May June Update 2023 — Rick Eubanks

“I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
- Philippians 1:3-6 -

Dear Friends, Supporters, and Prayer Partners,

I’m so grateful (as Paul said) for your partnership in the gospel.

Please know how grateful I am for all of your prayers and financial support as my summer budget expenses for mission trips, meetings, air and auto travel, camps, and ministry supplies have increased.

Accelerate Texas is moving forward. Research proves that if we just stay with the status quo, we will lose 50 million students from the faith by 2050 and churches will be at 50% of their current attendance. No church is immune.

But we also know that if a young person…

…has non-judgmental, caring adults in their life
…is in a church that prioritizes young people
…is equipped and empowered to be on mission for Christ
…is an active participant in the total life of the church
…makes prayer a priority
…is in family-life group, characterized by authenticity, love, and acceptance,
…can be free to ask the tough questions without judgement, and be exposed to relevant, Biblical truth,
----------that student is likely to stay in the faith. We are working to make that a reality!

TEXAS

May: I continue to lead worship at Calvary Baptist in Rosenberg, and they allowed me to train a group of local leaders in Jesus Focused Youth Ministry. We also trained 9 PACT youth leader mentors in Spring. Our goal is to train 16 this year. Carol and I were excited to sing with our family at Second Baptist on Mother’s Day, and I was privileged to play with the Declaration Church band.

June: I was blessed to lead a multi-church led sports camp at Great Oaks Baptist in Richmond, Texas. The three-day event was a strengthening of a church, helping it to grow young, and bringing in young families from the neighborhood. The response was great, and the mission accomplished. Students from Declaration went with me, along with good friends and volunteers. The gospel was shared, and children came to Christ.

Also in June, I was a sports pastor at our Declaration Church sports camp. Again, it was a huge community success and children came to Christ. In addition, I was privileged to speak to the Declaration worship team, mentor and perform with students, and enjoy some time with our Declaration family at our DNA 2 event, required of leaders at the church. (I wish I could duplicate their onboarding process in every church in Texas. It’s so well done!) I’m looking forward to being with my home church at 220 Camp in July, investing in youth leaders (including our grandson) and students in Waxahachie.

LOCALLY

May: Our new “Movement JC” HUB network held a very successful meeting in Alvarado, representing long time and new leaders from key areas in South Fort Worth and Johnson County. Four networks were represented and will be working together. We had many key meetings with strategic partners during the month, including Texas Baptist Men, Movement DFW, and local networks.

June: DFW is in the process of identifying and enlisting HUB leaders across the metroplex to develop and lead collaborative networks to help accomplish our Blueprint and to help change the trajectory of Christianity for the next generation (see the above suggestions to keep students in the faith). Our active networks in DFW are planning with national leaders to train and empower students to have gospel conversations a few days before See You at the Pole. We added Aaron Aguirre, who is the new coordinator for greater San Antonio. Also, long-time friend, Tom Close, has agreed to serve as the Christian Educators State Coordinator, working alongside our team. We are also working closely with Texas Baptist Men and State Camps to see a large group of students discipled and trained to share Christ in cities across the state.

NATIONALLY

May: I was privileged to host a Network conversation on widespread prayer with guest, Olivia Williamson, from “Claim Your Campus”. Campus Alliance continues to add strategists and see more schools adopted with Prayer, Care, and Share ministries.

June: We’re excited that our Northeast coordinator, Travis Deans, is using our Accelerate Texas model and duplicating it in his region. Interlinc published two of my studies and sent them to 15,000 youth leaders globally. I really enjoy writing studies based on current music for groups to utilize. I am working with a small team of NNYM leaders, Kevin Miles and Chris Renzelman to re-write and distribute our friend, Barry St. Clair’s practical manual on campus ministry. We found that there is no basic “how-to” book for leaders reaching students at schools. Thanks to Barry’s generosity, it will be made available to youth leaders for free.

Our team from four churches leaves July 1 for a 5-day mission trip to church plants in the Portland area. We will be leading a sports camp, Bible school, prayer-walking, training leaders, and encouraging soon-to-be foreign missionaries.

GLOBALLY

We are working with Reach Out Youth Solutions and Links International to train leaders in 14 countries via zoom, followed by coaching and online-continued training. I will also be working with my friend, Arif Ashiq as he travels here in July. He networks with 800 plus churches in Pakistan. I was also able to meet up with one of our Links International missionaries, Janaki Menni, while she was attending a conference in Dallas. She has a church planting ministry in India and was able to join us for one of our Jesus Focused Youth Ministry trainings in Rosenberg. Carol and I were happy to host her in our home and spend time with her while she was in Texas. We also continue to work with Dare2Share and NXTmove leaders strategizing more ways to reach students both in the US and overseas.