Connect teens to your church

Many people spend tons of time looking at the statistics of how teens respond to the church when they graduate and head to college. The statistics can be discouraging and we are all trying to find ways to help teens discover faith in Jesus that endures beyond high school. Here is one idea that we all need to begin to embrace. If we want teens to be a part of the church after high school then we better connect them to the church during high school. If teens are a part of the church and not just a youth ministry during high school then they will look to connect with the church in college. Here are a few ways we are trying to make this happen week after week in our context...

Empower teens to serve now // we make every effort to give away important leadership roles to teens. Serving connects teenagers to other adult mentors and the heartbeat of the church.

Mission trips and serve events connected with the church // anytime a teen goes on a foreign mission trip they go with other leaders from the church. Our student ministry also joins our church in serving our city through several events we do every year uniting the church and our youth ministry.

Plan your worship gathering with the teen in mind // we try to always keep in mind with our service plans, series, worship sets, and stage look that teens will be worshiping with us. Allow teens to have a voice in your planning. This also allows teens and parents to worship together. We believe that makes a difference.

When we serve with teens, worship with teens, and encourage teens to be on mission with the church then we begin to place healthy adult relationships around them. Connecting teens to the church is not just about a healthy youth ministry it also demands a vibrant church who will make an effort. Teens know when they are wanted. Lets start making the connection.

a new rap...just for parents!

Not much to say other than thanks to all the moms and dads out there investing in your family. This one is for you. Check this out...

reactivating the family in student ministry

Had the chance to do my first Google Hangout with Jeremy Zach and Andy Broad this morning to talk about the process of reactivating the family within the context of student ministry. At some pint we have to step back as student pastors and understand that our mission has to include partnering with the family...being for them...letting our guard down and inviting them to work with us. In this hangout we talk about some practical ways we are trying to reactivate the family in the student ministries we lead. Jeremy is on the XP3 team at Orange and Andy is the student pastor at Eastern Hills Church in Buffalo, NY. The hangout is around 15 minutes and I would love to hear some ways you are working to partner with families in your student ministry...

FREE STUFF / event idea for Dads and Daughters

Helping dads of pre-teen and teenage daughters connect is not easy so when I find a good idea I have to pass it on. Every year we have a dad and daughter formal here in our area and it is a highlight for my girls. Some of my friends who run a web site called Stuff You Can Use have offered a great resource I am hoping student pastors will check out. Right from their site you can download a complete guide to how to pull off a Dad and Daughter date night in your student ministry. I can promise you if you try this event it will go well. Dads are looking for help to find ways to connect with their girls. You have the power to make it cool. It is a perfect partnership. Best part is that they are giving the packet away for free. Go check their idea out and also make sure you check the website out often. It is a great place to gain some really creative ideas to try in the ministry you lead.

Check out our OPEN HOUSE at Relevant!

In just a few weeks on August 8 at Relevant Student Ministry we will host our 2012 Open House for families to check out what we do as a youth ministry. We make this night happen for new families that have moved into our area, for new 6th graders, for incoming freshmen, and for other parents who just want to learn more about the goals of our ministry. When we started this last year we did not expect it to work but to our surprise it turned out to be an amazing night and a great opportunity for our team to hang out with parents. There are a few wins that come out of doing an open house before you kick off your fall schedule and here are a few...

1. An open house lets you tell your story and share your values // we want people to know our story and our goals for the year. This is our shot each year!
2. An open house allows you to connect and partner with families // anytime you get to hang out with parents is a big deal. This time allows us to set the tone of the year with families.
3. An open house gives you time to meet new students before the rush // with a smaller crowd your team has a better shot to meet new students and make them feel comfortable.
4. An open house nights gives you a natural spot to gather small group leaders for training // we have found this is a great night at our normal time and venue to train leaders and it allows small group leaders to meet new students. Double win!

Do your kids have...sticky faith?

Summer is always a great time to catch up on some books that I need to catch up on and this summer I ran across a book every parent and family ministry leader needs to stop and read. I should have known that this was going to be a great read when I saw it was written by Chap Clark and Kara Powell. This is a book with a simple goal that is difficult to carry out. How do we help our children have sticky faith...faith that is significant...faith that lasts...faith that pushes them to follow Jesus with all of their life? Simple but very difficult! I hope you will pick this book up and give it a read. Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the book. Check them out and then go and download this book on your kindle!

• Kids experience Jesus Christ when adults in the church give them grace, time, and genuine love with no hidden agenda.
• How you express and live out your faith may have a greater impact on your son or daughter than anything else.
• Many Kids Have Adopted the “Gospel of Sin Management”
• Spiritual disciplines do not make us righteous because we do them, but rather they put us in a position to be drawn into trusting Christ more fully.
• As parents, then, instead of concentrating on — and sometimes fretting about — whether and how our kids are living “righteous” lives, we have the opportunity to help them discover, access, and strengthen their trust and faith in Jesus Christ. In so doing, the righteousness they eventually display will be the product of the Holy Spirit.
• The point is to build “social capital” into your child’s life, creating a network of caring believers who will pray for, mentor, and bless your children with their presence over the course of their lives.
• Every child needs to be encouraged and to know that they are valuable and have unique contributions to offer.
• Let’s be honest: parents lecturing kids hasn’t worked.
• By far, the number one way that churches made the teens in our survey feel welcomed and valued was when adults in the congregation showed an interest in them.
• What if we reversed that? What if we said we want a 5:1 adult-to-kid ratio — five adults caring for each kid?
• Our vision is that kids and adults experience worship together.
• leave your child with Jesus. Stick with Jesus always, and trust Jesus to always stick with you and your family.

Best Fathers Day gift ever!

Today is probably one of the best days of my life as a dad. Today I get the honor of baptizing my youngest daughter Kelyn. She is 6, she loves Jesus, and her faith is simple but profound. Kelyn became a follower of Jesus a year ago and we have been helping her find clarity over the past year. Today is just the day she gets to share her faith with her church family at Grace Community and she is pumped...so is her Dad. Both my daughters love Jesus, love the church, and support their mom and dad as we serve as pastors. I am so blessed to know both of my daughters know the Father who will never fail them. I am also blessed to be their dad and help them grow into the young women God wants them to be. As a dad I am just going to keep letting my girls know God loves them, I love them, and they are the most beautiful girls in the universe!

Parenting is 90% effort!

We just got these pictures from our photographer and this one may be my favorite. Can't believe we caught this moment because this is our home. One thing about our family is that we laugh way too much. Chelsea did not marry me for my looks, she married me because I can make her laugh and we are best friends. One thing we learned about our marriage is that we have to keep working at it. When our marriage is at its best it's because we are putting in the effort to pray, laugh, talk, serve each other, and listen.  I am beginning to believe that parenting is no different. At the heart of parenting is a relationship between a child and a adult God has placed in our life. I think often we link parenting to a responsibility and not a relationship. Parenting is not only a responsibility because it's not a job it's a calling and a privilege. God chose us to be the parents to our kids and in that he has given us the most sacred relationship we will ever have. Remember as you parent this to put in the effort needed to build a healthy relationship with your child. Work on connecting with your children just like you work on strengthening your marriage. In the circles that I run in we call that fighting for the heart. A healthy relationship with your son or daughter will take your responsibility as a parent to another level filled with joy. There is no magic formal for parenting but if you want to get better at it just put in the effort!

Are you stuck?

This morning a few of our staff got stuck in an elevator...seriously...this is the picture Brandon Reed took while we were trying to figure out how to get UNSTUCK. I am going to be telling this story for years but it reminded me of how bad it feels to be stuck. Stuck in a job. Stuck in an emotional funk. Stuck in circumstances that we brought on ourselves. Stuck with no options we can see. Being stuck is never a good feeling. Most of the times we feel stuck because we have our focus on the wrong target. We begin to trust what we can see rather than God who has the perfect perspective on our journey. When I am feeling stuck in life I do three things that help...

• I make sure I am carving out time for prayer and time to read the Bible // When I am not in God's word and spending time in prayer I lose touch with how God works around me. God is at work all around us and in reality we are never stuck. Going back to see how God worked in the life of Abraham, Paul, and Daniel reminds me that my God is a God who has a bigger plan!
• I change my pace and routine // I control my schedule so when I am stuck some things needs to change. My routine needs to change. My office may need to be rearranged. I may need a vacation or I may need to work harder so I can accomplish a new challenge.
• I need to make sure I am running away from isolation and toward community // When we feel stuck we tend to isolate. Nothing helps to break the power of feeling stuck like living life with others who can help us see the bigger picture. Isolation just brings more doubt and frustration. Community can bring direction and clarity.

What kind of kids are we raising? #OC12

What kind of kids are we raising? That's a question every parent, educator, and next generation pastor asks often. This morning we started the day off at the Orange Conference with Craig Groechel asking us that question. I know if you have kids or you serve kids then you probably have a few thoughts about the question. Here are the notes from today's talk!

As parents and as leaders what is success for the next generation?
Culture says: success is raising well rounded well educated happy kids
Jesus said: what good is it for a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul

We are called by God to release single minded, biblically anchored, Christ centered, kids who are world changers.
The quickest way to move off track in life is to be more concerned with what people think of us over what God thinks about us.

How do we raise kids that are single minded, christ centered, biblically anchored kids...

Enlist supporting voices. / the parents voice is always the most important voice but it can't be the only voice.

Raise the expectation / we reduce following Jesus to loving God with some of our heart and not all. We have to raise the standard. What are our standards for teens? Stay out of trouble. We have a generation we are raising who have low standards. Teens believe they can do what they are told they can do. They will rise to the standard we set.

When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. (1 Corinthians 13:11, 12 NLT)

Keep it real / make sure faith is real and consistent in all areas of life. This generation can sense fake. They will do what they see is real.

Help your kids read the Bible!

Most teens and adults I know tell me they have a hard time making time to read the Bible. It's so common that I am beginning to believe we are simply waiting too long to help people start incorporating God's word into their lives. We convince ourselves that the Bible is complicated and meant for adults to break down and interpret. We think that when our kids get older they will start reading the Bible on their own but the leap seldom seems to happen. What I am finding is that when my kids engage the Bible they read it with a passion and imagination that most teens and adults have simply lost. Why not help kids engage the Bible as soon as they can read? The Bible is the raw unfiltered story of how our God chose to redeem humanity and it's an amazing story that is living and needed in our lives. So here is my proposal...help your kids engage with the Bible right now. Here are a few simple ways to start the journey.

• Make reading the Bible a part of your family schedule // Most days our family eats breakfast together and four mornings a week we read a few verses from the Bible together and do a short devotion that our kids ministry provides us. It works because it's easy and it allows God to influence our family in the flow of our family life. This is just part of who we are as a family and the earlier you start the better it goes!
• Memorize a verse with your kids each month // My wife started this with our kids last year and it has been so much fun. Our kids ministry has a verse of the month and every morning we say the verse. I'm not good at memorizing scripture and yep this has been so cool for me as a dad. I'm learning it and it's part of our family routine.
• As a parent have a time each day when you read the Bible // If you want your kids to read the Bible you have to make time to do it yourself. When kids see parents read the Bible they see that our faith is more than just a Sunday morning event we attend. You need the Bible in your life everyday if you want to set the tone for your family. There are great tools out there to help you read everyday on your computer, tablet, or smartphone so go for it!
• Challenge your kids to read every day and give them tools // When your kids are old enough give them a Bible they can read and understand then challenge them to find a time to read everyday. No pressure either! When my girls do not feel like reading they take a day off. So far my third graders had tackled John, Acts, and now is working on Genesis! Yes she has asked some wild questions but it has been fun. My kindergartner pretends to read because she watches big sister then draws pictures of God!

If you are a church leader and you want to check out some of the resources we use to help families engage the Bible on a weekly basis at Grace Community Church you check them out for free this month. Check out what the Orange Experience is all about for FREE!

Take your kids on a mission trip! Here's why...

Involving kids in mission work is vital to helping them understand the mission of the church. We try to get kids plugged into missions as soon as they hit Kindergarten and enter our kids ministry by serving as families in a yearly missions experience we call Operation Serve. We want them to understand that the church was formed to serve the world, to spread the message of Jesus, and to join God in bringing healing where there is hurt. I have been taking my family on our high school mission trip to New Orleans for the past three years and I have watched that week shape the hearts of my little girls. Yes, I know taking kids on mission trips is risky. Yes, kids can see some crazy things. Yes, our work in New Orleans is hard. When we serve as a family we get to shape their perspective of what it means to serve others and the necessary risk it takes to obey the call of God. If you are a pastor and you have kids then here are a few reasons you should take them with you on your next mission trip...well this also goes for any of you who are parents...

• Kids need to see other adults and teens serve // I have been so blessed to have so many amazing teens and adult leaders model what serving looks like to my kids on mission trips. My kids have found their ministry heroes by watching other adults, teens, and college students on mission trips. Kids need to see other people who get it besides mom and dad.
• Kids need to understand what other people in our world go through // My kids have seen other children who don't have shoes. They have met other little girls who don't have any new clothes. My girls at 5 and 8 have seen poverty. When you take your kids on mission trips you get to help them process how God calls us to be part of the solution to poverty and injustice.
• Kids need to see parents serve and sacrifice // You are the greatest influence in your kids life and they need to see you serve and take risks. I am convinced that when our kids see us serve they have a better shot and embracing mission work for the rest of their life.
• Kids want to do ministry with you // Your kids want to be a part of your adventure. They see you serve week in and week out in the church so why not take them along when you go outside your normal routine to experience ministry in an entirely new setting. Some of our families greatest memories have come out of serving others during the summer in New Orleans. Those are memories of significance because they are connected to Jesus!

Lessons from 16 years of marriage!

Chelsea and I just celebrated 16 years of marriage. I know it's crazy. We got married in college and were both 20 and it was the best thing that ever happened to this dude. The past 16 years have been an amazing journey as we have grown up together. We spent 7 years without kids and enjoyed every minute of that time. We also have 2 amazing daughters now that amaze us every day. We have survived college and grad school and at least one of us hopes to never go back (me of course). We have experienced amazing highs and unbearable lows as we have tried to honor Christ with our lives. On top of all of that we have had the privilege of serving 5 churches filled with incredible people. I am so blessed to have been given 16 years with Chelsea Bayne! After 16 years even a man can learn a few things so here are a few lessons I have learned...

• Communication is the secret sauce in marriage. / Communication leads to intimacy and trust. Guys you better learn to communicate if you want a marriage that works for the long haul. 
• Marriage is better when I do my part around the house. / This took a few years but our marriage is better when we partner with work around the house. This is our home, we need to make it the best it can be together.
• Enjoy every moment, there are no guarantees. / I have watched too many of my friends watch their spouse face sickness, military deployments, and crazy accidents that turned everything upside down. Every day is a gift. 
• Have fun. / dates matter, vacations matter, laughing matters, accomplishing goals matters...have fun being married. Life is too short. 
• Pursue Christ together. / Jesus....chasing after Jesus solves so many issues that come up in marriage. Serving together, praying for each other, studying the Bible, living out the teachings of Jesus...that makes a difference in marriage. 
• Parent as a team. / Working together to parent makes sure your kids get the best of both of you. Parents who unite have a better shot of raising healthy kids. 
• Dream big dreams. / Goals put some adventure into the ordinary. Goals also helps us maximize our time and resources. We want to make sure we accomplish great things together. 
• Drop the American dream. / New cars, bigger houses, and more stuff don't lead to a better marriage. We are trying to work hard to not fall into that normal trap...it's happening all around us so it's hard to avoid. 

Can parents trust your ministry?

What does it look like for student and children's ministry leaders to partner with mom and dad? We are always trying to find ways to make this happen but the best starting place for this discussion is asking what parents need from us? Until our ministries meet our parents where they are at then they will never take steps toward a weekly partnership. Every parent your ministry encounters is unique. With every parent you have to build trust before there is a partnership. In order to build that trust here are a few basic things your parents need...

• Return calls and emails >> seriously, just email them back and call them back when you miss their call. Make sure parents know they are important by being responsive.
• Get organized or find people for your team who can make you look organized >> I am not very organized but I have had to surround myself with people who are! Being organized communicates professionalism.
• Create sticky environments for kids and teens >> When teens and kids want to go back and ask to go back to your environment parents smile.
• Communicate, communicate, and then communicate some more >> use facebook, emails, flyers, or old fashioned smoke signals to communicate. Information is a big deal to parents.
• Keep an open door with your environments >> when parents want to check out your environment make it possible.
• Protect kids and teens >> think like a parent. Use background checks, stop pranks and hazing, have safe transportation. Parents want their children to be protected and you can help with that goal and still have an amazing ministry!
• Deliver on your promises >> be home when you say you will be home from a retreat or event. That is just one issue but you get what I am saying!
• Listen >> when parents give you feedback listen and say thanks. You may not agree with their feedback but listening is huge factor when building trust.

I think if we start with the basics we can build trust. Trust leads to partnership! What changes do you need to make in order to start building that bridge?

That parent you can't make happy...

We all know them...the parents you just can't keep happy. You have met them if you serve in a church or school. They are the parents that always have a complaint, are never satisfied, and never say thanks. Many times we allow this small minority to cloud our perceptions of the majority of amazing parents we partner with because they are just so loud. Just last week at an amazing event we had one parent who was frustrated because there were just"too many kids there"...the event was "unsafe"...her middle school kids would not be "safe". Even after one of our amazing volunteers explained why we had the biggest crowd of our history and how we worked to helps kids have a safe experience the parent took her teens and left. What do you do with that? Here is what we have learned over the years...

• Some parents will never understand what we do and why we do it. // many parents will never understand the passion we have for our calling as a minister or an educator. Go ahead and come to terms with the fact that some people will never get it!
• Listen and process even when it's that chronic complaining parent. // just listen and learn what you can. Many times complaints some from areas in your ministry that need some tweaking.
• Always remember we partner with parents and never compete with parents. // yes no matter what you think about a parent remember you are there to support them. You will be a teen's small group leader or student pastor for a few years. They are parents for life.
• Return calls and emails quickly. // when a parents has a complaint or issue just return the email or make the call as soon as you can. Most parents (even the chronic complainer) just needs their questions answered.
• Make sure you know why you do what you do and continually cast that vision. // you always need to be able to explain why you do what you do to anyone who asks, especially a parent. If you can't do that why would any parent trust you or believe in you?
• Give grace and be patient. // being a parent is hard, parenting a teen is sometimes impossible. Slow down, give grace, be patient. You will be amazed what a gentle response in a tense moment will do.

FAMILY communion

We celebrate communion at our church several times a year as a church family, and we also make communion available every week for people who want a weekly experience. Our family ministry team wanted to find a way for kids who were Christ followers to be able to share in communion on those Sundays that were church wide and that idea is what led to our family communion area in Cross Street. This Sunday we created an area for parents and kids to share communion together. We left instructions for the parents and empowered mom and dad to have a moment of remembering with their kids. We also had one of our family ministry staff team stand by the area to answer any questions. Not every parent made the effort or felt the need to participate but many did. It was so incredible watching families remember the sacrifice Jesus made for us together. It was powerful to watch kids and parents pray together. As family ministry leaders we have to continue to find ways to help parents and kids share signigicant spiritual experiences together. For our team, family communion is just another experience that connects faith and home.

Helping families SERVE TOGETHER

This past week we got to see over 1,200 volunteers serve our city in an event we call Operation Serve. We had parents, kids, teens, college students, senior adults, and even high school sports teams come out and serve together for one day and work to make a difference in our community. One of my favorite parts of the days is getting to watch teens and kids serve with their parents. Some work on the same project. Other families divide up and serve at several projects. No matter where they serve, at the end of the day the entire family has worked together to do significant things. When I talk about family ministry this is what I am talking about. Family ministry is nothing more than creating opportunities where the the influence of church and home unite. When parents and teens serve together good things happen. Here are a few reasons why I think creating serve opportunities for families is important.

• Memories are made when families serve together. > It's so incredible to hear families share stories after they serve together. Some are funny and some are intense but when families make memories around a serve opportunity those memories stick!
• Spiritual growth happens when families serve together. > This is a fact and we see it year after year. People grow in their faith when they serve. The same truth applies to families. Serving leads to growth.
• Families find a place to "belong" when they serve. > When families serve together they discover that their family can accomplish significant things together. That truth links families to your church like nothing else.
• Families influence each other when they serve together. > When we see teens and kids serve it is inspiring. When our kids see us serve they are proud and they see a different side of us. Serving together provides a new arena of influence for our families!
• After mission experiences families will look to serve together every week in your church. > Every week we see families serve together in different ministries at our church. Many times that started with serve events like Op Serve. Why make families wait, let them serve every Sunday!

Ministry and My Kids

Balancing family and ministry is a constant struggle for parents in ministry. Chelsea and I both have leadership roles at Grace Community Church and the demand for us to balance home and church has become even more important. There are times both of us have responsibilities that take us away from home and from our kids and we signed up for the challenge. God has called us to serve His church and serve our kids and He is passionate about both. If God is for both then as parents we can be passionate about both and be effective at both. The other day my youngest told me that she loves church. My oldest is already volunteering at the age of 8. Both our kids believe in, enjoy, and are thriving in their growth as followers of Jesus because of the partnership our family has with our church. As a pastor (especially a student pastor) here are some things we are doing to make sure we have balance with church and home.

• We involve our kids in the ministry we lead  >> our kids understand and are involved in much of the ministry we lead...what a great advantage. They know the volunteers we lead with. They care our events go well. They even give us feedback (on ministry ideas for kids). when our last group of seniors graduated my 8 year old cried. Why? Because she loved those teens. That is a kid who is involved and connected!
• We make sure our kids are plugged in to their weekly small groups >> This is a big deal. Our kids are a part of our church. We make sure they are growing just like we are trying to hep other teens and kids grow.
• We make sure our kids are serving with us >> Our girls know there are things we do for "work" and things we do just to serve. We involve our kids in our effort to serve our community.
• We protect our days off and take vacation >> Yep, we take days off and we use our vacation time. Days off and vacation just help our family find health. We find we need it in order to function!
• We protect 4 nights of the week to be home >> being home and being in a routine is a big deal. We have community group night, a night of the week our kids are involved in outside activities, and a night where we are doing student ministry...the other 4  are nights we try to be home. Kids need to know they matter as much or more than anything going on at church. They see where we spend our time. 
• We leave work at work >> Home is home and work is work. When we leave the office we are trying to leave our problems at the office. This is hard with technology but it has to be an effort we make every week.

PARENTS // control the chaos of life

One thing I know about families today is that we are busy. If you have kids then your life is so much more busy than the pre-kid days. We now have 2 girls and our pace of life just keeps getting more hectic. One of the best books I have ever read as a parent is The 3 Big Questions for a Frantic Family by Patrick Lencioni because it helped give my wife and I a plan to control the chaos of life and give our family direction. Patrick explains that there are connections between successful organizations and successful families. Any successful organization needs leadership, clear goals, and a strategy. Your family needs the same thing. So many times we allow everyone else to give our family leadership, goals, and a strategy. Other families embrace the chaos and accept it as the norm. Healthy families choose to control the chaos by setting boundaries, goals, and by saying no often.

Set Boundaries >> seriously we all need boundaries and our families needs them too. Set boundaries that help you decide how many of the nights of the week will your family be out, how many sports or activities will the kids be in each year, how many meals will your family eat together each week, and how much will you plug into your church. As parents your kids need you to set the boundaries that will help your family thrive.

Set Goals >> decide what is most important for this season of your families life. Your family goals will shift from season to season but they will help define what is most important. For my family our goal right now is to help my wife get through grad school. All of us are making sacrifices to make it happen. When it is done we will have a new goal. Goals give the family a cause to rally around.

Say No Often >> when a family has set boundaries and set goals the family is able to say no to good things in order to focus on what is best. Controlling the chaos of life means parents have to learn to say no. Sure you and your kids will not be everywhere or do everything but what you may find is a healthy family in the other side of no.

PARENTS // your kids need to hear you say...

Word's are powerful. They shape who we are, how we feel, the direction we are headed in life. Have you though about the words you are communicating to your children on a daily basis. Your words as a parent have the power to mold the heart of a child. They are listening. They need help definine both reality and truth. Here are some things I think we need to keep saying to our kids no matter how old they are...

• I love you!
• I am blessed to be your parents.
• I'm sorry.
• God made you and has a plan for you.
• I love your mom (or dad for all the ladies out there)
• Go for it, you can do it.
• This is what God is teaching me...
• I believe in you.
• I'm not too busy, tell me what is going on.
• I know this is hard...don't give up.
• Your beautiful. (or you are the man if you have boys!)
  
• You are incredible.
• What do you think the wise choice is?
• Jesus is amazing.
• You can be a leader...step up!