblical fear and trembling.

I read student ministry blogs here and there. I want to do that more; there are so many great ideas and encouraging people out there.
What student ministry blogs should I be reading?

And i’m looking forward to sharing some of the things we are doing here in the student ministry at Christ Church Plano.

Christ Church is a really great place! It’s also a really interesting mix of a liturgical church, rooted in tradition, history and beauty, and an evangelical bible church kinda feel with a high value on scripture and a personal relationship with Jesus. Most of the things you typically think of from a liturgical church and a bible church both find themselves being gracefully lived out right here in one place. Geographically we are in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas, a place called Plano that has its own kind of charm and plenty of suburban challenges.

I’m pretty new around here, just into my 3rd month, but I think this mix of things is going to make for some great but unique ministry in the student ministry world. I still know a lot of folks who are doing event-based attractional ministry, i know folks who are doing strong small group ministry, and i know folks who are trying to do missional youth ministry. I even know some folks who are doing a mix of all the above. The journey i’m on is to figure out how to do youth ministry in a liturgically sensible, biblically formative, socially conscious, and above all disciple-making kind of way.
Maybe there are some folks out there trying to do similar kinds of things. WHO ARE YOU? We need to talk!

Basically i’m excited to talk about student ministry, middle school ministry, failures, successes, and all the crazy stories in between. Student ministry is a wild ride but i’m excited to be a part of this community of people in a new kind of way. I’m excited to dive deeper into the conversation.

Grace and peace
erik

Well if you get my ministry emails you’ll know that my summer had been CRAZY busy! It has been pretty amazing, i’m not gonna lie (i’m working on a summer update email / blog post – stay tuned). But because of my busy summer covering 8 states and thousand and thousand of miles i’ve taken a little blog vacation.

HOWEVER… while on this blog vacation i have dreamed up a few sweet posts and have been working on em’ here and there, i’m looking forward to sharing these nuggets soon. The sharing will commence in a couple weeks. I’ve got a few more things going on and 1 camp left to get ready for.

In the mean the time…

#1. I’m working on a summer update eNewsletter. Should go out next week.

#2. We are still, slowly but surely working on a new ministry website and blog. Hoping it will be up sometime in August. I have my fingers crossed.

#3. Oh just you wait!

For now, grace and peace my friends!
erik

Here is a little teaser… a few of my favorite summer instagram pics… ENJOY!

Some dude once said “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Kinda famous right, i think it’s famous because so many of us feel that in our bones. It’s something that resonates on a really deep level!

I just posted a little diddy about my last months and the excitement of my coming month. I have some really great ministry stuff going down these days and i am really excited about it! It’s probably the 2 best months of ministry i’ve had in the last 2 or 3 years.

So it really seems like the best of times. GOOD

But this past month has also been extremely difficult. = HARD

Maybe not the worst of times literally but pretty hard. Doubt, struggle, temptation, contention, selfishness… the list can go on and on but it just seems like there is a spirit of tension in my house and in my life. I do think that when the best of times come there is an enemy who wants to give us an earthly reality check. But i also know there is a Jesus who want to give us an eschatological reality check. Meaning, Jesus want us to experience heaven now, he wants us to have the abundant life of eternity here and now. Maybe only a little taste, an already but not quite yet kind of deal but i’m afraid i’m letting a reality of sin and selfishness steal my taste of God’s abundant future and the gift he has for me now!

I hate that!

And as i write i feel like God is speaking, telling me that the thoughts of failure and dead ends are lies and maybe i need to be remembering verses like this one…

“We pray that you’ll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us. God rescued us from dead-end alleys and dark dungeons. He’s set us up in the kingdom of the Son he loves so much, the Son who got us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were doomed to keep repeating.”

Colossians 1:11:14 (the message)

So yea, life is good and life is hard, all at the same time but God is good and i pray that all of us in our times of struggle, temptation, and despair would remember that we’ve been set up in God’s Kingdom because he loves us regardless of our performance or success and regardless of our mood or emotions. And we have to be honest, with ourselves, with our communities, and with God because life isn’t easy even when lots of things seems to be great because even then some things can be really hard and maybe, just maybe, that is when we need to lean into the reliability of the scripture, the companionship of our community, and the compassion of the Holy Spirit.

I write all this at the risk of being an internet over-sharer… and i’m not a huge fan of “that guy” but i think honesty is important and i think we need to hear the struggles just as much as we hear the hoorays. We need to remind each other of God’s goodness and his unswerving (look up synonyms – awesome) love for us! And in writing, i needed to remind myself! Cause we need to do that as well sometimes as well.

Grace and peace

(because you’ve been set up in the kingdom that has come in the person of Jesus!)

erik

and PS :: for some reason i’m aware of my abundant run-on sentences in this post. Which is weird considering how bad at English grammar i am (you’d think i was born to write in a different language). So, sorry about if you are the kind that cares about those kinds of things. And a warning, if you are, this blog might not be the place for you. But i invite you to stick around either way!

Shalom

Well February is almost over and March is around the corner. I have to be honest, i’m really looking forward to spring! Warmth and Sun and outdoor activities! Ahhh, that sounds so good right now!

I received a little taste of spring last weekend while i was in Alabama with Aldersgate UMC. This is a retreat i do every year and every year it seems to get better.

A conviction i had when i started to travel and do the itinerant teaching / preaching ministry was that relationships were going to be of the utmost importance! So i have prayed, since the beginning, that i would develop partnership with churches and youth group so that we could build on what God was doing at these retreat. I have prayed that the ministry i do wouldn’t just be a flash in the pan but would be a kinda of Pauline ministry of partnership in the Gospel, much in the same way Paul partnered with the church in Philippi. Over the years i have had this sort of partnership with a few churches, i’m excited that this is happening with Aldersgate and the great group of students and leader they have over there!

“I thank my God every time i remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among us will bring it to completion.”
Philippians 1:3-6

We had a great weekend of partnering in the gospel! Which included playing football and wiffleball on a 70 degrees Saturday afternoon! AMAZING!
The theme of the retreat was “COLLIDE – Where Worship and Mission Meet.” We were able to challenge the students to think critically about participating in worship and in God’s mission, while laying a biblical foundation for the interconnectedness of these things. It was a great and challenging weekend for all us!

2 highlight of the weekend were playing in a vicious tournament of spoons with students and leaders. I might add that i emerged the champion! Many laughs and a few bruises were had but it was great fun! And to cap off the weekend we took communion together, challenging the students to remember what Christ has done, to worship Him fully, and participate in his mission in the world! It was a great weekend and i’m excited about next year!

Earlier in the month i spoke at a Jr. High retreat for Oak Point church in Detroit Michigan. A group of 200 Jr high and 50 leaders converged on Timber Wolf camp grounds, a young life camp in northern Michigan. It was a beautiful and CHILLY setting but we were able to hunker down and open the the bible together, leaning into the teachings of Jesus and the idea that he came to give us LIFE, to enable us to THRIVE!

It was great weekend with a bunch of crazy middle school students. On Saturday night at least 5 of these students gave their lives to Christ for the first time and probably another hundred students raised their hands to indicate that they wanted to recommit their lives to Christ and do more then survive but thrive in their Christian life. It was awesome to see students respond to God’s word and commit to grow in Christ.

We played octaball, basketball, and even had a snowball fight or two! It was a great weekend of fun and spiritual renewal! I hope to see these students again soon! But for now i am keeping up with a handful of them on facebook! As a response to a challenge i gave to plant themselves in community and begin to read the bible together, 3 different facebook bible studies have begun! It’s awesome to see students respond in practical ways that go beyond our weekend together! Praying that they stick with it and continue to thrive in their lives with Christ!

This has been one of the best months of ministry in the past couple years and I have 2 more retreat in March! Looking forward to seeing what God will do as we pray and anticipate!

Grace and peace
erik

I really hope to be better at blogging and even plan on doing some video blogging here in the new year. With said, i am also a slacker and haven’t started despite the fact that we are a month into the new year.

I do have a few thought provoking blogs to post here soon. Some reading that has been done in the new year that i would like to share and a cool partnership that is being formed. All kinds of blogs – a – brewing!

TONIGHT!

My wife and i are having out first date night since the kiddo came along. Jack will be hanging out with his Nashville grandparents while Andrea and i go out for a night on the town. Actually we are attending a banquet for a non profit organization that i really thing is doing some amazing thing and that i want to find ways to partner with in the next year.

The organization is Global Support Mission and they are doing some amazing thing on the ground all over the world. Their Know.Think.Act initiative is a really tangible way to enable people to get involved in the specific needs of real people. LOVE IT! i love it because it’s enable people to Live Love!

Hoping to think of some creative ways for eMinistries to partner with these guys in the future!

So that’s the scoop!

Grace and peace – and blog to come!
Erik

THE GOOD NEWS!!!
As of December 18th 20007 Erik Willits Ministries is officially a 501 C3 non-profit organization!

In talking with Larry Howlett, our consultant / under writer guy, he was impressed with the how fast everything was done. He even said it was processed the fastest of any non-profit he has ever worked with. I believe that some times the IRS will assign the corporation a case working, pretty much making sure they are legitimate and are doing things correctly. We must of done things well, we didn’t get a case worker, just the go ahead! So, IT”S OFFICAL!

So if you know anybody that wants to donate large amounts of money to a non-profit organization I know of a good one!

Awesome!

Well I am stoked to start the new year with a bang!

FULL SPEED AHEAD!

Peace
~~Erik