At Another Place

We've moved on over to a new location.

www.jasongaston.com
OR
www.jasonleegaston.wordpress.com

The Nexus Project

Next weekend, we open up the doors of our church for a conference called The Nexus Project. Nexus is a conference for Middle and High School students, that is aimed at reaching students with the gospel and equipping them to live out God's mission. A few thoughts for my Student Pastor friends regarding conferences:

1. First off, if you are still interested in coming, we may be able to squeeze you in. If cost is an issue, let us know and we'll work with you. Shoot us an email.

2. I know there's a big push that is going away from Retreats/Conferences for students, and in many churches it's the right thing for them to do. I believe however, that God has strategically placed The Summit Church in RDU, and we'll do whatever we can to partner with local churches in reaching students for the gospel. Nexus exists not just as an in-house retreat, but also as a resource for churches.

3. Make it more of a conference than a Slumber Party: Ever been to a retreat with another church, and felt like you walked into their Student Ministry slumber party? Been there. Done that. It's awkward. We do everything we can from our scheduling of the conference to the bussing of students back and forth from a hotel, to make it feel like a conference.

4. Give them their money's worth: There's no question that some of these things can be expensive with bringing in good speakers, worship leaders and breakout session teachers. So...don't settle on "good." Give them something GREAT. Don't just bank on your t-shirt to be the selling point for next year.

Are You Interested

I am in London this week at a meeting with over 100 other Student Pastors and Missionaries from all over the globe, talking about mobilizing students for global missions. I posted about this on my previous post, but if you are interested in bringing a group to SE Asia with us this upcoming summer, let me know. We'd love to serve you and your Student Ministry. It's going to be a phenomenal trip. Shoot me an email and we can talk!

A Few Things For You

Student Pastors, this post is for you! One of my passions is to be a good resource for you (as many of you are to me!) With that in mind, here are a few things I'd love to share with you:

Mobilizing Students for Global Missions: I have had the privilege of investing my life over the past 5 years into a nation in S.E. Asia, and have been charged by the IMB to mobilize students to join in the movement of God taking place across this country this summer. All of that to say....I'd love to help you get your students overseas this summer, to this country with me. All the details are taken care of, all you gotta do is sign up and train your students (and pay...) Email me for more information.

The Nexus Project: Nexus is a conference we do here at The Summit annually for MIddle and High School students all over NC, VA and SC. We've got great speakers lined up (Clayton King and J.D. Greear to name a few) and would love to serve your student ministry. Let us know if you have any questions.

Mentoring: My good friend, Dr. Alvin Reid, is doing some mentoring all around the Southeast this semester. He's passionate about investing in the lives of men, and not just talking "student ministry strategies." Your time spent with him is incredibly beneficial, and I highly recommend getting connected to one of his day long mentoring sessions. The next on is January 14th. For more info, check it here.

We Are Hiring

We have an opening here on our team at Summit, and you just may be the person to fill it. We are looking for someone to be our Creative Director for Summit Students and Summit Kids. Everything from video production to graphic design. You'll have an amazing opportunity to work with our Productions/Creative Department here at The Summit and be a part of a team of people working together to reach RDU with the truth of the gospel.

The Position in a Nutshell:

• Creative Director for Summit Students/Summit Kids
• Working under the umbrella of Summit Production Department
• Internship (not full time) 

If you are interested, shoot us an email. 

Not Growing As A Leader?

Ever been in one of those seasons where you just felt like (as a leader) you were not growing in your leadership? Ever feel like there are times where you are filling up on great books, going to great conferences, spending quality time before the Lord, and yet still not growing as a leader? Yeah...me to. Allow me to offer a few things that have helped me in that process. (I know many of you are going to look at this list and say...But there's more than just these things!! Of course there is...it's a blog post.)

1. Evaluate: Maybe you have a cloudy goal that needs redefined. Maybe that goal that you are setting needs to stretch your faith more than it does. Perhaps you are spreading yourself too thin (doing too many things decent, and nothing great!) 
2. Oil The Wheels Where They Stick: Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission once said that phrase in a letter to a secretary of the mission. What in the world does that mean? Ever heard the phrase "Vision leaks?" If we are not constantly leaking the vision of where God is leading our ministries, the wheels begin to stick (or rust) and the vehicle becomes more difficult to move forward. To quote Bill Hybels "Never underestimate how often vision needs to be rekindled for your people." The church is the vehicle, and moving the vehicle forward is to advance His kingdom and mission. God gives us the vision to make it happen. Don't allow it to rust the wheels.
3. Do Something! Often times, it's the idea of being a leader that is sexy. Far too often, we get caught up in the dream of doing great things for God that we never actually do anything. Yep, that's right....many of us live in our own world where we convince ourselves that we are actually doing something. We tweet it, we blog it, we talk about it at conferences and in our networks, and we can even fudge with it on our numbers a bit if we really wanted. But are we actually doing it!?!?!? No cause has ever advanced with the leader on the sideline. Do you know why? Because when the leader sits on the sideline in complacency and laziness, God replaces him. 

Your Thoughts? 

Re:Mix Resource Available

This past semester, we did a 5 week sermon series titled Re:Mix. The premise of the series was to take the old bible stories we've all heard growing up, and put them in light of the gospel. In essence, it was a series on Preaching Christ from the Old Testament.

This resource is now available for purchase at $10. What's included in the package?

• Bumper Video for the series
• Multiple JPEG's (Series Graphic, Lower Thirds Graphic and/or Full Screen Slides Graphic)
• Outlines for teaching 

We'd love to help be resource for you. To purchase, please email Susan. 

What Are You Waiting For?

"The Church is God's Plan A to redeem the world. 

And God has no Plan B."

So...what are we waiting for? We are his tool, his game plan to redeem the world to himself. Reject passivity, reject your "I don't care" attitude and get off the sidelines. The Kingdom advances through the church.

Student Pastors,

• How do you see your ministry being used by God in His mission?
• Do you even see your ministry as a place where you are on the frontlines, fighting from salvation for the salvation of those who do not yet believe on middle and high school campuses in your cities? 

Giving to the Mission

Summit Giving Info from The Summit Church on Vimeo.

What Kind of Leader are You?

Several months ago, I read a great book titled Leaders Who Last by Dave Kraft. I highly recommend it for any of my friends out there in ministry. Read this thought from him on different types of leader out there. Which one are you? 


Leader 1: Self Satisfied. They think they know enough, and they don't need any investment in their life. They are not hungry for more for God, they could care less about growing more and they are are content.

Leader 2: Hungry, but hungry for themselves. They want to climb the ladder of success for the sole purpose of personal gain. They have no intention of reproducing anything in the lives of other people. They live on the island of SELF.

Leader 3: God-hungry leaders who are dissatisfied with the status-quo (Latin for "the mess we're in). They want to move on in their lives, move out in faith, move up to their true God-given potential, and want to leave a godly footprint in the lives of other people. They are influencers of the Kingdom. 

Friendship Continued...

So this past weekend at The Summit, I had the honor of teaching our congregation on what Biblical Friendship looks like. Today on the blog, I wanted to continue the theme with this great video I found online yesterday. Thanks for really bringing home the point fellas.

Nothing like a bromance.

Authentic Encounter

Ever asked yourself if one of your students has had an authentic encounter with Christ? Here are four things that I tend to observe:

1. Realization of what Salvation is. Trusting Christ...not self. (Do they get and understand this?)
2. Worship, or the offering of their life back to God through Jesus!
3. Discipleship, or becoming more and more like Jesus. (Are they growing or staying on the sidelines?)
4. Mission, or advancing the mission of God in redeeming others. (Are they desiring to reach people with the gospel? Are they advancing God's kingdom?)

Really, it all boils down to this; after trusting Christ, being passive is never a trait of a believer. We must be aggressive in our worship of King Jesus, in our own discipleship and our desire to reach people.

Planning a Series

We're still trying to nail down our process for planning a series here at Elevate. Our process right now is pretty simple, asking ourselves a few very purposeful questions. We attempt to spend some time fleshing out each question and putting meat on the bones! If you and your team have any insight/advice, we'll gladly take them!

• What is the main Biblical push/idea for the series?
• How many weeks will we carry this out? (We try and keep them no longer than 5 weeks)
• What specific life change/gospel understanding do we expect to see from each message?
• What will we do creatively to promote this and pull it off? (Title, Videos, Environment, Set Design, etc..) Think through how we make use of the 5 senses
• What text can we use to drive the worship that lines up with the sermon, and are there any songs that help drive home our main point?

Are You Baptizing?

My new friend Brian gave a great resource on his blog the other day about baptizing. Brian and his church do a great job of reaching students for the kingdom and getting them baptized. Here are some of the questions he posted on his blog about baptism:

Question to ask:

1. Do you have a follow up plan?

2. What kind of accountability do you have for your self and your staff to be sure everyone is accomplishing the plan.

3. Are you baptizing weekly/monthly? If not why?

4. Are people bring lost friends with them to church? if not why?

Side note: If you are an SBC Student Pastor, you should know that if you baptized more than 33 students last year, you were in the top 100 churches in your network.  

I'm convinced that with the teenage population in America being the highest its ever been in our history, there is no greater hour and need to reach students with the gospel.

 A good buddy of mine, and I believe one of the great Student Pastors in America, said that "They Replicate what We Celebrate." 

Baptism is just that; Celebrating the fact that people are coming to faith in Christ. 

What are you celebrating? Are you seeing students come to Christ? Do you have a plan for follow up with baptism AND discipleship? In the words of Darrin Patrick, it's time for men (and student pastors!) to stop fondling our video game controllers  and begin working hard to advance the kingdom. 

The Verdict Is In....

And the Gaston family is having.......

The Announcement about Baby #2 Via Holt from Jason Gaston on Vimeo.

Let's Pull This Off!

Guest Blogger: Laura Droege || Former Student in our Ministry and current UNC Student

Over the past year, I have had the honor and blessing of being involved

with an orphanage in Central India. If you came to Elevate this summer, you

may have heard me tell you about this group and the time that I have been

able to spend working with them. In the two shorts trips that I was able to

spend in India, God has given me a passion for this ministry and the work

that they are doing there. They have a vision of providing for 1,000 of

India's 23 million orphans a loving, safe, and God-centered home.

But, they need our help. As they are now, they are completely out of room.

At the moment they have 72 kids living at the orphanage and are turning

kids away regularly. A few years ago, God provided for them to buy land to

build a new campus on and now they are just waiting on Him to provide the

funds so they can build and move. 

Will you help?

On November 12, from 6-9 at the Cole Mill Campus, we will be hosting a

Parent's Date Night with all proceeds going to their building projects. We

need your help watching the kids. The more volunteers that we have means

the more families can bring their children and the more donations will be

given to this amazing organization. 

One of night spent with kids playing games, watching a movie and eating

pizza and you will help provide a home for a child in need in India, and

more importantly, provide a way for them to hear the Gospel and for God's

kingdom to expand throughout India. 

Can you help make their vision a reality?

E-mail me at lsdroege@gmail.com if you are willing to help out.

Thanks!

Pack Insider

With all the hype going on here with the NC State v. Florida State game, thought I'd throw out some love to all the folks at Summit and beyond who like NC State. enjoy. 

This one is for all of my Wolfpack friends out there. I have a couple of great friends that started a website for a couple of years ago aimed at covering Basketball and Football. It's grown tremendously since the beginning stages, and now this thing is THUMPIN! They pride themselves on being a Positive Voice for the Wolfpack Nation....and they do a great job with the product they are putting out. Top notch videos on recruits, post game notes, great write ups and interviews with players and coaches...they've got it all. I'm really proud of these guys.

If you get some time, go check'em out over at www.packinsider.com  // You won't be disappointed.

Carson Strikes Again!

"Christian Leadership means ENCOURAGING, and if necessary, ENFORCING the way of the cross among the people of God."

-D.A. Carson

Review: The Aftertaste of Abandonment

Today I have the privilege of giving all of you the heads up about a new album that is coming out soon. My good friend and co-worker Jonathan Edwards is releasing his Debut Album The Aftermath on November 9th. After listening to the album over and over again, here are a few things that I think you need to know about it:

• It's Raw: Jonathan doesn't beat around the bush. We've all tasted abandonment in some form or fashion (from a parent, a spouse, a boyfriend or girlfriend, and from some of your closest friends.) This album brings to the listener nothing but unhindered human emotion, and it is able to connect with everyone.
• Melodically: It'll make you want to drive down the road, singing at the top of your lungs, not caring if the person next to you at the stoplight is watching your or not. There are some albums that I'd be embarrassed to let the person at the stoplight know I was singing (You know what I'm talking about, all of you closet Bieber fans, Taylor Swift fans, etc..) Not this one. It's that good. 
• Musically, Jonathan continues to surprise you with his talent in every song. Every track brings something new to the table.

So, without any hesitation, I'll tell you this: BUY IT THE DAY IT COMES OUT. Here's the skinny on the album:

1. It's releases on November 9th 2010 on iTunes and Amazon.com
2. CD Release Show: November 19th, 2010 at 7pm here with other artists such as Jess Ray and the Rag Tag Army, Jordan Sasser, and Daniel Renstrom
3. You can keep up with free downloads and news about the album at www.WeAreTheAftermath.com   

Our Church's Dream to Plant 1,000 Churches

We showed part of this video at Elevate on Sunday. Here's the video in it's entirety. I am so thankful to be a part of a church that has a dream to plant so many churches.

Church Planting Vision from The Summit Church on Vimeo.