To Our Concerned Brothers and Sisters-

     To divorce the following plan of action from the story which inspired it would be, in my opinion, inappropriate. It is impossible to summarize all that God has shown us, mostly because we are still putting together the pieces He began moving more than a year ago. What follows is our best attempt to explain ourselves to you.

     In a nutshell, we want to re-examine the pursuit of Christ's call to disciple making. We believe that our relationships should aim towards the formation of disciples who view themselves as being on mission in their immediate circumstances. Our plan would be much easier to encapsulate if we were actually the ones who were beginning something. Fortunately for our goals, we are not the ones starting this process. We are jumping in on a movement that has been happening for centuries. Even in our own story, it was not so much that we decided to disciple one another, as we discovered that this was what was already occurring.

     It all started in May of 2007. A pastor/football coach, a Baylor student, and an ETBU football player decided to have lunch together to catch up after another year apart. In the back corner of Qdoba, uncomfortably close to the restrooms, these men began to realize that God had been working in their lives in similar ways. All three of them were tired of simply waking up, going about their business, sleeping, and repeating the process the next day. They knew that God had called them to something more, and they were determined to discover this "abundant life." They committed to continue meeting together, fasting every Monday, and breaking their fast together every Tuesday. Over that meal they would share what God had revealed during the fast and throughout the week. They dug into the Scriptures and read other authors to challenge their thinking. They spent time in intense prayer.

     As the summer ended and they went their separate ways, something interesting occurred. It was not an easy year for any of them, but in the midst of life's difficulties, they began to pour out. The pastor/football coach began two Bible studies with some of his players, helping them to hold each other accountable for reading the Word. The Baylor student, frustrated by the poverty of Waco, joined in with two other friends who were beginning an after school program for one of the city's project neighborhoods. The football player helped lead his team's Bible study, was active with the local High School's FCA, and recently traveled to Croatia to help build a church with a group of his team mates. After spending a summer intentionally exploring God, all three found themselves on mission, simply by applying their passions and abilities to their everyday circumstances. It was only later that they realized that what had occurred might have just been genuine discipleship.

     Obviously, this is not us trying to say we have figured everything out. Anyone who knows would laugh at such a claim. At the same time, we know that God has done something in us and we feel like it would be wrong to keep it to ourselves. For years now, statisticians and surveyors have alarmed the Church world by letting us know just how many of our students actually leave the Church as they transition to college. The statistics are alarming, and getting worse. A recent figure showed that around 9 out of 10 students will leave the Church as they go to school. There is no discrepancy in the statistics between students who attended public schools or those who attended Christian schools. Something is not right. Obviously, disciples will make mistakes. A fall or two is inevitable as we walk down the narrow path. Our concern is that we are seeing students abandon the path altogether. Our hope is that by enabling students to live out their passions and dreams instead of just sitting in a pew, they will reach their campuses, their surrounding communities, and beyond.

     So this is our goal; to reclaim Christ's call to "go and make disciples." As you have heard, we have seen God work in ways that some might find beyond belief. In response, we must move forward, and we cannot do that alone. Ultimately, this explanation and the plan that follows are meant as an invitation. This process will require support through prayer and financial donation, but our real hope goes beyond that. We hope that you too will ask what it truly means to live on mission in the world that God has placed you.

In Him,

Mark Lichty, Rodney McLain, and Kevin Georgas