Guest writer, Pastor Jon Looney, is the director of New Hope United, the ELN program in Simi Valley, CA.

One of my favorite parts of our Christian journey is watching God “work all things together for the good of those who trust him”. It’s so fun to sit back and admire the way God expands his kingdom in ways I could never imagine. As an associate pastor at New Hope Christian Fellowship in Simi Valley, CA I get a lot of opportunities to see God dazzle people with his creativity in their situations. And as the Director of our ELN program, called New Hope United, I love helping young leaders discover God’s calling in their lives. I am also fortunate to serve with senior pastor James Craft who is passionate about helping young people discover their God given destiny.

Have you ever started something thinking it was your idea and then mid way into it you realize it was actually God’s idea? As we begin our second year of United it has been yet another vivid example of God creatively knitting his kingdom together in ways that astound me, and me just trying to hang on for the ride! Let me explain.

Pastors David & Gina Hanley, lead singers of Press Play worship band, started dreaming with Pastor James years ago about sending music missionaries around the world. That vision led to the establishment of Dream Records Media Group and just last year God opened the door for Dream to move from Los Angeles to a state-of-the-art recording studio in Simi Valley–just two blocks from New Hope! God birthed the vision and orchestrated the circumstances to allow New Hope United and Dream Records to partner together to create a unique and dynamic ELN experience.

Students at New Hope United can select the Worship & Media ministry track in which young people receive hands on training in the studio from David & Gina. This discipleship teaches things like how to lead with the heart of worship, technical excellence, recording, sound and editing, basic film production, and much more. Its the perfect combination of releasing young leaders in their calling and sending music missionaries to reach the world through creative forms of worship. This joins our existing NextGen ministry track in which young leaders are discipled by Foursquare’s National NextGen Representative and New Hope Associate Pastor Kelly Fellows on how to design dynamic age appropriate ministry for kids, tweens, youth, and young adults.

United is emerging as a premier discipleship school that only God could have designed. I can’t wait to see how God blends these incredible ministries together, “United” for the expansion of his kingdom as only he could dream of!

For more information on becoming a New Hope United student please contact our United staff at 805.581.1628 or visit www.newhopeunited.com.

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What will your story be?

Would you like to take part in this adventure? The application deadline is coming up soon, so watch the video below, then head over to the Israel Impact website for further information and registration details.

Click here to see a highlight mix from Pete’s college years at LSU. You’ll get the picture.

If you’ve ever played a game of basketball, you know one of the key rules: once you stop dribbling the ball you can no longer move — you either have to pass it or shoot. If you’re like me (easily beaten by the third-grade C team), you’ve probably stopped dribbling too early and been stuck. You’re too far to shoot the ball effectively, and you’re being crowded by the opposing team so you can’t even get off a decent pass.

I think life can be a lot like this. We stop moving forward, get stuck, and the enemy starts pounding on us.

What made Pistol Pete so amazing is that he mastered the art of not-getting-stuck. I think there are lessons we can learn from the way he played the game.

1. Keep dribbling. Even when you feel like you’re stuck, if you keep dribbling the ball, opportunities will present themselves to get moving again. In our spiritual lives, maybe we “keep dribbling” when we spend daily time with Jesus, serve others, participate with our church family, choose to obey, etc., even when (especially when) it would be easier to simply stop. Keep going! Don’t give up. Hebrews 10:36 reminds us that God’s promises are fulfilled in the lives of those who keep going.
2. Keep practicing. As long as we’re living we need to keep growing. The Apostle Paul urged believers to NOT STOP their growth in Christ.  “And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness” (Colossians 2:6-7).
3. Remember you’re on a team. When you watch Pistol Pete’s highlight reel, you quickly realize that he loved passing the ball off to team members. And he was great at it. We often get stuck when we begin thinking that we’re on the court alone, trying to fend off the opposition all by ourselves. Jesus’ prayer for us is that we’d be so closely tied together that we’d be “one”. That sounds like a good team to be on.

Now that the school year has ended, it could be an easy time to back off and quit pressing forward. Keep dribbling. And if you’ve got a shot…take it! God put you in this game to score…a lot!

This fall, hundreds of high school grads will be in ELN programs around the country. They’re committed to improving their game: leadership skills, their heart to serve others, and a deepened understanding of God and His Word. How about you? Wherever you go, keep pressing forward into all that God has for you.

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After spending time looking at the couple dozen schools of ministry on the ELN Programs Page, you might start to wonder: “How will I ever find my way through all these options? There are ELN programs all over the country. Which ones could be right for me?”

Well we’ve created an “Easy Button” for you. It’s actually the “Program Finder,” a simple and quick tool to help you find just the programs that meet your unique needs.

Here are some things to anticipate when using the Program Finder:

• It will ask you eight questions about what’s important to you in a school of ministry. Feel free to leave as many blank as you like.
• On the left side of the questions, you’ll see the number of programs that are a match with your choices. The more questions you answer, the lower that number will become. If the number ever goes to zero, that means that there aren’t any programs that meet that exact criteria — so you can go back and expand your options if you’d like.
• When you click the “Search Programs” button at the bottom, it will display your customized results, showing you only the programs that meet your needs.
• You can try this as many times as you’d like, varying your answers to different questions. Who knows what you may discover!

CLICK HERE to try the Program Finder. After using it, come back and post your thoughts below. And if you have any ideas about how we could make this tool better, we’d love to hear.

We refer to it as Head, Hands & Heart.

This refers to the fact that students are engaging in life-changing studies, putting what they’re learning into action, all while being mentored by proven ministry leaders. And this is happening simultaneously–often all within hours!

This model of growth has been shown to be powerful and effective…and it just popped up again in a book I’m reading called Change or Die. The author, Alan Deutschman, makes the case that 90% of people never will make the choices necessary to change–even when their health is so bad that their life is on the line. And it doesn’t just have to do with health. It’s just really difficult to grow and make the choices necessary to change.

But that’s not the end of the story. He goes on to report that there are three things people can do that drastically improve their chances of experiencing real, lasting, positive change.

1. Form a new relationship with a person or community that inspires and sustains hope (HEART).
2. The new relationship helps you learn and master the habits and skills you need. (HANDS)
3. The new relationship helps you learn new ways of thinking about your life. (HEAD)

He calls these three keys: new hope, new skills and new thinking. And when all three of those are present in a person’s life, great things can happen.

From my experience, that’s what I see happening around the country in ELN programs…daily. It’s a discipleship and training model that Jesus used and it’s still working today.

Don’t settle for being one of the 90% that ends up never changing, never making the right choices to truly grow. Get into the right relational setting where growth is happening and will spill over onto your life. Maybe an ELN school of ministry could be that place for you.

The two newest ELN programs can be found in Marietta, Georgia, and Eureka, California.

In Marietta, on the outskirts of Atlanta, Refuge West Church has launched the Refuge School of Ministry. This church is active in their community, bringing the love of Jesus where it’s needed most. They feed the poor, offer tutoring and training, and have become a “house of healing and restoration” for the broken. We’re excited for this to be the first ELN program in the Southeast District!

On the other side of the country, Faith Center has established Redwood ELN, in northern California. Through a partnership with North Coast Bible Institute, Redwood ELN students gain a solid academic foundation — one that’s transferable to Life Pacific College and elsewhere.

Please take a moment to check out these new ELN programs. And by using the ELN Program Finder, you can answer a few questions and find just the programs that are a match for your needs.