THIS IS ANDY

I came to Gateway two years ago this April. It has been quite a ride. At Flamingo Road Church I served as the Global Student Ministries Director overseeing the main campus of about 470 students and 60 leaders as well as organizing and equiping volunteers for student ministry for the other four campuses including the Lima, Peru campus. I learned alot from great people at FRC. I think of them often. 

In fifteen years of student ministry I have seen a lot of different kinds of leaders and students. I can say great things about many of them because there have been alot of great people that have helped with youth where God has put me.

With Andy there are two things that I want to say.

When I came here he was the full time student pastor who also was a full time student at UT. Of all the people that could have led an assault against change and my presence he would have been the one who could have strategically done the worst. If he was ever tempted to leverage his voice against things it would have been arduous to overcome. Instead, he trusted God and sometimes, even in the face of opposition, paved the way for understanding and acceptance. I came with a tremendous amount of intensity for the Uprising and a high degree of impatience for talking about change but not doing it. Unknowingly I created a lot of tension that took me months to figure out and redeem. Andy never flinched when those who came with concerns arose. Andy was not the only one who loved well here but, among them all, there are not many people who could have absorbed letting go of their position and support so strongly the one who filled their spot. He was able to do so because the man is brimming over the top with Jesus. 

The last thing is that I have never ever in my entire life nor in my entire career seen anyone that even comes close to having the instantansous connectivity to students relationally that he has. Ever. Andy has this insane ability to extract from students their pain, weaknesses, and temptations so that he can push them toward Jesus and heal their pain. When students are done talking to Andy they feel look like and act like they just got done walking out of their favorite concert or roller coaster ride. It's clinic on Tuesday night in our high school house churches as well as a clinic on Wednesday night when he speaks. He loves his brothers in Christ well, loves his lady relentlessly, serves the hard to serve in Younglife, and dies daily to self.


Andy wrote the lines you see below. He also spun the talk intro featured at the last during a series we did on social justice.

Be a shaker, stage a sit-in
join a march and make a speech

Raid a brothel, mentor children
visit prison, write a story

Dig a well, be a father
smuggle bibles, coach a team

Paint a mural, love an orphan
be a mother, stage a coup

For Christ's sake, throw a brick
light a fire, tip a car
In a crooked world of people
He made His kids to be like stars
So when all your friends are eating
discussing just how dark things are
Don't just speak of revolution
inside coffee shops and bars

Yes,
raise a glass,
make a toast,
cast a vision,

But please,
throw a brick,
love a neighbor,
get on mission.