From Preteens to World Changers

We want to highlight one church that has taken ministry with children and students to a whole new level. Mike Lehew, Lead Missionary with Church Inside Out and former Family Pastor at Foundation Church in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, is one person who has done this. Their model of ministry is based on the idea that all believers (including children) have a calling to make disciples. L.I.T. has been an intricate part of pointing preteens and students in the right direction. Mike has had more than 75 students in his ministry who have been on international mission trips to South America and Africa. These trips last between two weeks and 35 days. They have led thousands of people to Christ on these trips. Mike’s passion is to mobilize the Church Inside Out to take the Gospel into the local community, and the children and students are a significant part of it. Mike shares, “L.I.T. has defined our discipleship for our kids and our parents. Parents don’t know it, but they are being discipled as they disciple their kids. It also helps them see the bigger picture that these kids are the church now.” (The picture was taken during the 2012 mission trip to Sapulpa, Oklahoma. The majority of these students are still involved in ministry).

In these unprecedented times, our only hope is in the Lord. However, for many around us, they don’t know that hope we have in Christ. We have an amazing opportunity to use social media or other electronic means to proclaim the Good News of Christ. I pray that you will encourage the children and preteens in your church to reach out to their lost friends through social media, FaceTime, or by a simple phone call. They are the most effective in reaching their friends with the Gospel. We know that they can do it. We have witnessed it on many occasions. God has used children to proclaim the Gospel in multiple settings. This summer, we planned our 30^th mission trip. We have seen more than 3,000 preteens on mission trips since 2004, and they have led 1,000+ people to Christ.

Training International Leaders

The Lord continues to bless us with the opportunity to invest in international leaders. This past January 27-28, L.I.T. Ministries hosted our Empowering The Next Generation training in our home office in Benbrook. We had a small group this time, but those who we trained have a reach outside the United States. Mark and Danna McCutchen have been missionaries in Brazil for more than 30 years. They left the training event very excited about training leaders in Brazil. Mary and Enoch are from South Korea and are students from Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth. Mary will graduate in December and will be heading back to South Korea. She hopes to use what she learned from our training. Click here for our upcoming training dates. (From left to right: Caleb Lapointe, Enoch Choie, Mary, Dana and Mark McCutchen, Clint May)

by DeAnn Noyles, Horizon Christian Fellowship, Littleton, Colorado

We implemented the L.I.T. program in May of 2019, and we have seen God answer many long-awaited prayers! We had been seeking God for years with the burdens of equipping families to better disciple their children in the Lord, equipping kids to serve God now in their youth, and reaching kids in our community. God has used L.I.T. to answer all of these and more.

At our church, our Wednesday night service has transitioned from being extremely anemic to full of life! Our children’s ministry grew from one family in attendance and one teacher pouring into them to 13 adults and 17 or so children attending regularly! We had no midweek program for Jr. High students, and now we have 100% participating in L.I.T. with their own discipleship group. We have integrated them into our ministry teams as well, and two of those young ladies are DG leaders themselves.