Austin Bailey's Ministry Blog

"Rejoice in the Lord always. I'll say it again, Rejoice." Philippians 4:4 My peer team group. All of us lead a small group at different campuses at Collin. We meet together every third week to have fellowship and discuss how we can grow more as disciples. REJOICE in Growing!  Let me be honest with you; October was a challenging month for me. When I dive closer to God, He unfolds new characteristics and relationship growth for me to be more like Jesus. One growth area God revealed to me is to seek approval from Him and not from people. It's been challenging to me in the past; I've set up false expectations I want people to see in me to get their approval. For example, I've listened to LIES that say, "You need to be a good minister, show you don't struggle with anything, and you have everything together." It took me until this semester in the apprenticeship not beat myself about it. Instead, I choose to REJOICE, and to trust God to help ...

 My core guys. "Jesus answered them,  It is not the healthy who need a doctor,  but the sick.   I have not come to call the righteous,  but sinners to repentance.” Luke 5:31-32 I often ponder this question when I meet people for the first time: "how are you really doing"? Every Tuesday, I visit my campus doing contact evangelism, and I see a variety of students that have their Apple airpods on or scrolling through Facebook/Twitter on their phones. As I see students sitting alone with their phones, my first thought is, "they don't want to be bothered." But maybe they're waiting and hoping someone will start a conversation with them. I met one student who was sitting by himself in the atrium. I approached and introduced myself to him, and we began a conversation. I asked him how his day was going, and he responded "good." I followed up with another question, "how is it 'good'"? He said, "It's my fir...

Let's Catch Up! Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's Will for you in Christ Jesus. - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Wow! It's been over a month since I began the apprenticeship and it feels like I just started yesterday. My role for this year is leading a small group (also known as "Core") on Sunday nights with a student. Almost everyone on our staff team will be leading Core with a student leader as well. Collin College just started school in the last week of August, and our staff team came up with a plan for welcome week to get students engaged and help new students feel welcome at Collin. I remember when I was a freshman at Collin, I was sitting inside the atrium by myself at the Plano campus waiting for my first class to start. I remember feeling overwhelmed seeing new faces because this is my first time going to a new school. But then a student from FOCUS approached me, and he initiated a conversation and sat ...

Brace yourselves…The apprenticeship is here!!      The Collin FOCUS staff team! Garrett, Cody, Pedro, Me, Mark, Dani, Jacy, Adriana, Abbie Greetings I am super excited for you to join me in this incredible journey and witness what God has in store! I was reflecting this week when I first started college at Collin. I didn't have a lot of Christian friends and I didn't make any effort to grow my faith in Jesus. When I was introduce to FOCUS by a student, I didn't go because I wasn't interested in it. But later God continuously  drawing me towards this ministry and I am thankful  Staff Retreat The first experience of a FOCUS apprentice was going to Summer Staff Retreat for 3 days. Our whole staff used to plan a trip somewhere together, but this year every campus planned their own retreat. The Collin staff team went to a lake house out around Cypress Spring Lake in east Texas. And thank you Casey and Katelyn for hosting us.  At our retreat, w...