I heard you're moving?

Sunday I announced to our church family, Beech Street FBC, that I would be resigning and taking a position with the Arkansas Baptist State Convention.

Our journey began late in 2010 with a lunch meeting that set things in motion that would send us to our knees praying for God's direction in our lives.  We began praying through the possibility of serving on the Evangelism and Church Growth Team, led by Sonny Tucker, at the Arkansas Baptist State Convention (ABSC).  It has been one of the toughest decisions Sara and I have dealt with in a long time.  We love serving on our current church staff and with the people of our church, Beech Street.  Not to mention the fruitful ministry we have had here over what is almost 4 years now.  God over several months made it clear to us through many different people that this was the direction He was leading us.

This past week I was officially hired for the position I mentioned above.  So what will I be doing for the ABSC?  I will serve over 1400 churches in Arkansas in the specific area of Youth Ministry.  I will travel and work with Youth Pastors, Youth Workers, Pastors, Volunteers and others as they strive to reach teenagers for Christ.  I'm excited to partner with so many great leaders all across our state.  I will also oversee Super Summer Arkansas, the Youth Evangelism Conference, ASPN (Arkansas Student Pastors Network) and many other various things.

How can you pray for us?  First, pray for our church family here as they move forward.  They have been amazing to my family and I over the past several years.  Second, pray for my house to sell.  Third, pray for my family as we began to make the transition to the Little Rock area.  Fourth, pray we are able impact many for Christ.  There are other ways to pray for us, but those are the big ones right now.

Be watching my blog over the next 2 weeks as I will post some memories I have from the past 4 years here at Beech Street.

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How Can I Help Japan?

Maybe you're like me and have seen all the incredible devastation the earthquake and tsunami caused in Japan and wonder how you can help.  The destruction seems so large, how do I know where to begin to provide assistance.

As Southern Baptist we work together with the International Mission Board (IMB), which has Missionaries over in Japan and teams that are responding to the crises.  You can give through the IMB by going to this site:  http://imbresources.org/index.cfm/product/detail/prodID/3352

The Arkansas Baptist State Convention has also set up a way for you to give, here is their press release:

Arkansas Baptist mission partners,

No doubt you are leading your congregations to pray for the Japanese people in the wake of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that has left thousands dead and untold numbers displaced.

The Arkansas Baptist State Convention has established a Japan Relief Fund and is poised to assist our International Mission Board representatives and Japanese Baptists with ministry assistance as needs are communicated to us. We are certain that we will be asked to provide “boots on the ground” at some point in the near future.  As was the case with the Haiti relief fund (which funded and is still funding projects in Haiti food, water, building shelters, providing medicines, seed for farmers, Bibles and much more), all funds given towards Japan through the ABSC will be used for the direct relief of victims.

Funds can be sent through your church:

a) Online click here.

b) By check to the ABSC Japan Relief Fund, 10 Remington Drive, Little Rock, AR, 72204.

If you have any questions, feel free to call Bob Fielding on the Missions Ministries Team at 1.800.838.2272 x5149 or email him at bfielding@absc.org.



I hope this helps you and provides you with more information and how to get involved.  Both of these organizations are extremely trustworthy and have a long track records of using funds as designated by those giving.


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Top Ten in Youth Baptism's 2010 (for churches our size)

This past week I received a publication, the Arkansas Baptist News Magazine or ABN, that listed baptism's for churches categorized by size.  For the third straight year Beech Street was in the Top Ten for Youth Baptisms for churches 251-500 in size.  This year we were third with 15 youth baptisms.  Praise God for the students lives that were changed this year by Jesus.  Beech Street this is a testimony to your desire and heart to reach teenagers with the message of Christ.  It is exciting to see God at work in our midst.

The point to me is not so much that we made the list, but that we are very intentional about seeing students saved, follow through in baptism and then begin to grow in their walk with God.  We are doing what Jesus commanded us to do in Matthew 28:18-20:

¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

As many of you, Beech Street members and visitors, have noticed over the last several weeks God has continued to allow us to impact more students for Christ.  It's always exciting to watch as a student runs out the door on Wednesday night to tell his parents about accepting Christ and his/her desire to follow in believers baptisms.  That is one of the most amazing sights I witness almost on a weekly basis.  It never grows old. 

What I've learned is, when we are faithful to share the message of salvation the Holy Spirit moves on lives and they respond.  I pray God continues to allow us to impact teenagers for Christ.

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Still had church on a Snowy day, but never came to the Building

Photo by Katie Michalls, in Northwest Arkansas

This past Wednesday Arkansas was hit with a major snow storm, though here in Texarkana it wasn't near as bad as the rest of the state, and the majority of churches had to cancel their Wednesday night activities.

For h2o student ministry Wednesday nights are huge.  It's a night when we reach lots of teenagers and has become something that all our students anticipate each week.  As we began to spread the word about canceling our h2o worship time, students started sending us messages wishing it would still take place.  You got to love it when teenagers are begging you to have church, but for safety reasons we obviously did not.

With this in mind we decided to try doing a brief video message via our h2o facebook fan page (www.facebook.com/h2ostudentministry).  Check out the video below:


I've been overwhelmed by the response we have received.  It was very effective and connected us with a lot of our students even though we couldn't meet for h2o.  It was simple to shoot and load this video.  We shot the video with a Kodak hand held Digital HD Video Camera then we took the camera plugged it into the computer and uploaded the video to our h2o page.  To drive students to the video we used the power of social media to get the word out.

We also, earlier in the day, used the same idea and Rob, our Associate Student Pastor, shot two videos letting students know h2o was canceled.  See these video's below, they are funny.




Anyone could do what we did, it's very simple and all you need is a video camera.  I must say we took the idea from my brother, Brian Mills.  He has done a lot more elaborate video messages due to snow cancellations at their church.  They have seen incredible success in broadcasting video's on snow nights with their teenagers.  His videos and production are a lot more involved then ours, but are very cool.  Check out some of his here:
1.  http://brianmills247.blogspot.com/2010/12/canceled-service-no-problem-lets-do-it.html
2. http://brianmills247.blogspot.com/2011/01/here-is-our-snow-day-wednesday-night.html

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Strategic Outreach Events

Early on in my ministry I learned a the powerful lesson that just doing several events does not equal a successful Student Ministry.  Since that day I have operated under the opinion that less events done well and very focused are a lot more effective.  Instead of trying to achieve several things in one event, we get focused on what we are trying to achieve.  A focused event we do each year takes place on Super Bowl Sunday.

One of the largest events our country experiences each year is the Super Bowl.  People who never watch football will attend a party on these nights just because of all the hype.  With this in mind I've taken an approach of why fight them, join in with them.  Here at h2o our "Super Sunday," which happens on Super Bowl Sunday, is a day we strive to reach out an connect with new teenagers that have never attended a church or have quite attending. 

Each year we do things a little different, this year we hosted a Super Bowl Party and encouraged our students to invite their friends.  Over the past three years we have done an all day event, that has been very successful (click here to read about it), so we were taking a risk doing something different.  This year we offered free pizza, drinks, chips and dip to anyone that came.  We have so many incredible adult volunteers in our ministry and they made cheese dip, brought chips and other snacks. 

What was our goal?  To reach students that may not come any other way. Our focus was outreach and connecting with new students.  The response was huge last night.  We had over 120 students attend, with several first time students.  Our adults do such an amazing job at not only helping serve and supervise but also talking and building relationships with the students.  We want to connect with teenagers and for them to see that h2o student ministry is a safe place for them, a refuge.  It's was neat to talk with students and hear them say how they are coming back Wednesday night to our worship time and to see what this "church thing" is all about.

We have used the power of the Super Bowl to reach out and impact many students.  Every year we see several students connect with h2o through this event and eventually pray to accept Christ as their Savior.  The neat and easy thing about this event is all the hype is done by the Super Bowl, we just jump on board.  It's an easy event to pull off, and has proved to be very effective in our ministry.  We achieved our goal last night and I pray in the weeks ahead we see many lives changed for Christ.

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h2o live recap

Wednesday nights at h2o are my favorite times of the week.  For the past 4 weeks God has been doing some amazing things in the lives of students on Wednesday nights.  We have had well over 100 students each week and have seen several accept Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.  There have also been many broken to see their friends impacted by Christ.  The passion some of our students have to reach their friends for Christ is exhilarating. 

It's also been moving to watch as students have laid down sin in their lives at the alter and have made a strong stance to live passionately for Jesus.  The phrase we have heard over and over is, "I'm tired of faking it, I want to live it for real."  There is a uprising taking place and God is using these students as his vehicle. 

My favorite story from last night:  We have a student that started coming just recently, he accepted Christ a couple weeks ago and was baptized this past Sunday.  He has no way to get to church except riding his bike.  So on Sunday's and Wednesday's he rides his bike to church.  Last night he was so determined to come Worship his Savior that he rode his bike over 3 miles to church when it was 31 degrees outside with a wind chill of 23.  He said to me, "I just didn't want to miss h2o worship tonight."  After it was over I loaded him and his bike up and gave him a ride home.  Now that's a changed life.

That's why I love h2o on Wednesday nights.  The power of joining students in passionately worshiping God and then not just leaving it in that room.  They are taking it into their day to day lives, now that's exciting!  Pray with us that God continues to grow these students and uses them to impact other for Christ. 

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Parent Must Read: MTV "Skins"

It seems as our culture progresses media is at the forefront of influencing our daily lives.  I'm not big on blogging about movies or shows, but this is one parents need to know about that I believe leads to a larger discussion.  Just two weeks ago MTV released a new show entitled "Skins."  Parent's, this is a show you need to be aware of and the message MTV is endorsing in teenagers lives.  

The show involves everything from teenagers doing drugs, drinking, fighting, having sex, homosexuality, pornography and more.  They do all this with the idea that this is normal everyday teenager behavior.  The sad part is they are actually using some teenage actors for the show.  This has led Taco Bell to pull their advertising from the show and has led to an investigation over whether MTV is breaking child pornography laws.  Yet millions of teenagers are watching a show rated TV-MA that boldly promotes elicit behavior.

Here is MTV's description of their own show below from their website:

• Skins is a wild ride through the lives of a group of high school friends stumbling through the mine field of adolescence... and stepping on most of the mines as they go.

• We'll meet TONY; good looking, witty, manipulative - he wants everything, and usually gets it. Then there's his girlfriend MICHELLE; gorgeous and clever, just not clever enough to realize Tony may not be the right one for her. And maybe the right one is actually Tony's best friend, STANLEY. He's everything Tony isn't, and that might end up being a good thing. Of course, Stanley is stuck in a pretend relationship with CADIE, possibly the most dysfunctional girl ever to attend a high school... or maybe that's all just another thing she's faking. You'll love CHRIS because, well, everyone does. No drug is too obscure for him to try, and no sexual mountain too high for him to climb. Complicating everyone's life is the infamous TEA. She likes girls. And girls like her. What more is there to figure out... right? And let's not forget ABBUD, the not so devout Moslem and DAISY, the responsible one of the group who is just itching to break some rules of her own.  
• Be it sex, drugs, the breadth of friendships or the depth of heartbreaks, Skins is an emotional mosh-pit that slams through the insanity of teenage years. They'll crush hearts and burn brain cells, while fearlessly confronting every obstacle head on...or slightly off. 

MTV defends the show by saying this is taking place in normal everyday teenage life.  Is that a true statement?  I know that there are some teenagers that are involved in the elicit behavior depicted in this show, but not all teenagers are doing these things.  I know lots of teenagers personally that are not involved in the things depicted in this show.  They are very committed to the stance they have taken against such behavior.  To flip the coin, I do know teenagers who are involved in this type of behavior.  Teenagers face the temptation dealt with in this show everyday, some stand strong against it and others cave to the pressure.  One thing is for sure, they don't need MTV throwing it into their lives as well.

So what do we do?  I believe we as parents should address these issues head on with our teenagers.  Don't let MTV, their Friends or anyone else teach your child how to deal with these issues.  Teach your son/daughter how to Biblically deal with sexuality, drugs, alcohol, homosexuality, bullying, pornography, etc.  If we as parents would do our part and address these issues and teach them head-on, I believe we could see a down turn in this behavior.

Parents, make sure you know what your son/daughter is watching on TV, online, on their iPod, or cell phone where all of this is readily accessible to anyone.  I talk to a lot of teenagers that are accessing pornography on their iPod or Cell Phone more then any other means.  It's our job as parents to protect our children.  Get involved in their lives and have open dialogue about right and wrong.  Set boundaries for your teenagers, you are their parent and that is the responsibility God has entrusted us with.

As for MTV "Skins" I would not let anyone watch this show.  It just encourages elicit behavior, and if they watch it long enough eventually they will try it, because it is presented as normal behavior for teenagers in this show.

If you care to check it out for yourself, here's the website (CAUTION it is graphic) http://www.mtv.com/shows/skins/series.jhtml

Here's a story ABC News did on the show:



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Disciple Now 2011

What an amazing weekend we just finished.  Over the past 4 years God has used our Disciple Now weekends to greatly impact students in their personal walk with God.  Our theme this year was "Fuse."  Our goal was see our students grow closer to God and to grow closer to one another.  Our speaker for the weekend was John Cowling, a youth pastor at Park Hill Baptist in North Little Rock, AR, and our band was from Lakepoint Church in Hot Springs. 

Over the weekend John challenged our students to be real in their walk with God and not fake it.  He talked about the importance of living out your relationship with Christ.  He also challenged them to love others and be known for loving everyone.  It was incredible to watch as God broke students.  They were weeping over their sin and their apathetic Christian lives.  I always love watching God move in the lives of students and seeing how radical they become for him.

Saturday we served from morning till early afternoon at the Runnin' W.J. Ranch in Texarkana.  The Ranch reaches out to and ministers to adults, teenagers and children that are disabled.  They use Therapeutic Horse riding as a form of exercise.  We worked with Samuel Coston, who works at the ranch, to set the day up.  We cleaned stalls, cleaned trails, cleaned the building, walked with horses, interacted with people who were there for therapy and various other activities to help the ranch that would otherwise go undone.  I am so proud of our students and how they jumped in and served, whether they were talking with people or scooping poop. 

On Sunday morning we concluded with 4 students being baptized and a powerful time of worship with our entire church family.  It was an amazing weekend that is paying off big in students lives.  The stories we are hearing already of the stances they are taking at their school are amazing.

I must say a HUGE THANK YOU to our adult volunteers that made this weekend a success.  From the families that opened their home for the weekend, to the volunteer drivers, to those that prepared the food and those that just jumped in an helped where needed, thank you!  We have the best adult volunteers here at Beech Street.  I appreciate each of you and the hard work you put in for this weekend to be a huge success.

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h2o live recap

Almost 4 years into my ministry here at Beech Street our Wednesday night h2o service is still my favorite time of the week.  It's a joy to watch as well over 100 students from many different schools in the Texarkana area and various backgrounds come together to worship our God.  It's also refreshing to engage them in conversation and talk about what God's doing in their lives individually and hearing how God is using the ministry of h2o to shape their life.

Two weeks ago I began a two part sermon series for our teenagers at h2o on reaching out to your friends and doing whatever it takes to get them to Jesus.  All throughout the New Testament, especially in the Gospels, you see people going to extreme measures to get their friends to Christ or to reach people with the message of Jesus.  I challenged our teenagers to do the same and if you have to, be creative in getting your friends to hear you share Christ and/or bring them with you to h2o to encounter Christ. 

It has been exciting to watch this week, after preaching that message last week, how many of our students brought their friends with them.  I had many all week long send me facebook messages and text about who they were inviting.  Yet at the same time I had many send me discouraging messages of how they had been made fun of for standing for Christ and inviting others.

This week I preaching on Paul and Silas, Acts 16, and how they took a beating for taking a stand for Jesus yet still shared Christ with others even while they were in jail.  What if we didn't see peoples rejections as rejections but as opportunities?  Paul and Silas took a very bad and painful situation and led many to Christ through it.  May God use this word to encourage and motivate our teenagers to keep on, even when it's hard.

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Birthday & Anniversary on the same day!

Today, December 21st, I turn 34 years old and I also celebrate 14 years of marriage to my amazing wife, Sara.

It all began almost 16 years ago when I met the girl of my dreams.  I'll never forget setting in the balcony of my church at that time, Second Baptist Hot Springs, and seeing Sara for the first time.  I knew some how I had to muster up the courage to pursue her.  Over the course of that summer Sara and I became good friends and did a lot of things together with large groups of people.

Then came THE day.  We had spent the afternoon on Lake Hamilton, as we had often that summer,  the day was coming to an end and everyone was heading home and I gained the courage to ask her out on an official date.  There I stood looking all manly in my bathing suit.  Can I just say I was as nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs.  I asked her if she would like to go to dinner and she joyfully said "YES," I was pumped!  Being overly excited she said yes, I let her choose the restaurant.  She chose a little Italian restaurant called Fauci's (not sure if I spelled it correctly).  At that time I hated Italian food, but didn't care because I was going with Sara.  I remember her having to order for me, because I had no idea what the items were or if I'd even like them, but I was just excited to be there with her.  It was a night I will never forget as long as I live.  I have no idea what I ate or if I even ate, but looking across the table into her eye's I will never forget.  Fauci's is not longer there, it burned down, but my love for Sara has never faded, it has only grown deeper.

From that first date to now God has blessed me with the most amazing wife.  These past 14 years of marriage have been worth every penny I spent that night at the little Italian place.  Everyday it's obvious that God planned for us to be together.  I thank God daily for the most amazing birthday gift I ever received, my wife Sara Mills!  I love you!

There is a lot more to the story, but hopefully I will be able to share it in the years to come.

End of 2010-Part 2

Last week I began a blog series on the end of 2010.  I stated last week, "if I could pick one word to describe this year here at Beech Street and h2o student ministry it would be:  CHANGE."

Another change that began taking shape in early 2010 was our New Day Campaign.  This campaign focused on renovating the first floor preschool area, second floor children area, third floor adult Small Group space and adding a street level entrance to our Senior adult area with a new elevator to the worship center.  As the plans came together in the early months of 2010 our stewardship campaign kicked off as well.  Both moved a long very smoothly and we knew there were many new exciting things on the horizon for Beech Street.

In May our church approved the project and construction began.  Below are some pictures from the demolition.

  Tearing our to 2nd floor Children area (above)

New elevator shaft (above)

Digging out the grassy hill for the new 

Sr. Adult entrance (above)

Grassy hill gone.  New Sr. Adult entrance will be where the

plastic is on the left side of picture (above)

A lot has taking place construction wise at Beech Street this year.  Some of the construction is nearing an end other parts are just beginning.  The Preschool and Children area are almost complete, I will post pictures after we move in in January.  Trust me this area look incredible.  The Sr. Adult entrance and New Elevator are still under construction and we are just beginning on the third floor Small Group space remodel.  I must say a lot has taken place this year and continues on into 2011 with our New Day Campaign.

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End of 2010-Part 1

Sitting in my office today I begin reminiscing over the year that has been 2010.  If I could pick one word to describe this year here at Beech Street and h2o student ministry it would be:  CHANGE.

To begin 2010 we were right in the middle of relocating our h2o worship room to a new location due to rapid growth.  The room we were worshiping in at the time was packed with teenagers every week, it was so full it was uncomfortable for everyone.  We where averaging around 80 students a week at the time with many weeks getting up to 90-100, but the room would not hold that large a crowd. 

(old room picture above)

As a result we remodeled what is our fellowship hall to add a stage, lighting, screens, flooring and paint to provide us with ample room to grow.  This was a very challenging process as we did it all in house and on a tight budget.  God, as always, provided people and supplies to make this room incredible.  I'm still very grateful to the many men that served many hours free of charge to make this a reality.

(new worship area)

We moved on Disciple Now weekend to our new worship area.  With lots more space God has given us more students weekly.  Now we average 95 students a week with many weeks at 110-120.  The move to a new worship area has proven to be very successful.  It's been amazing to watch as students accept Christ and then follow through in believers baptism.

We have also seen many parents begin to connect with our church due to their teenager becoming involved in h2o.  God is allowing us to reach a lot of unchurched teenagers, which also means their parent's are unchurched.  It's very common place that a student accepts Christ and the first time their parents ever step in church is to watch their son/daughter be baptized.  God has not only allowed us to reach more students but to impact and share Christ with entire families.

The key to all of this was our ability to relocate the h2o worship area to accommodate more students which leads to us reaching more adults.  I'm praying 2011 will be another year of great impact on students lives during our worship times as it has been in 2010.

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Great Pastor

October is Pastor Appreciation month and this past weekend was bosses day, so in honor of those two days I thought I would write about my Pastor.  I've known Pastor Craig for around 9 years know and have great appreciation for his heart for the local church.  Pastor Craig is a man that is passionate about people.  He wants to see people reached for Christ, to see the grow in the walk with Christ and to see them engaged in ministry.  He always has the best interest of the church as a whole in mind.  That's one thing I admire about him, his desire to see all age groups reached and nurtured spiritually.

Beech Street, you have a great Pastor!  I see him day in and day out and he is very consistent in his love for God and you, the church.  Just to think about where he has led our church, Beech Street, over the past 3 1/2 years is amazing.  He has a great passion to see Beech Street have a great Kingdom Impact in the future as well.

I often tell young guys entering the ministry that the most important relationship you will have on a church staff is with your Pastor.  I have a great deal of respect for my Pastor, but more importantly I consider him a close friend.  It's great to know that he is approachable and engaged in my life at work and outside of work.  Thanks for your great leadership Pastor Craig!

Beech Street, take time soon to tell you Pastor how much you appreciate him.  Maybe even send him a note or an email telling him how he has impacted your life. 

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New Sunday Night Worship Experience's

This past Sunday night we began 2 worship services.  One of the services is very traditional and the other is "contemporary."  The Contemporary Worship Experience is completely band driven and uses the Passion style of worship.  The Traditional service is piano, organ, hymns and special music.  In both services we have a communicator (preacher).  We are currently teaching through some of the Miracles of Jesus.  We have set up a rotation for who will preach in each service over the next 6 week, which allows our people to hear from different communicators.  Last night, I preached in our Contemporary service and Pastor Craig preached in our Traditional service. 

It was a great success, both Worship Experiences had huge crowds that engaged in Worshiping our God.  We are praying this will allow us to reach more people for the Kingdom of God.  It's always exciting when you begin something that has a huge return immediately.  I'm excited to see how God uses these two services in the coming weeks.

"To Save a Life" series

 Tonight, Sept. 29th, we kick off our "To Save a Life" message series at h2o.  This past Wednesday night we showed the movie, "To Save a Life," to set the stage for the series we are doing.  As with any big series, we promoted it heavily in the schools, with the sport teams, band, cheerleaders and other clubs.  We also invited school counselors and other school administration to attend the movie.  The week prior to the movie we handed students 100's of tickets to handout to their friends.  As a result we had a huge crowd here to watch the movie with us.  The movie deals with subjects that teenagers in our city struggle with every day and we believe over the next several weeks God's going to use it to rescue teenagers.

This week we begin our message series called, "To Save a Life."  It will run for the next six week and cover topics and issues that were dealt with in the movie.  Rob, my associate, and I set down and decided on three topics/issues to speak on and then at the end of the movie last week we allowed the students to write down two topics/issues from the movie that they wanted us to speak on.  We took the top three topics/issues they wrote down and will develop them into the other three messages.

What will we cover?  We are going to deal with Suicide, Relationships/Friendships, sex/teen pregnancy, Saving People (noticing the unnoticed), God in my life? and Drugs/Drinking.  Our students are really excited about this series and we are expecting a lot of guest over the next several weeks.

Join us in praying God uses this series to literally Save Students Lives.



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Lifeway Conference-Downloads I mentioned in my session

I have had many request for documents that we use in our ministry.  I have uploaded some and they are available to you for FREE to download.  I'm just one guy in the trenches of Student Ministry, my way is not "the way" it's "a way."  I strongly believe in helping each other out in this journey and this is my small contribution to you.  Take it and use it, reformat it or file it away.

To all my new friends I met at the Lifeway National Youth Workers Conference last week, I hope this helps you.  I've uploaded some of our job descriptions and a basic rules/guidelines we use.  Thanks for being apart of my session.  Let me know if I can do anything to assist you in the future.

h2o Rules

Wednesday Staff_Cafe Team

Wednesday Staff Greeters

Wednesday Staff Monitor

Wednesday Staff Registration

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Speaking at Lifeway Conference

Lifeway is hosting their annual National Youth Workers Conference this week and invited me to be one of their breakout speakers.  I greatly appreciate Jeff Pratt and Paul Turner from Lifeway's Student Ministry division for inviting me.  It was a great honor!  Today, I led a session on "How to reach teenagers in a Small to Mid Size Church."  I talked about 4 main areas:

1.  Ministry Philosophy
2. The Importance and Value of Volunteers
3. Practical Ministry
    A.  School Ministry
    B.  Wednesday night
4. Changed Lives

I will be posting some free material for anyone to download that I talked about during the conference today.  I pray God will use the information I shared to encourage and help guys in their ministry journey.  For those of you back home at Beech Street, I spent a lot of time bragging on how amazing you guys are at serving and leading out in h2o student ministry. 

For the next two day I will be one of the attendee's soaking up information from other great men of God.

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New Day Construction Update

Construction continues to go well.  Lots of things are changing again.  This week they began work on the new front entrance for our Sr. Adult area, they've painted several rooms, new cabinets are being set and more.  Here are some pictures to catch you up.  The picture at the top is as they began demolition on the area for the new entrance off of Beech Street.

(above) This is where a portion of the porch used to be, it's the part that is covered by the tarp in the picture below.  This is all to create the new entrance on Beech Street.

(above) another picture of the area they are working on for the new entrance

(above) 2nd floor, new Children's Worship room.  They have created new walls .

(above) 2nd floor, Children's Worship room.  You are looking at the stage area.

(above) 1st floor entrance to the Education building Lobby.  Paint is going on the walls to prepare for all the design to be installed by Worlds of Wow.

(above) 1st floor, nursery hallway on alley side.  Paint on the walls to prepare for the designs to be installed by Worlds of Wow

(above) 1st floor, Nursery room, Accent wall painted and new cabinets being installed.

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What's the big deal about Social Media; Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc? Watch this video.

Very thought provoking video.  In our ministry here at h2o, we communicate more with students through Facebook and text more then any other form.  We can almost instantly get a message out to all our students, just by making a post on our h2o facebook page.  It's the world we live in and it can be a great tool if we use it effectively.

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Wake Surfing on Lake Greeson

On Tuesday of this week we had an adult guys lake day.  Michael Chesshir was kind enough to invite several guys up to the lake House to go do a little "Wake Surfing" for the day.  We went up Monday night and had some great fellowship and hangout time.  Then we got up Tuesday morning and hit the lake by 8:00am.  We did a lot of "Wake Surfing."

What is wake surfing?  You use a short rope to get up on a board, that looks like a short surf board and then throw the rope in the boat and surf in the wake.  As long as you stay in the wake you stay up, get to far back and you sink down.  It's a lot of fun!

Below are a few pictures of me "Wake Surfing" and some video.  A big thanks to Michael for taking us out. (if you can't watch the video's below for some reason, go to http://www.facebook.com/#!/seanmillsh2o click on the video tab.)



This next video is of me catching a grape while wake surfing.  Mark Reese in the one in the video that is throwing the grapes.  It took about 10 tries for me to finally catch one.  Like I said we just had a blast!

3 year Anniversary at Beech Street

 2007 Family Picture - The year we moved to Beech Street

Late 2009 Family Picture

This past Sunday marked 3 years of ministry at Beech Street for my family and I.  A lot has changed since I moved to Texarkana in 2007.  My kids, Haley & Ty, have grown a lot.  Ty was entering Preschool and Haley was starting 3rd grade when we moved here.  Now Ty is entering 1st grade and Haley is starting 6th grade.  Our church has grown and reached a lot of new people and families over the past 3 years.  h2o student ministry has become a well known name on school campuses and with students all across this city.  For memory sake I took some time to look back through some pictures over the past 3 years just to bring back some memories.  It's neat to see how things have changed.

I'll never forget my first Wednesday night worship time with our teenagers, there were a total of 45, including adults, present.  I remember how our adult student team and I led a remodeling effort for the entire student area.  The church jumped on board and gave a 1 day offering of $34,000.  Then with the help of many great volunteers h2o was birthed at Beech Street with a newly remodeled student area.
(Below are 2 pictures from that first remodel)

We have seen God do some amazing things in teenagers lives over these 3 years as well.  When I arrived, the church year of 2007 was coming to and end and 0 teenagers had been baptized.  Every year for the past 3 years (2008, 2009 & now 2010) we have baptized a minimum of 15 teenagers.  Praise God for that big turn around!

On the Education side of my job we have seen Sunday Small Group attendance climb consistantly to an average of 380.  Which is a large increase from the average of 2007, which was 275.  With the help of some great Small Group Leaders we have started several NEW Small Groups.  It's been fun to watch God grow us.

One of my favorite things about serving here is our staff.  I love the people I do ministry with!  These guys and girls work hard each and everyday, but we make it a lot of fun.  I love our Pastor and his heart for our church and us his staff (no I'm not brown nosing, ok maybe a little...haha).

As I begin my 4th year of ministry here at Beech Street, I pray we will continue to see God changing students, adults & families lives.  We have just completed our 2nd remodel of the h2o student area, due to our rapid growth and are currently remodeling our children's area, Sr. Adult area and adult small group area.  The future certainly looks exciting.
(Below are 2 pictures of our newest h2o remodel, the worship area & hangout area)

Join with me in praying for God to use all of us to reach people for Christ!

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"Teens avoid church & religion"

 Below is an article I read in USA TODAY.  This is very challenging.

 

"Teens avoid church groups and other aspects of religion"

By Cathy Lynn Grossman and Stephanie Steinberg, USA TODAY

 

"Bye-bye church. We're busy." That's the message teens are giving churches today.

Only about one in four teens now participate in church youth groups, considered the hallmark of involvement; numbers have been flat since 1999. Other measures of religiosity — prayer, Bible reading and going to church — lag as well, according to Barna Group, a Ventura, Calif., evangelical research company. This all has churches canceling their summer teen camps and youth pastors looking worriedly toward the fall, when school-year youth groups kick in.

"Talking to God may be losing out to Facebook," says Barna president David Kinnaman.

"Sweet 16 is not a sweet spot for churches. It's the age teens typically drop out," says Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources in Nashville, which found the turning point in a study of church dropouts. "A decade ago teens were coming to church youth group to play, coming for the entertainment, coming for the pizza. They're not even coming for the pizza anymore. They say, 'We don't see the church as relevant, as meeting our needs or where we need to be today.' "

"I blame the parents,"who didn't grow up in a church culture, says Jeremy Johnston, executive pastor at First Family Church in Overland Park, Kan.

His megachurch would routinely take 600 teens to summer church camp, he says, "and many would be forever changed by that experience. But this summer we don't even have a camp.

"Remember, 80% of kids don't have cars. Their parents could be lazy or the opposite — overstressed and overcommitted. If parents don't go to church, kids don't, either."

Don't forget the overcommitted teens themselves, the recession and growing competition from summer mission trips, says Rick Gage of Go-Tell Youth Camps, based in Duluth, Ga.

Registration fell 22% in 2009 but stabilized this summer with 2,000 middle- and high-school teens at five camps in four states. Attendance peaked in the late 1990s at 5,000 teens, Gage says.

Chris Palmer, youth pastor at Ironbridge Baptist Church in Chester, Va., says its youth group enrollment slid from 125 teens in 2008 to 35 last winter.

He pulled participation back up to 70 this year by letting teens know "real church, centered on Jesus Christ, is hard work," Palmer says. "This involves the Marine Corps of Christianity. Once we communicate that, we see kids say, 'Hey, I want to be involved in something that's a little radical and exciting.' "

Rainer agrees. He says teens today want Scripture, they "don't want superficiality. We need to tell them that if you are part of church life, you are part of something bigger. The church needs you, too."

But first, they have to find the kids.

Sam Atkeson of Falls Church, Va., left his Episcopal church youth group not long after leaving middle school.

"I started to question if it was something I always wanted to do or if I just went because my friends did," says Atkeson, now 18. "It just wasn't really something I wanted to continue to do. My beliefs changed. I wouldn't consider myself a Christian anymore."

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Nicole's says goodbye, plus our Bye, Bye, Bye Dance to her on video

 
Mark, Rob and I preformed the video above for Nicole last Wednesday night as we say Bye to her after three great years of summer interning.  Let's just say it was a huge crowd hit and Nicole loved it.

This past Sunday marked the end of a three year summer internship for Nicole Dibble.  She is one of those people that will be greatly missed by all.  Little did I know the impact she would have on people's lives and our ministry three years ago when I first hired her.  Over the past three summers, Nicole, has been a vital part of all the planning and events that took place for our teenagers.  Maybe some of the most meaningful and fruitful times where when she would take out a couple of girls to lunch and invest in them.  No job was to big or to small for her.  She would take in major roles in helping plan our Mission Trips, yet do the tedious unseen work of organizing our h2o storage room.  She loved teenagers and it was evident.

This past week we blessed Nicole with a nice dinner; steak, bake potato, salad and topped it off with Watermelon then we gave her a gift.  All summer she has told my wife how she desperately wanted a Chi Straight Iron for her hair.  As a gift from us we bought one and gave it to her, let's just say she was very excited.

So where is she going?  Nicole is headed to graduate school at John Brown University to get her masters.  I greatly appreciate the heart that Nicole has served with over the past three years.  She is one of those people that will be hard to replace.


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Construction Update & Pictures

Construction is moving right along this week.  They did a lot of work on the old elevator and stairway in the worship center that connects the 1st floor Sr. Adult area to the 3rd floor balcony level.  They have completely tore out the elevator and stairway.  It is now ready to prepare it for the new elevator that will go in this area.  You can see pictures of this below.

They have continued to work on the 1st and 2nd floor of the Education building.  On the 1st Floor Nursery area they have done a lot.  They have prepared the walls to be painted, worked on plumbing, electrical, heat and air.  The 2nd floor area has gone through a major transformation this week.  The new Men's Restroom has been formed and the new entry to the Women's Restroom has been created.  In the kids area they have created the new check in area and put walls up for the new kids restrooms.  In the new Kids Worship room they have walled up the new stage area and gameroom area.  This large room has been greatly transformed.  Enjoy the pictures below.

1st floor, under the Worship Center, where our Sr. Adult Sunday School meets.  This picture used to be the elevator and stairway.  Obviously they have both been tore out.  That lighter area of the concrete will all be jack-hammered up to make a large hole, like the one in the picture, for the new elevator to fit in.

Looking up what used to be the elevator shaft and stairway from the 1st floor Sr. Adult area.  The ceiling and light on the right side is the floor level of the Worship Center.  The top of the picture where the wood is showing is the actual roof of the Worship Center.  This will be the shaft for the new elevator.

This is the same area as the two pictures above.  The middle of this wall is 

where the New Entrance will be off of Beech Street for our Sr. Adult area.

Room in the 1st floor Nursery/Preschool area

2nd floor.  Straight ahead, in the middle of the photo, you are 

looking at the entrance to the new Men's Restroom.

 This is the new Men's Restroom on the second floor.

This is the new entry way to the kids area on the 2nd floor

New kids restrooms on the 2nd floor.

New entrance to the Women's Restroom on the 2nd floor, obviously that stud wall will be taken down

New kids worship room on the 2nd floor.  This is taken 

from the Beech Street side looking toward the alley side.

The wall you see framed up is the back side of the stage for the kids worship room.

Those window are looking out toward Beech Street.

This framed up area is the new kids gameroom in the kids worship area.

Those windows to the left look out toward the alley.

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