Kevin Pike Ministry Blog #44

 February Update 

   Hey everyone! Hope you've been sticking with your New Year's resolutions from last month :) This month at Collin has been a blast, and I can't wait to share it with y'all!

Pizza Theology:

This month we had our bi-annual Pizza Theology. The subject was “How to Think Like a Christian.” We want our students to not only leave FOCUS with a better understanding of the Bible, how to be leaders, and how to build spiritual friendships, but we also want them to know how to think like a Christian. This will allow them to use wisdom from the Bible and their experiences in FOCUS to help make choices that align with Christ at every step of their adult lives.

Schools are not always doing the best job of helping students learn how to think critically, so we are intentionally working to help train them in that skill. The students had a great time and learned a lot! Here are some pictures from the event:

Here is the link to the spotify page if you would like to listen as well:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4c17lJpDj4iUouzP7cDiGf?si=11Vm4f0USMaF4TCEnmqlcQ

TNF:

    Our Thursday Night Fellowship has been going well! We are doing our series on the Covenants of the Old Testament and how Jesus fulfilled them. So far we have done a sermon on the covenant of Noah, Abraham, and Moses. This week, I will be finishing us out with the Davidic covenant and how Jesus fulfilled all of the previous covenants. We have noticed that the students have little integrity to their words and commitments. They do not care that much if they go back on their word or cancel on a commitment that they made. This is concerning to us since that being a promise keeper is extremely important to everyday life. This sermon series is a reminder of who our God is and how He wants to partner with us. 

Here is my latest sermon on the Davidic covenant: 

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4dq5UFpXbIDBSIQJLrwZ6B?si=b3cd1739e7ed42c0

General Ministry: 

    The two core groups that I lead have been a mixed bag recently. The Wylie Core has been great! We are continuing to get new guys to join us, and we’re having great conversations centered around the Old Testament as we work through a portion of Exodus.

My Plano Core has been a little shaky recently. Most of our guys this semester had class schedule changes and can no longer make it. Two other guys have stepped away because they were not interested in learning more about Christianity. That leaves only three guys in the group, but they are super consistent, which my co-leader and I are incredibly thankful for and proud of! It does stink to see the group shrink so much, but the men who are still coming are actively growing in their faith and continuing to seek out Jesus. My co-leader and I will be going to the Plano campus soon to do more outreach.

Recently, I was given the opportunity to help lead an Assertiveness Workshop for our students. Ministry-wide, we’ve noticed that students are not saying what is on their minds and tend to avoid conflict. They are scared to call customer service and speak with someone over the phone. They won’t tell a server or cashier when their order is wrong. They won’t tell their friends when something they said hurt their feelings and would rather let a relationship fade than have a hard conversation and fix it. In dating relationships, they are often afraid to break up with their partner or tell them when something they say or do is hurtful.

We want to give them practical tools to say what’s on their minds and show them how to step confidently into adulthood. Our hope is that students leave college feeling in control of the different areas of their lives instead of shrinking back in fear. Jesus was very assertive, and He did it the right way. He told people when they were wrong and shared truth boldly, yet He did it with love. I’m very excited about this workshop because I truly believe it will help students in every area of their lives and significantly change how they navigate the world around them.

Something else I’ve been very excited about is the Exodus Bible study I’m leading. I meet weekly with about six students, and we are analyzing the entire book together. I’m currently listening to the BEMA Podcast and reading an Exodus commentary by Douglas Stuart. It’s very in-depth and something I’ve never done before. I’m learning a lot, and it’s been fun getting to teach it to students as well.

My main goals for the study are:

1. Familiarize students with the Old Testament.
   The OT can look intimidating at first because we often don’t have the right tools to understand what’s happening. But it is a rich and beautiful text that tells the story of God interacting with His people. All of the students in the study, except one, have never read Exodus before.

2. Teach them to ask questions when they read the Bible.
   It’s easy to read Scripture without slowing down to really absorb it. I have a student read a passage aloud, and then I ask them to share one question or observation about what they just read. This helps them start noticing details and tensions in the text.

For example: Why did Pharaoh ask for the plague of frogs to stop tomorrow? Why not immediately?

When we begin asking questions like that, we start to uncover the wisdom and depth embedded in the text. As someone who loves literary analysis, this has been especially fun for me. We’ll be meeting every week this semester with the goal of finishing the entire book of Exodus together.

Here are some pictures hanging out with students this month!

Prayer Requests: 

    Please be praying that our students want to know more about the Bible. Many students complain that they don't like to read and thus do not want to read the Bible on their own time. Also pray for our students that they see that college is an unique time in their life to spend doing ministry and developing deep friendships. Some of them would rather work a minimum wage job for 40 hours a week, when they do not need the money, instead of being in a small group or going to TNF.

Thank You: 

    Thank you so much for your support, I am deeply grateful for your generosity and faithful partnership with our campus ministry at Collin College. Your giving is truly a blessing, and it is making a real and lasting impact on students as they grow in their faith, find community, and encounter the love of Christ. Because of your support, students are being discipled, encouraged, and equipped to live boldly for the Lord on campus and beyond. Thank you for being part of what God is doing here—your generosity is not only supporting a ministry, it is shaping lives for years to come.

P.S. Here is a student testimony from a women at TWU. Your donations help students like her find a community at college that is centered around Jesus. Thank you for blessing students like her.