Ever see a relay race? You know the ones where four runners pass a baton between them as the race progresses? Campus ministry is like that relay race. The only problem is that too often the baton is dropped and literally millions of young people pay the price.

Every leader who has worked with students for any length of time knows what we mean. The transition from high school to college is a tricky one and frankly the vast majority of youth in the church do not survive it. Researcher George Barna concludes that "from high school graduation to age 25 there is a 42% drop in weekly church attendance" and that "twenty somethings are less likely to attend church than any other age group."

Needless to say, we've got to do something about the problem of the dropped baton.

That is why we are working very hard to partner with key youth pastors and youth ministries. By building relationship with both leaders and teens, we will help teens make this transition successfully.

We got off to a great start on this goal by participating in Burn Sideways, a post “See You at the Pole” rally in Sacramento sponsored by the Capital Christian Center youth department. Not only did Curt speak to over 2000 teens and multiple youth leaders, he had an incredible time working shoulder to shoulder with key youth pastors in the area.

Burn Sidesways was just one example. In just the last two and a half months, Curt has sat down with multiple youth leaders. All of them have been very enthusiastic about creating a stronger tie between youth ministry and college ministry. In fact, the conviction of these leaders is that this generation of students will do more than just finish the race, they can be used on campus to start multiple student led campus ministries.

Think about the potential. Barna estimates that the number of teens dropping out of church after High School at about 8,000,000. What would happen if those same teens not only remained faithful to Christ but were marshaled to start campus ministries on colleges throughout the west? Who knows, we might just change the world.

Sept 13, 2005

Just got back from Ruston Louisiana, home of LA Tech. It was a great weekend
but I am too tired. I have been burning the candle at both ends and
then burning it in the middle, on the side and along the edges.

Ruston, for those of you who are not familar with Louisiana geography,
was not in the storm path and was not one of the major refugee cities.
It is a place where up to 5000 students from the New Orleans area have
fled in the hopes of transferring.

I was there to speak at the United Campus Ministries event "Fusion."
This is an annual event and I was the scheduled speaker long before the
hurricane, but the devastation and added students from New Orleans had
everyone in a mode of contemplation (and a little bit of shock, I might
add).

From the first note of worship, it was obvious that this was more than
an event and that the reality of how fragile the world is had put
everyone's hearts and minds on overdrive. Worship leader Jason Morant,
sans most of his band and equipment, due to hurricane chaos, lead with
great humility and skill. This was a surprise treat for me as I am a
big fan (he's from New Orleans, which I did not know until this
weekend).

Even 13 year old Jesse, who accompanied me on this trip, remarked that
" God's presence was really thick in that place tonight Dad."

The student leaders (with the help of staff members Gregg, Angie, Philip
and Jennifer) did an incredible job of loving students and
serving...literally. Beside the Fusion event on Thursday, Chi Alpha
sponsored a welcome to campus event on Friday night. The free hamburger
and hotdog line was three people deep and fifty yards long for two
hours.

Most moving for me however was just hanging out with students and
hearing their stories. Many of these students live in New Orleans and or
have family that were impacted by the storm. I heard stories of trees
falling into kitchens, relatives working for four days straight to
restore power or repair a refinery and tons of stories of fleeing flood
waters with no idea of what was damaged or what would happen next.

The whole experience impressed on me again the need to help students
hold this world lightly and the need for the church to embrace its role
as servant leaders in culture. I have some more specific thoughts about
long term service in this situation and how that can be a tool in
discipling leaders that I will share in the next few days when I can
actually focus on writing (it took me a good three hours to get these
few sentences out).

August 16

The answer seems to be that plenty of folks are. Since that time over 20
leaders have made the move to California. This dramatic increase of leaders
for west coast campuses is completely unprecedented!! Even better, these
aren¹t just rookie campus leaders. Veteran after veteran campus leader has
heard from the Lord and set out for the coast.

Leaders like Brian and Cecilee Orme, Dr. Kent McCorkle, Jack and Renee
Hammond, Winston and Kimi Bui, Eric and Rebbeka Thomre, Dr. Uwe Munich,
Brian Kleofkorn, Sara Denton, Jessica Yoder, Gwen and Jerry Gibson, Guido and
Katie Hajenius, Will Klier and Jim McKinney have all moved to California just this last year.

Not that we are responsible for getting any of these folks to come out here.
In fact, it is uncanny how many of them were hearing from God independently
from each other during the exact same time.

However amazing, this shouldn't surprise us.

We¹ve been doing campus ministry since 1983. First as student leaders, then
as interns, staff members, directors, intern directors, state directors and
on the national team. In all that time, one of the biggest lessons we¹ve
learned is that God never calls us to work alone.

From Moses and Aaron, to Jesus sending them out two by two, He's clearly on
the side of doing things as a team.

Most of those mentioned above are already on or headed towards a particular
campus, like UCLA, UC Irvine and UC Davis. Three of them, the Ormes and Dr.
McCorkle, will work directly with Kelly and I to target new campus ministry
groups on unreached campuses.

Brian and Cecilee Orme will focus especially on helping start student led
groups, while Kent will be our new campus ministry tools and resources guru.
Together we will work to help churches, student and full time Chi Alpha
leaders reach this strategic 20 something generation.

Pray for all of all of these leaders serving Christ on the West Coast and
especially for Brian, Cecilee and Kent as they work with us to see hundreds
of more campuses reached for Christ.

July 27

We thought you'd like to see how your prayers matter. Check out this "answered" list for the last 10 months.

• God begins to put together a great team for the west coast. Even before our plans are official, several veteran leaders start to move out west to be with us, including Winston and Kimi Bui, Dr. Kent McCorckle, Brian and Cecil Orme and more!

• The AG N. California and Nevada District Council offers us temporary housing at their Mission Villa, providing an inexpensive place to stay during the relocation.

• Working without a realtor, our house sells in a cash deal, with no inspections or contingency, for very close to our asking price on the exact week we need to close.

• A truck, driver and gas are donated to move our stuff.

• Jesse masters pre-algebra and Maddy scores in the 99th percentile on her Missouri math test (Curt and Kelly, who are horrible at math, wonder how the alien DNA got into their kids).

• Aunt Kathie agrees to Dog-sit Ruby during the transition and a good Christian home is found for Marlene the Cat.

• Vast majority of our stuff is liquidated at a yard sale (at the end Kelly begins to shout at cars driving by "FREE STUFF" igniting a "junk-a-palossa").

• In spite of driving thousands of miles with three loud children and running into two tornados, we completely avoid the need to employ a body shop.

• Our first week out west, we are greeted by over 20 leaders at a "Welcome to California" party. We feel very loved.

• We find a house. Our bid beats out two others in spite of the fact that it is not the highest one offered. If escrow goes smoothly we should be in it by late August.

Amazing isn't it.
Curt

June 1

Moving from Missouri to Cali has this song running through our heads

Come 'n listen to my story 'bout the Harlow gang
Crazy campus pastors, in Missouri they did hang
And then one day, they got the call to move
So they packed up their home for some California groove
Planting new groups that is, Chi Alphas, Campus Ministries

(bango music)
Hey, you can take the person out of the Ozarks, but you can't never take the Ozarks out of the person!
I know, I know, cheesy to the max. What can you do? Things are funny and
exciting and scary around here and that combination makes us all a little
goofy.

The house is sold and we are literally clearing it out as I write. Most of
our stuff is in the garage waiting for the truck. We should pack it on the
8th of June and be in out temporary housing sometime around the middle of
June.

Please pray for us. Pray for our support to come in, for a great house find
in California and for all our hearts and heads as we make this transition.

See you in California!

April 29

We have a plan. A plan that I am very, very excited about. I have done a bit of work in the past were I just ran around doing whatever was urgent. I have also been part of groups that had great goals but no plan to achieve those goals. Both of those methods for getting stuff done are very frustrating.

On more than a few occasions however, I have had the blessing of working on teams that actually had, not just a good plan, but a God plan. Something simple yet thought through. Something so good it was obviously from the Lord.

I believe we have just such a plan for our new West Coast Field Office.
We started with prayer. In September of ’04 we went on a 40-day fast and many of you joined us by taking one of the days to pray. The first draft of the west coast strategic plan, the budget, and the support raising strategy came out of that time of prayer.

An initial personnel assessment was done in October of ’04. At that time Dr. Kent McCorkle agreed to join the team as the West Coast Resources Specialist. Kent is a Dr. of Chemistry and has been on staff with the Auburn Chi Alpha group for four years. Not only is he smart, funny and great with technology…he spells way better than either Kelly or me.

All three members of the current team started raising funds for the budget in the fall of ‘04. During this time they also began to meet with key leaders to explain the vision and potential for an office the focuses on planting new groups out west.

To date, the strategic plan is on target and moving forward. We are getting input from other leaders and will finalize it by the fall of ’05 in a a series of meetings with Southern California and Northern California/Nevada District officials and veteran west coast Chi Alpha leaders.

The plan marries our 20 plus years of planting new groups with some great leaders (like Glen Davis at Stanford, Loren Hicks and Winston Bui at UCLA, Jennifer Hughes at UC Davis, etc). with a simple but diverse approach. The central idea is to develop a three model approach to leadership development. These models are dynamic, proven to work in urban areas and (here is the best part) actually do-able with the current leaders and resources we have out west.

Want to know what the three models are…tune in next week.

April 12, 2005

How, might you ask, did we decide to move back to California? Well…my initial thinking and praying about the Chi Alpha West Coast Field Office began in Dec. of ‘03 as a part of the overall National Chi Alpha strategic planning meetings (that sounds really official but basically it means six guys in a cheap hotel conference room talking and praying a lot in front of a dry erase board). At that time discussions centered on how to make the national Chi Alpha staff more effective, especially at planting new groups, in harder to reach urban areas.
In January of ’04 the Chi Alpha National Leadership team, including myself, traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet with Harvey Herman and the Atlantic Coast Field Office staff. The success of this team, especially in Washington, D.C., inspired me further to seriously consider the west.

That spring I turned 40, which made me get deep and philosophical about how God wanted me to really spend my time. I thought about what Kelly and I were gifted at, what we did not do as well, where we felt at home, how our kids were doing and what would be the best for us during the next 20 years.

We began to talk and pray and talk and pray and talk and pray almost every night. We wrote draft after draft of those pros and cons lists that you make. And of course we talked to our friends. Probably talked to them too much. I tend to be very open about this sort of thing. I am sure by the time I got done processing the decision with everyone around me they never wanted to help me make another decision again.

The talking did help though. One day, over coffee a close friend and mentor said to me, “Curt there are those who work at (AG denomination) headquarters their whole lives and those who come, learn something, impart something and then leave. You two need to know which ones you are.” By July of ’04 I was pretty sure we were not the stay in Springfield 20 years types. Although we both have learned some incredible lessons here, and met some great people, we needed to get closer to the campus planting action.

In August of ’04 we, in consultation with the National Chi Alpha Leadership Team and the Assemblies of God US Missions office, officially transitioned out of our roles as National Trainer and National Projects Specialist to head up the new West Coast Field office. Curt became the West Coast Field Representative and Kelly the West Coast Communications Specialist.
What came next you ask?...Tune in next week.

January 26, 2005

Top 10 Reasons for XA on the West Coast

Why you ask, would we pick up our family and go through all the trouble, transition and expense of starting the National Chi Alpha West Coast Field Office? Here is the answer.

1. Six out of ten of the world’s leading institutions of higher learning are on the west coast. These schools produce the leaders that will impact our world in the area of science, business, economics, politics and beyond.

2. More that 700,000 students are enrolled at a college or university on the west coast and the number continues to grow every year.

3. The west coast is home to 35 film schools that exert incredible influence on culture and morality globally. The next Spielberg, Lucas and Gibson are studying on the west coast right now.

4. California hosts more international students than any other state. From the Middle East, to Africa and as far as Asia, the leaders of the world are studying there.

5. The Pac Ten rocks.

6. The California State University system is the largest higher education system in the world.

7. Some of Chi Alpha’s largest and most enduring groups are on the west coast. We need to help these groups use their strengths to pioneer other groups.

8. Some of Chi Alpha’s most recent pioneering efforts are on the west coast. We need to make sure these groups thrive so that they can help plant more groups.

9. Some of the AG’s most student friendly churches are on the west coast. We need to partner with these groups to help start more church based and student led groups.

10. Literally hundreds if not thousands of institutes, community colleges and universities on the west coast have little or no effective gospel witness on them.

January 21, 2005

Wendy Fung, a Chi Alpha alumnus from California, is a pharmacist helping with the Tsunami aid relief. Every week she sends us reports on how it's going and where she's going next. Here's what she has to say...

Hello friends and family! Well as you all know, I am headed to India in 48 hours. These past few weeks have been the most stressful that I can remember in a long time. I want to thank so many of you for sending donations in, for buying me meals, for doing my laundry, for driving from LA to bring me communion grape juice, for calling in to make sure I was getting sleep, for taking time off of work to help me pack, for helping me pack to awful hours of the evening/morning, for telling me I was great on TV, for praying for me, for offering to fly from Hawaii to help me pack and for supporting me countless other ways these past 2 weeks. I have seen how faithful the Lord is through this whole ordeal. He never gives me more than I can handle and when I thought I had meltdown, the Lord sent more people to prove me that He is in control. I feel so blessed to have people like you in my life. Many have asked for the itinerary so I have attached it. Please continue to pray for us as
this next week is where it counts and where God can be glorified if I don't get in the way. We leave Saturday and return Sunday the 30th.
Take care, Wendy.

January 12, 2005

The Bible freaked me out this week. I was actually hoping to find some peace in its pages but instead, as I read, I started to fear for my life. I am referring to the story in Mark Chapter 4:35-41, where Jesus calms the waves. I first started looking at these verses because with all of the transition in our lives lately, I was eager to find some comfort and help in dealing with all of the stress of moving. (continued) This passage is notorious for being used as a “comfy promise” passage.

Unfortunately I found the story to be all about freaked out disciples. They we scared at the start, scared in the middle and by they end the Bible says they were even more scared— in fact terrified. This is saying something because the “more scared” part happens after they were already afraid for their lives.

What it more scary than death? I guess the answer is seeing Jesus do a miracle. Let me explain.

The story starts with Jesus organizing a boat outing. This involved getting into a small wooden craft, at night, in the middle of squall season. I guess if you want to see miracles you gotta put yourself into a few risky situations now and then.

When the squall came up, they feared for their lives. The squall was furious and broke over the side of the boat. They were quickly becoming swamped. Sound anything like your life? It does mine. As I spent last week planning our move, I could literally feel the waves swamping the boat.

Anyway, they did the sensible thing and woke up Jesus. After all, they had seen him do a few strange things with bread and blind people; maybe he could help in this situation. They were also probably motivated a little bit by anger. It seems clear that his sleeping peacefully while they were suffering from extreme seasickness was getting on their nerves.

Ever feel like God is entirely less panicked about your problems than he should be?

This is where Jesus surprises them. You see, they thought he was incredible, authoritative, the best teacher ever—the future ruler of all of Israel. But they did not yet really think he was God. I mean, preaching a good sermon is one thing, telling the creation to behave is quite another.

When Jesus stood up in that boat and demonstrated that he was the boss of wind and wave, that each and every atom of creation had to obey him, they realized that he was much, much bigger than even they had supposed. They saw themselves as truly small and Jesus as truly magnified. In short, they understood the true nature of their relationship with Him. They were the creatures, he was the creator.

This brings us to the most important part of this story—their reaction.

Often this passage is used as some sort of Christian lullaby for stress and worry. “Don’t fear friend, remember, if Jesus calmed the waves he can calm the troubles in your life.” While it is true that Jesus gives peace and is the God of all comfort, THIS STORY IS NOT ABOUT PEACE OR COMFORT IN THE LEAST.

It is about the transforming effect of fear. There reaction was not to be comforted that they had avoided drowning, but to be seized with fear that God had come to be among them.

Seeing Jesus take command of creation did not give them warm fuzzy feelings, it shook them. It shook their pride, their plans and their entire perspective on life. It changed them. In short, the deeper our respect for the power of God, the greater the transformation he affects in our life.

Let me end my observations by reminding us how Jesus begins this boat ride. He simply says to them, “Let’s go over to the other side.”

At the risk of being too allegorical, I wonder if we can learn something about “getting over” from all of the risks taking, relationship evaluating and God respecting that is going on in this story

Maybe, just maybe we can come to the conclusion that nothing worthwhile is accomplished unless we take a little risk. Perhaps we can realize that accomplishing something difficult involves seeing ourselves in the proper perspective to our creator— seeing the true nature of our relationship to God. And finally, maybe a healthy dose of respect for God’s power, his immeasurable size, and his complete lordship is a very good thing? Maybe being freaked out is a good thing?

So three quick questions for all of us:
1. What are you risking for God?
2. What is the state of your relationship with him? Or another way to ask that same question, how big is he and how small are you?
3. What is your response to God for what he has done in your life?

(make comments and see other curtings here)