Dan Gould

Category: Student Ministry

  • Weekend Update 12-13-09

    Hard to believe Christmas is almost here!!! As a matter of fact, this weekend will be the last Fusion Service of the year! Wow!!! Special thanks to all that made this past weekend happen flawlessly while my family and I were in Missouri. We had a great trip! Even though I got sick, it was good to see family and friends. Congrats Mike on graduating College!!!!

    This weekend I will wrap up our CHRISTmas series! If you haven’t been in a while, we would love to see you! If by some chance you missed last week, here’s the video intro from the talk Chris gave! It’s a great teaching on the fact that Christ became man to show Humility. I have also thrown in the announcement video so you can know what’s going on!!! Hope you’ll join us this weekend!!!

  • Mark your Calendars

    Brace yourselves, January 3rd, 2010 will be Student Invasion Weekend at Grace.  It will be the first weekend of the year and Fusion is taking over the Big House.  Tyler and the student band will lead in musical worship and I will do the teaching during both services.  We are really excited about it and hope you will make plans to attend. We’re encouraging all the student to sit in the middle front section as a group in both service.  I promise this will be a weekend you don’t want to miss!

  • The Revolution Begins

    Tonight, Stephanie and I are hosting a group of students that have been meeting together for the last 11 weeks on Sunday Night and doing a daily study from a work book called Max Q.  I know, the title is riveting!  But when you understand what Max Q is, the title makes sense!  11 weeks ago we had an open call to any student that was willing to take on this challenge and be a student of influence.  Here is what we introduced to them 11 weeks ago:

    MAX Q
    Becoming a Student of Influence
    Week 1 – Introduction

    Christ is the strongest, grandest, most attractive personality ever to grace the earth. But a careless messenger with the wrong approach can reduce all this magnificence to the level of boredom. ~Jim Rayburn

    The real problem of lost teenage America is not a lack of evangelism but a lack of substance in the Christian students who live, study, and play among them. ~ MAX Q

    As we begin this journey together our desire is that your Character would be stretched, encouraged, and challenged.  At Fusion, we believe we begin to develop students of influence only as we choose to put our focus on the character of our students rather than the charisma of our environments.  The breadth and power of our students’ influence on their unbelieving friends are directly proportional to the depth of the content of their character.  And the effectiveness of our ministries in influencing the unbelieving student culture is absolutely dependent upon the character of our core students.  Our goal in this process is that each of you would take the steps to become what we call core students.

    Why Max Q?  Max Q is a term used in the space-shuttle program at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.  You see, roughly one minute after launch, a space shuttle must withstand a condition of extreme force called “maximum dynamic pressure” – “Max Q” for short.  This is the critical point in flight from an aerodynamics perspective.  It’s when the most stress is placed on the vehicle.  It happens just after the shuttle goes supersonic, at an altitude of 25,000 to 35,000 feet (5 -7 miles up).  Mission success demands that all systems on the space shuttle perform at the highest level.  When designed properly, prepared carefully, and executed perfectly, the shuttle and its crew safely reach orbital velocity of 17,600 miles per hour at about 8½ minutes after launch.

    Our role in your development is difficult, yet so significant.  We (your leaders) must create  ministry environments that develop students who can withstand intense pressure.  Students who can be light in dark places. Students who will not waver from their faith while they passionately pursue relationships with their lost peers.  Students who know how to gain influence and earn the privilege to lead.  That’s our desire as a ministry and the question we ask you before we go any further is this . . . Are you willing to be that type of student?

    If the answer is yes, here’s where we have to start.

    1. It has to start with us your leaders!  Our leaders must make a commitment to model, lead, challenge, encourage, correct, and hold you accountable to the things of Christ so you can be the person of influence God is calling you to be.
    2. It starts with you! You have to be willing to be stretched, lead, challenged, encouraged, corrected, and held accountable to the things of Christ. It is going to take some work, there will be times it may be hard, to be honest, they may be times that you want to quit or disagree with the process … but I promise in the end, God will use this process to teach you what it means to be faithful, what it means to be a person of Character, what it means to be a person of influence, and what it means to be a person that is used by God.

    The students that are coming over tonight desire to be used by God.  They are a work in progress and some of them will move on to mentor the next group of students that will take Max Q in the spring.  Some will retake Max Q because of their lack of doing the daily study or missing too many sessions.  Regardless, tonight marks a starting point for our ministry to begin developing student leaders.  In the Spring, I will offer this to our adult leadership team. We will meet at the same time as the students.  Josh Harris who has been shadowing me in these last 11 weeks and will lead the next class of students through the material while I lead the adults through the materiel.  (by the way, I think every adult should go through the class, these principles aren’t just for students, they are for anyone that wants to be influential.)

    I am so proud of the students that took this serious, didn’t give up, and are seeking ways to be an influence in the arena of life that God has placed them.  I am excited to see what God does through them and He uses them to advance His Kingdom!

  • Ignatius the Ultimate Youth Pastor

    Saw this awhile ago but saw it on a friends twitter and it’s relevant to what we are talking about this weekend in Fusion.  Enjoy!!

  • Galveston Mission Trip – Day 6: Slothfulness and Reward

    “Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent. Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God’s promises because of their faith and endurance.” Hebrews 6:12 (NLT)

    “Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. 24 Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ.” Collosians 3:23-24 (NLT)

    What a day!!!!  The Construction Team finished the fence, and stayed late to remove an old door and replaced it with a piece of plywood.

    VBS Team saw 1 kid accept Christ and then did demolition work in the afternoon.  There is a story behind this that includes a stolen phone, and a talk about forgiveness!

    The Facilities team, cleaned the showers and bathrooms then were sent to Demolish a house.

    Every Student worked hard yesterday. The group really enjoyed tearing stuff up!!!!

    Last night seemed to be cry night in our Worship Time.  These times have been amazing with leaders sharing a word of the day and then a time singing to the Lord.

    Here are some pics from Todays’ Construction Team:

  • Galveston Mission Trip – Day 5: Purpose

    “Here’s the lesson: Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then, when your earthly possessions are gone, they will welcome you to an eternal home.” Luke 16:9 (NLT)

    “If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.” Matthew 10:39 (NLT)

    We have had a great week with a lot of sun and great worship times at night.  Today we had our teams in three locations, here at Alamo, VBS, and Construction.

    At the construction site we got all of our supplies after Lowes made us wait for 4 hours because of lack of communication.  This caused us to only get half of the fence done.  But the good news is we should have it completed on Thursday.  Just a note, almost every girl that has come to the construction site, has worked harder than most of the boys!!!

    At VBS we had a low number again and have learned a lot. Trying to use this as a teaching tool for the adults and students there and relating how you have great plans and to see great things happen and when they don’t happen that way how to not give up and persevere through the challenge.

    At Alamo, some of our students cleaned toilets for the first time.  Their objective was to work on the needs here that sometimes get overlooked because all of the construction guys/gals go to work sites.  They were also supposed to help unload all the new supplies that have been ordered but not yet arrive.

    It’s been a good week.  We topped off the midway with a meal at a local food place called The Spot!  Great food, lots of it!  Here are some of the pics from today:

  • Galveston Mission Trip – Day 4: Obedience

    “I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters,[e] that I planned many times to visit you, but I was prevented until now. I want to work among you and see spiritual fruit, just as I have seen among other Gentiles. 14 For I have a great sense of obligation to people in both the civilized world and the rest of the world,[f] to the educated and uneducated alike. 15 So I am eager to come to you in Rome, too, to preach the Good News.

    16 For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile.[g]17 This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, ‘It is through faith that a righteous person has life.’” Romans 12:13-16 (NLT)

    Today we took most of the group to the construction site and sent the rest to VBS. At the site, half of the group worked on painting the house while the other half worked on the fence.   However, we didn’t get the all clear for digging until late afternoon.  We took a volunteer team and worked until 8:45 to dig holes and set post so we could finish the fence Wednesday and Thursday.
    At VBS they doubled their number of kids, which created some excitement.  After VBS that crew worked with the University Baptist Church and cleaned a yard in the community.

    Here are some pictures from the Construction site:

  • Galveston Mission Trip – Day 3: Humble

    “About that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, ‘Who is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?’

    2 Jesus called a little child to him and put the child among them. 3 Then he said, ‘I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. 4 So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.

    5 And anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf[a] is welcoming me. 6 But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to have a large millstone tied around your neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea.’” Matthew 18:1-6 (NLT)

    Today was our first day on the work-site and doing VBS in the park.  Both places had challenges.  At VBS, the students and leaders only had 3 kids show up.  This is much different than the VBS we were able to do in Mexico and it left some of the team feeling discouraged.  In that came the question, “Why go if no-one is going to show up?”  Great question!  I think it is easy sometimes to want to pull out of something when it doesn’t go the way we thought it should, or if kids don’t show up.  But we lead by example, if we pull out after 1 day, disgaurding all the work we did to pass out fliers, and talk it up with our students, I think we teach them that when things don;t go the way we thought, or when things get hard, its ok to give up.  There’s a word that I am sure will surface this week as a word called perseverance!  Maybe the lesson was never meant to be for anyone other than our group and our students to learn that sometimes when you work for the Lord you don’t see the results immediately, but you serve out of obedience, sacrifice, and perseverance.

    We had some challenges at the work-site also. We arrived and demolished the rest of the fence to get ready to put the new one up in the next 2 days.  We will dig 28 holes for new fence posts to a 8ft privacy fence.  While several crews do that we will have another crew stripping/scrapping the trim and soffets as well as the front entry so it can be repainted.  The homeowner is a widowed lady’s who’s husband died 5 years ago.

    In our worship time, Penelope shared the word of the day HUMBLE, and Josh led us in musical worship.  What a sweet time we had, the Spirit moved in a mighty way breaking students and adults challenging us to surrender all of us for all of Him.

    It’s been a good trip!  We have had some challenges, 1 sick, 2 students stepped on nails, and 1 students stepped on a rock
    and caused her foot to swell and toe to feel numb, and lots of sunburns!  Please continue to pray for our group!

    Here are some pics from today!


  • Galveston Mission Trip – Day 2: Self-Control (update)

    “‘So think clearly and exercise self-control. Look forward to the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. 14 So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. 15 But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. 16 For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.’[c]” v. 13-16

    Today was very busy, Church, VBS and Work-site planning, the beach, and a lot of people moving in. The space has become very crowded and someone tried to break into our trailer. They put a hole in it and broke all the lights. God is going to do some awesome things this week because Satan is doing so much to distract us.

    On a side note, the Internet isn’t the greatest here, so it’s really hard to blog! Please make sure to follow the twitters for the best updates. Our group is going to crash early! Got a big day tomorrow! Pray with us!

    This morning, Day 3, we will challenge our students with yesterdays word – Self-Control.  We will typically do this in the evening from 8-9.  At this time we will worship through song, Bible Study (word for the day) and prayer.  Please pray for these times as we share with each other the things God is doing in us and through us!

    Here are some pics from yesterday:

    Don’t forget, follow my Twitter for the latest updates at http://www.twitter.com/dgould77 it also links to my FaceBook so add me as a friend nd you can follow there also!

  • Galveston Mission Trip – Day 1: BE AN EXAMPLE

    “Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity.” 1st Timothy 4:12

    We have arrived in Galveston. Alamo Elementary is a great facility that we are lucky to be able to stay in. The showers are small, but we are thankful for them. I believe that this week is going to be very impactful for our group. Each night we will be meeting from 8:00-9:00 to sing, learn, and pray. Each night a different student will share a word and a verse that encourages or challenges us in our walk. Tonight, our word was EXAMPLE. We were challenged to BE AN EXAMPLE. Everywhere we go people are watching. Let’s stop making excuses and start living like we Jesus called us to live. It’s a challenge for all of us, young and old. What a great reminder and Challenge as we begin this week! Let be examples in the words we use, in our action, in our love, in our faith, and by our PURE lives!

    Pics from today