Relationships

My Buddies and I in Kansas for #carrindiewedding

One of the biggest reasons I love Young Life is that it is a relational ministry. The community that comes from it is one that continually seeks to understand what a community rooted in Christ should look like. If it weren't for the group of guys I got to run after Jesus with in college, my life would look a lot different. I certainly wouldn't have as much wisdom as I do. Relationships are important.

My girlfriend, Becca, is someone who continually pushes me to know and love Jesus more. There are countless things I have come to learn about Jesus just from hearing her talk about her life and from the way that she treats me. Relationships can allow us to realize truths in our walk with God that are only head knowledge until we truly experience them in another person. For me there are times where Becca shows me love or forgiveness in a way that makes me think "Oh, that's what Jesus meant", or "Oh, that's how Jesus would have acted". It is crazy to me that God works in that way, but it's a beautiful, beautiful thing. We were meant to be in community. Those are just two examples that I've been getting a lot from recently. Again, relationships are important.

I Took Becca to Her Dream Location: A Puppy Farm

When looking at Jesus' life it is a beautiful thing to see the vast multitude of people that he affected. The relationships that he created on Earth were ones that affected people for their entire lifetimes. He wasn't limited to his peers though, when you look at who he has significant interactions with you see people of different ages, different ethnicities, backgrounds, occupations, etc. Jesus was known in a community. Relationships are important. All of this translate to what has been going on in FC.

As previously stated many times, I have a fantastic committee. As a leader at Tech I didn't get to interact with our committee much, only at picnics and other Leader/Committee events where our 80 person leadership split time with our committee. I knew they were great and essential, but not how absolutely crucial they were. In Franklin I get that. And while they do great work, the aspect of their servitude I am most thankful for is their ability to connect me to the county relationally.

My Cheeseball Pic from the Article!

You've read about pastors breakfasts, rotary meetings and school board presentations. All of these things have been set up by or aided by my committee. I've met literally hundreds of people since being here. I was even interviewed by the local paper because the man who runs it will be a table host at our banquet and was sought out by our committee. (Here's a link to the article!) Because of that article, I've been getting phone calls from people around the county wanting to know more about Young Life, and have people who I've met since say they remember me from the front page of the paper. It is a crazy web of relationships that stems from a group of people sold out for Jesus.

Due to all of this, Young Life is becoming a truly Franklin County movement. It isn't moving into the community and making its mark, but rather being welcomed into the community and partnering with it for every high school kid. It's awesome to see and to be a part of. This was never more obvious to me than during our table host meeting. Each year in areas that have Young Life there is a banquet. This usually happens in the fall, and ours this year is November 15th. Our aim in the banquet is twofold. I think its biggest victory will be in the fact that everyone who attends will be given a taste of what Young Life is. The banquet is going to fun. Its not a stuffy black tie event, it is run, in a lot of ways, like a Young Life club. It also doubles as a fundraiser. Yes, it does take some coin to do Young Life, and our banquet will allow us the opportunity to invite people to partner with us with their resources.

Our incredible, wonderful table hosts

Just like anything else, the banquet is relational. We aren't sending out flyers or emails, taking out ads in the paper (though the article does mention it) or renting billboards. Instead we personally invite people. It starts with out committee who for the past couple months have been asking friends, coworkers and family if they would want to be a table host at our banquet. The role of a table host is simple, to 'sponsor' a table at the banquet which simply means filling up the seats at an eight person table. For them to then bring people who they would want to gain an understanding of what Young Life is and what we are doing here in FC. This past Tuesday night we had our table host meeting where our 23 table hosts met with our committee and we got to share with them our vision for the banquet. Because each person represents a table of eight, and we know we will have some overflow, our hope is to fill 200 seats with Franklin County residents excited for kids hearing the Gospel. The ripples that this will have will be massive and impactful. Who knows what the Lord has up his sleeve for this one. Like I said, relationships are important.