Christmas has come and gone - and so has TCX. As this new year begins, I can't help but think back to my experiences at past TCX conferences.
In 2004, I was a new believer, and learned about what it meant to follow Christ in the midst of a broken world.
In 2005, I learned about the holiness of God - the I AM that had spoken to Moses and so many others had called me to live a life of holiness, too.
In 2006, I felt the Lord prompt me to commit a year of my life to full-time ministry, unsure of how or when or where that would be. I knew why - to make disciples of all nations, as commanded in Matthew 28.
In 2007, with graduation looming, I came to a crossroad. Would I take the first steps in following through on last years' contract to give a year of my life in ministry? I went to a seminar on transitioning from college to staff life, and afterward I ended up sitting down with my now boss, Steve, the Director of Operations in our region, and a team member, Erika, who I'd worked with before on some projects. As they explained about the team, and opportunities to serve in Minneapolis, I became even more interested.
4 years later, here I am - in Minneapolis, working with Steve and Erika on the Operations team, serving staff and students around the region and around the world!
Showing posts with label tcx. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tcx. Show all posts
Sunday, January 01, 2012
Saturday, November 19, 2011
TCX 2011: FUSED
Here's a little promo video for our largest student conference, TCX. We're trusting the Lord to move in the hearts of this generation of college students. We're trusting He will use this conference to impact lives and advance His Kingdom. Will you trust the Lord for this with us?
TCX 2011 Promo on Vimeo.
Sunday, January 02, 2011
Redeeming Christmas
I'm a little late for a Christmas post this year. With finishing up my support, reporting to the office, and preparing for TCX, the holiday kind snuck up on me!
Before I could even enjoy a couple Christmas CD's, or hang the few decorations I own, the 25th was here and gone. And despite the busyness, God brought a few encouraging words my way.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining-
til He appeared and the soul felt its' worth.
I sigh every time I hear that line. I've been struggling with my despise of Christmas for several years. This song isn't just about the birth of Jesus. It's about the redemption of mankind. Every year, the latter gets lost in the Christmas hustle and bustle.
What's Christmas about? Loving, giving, receiving, joy...everyone has their own opinion. Christians are quick to say that Christmas is about the birth of Jesus. But even that pat answer, with no explanation, falls short.
There are signs in each of our lives, all year long, that God desires to be present in our lives. We miss that at Christmas, which is sad, because it's one of the most important times of the year for mankind to see their need for and chance at redemption.
It's ironic that TCX follows two days later. Throughout December I try to work through this angst about Christmas, but by the end of the month, my mixed feelings are pushed away. I'm finally able to see people realizing the very thing that becomes hidden during the Christmas season. The meaning may get lost in the production of Christmas, but it's uncovered in the production of TCX.
Before I could even enjoy a couple Christmas CD's, or hang the few decorations I own, the 25th was here and gone. And despite the busyness, God brought a few encouraging words my way.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining-
til He appeared and the soul felt its' worth.
I sigh every time I hear that line. I've been struggling with my despise of Christmas for several years. This song isn't just about the birth of Jesus. It's about the redemption of mankind. Every year, the latter gets lost in the Christmas hustle and bustle.
What's Christmas about? Loving, giving, receiving, joy...everyone has their own opinion. Christians are quick to say that Christmas is about the birth of Jesus. But even that pat answer, with no explanation, falls short.
There are signs in each of our lives, all year long, that God desires to be present in our lives. We miss that at Christmas, which is sad, because it's one of the most important times of the year for mankind to see their need for and chance at redemption.
It's ironic that TCX follows two days later. Throughout December I try to work through this angst about Christmas, but by the end of the month, my mixed feelings are pushed away. I'm finally able to see people realizing the very thing that becomes hidden during the Christmas season. The meaning may get lost in the production of Christmas, but it's uncovered in the production of TCX.
- Truly He taught us to love one another;
- His law is love and His gospel is peace.
- Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother;
- And in His name all oppression shall cease.
- Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
- Let all within us praise His holy name.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Twin Cities Xperience!
It's been a few weeks since I wrote my last blog update - lots going on in the world of Operations!
The weeks leading up to Christmas were full of meetings and calls and e-mails about details concerning TCX, our annual winter conference. Around 1500 college students are attending TCX this year to be challenged, trained, equipped, encouraged and challenged. It's our hope and prayer that students would not leave this conference without being changed by God in some way that will make a lasting difference in their lives.
God's continually used TCX in my life in significant ways. This year is no exception. Mid-way through the conference this year, one of my impressions is the need for an increased awareness of sin in my life, and submitting in obedience to confess it and repent. I think about my sin a lot, and confess it to God periodically, but I feel a prompting to deal with it in a more direct way.
There are other significant things that God is calling me to do, or pray about, or surrender to Him that He has brought up this week. I'm sure I'll be blogging about them in the near future. :)
I also want to share a link with you: www.tcx2010.com. This website has up to date info about TCX this year, and will hopefully give you a picture of some of the things God is doing in and through students and staff this week. Check it out!
(I've also blogged quite a bit about the other TCX conferences I've been to in the last 5 years. Click on the 'tcx' label below this post to see 'conclusions' drawn from former years at the conference.
The weeks leading up to Christmas were full of meetings and calls and e-mails about details concerning TCX, our annual winter conference. Around 1500 college students are attending TCX this year to be challenged, trained, equipped, encouraged and challenged. It's our hope and prayer that students would not leave this conference without being changed by God in some way that will make a lasting difference in their lives.
God's continually used TCX in my life in significant ways. This year is no exception. Mid-way through the conference this year, one of my impressions is the need for an increased awareness of sin in my life, and submitting in obedience to confess it and repent. I think about my sin a lot, and confess it to God periodically, but I feel a prompting to deal with it in a more direct way.
There are other significant things that God is calling me to do, or pray about, or surrender to Him that He has brought up this week. I'm sure I'll be blogging about them in the near future. :)
I also want to share a link with you: www.tcx2010.com. This website has up to date info about TCX this year, and will hopefully give you a picture of some of the things God is doing in and through students and staff this week. Check it out!
(I've also blogged quite a bit about the other TCX conferences I've been to in the last 5 years. Click on the 'tcx' label below this post to see 'conclusions' drawn from former years at the conference.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Operationally Building Movements Everywhere
Here's a small picture at a typical task for an operations team member with our regional office:
TCX, our annual winter conference is our biggest event. It takes all of our 200+ staff in the Upper Midwest to pull this event off. One of the biggest days at the conference is registering all of our attendees. Successfully pulling off the registration at this event takes a lot of preparation.
My role this year is making sure every student that arrives has a room. Of course, we don't just assign them any room with anyone - we try to keep students with their campus or geographic area (what we call a missional team). If you're from a small school in South Dakota, we try to put you with others from your state.
It's actually a simple process. Once students arrive at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Minneapolis, they check a sign in the lobby that lists what campus is staying on what floor. They head up the elevator to their designated floor, where they meet a staff member who assigns them to a room. From there they drop off their luggage, and finish registering on the 3rd floor of the hotel.
Part of my role involves training 24 staff in how to properly register the students. I love involving campus staff in ministry operations. I think it's important for them to see how important operations tasks are, so we on the Ops team and they as campus staff can continue to work well together.
With around 1450 students this year from over 100 different campuses, the hardest part lies in sorting data. I have an Excel file of every students' name and campus, and will sort through to count how many male and female students registered from every campus. I then consult a list of missional teams, and group the campuses into their geographic areas.
The next step is to obtain a list of rooms from the hotel that we have. I generally planned for 1600 students this year, which means we book 400 hotel rooms. I try to pair the number of rooms needed with the number of rooms available on a floor. Basically, we book the entire hotel.
(Along with the students, we have around 250 staff in attendance, (with their children), 125 high school students for a similar conference of their own, and 75+ Volunteers and guests. Over 2,000 people!)
This task of assigning students a hotel room is just one in a list of responsibilities that I have. I'm betting that not many of the 2,000 conference attendees will think about this process. But it's actually a task I enjoy and an area I love.
It's easy to get lost in the details. It's even easy to forget there are students attending the conference, as my interaction with them is sometimes limited. But when I overhear a student talking about sharing his faith for the first time, or chat with a student interested in serving with Campus Crusade in a role like mine, I'm reminded about the purpose of the details. I do the details in order to build spiritual movements everywhere. It's our hope to continue to pray and think about the ways God can use them to advance His Kingdom - during and after college.
TCX, our annual winter conference is our biggest event. It takes all of our 200+ staff in the Upper Midwest to pull this event off. One of the biggest days at the conference is registering all of our attendees. Successfully pulling off the registration at this event takes a lot of preparation.
My role this year is making sure every student that arrives has a room. Of course, we don't just assign them any room with anyone - we try to keep students with their campus or geographic area (what we call a missional team). If you're from a small school in South Dakota, we try to put you with others from your state.
It's actually a simple process. Once students arrive at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Minneapolis, they check a sign in the lobby that lists what campus is staying on what floor. They head up the elevator to their designated floor, where they meet a staff member who assigns them to a room. From there they drop off their luggage, and finish registering on the 3rd floor of the hotel.
Part of my role involves training 24 staff in how to properly register the students. I love involving campus staff in ministry operations. I think it's important for them to see how important operations tasks are, so we on the Ops team and they as campus staff can continue to work well together.
With around 1450 students this year from over 100 different campuses, the hardest part lies in sorting data. I have an Excel file of every students' name and campus, and will sort through to count how many male and female students registered from every campus. I then consult a list of missional teams, and group the campuses into their geographic areas.
The next step is to obtain a list of rooms from the hotel that we have. I generally planned for 1600 students this year, which means we book 400 hotel rooms. I try to pair the number of rooms needed with the number of rooms available on a floor. Basically, we book the entire hotel.
(Along with the students, we have around 250 staff in attendance, (with their children), 125 high school students for a similar conference of their own, and 75+ Volunteers and guests. Over 2,000 people!)
This task of assigning students a hotel room is just one in a list of responsibilities that I have. I'm betting that not many of the 2,000 conference attendees will think about this process. But it's actually a task I enjoy and an area I love.
It's easy to get lost in the details. It's even easy to forget there are students attending the conference, as my interaction with them is sometimes limited. But when I overhear a student talking about sharing his faith for the first time, or chat with a student interested in serving with Campus Crusade in a role like mine, I'm reminded about the purpose of the details. I do the details in order to build spiritual movements everywhere. It's our hope to continue to pray and think about the ways God can use them to advance His Kingdom - during and after college.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Bring on Week Two!
I'm excited to get back to the office this week; we've got a lot going on. TCX, our annual winter conference, is coming up in quickly! Two weeks from tonight, December 26th, I'll be setting up our conference office at the Hilton in downtown Minneapolis. It takes a ton of behind-the-scenes work to prepare for and execute a four-day conference for 2,000 people. We have a great website this year with some more info; check it out here.
Also on my radar this week are the international summer missions projects for our region. This year I'll help 6 couples from the Upper Midwest coordinate their 4-6 week long trips to international cities. Each trip will have several staff members, and probably 15 students on average. This week I'll be meeting with a few people who will teach me how to coach our project directors through the process of leading a successful trip. One thing I'll do this week is update the very out of date info on our website - I'm no web designer, by any means, but we don't have one in the office so we'll make do! (You can see the website here).
Also on my radar this week are the international summer missions projects for our region. This year I'll help 6 couples from the Upper Midwest coordinate their 4-6 week long trips to international cities. Each trip will have several staff members, and probably 15 students on average. This week I'll be meeting with a few people who will teach me how to coach our project directors through the process of leading a successful trip. One thing I'll do this week is update the very out of date info on our website - I'm no web designer, by any means, but we don't have one in the office so we'll make do! (You can see the website here).
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
TCX (2)
It so often occurs that God tries to get my attention, and I’m not really paying attention. I’m so concerned with my agenda and my needs that, if I’m not careful, I miss out on what He wants me to hear.
This week He showed up in a random chance meeting and blessed me unexpectedly. The second night of TCX prep, I got back to my room about 930, ready to relax for an hour, unpack, and head to bed. A single staff woman had been randomly got assigned to my room, and when I returned, she was packing up to switch rooms. She was only at TCX for one night as she’s leaving staff and getting married this week.
Despite it being her last night at a Campus Crusade event, after being on staff 6 years, and my plan to relax and go to bed early, she and I got to talking. We conversed about her wedding plans and the rest of her week, my role in the regional office, our mutual friends, and the craziness of raising support.
We talked for maybe 45 minutes, during which I learned so, so much and was incredibly encouraged. Through our short conversation I learned she’s in her early thirties, owns her own house and is getting married, moving to another state and leaving staff. Life is about to change in huge ways for her, yet she took some time to ask me about my life and really encourage me in my support raising. It was a housing mistake for her to be placed in my room for the night, but I’m glad it happened. It’s so fun to see God working in even the smallest details.
This week He showed up in a random chance meeting and blessed me unexpectedly. The second night of TCX prep, I got back to my room about 930, ready to relax for an hour, unpack, and head to bed. A single staff woman had been randomly got assigned to my room, and when I returned, she was packing up to switch rooms. She was only at TCX for one night as she’s leaving staff and getting married this week.
Despite it being her last night at a Campus Crusade event, after being on staff 6 years, and my plan to relax and go to bed early, she and I got to talking. We conversed about her wedding plans and the rest of her week, my role in the regional office, our mutual friends, and the craziness of raising support.
We talked for maybe 45 minutes, during which I learned so, so much and was incredibly encouraged. Through our short conversation I learned she’s in her early thirties, owns her own house and is getting married, moving to another state and leaving staff. Life is about to change in huge ways for her, yet she took some time to ask me about my life and really encourage me in my support raising. It was a housing mistake for her to be placed in my room for the night, but I’m glad it happened. It’s so fun to see God working in even the smallest details.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
TCX (1)
I am here in Minneapolis setting up for TCX, (Twin Cities Xperience) the annual winter conference of the Upper Midwest region of Campus Crusade for Christ. This year, over 1600 college students from MN IA SD ND and WI will converge on Minneapolis, MN for 4 days of speakers, corporate worship, equipping and training seminars, fellowship and FUN! There's also a day of outreach where students will share food and Jesus with hungry people in the Twin Cities Metro Area.
I've been here 3 hours, and I'm already wishing I were at my full support level so I could be here all the time. My teammates, this city, TCX, Campus Crusade, God's call on my life are all really great and excite me a lot.
I haven't always felt this way the last year. There have been many ups and downs, but I'm so glad I followed His leading into full-time ministry. There were so many days I ignored his promptings, but not being in God's will scares me a whole lot more than the challenges of life right now.
I've been here 3 hours, and I'm already wishing I were at my full support level so I could be here all the time. My teammates, this city, TCX, Campus Crusade, God's call on my life are all really great and excite me a lot.
I haven't always felt this way the last year. There have been many ups and downs, but I'm so glad I followed His leading into full-time ministry. There were so many days I ignored his promptings, but not being in God's will scares me a whole lot more than the challenges of life right now.
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
TCX '05
First, let me say that TCX is the winter conference of Campus Crusade for Christ. There are 10 conferences all over the US- places like San Deigo, Spokane WA, DC, Atlanta, Denver- over 10,000 students participate total. At TCX [twin-cities xperience] 1400 college students in the upper midwest-IA, SD, ND, MN, WI- got together for four days at the Hilton in Minneapolis to go to seminars, listen to speakers, worship, pray and grow!! It's sweet. There. My schpeel is now complete.
Second, I've actually been avoiding blogging about the conference. There is so much to tell! About halfway through the 4 days I remember saying the trip was worth it, but I had more fun the year before. WRONG! I had just as much fun, probably even more. And I learned a lot, too. I learned that I focus too much on the future, and I'm missing what's happening right now. I'm focusing too much on summer project and what I could do after graduation that I am missing the relationships I could be building now and women I could be influencing on my floor.
I learned that I have not been leading with a heart of worship last semester, of which I am very regretful. Being put in the position of leading worship for CRU has been awesome and I love doing, but God showed me that I really was not revealing my heart in doing so. I was too concerned with practices, equipment problems & nerves to truly worship Him. God is so faithful that He continues to teach me something new every day.
Second, I've actually been avoiding blogging about the conference. There is so much to tell! About halfway through the 4 days I remember saying the trip was worth it, but I had more fun the year before. WRONG! I had just as much fun, probably even more. And I learned a lot, too. I learned that I focus too much on the future, and I'm missing what's happening right now. I'm focusing too much on summer project and what I could do after graduation that I am missing the relationships I could be building now and women I could be influencing on my floor.
I learned that I have not been leading with a heart of worship last semester, of which I am very regretful. Being put in the position of leading worship for CRU has been awesome and I love doing, but God showed me that I really was not revealing my heart in doing so. I was too concerned with practices, equipment problems & nerves to truly worship Him. God is so faithful that He continues to teach me something new every day.