End-of-the-Year Barbecue

 The boys calling their mothers. 

It's tough saying goodbye to our students, whether it's the seniors who are moving to different cities for good or the rest, who are just going away for three months. It's tough after spending so much of the past nine months with them! We waited until after our last service of the semester to say goodbye. I just bought a new grill and what better way to break it in than grilling for 25 hungry students?

"Bring a side or dessert!" We are swimming in left-over chips now.

Honey's best friend, Erica.

Our awesome group of leaders.

Passing the torch. Our new upcoming core leaders.

Last Equipper Dinner

Last weekend we had our final meeting with the student leaders in our small group. We were brought to tears with laughter, reminisced and enjoyed one another's company one last time before the team changes for next year. We're sending two of our seniors (the guys in the back) off to Austin, TX and Springfield, MO and we're bringing up four younger students to help lead the team next year. Aimee and I are transitioning into coaching the group as Joe in Erica (in front) will be the new leaders.

It's been such a joy for Aimee and I to lead with these guys and girls. They have all grown a ton in their faith and are learning to be disciple-makers themselves. We've had a trying couple of year together but through all that, we've grown closer than any other student leadership team I've seen. So proud of these students!

Rock Appreciation Dinner 2013

Each Spring we take a night to celebrate our student leaders. This year we honored our 36 students who provide leadership in our Canvas Groups and our Worship Services with a "High School Awards Assembly" themed Rock Appreciation Dinner. Each group of students came dressed as a high school click. Aimee and my group came as the Jocks.

We had a ton of fun serving and honoring them. Each student was given an award and trophy as well being treated to The Rome, a fantastic Italian place in town.

Here are some shots from the night taken by fellow staffer, Mazvita Lewton. Check out more here.

First, a link to our staff's Harlem Shake Thank You Video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tleCPGNlII

Aimee dressed as a basketball player and me as Vice Principal

My Canvas Group and their epic entrance.

Getting photo bombed by Andrew and Matt

The students watching our Thank You video.

Andrew and I hosting. We had a ton of fun!

Canvas Group Seniors 2013

Last night, we had our last Canvas Group meeting of the year. We spent the time reflecting on how the early church encouraged one another and then spent some time writing letters to one another, imitating what we saw. Finally, at the end of the night, we prayed over the six seniors in our group.

This group is special to me because they were all freshmen the year I came back as a campus missionary with The Rock. I've spent a lot of hours with these young men and they have become pillars of our group. We will miss them all dearly.

Please pray for Travis, Matt, Tyler, Mallory, Josh and Sean as they graduate and begin their next journey.

Valentines Day Dinner

Last week we transformed our living room into a fancy restaurant. And by fancy I mean we had white Christmas lights, we plugged in our electric fireplace unit and we all dressed up for dinner. It was our first Canvas Group Valentines Day Dinner. The gentlemen of our CG cooked an Italian meal for the ladies, served them, waited on them and played host to this event, which last about 3 hours including desserts, talking and picture-taking.

The hope was first to bring some unity to the group. Even college kids have a tendency to clump together in their friend groups and can forget that they're part of something bigger. The second hope was to help our men serve their sisters, to treat them with care and respect, especially on a day where single people can otherwise tend to be very bitter.

I'd say it was a bullseye on both counts. I was so proud to see the guys step up and serve so well and I was so proud to see us bond as a group. Even how we sat people was strategic, so that people could get to know others in the group they wouldn't necessarily sit by typically.

My prayer is that this carries over from here. That upperclassmen and fresh men can care for each other, that guys and girls don't separate like a junior high dance and that we continue to build trust within the group so we can be real together and live for God together.

Equipper Dinner

Aimee snagged a good picture of last night's Equipper Dinner, so I thought it'd be a great chance to share with you all! Typically, we have a meeting every Sunday evening with the student leaders in our Canvas Group (equippers) but this week we decided to take a break from the typical schedule and decided to have a nice taco dinner.

These seven students are such a blessing to Aimee and I. We don't just do church with them, we do life with them. I've seen God work in each one of their lives in ways that have set them on fire for him and in ways that have broken them to where all they have is dependence on him. Getting to have a meal together where we get to just enjoy each other (and have a nice little conversation about pre-destination) is just icing on the cake of getting to serve with them.

Passing the Baton

2010-2011 Canvas Group Equippers

This week and next are the last two of the semester and I will be having some end-of-the-year chats with various students. One of those, Aimee and I had the other night with our equippers from this year, the student leaders who help make Canvas Group happen. The other was with the equippers for the upcoming school year.

You may remember them from my letters throughout the year. We had Travis, Zach, Ben, Brooke and Cassady over for a very nice lasagna dinner one last time on Sunday night. It was a time just to say thank you and to celebrate the year. Zach, Brooke and Cassady all graduating this year, we asked them to share some thoughts on why it is worth to keep investing in community and to keep growing as a leader at The Rock. It was cool to hear their responses and to in some sense, pass the baton to Ben and Travis, they younger equippers.

Now with three of these students leaving after this semester, we've been praying and seeking out a couple replacements for them. A few weeks ago, we approached two girls from another CG to serve as equippers with us this upcoming year. We asked two young girls, Erica and Margaret, to join us next year. Each of these girls is on fire for the Lord and have been asked to come over because of two things: they are passionate about reaching out to the dorms and if there is one area we are out of balance in, it's with younger girls.

We met with next year's equippers, including these two at Memorial Union yesterday to introduce them to the group and to start dreaming about next year. It seems like they will be a great fit and I am very excited to work with them.

Please be praying for us as we make the transition into absorbing these girls into our group. We have a few large goals for next year that I'll share with you another time. Pray that the Lord stirs in us a passion to be united in Christ and in purpose next Fall. It is going to be an awesome school year.

Take care,
Chris Swift

Seven to Wheneven

When I pitched this name to the equippers at our meeting, it was mostly a joke. In the past, when canvas groups have began a regular dorm hang-out night, called it "Eight to Late", but "wheneven" isn't even a real word. Maybe they were only humoring me (probably) but they went for it. And, since I write the emails, we have officially begun a weekly night in the dorms that we affectionately call, "Seven to Wheneven."

As my generic picture of MU students will show you, studying is an essential to college life. Something I've learned since I've been a campus missionary is that ministering to students does not equal just inviting them to church but that you have to meet them where they are. As Aimee and I began the year we knew that getting into the dorms on a regular basis had to be something that our group made a priority. In the past, our canvas group has struggled with dorm outreach, so in an effort to change this, we encouraged following up with freshmen who filled out an interest survey and initiated a regular time of getting in the dorms.

Seven to Wheneven is a new thing and thus is still developing an identity. It's a strange mix of a study night and a hang out night. Some nights have been almost stuffy as a dozen people stare at laptops and feel the pressure of the first round of tests. Other nights have been super relaxed as we turn on Monday Night Football, pass out some day-old pastries that Aimee took home from her coffee shop job and enjoy each other's company. We're learning and trying to find the balance of what the night will look like each week. Our purpose is for it to be a common gathering that meets the needs of the students we are reaching out to in the dorms: a regular time for study and fellowship. We'll get there.

So pray for us. Pray that when the unexpected hall meeting shows up we are okay with moving to another close-by study lounge. Pray that we aren't so involved with our laptops and notebooks that we forget to build relationships. Pray that we make it something inevitable. Pray that we continue to get out of our comfort zones as we do our best to reach out to these students. I know God will show us the fruit of our efforts but we must always labor in prayer together.

God bless,

Chris

Reaching the LOST

Pun intended.

The Canvas Group I inherited back in October is a great group of students who are striving to grow in their relationship with the Lord but did not have a very strong dorm presence. At the beginning of each year, we pass out spiritual interest surveys and follow up with people who shared that they would like to find a church home. We got a little bit of fruit from those, but for the most part, we knew very few people who lived in the area that we have been trying to reach.

After being about a month in as a campus missionary, Aimee and I discovered that several people within our Canvas Group really, and I mean really, enjoy the show LOST. I also knew that the final season of LOST would begin this semester. I also knew that the Plaza dorm area has a commons area on the third floor with a big screen TV.

A solution to our lack of dorm presence was laid right before me: LOST watch parties in the dorms.

I pitched the idea to our equippers at the beginning of this semester and they were all for it. Soon after, we had a season premiere watch party. The first week we had only people from Canvas Group show up. The second week we had three people we didn't know come by and watch with us. Since beginning this Tuesday night trend, we are now outnumbered regularly by "others". Our party now hovers around 15-20 people each week.

It's been a great way to get our group to be more intentional with where and with whom they spend their time. Something as simple as watching a TV show can be an outreach tool if we let the Lord use it. Where our group once had little interest in meeting the people in the dorms, we now are used to spending time there and we are learning to pursue those people.

Please be praying for us:

• That we would continue to use the dorms as a place for evangelism.
• That we would build relationships with the students who are coming and that we would get to a point where we can share the gospel with them.
• That God would reveal to us other ways in which we can be intentional with our time.

Equipper Mini-Retreat

Yesterday, on MLK Jr day, while most students were moving back into town and getting settled back in to campus life, the student leaders and staff at The Rock took half a day to focus, plan and get excited for the new semester as well as commit it to prayer. One of our pastors, John, has a long-time friend in town who was willing to open up his home so that we could host a mini-retreat with the canvas group leadership teams, or "equippers" as we call them.

Having around 35 leaders there, we went from 10am - 3pm. First, John lead a teaching and discussion time following the question Why do we do what we do? In light of all the Christian resources out there and the nine other evangelical ministries on campus and several churches in Columbia, why does The Rock do what it does?

Some great answers I heard and some John shared include:

- Because less than 5% of undergrads at Mizzou enjoy a relationship with Christ

- Because people do not just need information and explanation about God's love. They need a demonstration of God's love.

- Because we don't know how many lives we affect by simply sharing our faith with friends. We may be the only Christians they encounter who love genuinely.

It was a great time to energize us and get us thinking about the purpose and urgency of the gospel on this campus.

Secondly, Ed, our second pastor, shared with the group about some changes coming to our Canvas Groups that will allow equippers to spend more time evangelizing to their friends, spending time in the dorms and growing in their faith together. There will be a team that is forming that will soon help plan some content for our Thursday night meetings to help relieve this burden from the students.

After lunch, John shared with us about the Number One Responsibility of a Minister - to be filled with the Lord. He encouraged us to keep our "pipeline" from God to us clear so that we, in turn, can pour out God's love, grace and truth to the people around us.

Ed and staff member, Peggy, shared some tools for evangelizing after that. The purpose here was for us to "equip" these leaders with some practical ways of sharing Christ with their friends. It's not always easy to clearly lay out the gospel in conversation so hopefully this method will help.

Finally, we were lead in discussion over setting goals for the new year. John and student leader, Austin, led this talk and gave us a sheet for looking at goals, purpose and plans for this year. As John said, "If you aim for nothing, you'll hit it every time."

This time of leadership development I believe will be a good thing for our church, especially by having it on the very eve of a new semester and year. I'm praying for my equippers, as I get ready for a meeting with them tonight, that they are encouraged and passionate about growing in their faith and reaching out to their friends on Christ's behalf. We are bringing the kingdom to Mizzou!

Please be praying for us:

• Two of our leaders are going to be elsewhere this semester. Brooke, who will be studying abroad in Costa Rica and Cruz, who will be back at Missouri Western until the Fall.
• With a new semester, that we would become more focused on reaching out to other students in our area on campus.
• That our Canvas Group would become even tighter and that friendships within the group would be uplifting and God-honoring.

**By the way, Aimee has a blog as well that you might be interested in following. I've added a link on the right. She also shares a bit more about Brooke and Cruz leaving in her latest post. Also, she is really good at updating it!

Core Group

Our pockets of community start with Canvas Groups, which consist of about 15-30 people, divided up roughly geographically on campus. We meet a couple times a month for discussion/ bible study/ teaching time and throughout each week we may have prayer nights, hang out times, or other things going on. Within Canvas Groups, we have what are called Core Groups. These are guys' and girls' small groups of about 3-5 students. We meet and talk about life, study Scripture, meeting the needs and challenging students in a more personal way than even Canvas Groups can touch on.

I love Core Groups. I've had great experiences with them in the past and have made deep friendships with some young men because of them. Three of my groomsmen were all in the first core group I led back in 2006. There is a reason we call them core groups - they are at the very crux of where canvas group relationships deepen. I would like to introduce to you all the three other guys in my Core Group this year.

Andrew Schulz is probably my closest guy friend here in Columbia and has been for a couple of years now. Andrew graduates in December and will be working full-time at a local bank until May when he plans to begin raising support to go on staff with The Rock. He leads our music ministry team and is one of the most encouraging and energetic guys I know. Our weddings were one week apart and we were groomsmen in each others'. He has a real passion for foreign missions, encouraging people and worshiping through music, as well as Starcraft, spreadsheets and The Office. We are co-leading core group and I am going to be challenging him hard this semester with this role.

Jon Chambers has been playing guitar in our music team for a couple of years, but hadn't been involved in community to any other extent until this semester. Realizing that we live in the same apartment complex (our buildings actually share a courtyard) I thought it only natural to invite him to Canvas Group. A very personal guy, Jon was eager to get involved and has since been coming regularly. It's been great beginning to get to know him and I'm even starting to see some issues creep up that I think have been dormant for a while. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens with him.

Ross Wood, the youngest of the group. He's a sophomore with a lot of energy, a love for video games and driving fast. He's a transfer student and is a very social guy. During our first get together, he told us that he has never been committed to a consistent group of guys who want to go deeper in their faith. He is definitely another guy who I am hoping to build into and see challenged to see himself as a man of God.

Please be praying for our group this semester. I am really hoping to get to know these guys and see them encouraged and challenged in their faith. In Core Group we will be studying Scripture, grabbing a meal, talking about past hurts, wrestle with challenging questions or just goofing around some days. In the midst of our spending time together, pray that God is at work in our hearts and among each other.