Lee Rogers and Project 7

This week we heard from Lee Rogers, he grew up in a Christian home but did not come to faith until his 10^th grade year of high school. He was called to ministry his junior year and specifically called to Valley Forge Christian College his senior year. Once he graduated his first position was a youth pastor position in Philly. It was a small church; there were only about 10 students in his ministry. Rogers struggled while at this position there was not much structure or accountability and the pay was very poor. So poor, in fact, that the food bank was part of his salary. He eventually would leave and take another position in Carlisle, NY. He left because he was afraid that if he had stayed he might have burned out of ministry. One of the statements he made, which stuck with me, was, “do what you’re told to do until you’re told to do something else.” At Carlisle he came to work for his spiritual mentor, his former youth pastor. Unfortunately it was not as romantic as it seemed. He soon realized that his mentor wasn’t very good at actually leading leaders; he was much better at leading students.

           

            Rogers is now considered a missionary. His major core value in youth ministry is, developing missional students, kids who would live missionally in their contextual atmosphere. He is a missionary for youth alive, a youth ministry to intentionally plug their youth ministries into schools, and to prepare campus missionaries. What is a campus missionary one might ask? It is a young person who makes a 1-year commitment to be a missionary to their schools. One of his biggest projects is called the 7 project, which consists of an assembly project to work with campus missionaries. It tailors an outreach toward the choice of the school in which the 7 project visits. Asking the school what issues they would like addressed (sexting, bulling). Works with campus missionaries, there is outreach during the day and then at night they give a gospel message. Goal is by the time the 7 project comes to the school the ground has already been cultivated.