January "Month-in-Review"

One month down in 2023.

We made it. One month down in 2023.

We welcomed the boys and their families back to programming, trained our coaches, and planned for the new year. We’re so thankful to be in a position where we can continue being a light to the community of Lake Highlands, equipping mentors and volunteers to step ino the story, and build relationships with young men to fulfill their potential in the name of Jesus.

We’re so excited for what this year will bring.

Brotherhood and friends
for the journey.

Brothers. Comrades. Friends for the journey.

Our boys had three weeks off of programming and it's like they never left, picking back up where they started. Building friendships and brotherhood for their journeys to becoming men is what we want to set the stage for here at Forerunner. Brothers who will point you in the direction of your potential, who will shine the light of Christ in places you can grow, and not take life too seriously.

Who's in your corner? Who's pointing you toward your potential?

We hope that boys in Lake Highlands will know they always have people in their corner. That they always have each other.

Relationships change lives.

Last month, we had “Forerunner Wars”. Everyone was pumped in competition against one another. We were playing trivia with the boys one day when a boy named Malachi went up for my team. At first my team was the only one cheering for him. The question was “Jesus died for our _____”?

Everyone was hyped except Malachi. He was stressed. As the time got longer he got more stressed. The mic in his face, absolute shock in his eyes and everyone's voices in his ears. Yet the sweet and “Forerunner” part was that each kid from each team started cheering “MALACHI MALACHI MALACHI”.

After getting the answer and whispering it into the mic everyone went crazy hyping him up. It didn't matter that he wasn't on their “team” to all of them in that moment. He was their brother. They wanted him to succeed.

If that's not Christ’s love in action and forerunners being Men of God on display, I don't know what is.

-Ryan Raleigh, K-6th Coach

National Mentoring Month
in full swing.

There is power in being at the table.

They're not just places of gathering. Tables are places of connection. Places for conversation, vulnerability, honesty, and healing. To come as you are, and leave differently than you came.

Every week the young men in our high school program THRIVE gather to open their hearts before one another and talk about manhood, the struggles they are facing, and vision for their lives and their future stories. They gather at tables with other men who've gone before them but don't find themselves as the only beneficiaries of having a seat at the table. Our mentors learn from the perspectives of our forerunners, and it comes with a unified cost and commitment: to look more like Christ, to shoulder one another's burdens, and be men of responsibility, humility, integrity, leadership, and respect.

This is our longing as a community. To set more tables for mentoring moments. To learn from one another. To bear the burdens of others. All by pulling up a chair and inclining our ear to listen.

Our challenge to you this year is this:

Pull up a chair.
Lean in and listen.
Learn from one another and lead in love.

May your table be filled with more mentoring moments, because there is power in being at the table.

Raising up leaders to lead
on and off the field.

Our High School Program Coordinator started weekly leadership sessions with the Lake Highlands High School (@lakehighlandshs) football team last month.

At the same time, we ran into a guy who joined Forerunner in 8th grade and recently graduated from West Texas A&M, a forerunner from the early days of the organization that just happened to show up and workout with younger kids who are in similar shoes he was in years ago. The shoes of wanting to be shown how to be a man, and how to be a leader.

This is what it means to be a community endeavor. Being amongst the next generation, sowing seeds that will bear GENERATIONAL IMPACT in those wearing the shoes you once wore.

We’re so excited for the future leaders, on and off the field, represented in this room.

The mighty, courageous, young men
of our Junior High program.

There was an icebreaker question asked to our junior high men by one of our coaches before a guest speaker spoke to them last month:

If you could time travel, where would you go and why?

“I would go back to the 1300's and stop the black plague.”
“I would go back to 1996 and prevent Tupac from being shot. I would also go back to the early 2000's and stop 9/11 from happening.”
“I would go back to football season last year and replay everything so that we can win the district.”

Those were just a few answers.

Young men with a heart to go back and make a change. Not just a change in their personal lives, but redeeming drastic events that took place in our world.

People tend to say that Gen-Z is selfish and all about themselves. The young men in our Junior High program are proving that statement wrong, one day at a time.

I’m super grateful for our partnership with Lake Highlands Junior High. They allow us to host check in / restorative meetings at the school in the conference room. Last month, I sat down with a young man in our program, his mother, and his mentor Matthew.

This young man moved from New Orleans last semester. Transitions are tough, especially for a middle schooler. I’m reminded of Peter when he denied Jesus in the courtyard around the “kindle lit fire” in Luke 22:55. Theologians and bible scholars say that when Jesus appeared to his disciples the third time and built a “charcoal fire” near the lake he was setting the stage to redeem the moment when Peter denied him (John 21:9). The next passage mentions Jesus asking Peter did he love him.

Last month, we lit a fire to restore and redeem him. His mentor Matthew overheard him saying that he wish Dallas had a certain type of chips that he likes, because they only sell them in New Orleans. Matthew ordered them online and brought them to the meeting. He made him feel loved and seen.

God is in the works of redeeming and restoring. May it continue in our Junior High program in the name of Jesus.

-Darius Person, 7-8th Program Coordinator

Last month in Junior High, we started a super hero series, discussing the strengths and weaknesses of super heroes and how it reflects into our walk with Christ; how it relates to being human, but empowered to live and walk as Men of God. One day, we talked about the strengths and weaknesses of Iron Man and how his strengths and weakness relate to guarding our hearts. Iron Man, you may know him from the Avengers and considered one of the strongest superheroes, has everything in the world in his role. All the money, fame, and attention. Yet, his weakness was stress and anxiety, and his ego. His weakness was guarding his heart.

“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” Proverbs 4:23

During discussion, I asked my group: “We talked about how Iron Man has to guard his heart from some bad things. As Men of God, what are some bad things we have to guard our hearts against?”

The responses were deep:

Sin
Women
Anger
Shame
Crime
Negativity
Bad influences

Then I went one step farther and asked how we could guard our hearts…

Prayer
Reading the Bible
Fasting
Armor

After “armor” had been said, there was a brief chuckle, but I was led to remember the Armor of God in Ephesians 6, something I hadn’t read or thought about in months. So I pulled it out and we read through it:

“Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,” Ephesians‬ ‭6‬:‭11‬-‭17 ESV

As we talked through it, I realized that this verse describes 5 defensive items and only 1 offensive item. Even more so, I realized that each of those defensive items comes through abiding in Jesus: the belt of Truth, the breastplate of Righteousness, the shoes of the gospel of Peace, the helmet of Salvation, and the shield of Faith. Each one of those items points back to Jesus in some way: Savior; the Way, the Truth, and the Life; Prince of Peace; Cornerstone of our Faith…

I also realized how resolute the statement on the shield of faith is. “With which you can extinguish ALL the flaming darts of the evil one.”

By our faith we can stand against whatever is being thrown at us. Jesus had already told us that when he said “if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to the mountain move from here to there and it will obey.”

Those darts don’t just look like temptation. They can also be fear, anxiety, or doubt. And yet, our faith is what we can hold onto in those moments to stand against those darts; and it will never fail us, because GOD will never fail us.

-Joshua Manning, K-6th Coach