Meet theEDGE Leaders (Chris and Paul)

Meet theEDGE Leaders is an opportunity for you as parents to get to know the other adults in your students lives.  This week, meet Chris and Paul, two of our 6th grade guys small group leaders.

 Hi, I'm Chris.  If you get to know me well, you'll find that I'm not very good at anything "short or brief"...but I am recovering thanks to my beautiful wife of 14 years :) Her name is Jen and she also serves at the Edge. You'll get to know her later in "Meet theEdge Leaders". But just so you know, she's one reason I know Jesus loves me more…I mean, he gave her to me and me to her so obviously Jesus loves me more!! I have four other reasons to think that Jesus loves me more: Summer -14, Alanna-12, Ezra-10, & Micah-8. Ok, back to being brief: I love the Word, I love hiking and biking, I love my family and I love God's Kingdom and Creation (of course, all with different degrees of love but this is English and not Greek so I trust you'll understand without elaboration as I am trying to be brief!)

I love responding to God's power, brilliance, majesty, love, forgiveness, grace, etc. by serving in his Kingdom, and that means doing whatever I can, however I can to help people (6th graders are people too!) pause and give Jesus consideration. When they do, he can blow their minds in staggering, sweet ways.

My favorite part about the Edge are those moments (not to imply infrequency :) when students reflect Jesus. The great human equalizer is we are ALL created in the image and likeness of God. I have seen students do some bold and loving things that have encouraged others, including myself, to follow Jesus. My hope and prayer is that we will all influence each other to live for Jesus in consuming ways.

Hey, I'm Paul Behnke and I am the Middle School Pastor at Jacob's Well and the man behind the curtain of this blog.  I have been at Jacob's Well for the past 6 years and absolutely love it.  My wife Nicki is an amazing woman that has a heart for ministry and does a great job managing the chaos.  I enjoy cross country skiing, camping, watching tv, and listening to all kinds of music.  We have no kids yet but God has given us a heart for adoption and so we'll see where he takes us.

I love serving at theEDGE because middle schoolers are fun, energetic and I feel like I can relate with them.  My middle school years were not fun.  I was weird looking and had no idea how to get through those years.  I just needed someone to care about me, believe in me, and call me to live a life of purpose and love.  My heart for students is lived out when I am able to walk alongside them on their journey.

I just want to share a quick story from last Wednesday at theEDGE.  For the past three weeks the students have been raising money to buy soccer balls to send with one of our students when she goes to Ghana, Africa.  To get the students energized we created a competition (with prize incentives) between grade levels to see who could raise the most money.  Last night I announced the winners of the competition.  But the coolest part for me was that when I shared how much money they had raised together ($845.89) there was more excitement over doing something for people across the globe than there was over winning a prize.  Our students have a heart for making a difference.  Thanks parents for everything you do.  Keep up the good work.

Ask your student who their small group leaders are and what they think of them.  Do you have any stories about how a small group leader has impacted your child's life?  Share it in the comment section below.