Back

October 31, 2024

What's Forming You?

Hot pink posters with neon yellow stripes popped across the back of the auditorium. Meaningless words reached out, grabbing the attention of the audience. It was snappy, busy, and attractive. But no one was focused on that. Almost 400 youth leaders from across Central and Eastern Europe had their eyes closed with a hand laid on their neighbor’s shoulder. The theme of this year’s Fall Conference was Word Formed. Tyler Patty urged the audience, “Pray for a fresh vision of hope that is shaped by God’s story. Pray that young people in this region of the world would become Word Formed.”

NOISE. Inner noises of anxiety and outer noises of technology snatch up our attention. “How do we hear the voice of God in the midst of all these voices?” asked Dave Patty. As Christians, we must be on guard in the midst of this. We must have discernment regarding the words that we hear. For Christ is the Word. Through him, we are Word-formed. If we ignore Christ’s words, we will fall prey to the noises of the world. In order to distinguish true words, Dave pointed out four points of formation to look for:

1) Delight. God will bring about an affection for his words.

2) Comfort. God’s words will be a strength to our emotions.

3) Correction. The Word of God will form our actions.

4) Teaching. God forms our convictions through his law. God’s Word will overpower the noises of the world.

STORY. Jeremiah was a young man who was given a story from God to tell the nation of Israel. It was full of words that were both bitter and sweet. So how did Jeremiah know if these words were actually meant to form the nation of Israel? Tyler Patty explained that, as Christians, we are to wrestle with similar thoughts in order to bring about both honesty and humility. We must approach the strangeness to be transformed by the sacred. God is the great storyteller.

THE EQUATION. Open awareness + selective attention + self-intervention = Word Formed. Sean Smith pointed out that as people navigate the path of life, hearing all sorts of noises, they can live purely from emotion or purely from reason—whatever they want to hear. However, as Christians, our emotions and reason must be in tune with the Word of God. We must equip ourselves alongside our brothers and sisters and stay on his path to be Word-Formed. God is the strongest pathmaker.

RELATIONSHIP. Are you Word-formed or world-formed? “God’s words function as an extension of himself,” said Landen Llamas. “He is entering into a relationship with his people through his Word.” It is easy to get distracted by the meaningless words of the world. Our actions are always a response to the words around us. We must remember to recognize God as the Word and choose to live in light of that relationship: Word Formed.

WORSHIP: Our God is sovereign! He is the Word made flesh that dwelt among us. “We sang Praise until we had no voice left and jumped so much on that last song,” said Nia from Bulgaria. “I could see all around me young people from Latvia, Poland, Czech, Albania…so encouraging. It really felt like Heaven.” When we distinguish the noises of the world, share God’s story, live out his equation, and cherish a relationship with him, we can worship him as those who are Word-formed.

Nia was right. In Heaven, we will be perfectly Word-formed. We will dwell forever with the Word, face to face. Meaningless noise will have no more power. So while we are here on earth, seek out the Word. Pray for a fresh vision of hope that is shaped by God’s story! He will give you one that is formed by the Word so that we may go and be Word-formers.

Related Posts

Read Story

Evangelism, Events

Fusiondary: Beyond the Stage

Imagine—you’re fifteen years old, clutching a sweat-drenched guitar pick. You’re about to play on a big stage in front of around 500 people. As you stand with your band and choir mates in the darkened stage wing, you feel both dreadfully nervous and excited. You know your performance won’t be perfect—you’ve only been playing guitar for a year—but you’re not alone. As you walk out onto the stage, the lights blind you, and the crowd erupts in cheers. The drummer shakily counts off the first song, and although it takes a second for the band to find its bearing, the whole audience loudly claps and sings along. A rush of adrenaline courses through you, and you allow yourself to rock out, losing yourself in the moment, the music, the energy. Welcome to FUSIONDARY, a music-packed international festival for Fusion choirs and bands from 9 countries across Europe. For many teenagers, the key experience will be when they get to perform with their Fusion group on a large stage in front of hundreds of people, and they are not just any people. They are the world’s most encouraging audience, because they know what it’s like to be nervous—to be performing as an amateur. And they know all the songs. But Fusiondary is much more than concerts. It’s a chance for teenagers to meet new people, get inspired, and learn new things. For some of them, for example our dear group of Ukrainians, it’s a chance to get away from painful circumstances and take a breath of fresh (albeit sometimes rank?) air, to lift their eyes and see the bigger picture of what they get to be a part of through Fusion. For many, it’s an opportunity to hear the Gospel in a new and powerful way, through talks given by speakers who have poured their hearts into preparation and who love these teenagers deeply. We’re praying that many teenagers will have a personal encounter with Jesus through the talks, seminars, labyrinth, worship, meeting with the Support Team, and talking with their local leaders. Somehow music provides a base (bass?) through which God works. Music can seep through those cracks and crannies of our hearts in a profound and mysterious way. Would you take a moment and read these lyrics from one of our Fusiondary songs? And would you pray for deep and beautiful encounters with God’s love for each teenager, as well as each leader that is standing faithfully behind them? If you could only let your guard down If you could learn to trust me somehow I swear that I won’t let you go (Fusiondary will take place in Vsetin, Czech Republic, from April 24th-26th, 2026)
Read Story

Discipleship, Events, Help Ukraine

Dawn Is Coming. All Is Well; I Will Rejoice.

It’s 2:51 am on March 7th when I wake to the sound of an air-raid siren via the “Air Alert!” app on my phone. For these last four-plus years serving in Ukraine, this is far from unusual, except that this time, it’s during the final night of our Josiah Venture Ukraine team’s 3-day Springfest event. The 530 participants—most of them teenagers—are under our watch and care. Since rebooting this annual fest in 2023, a year after the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine, there hadn’t been a single siren during the event itself. This year was different. When a siren sounds in Ukraine, it does not necessarily mean that danger is imminent. With modern technology, we can check our phones to understand the threat to which the siren warns. As I begin to scan my screen, I remind myself that our team had picked a facility for Springfest deep in the Carpathian mountains, so surely there is no reason for concern. I read that cruise missiles and attack drones are heading southwest towards a city with a name I don’t recognize. I copy it into Google Maps and quickly realize that this city is in the same region, or county, in which our event is being held. I hold my breath as I tap the “directions” button and feel a tinge of relief in my gut when I realize the city is over 200km (±125 miles) to the east. But what if the missiles aren’t targeting that city? What if they and the drones keep heading west? This is but a small taste of the thoughts and emotions that flooded my heart and head during the 1 hour and 21 minutes of tracking this particular attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in the middle of the night. Russia attacks Ukraine every single day without exception. Of course, the scale varies. But not a night goes by without a siren sounding somewhere in the country. By the grace of God, there were no casualties from this specific attack in the region we were in, and the threat did not escalate to the point of needing to wake Springfest attendees to seek shelter. Our team was sleep-deprived, but as darkness turned to dawn, we could turn our attention back to the heart of our event. Our JV Ukraine team started Springfest in 2011 (back then, it was Winterfest!) to provide a touch point for churches between summer camps. The event has grown from a few dozen attendees to 530 this year, in partnership with 32 Ukrainian churches from all across the country. The current mission of Springfest is to provide a platform for Ukrainian youth leaders to build deeper relationships with their young people, both believers and non-believers. Amidst all the fun of meeting new people, playing sports or board games, creating through crafts, learning in master classes, having a blast at a themed night-party, or just hanging out with friends, we work to provide a safe environment for non-Christians to hear the gospel from the stage and have open discussion with their peers and leaders during small groups. We pray that Springfest is a spark for non-believers to have gospel conversations with their leaders that lead to repentance and belief in Jesus, while also providing a space for believers to grow in their relationship with Christ. One of the best parts of Springfest is getting messages from leaders in the days following the event and hearing stories of how God moved in the hearts of young people. For example, a leader named Anton, who, along with 3 other leaders, brought 16 non-believing teenagers with him to the event, said that Springfest was “the last hammer hit” for one of his guys to repent and follow Jesus. Another leader, Yevhen, said he was up till 3 am one night with his small group of guys, having deep conversations about questions they had about Christianity. “All such meetings gradually bring a young person closer to God,” Yevhen told us. “This festival, in my opinion, raised everyone to a new level of relationship with God.” Pray with us that these types of gospel conversations and professions of faith continue in the coming weeks! Stories of God moving in the hearts of youth and using faithful leaders to embody his Kingdom on earth always encourage us and provide endurance amidst the challenges that the war brings to daily life and ministry. I wouldn’t wish on anyone the task of creating contingency plans for cruise missiles while organizing an event where young people can simply be. It’s a place where they can step away from the terrible normal numbness of getting used to living in war and receive the love of God through his loving church. As we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, Jesus remains our morning star in the darkest nights. We will continue to look to him in all things, as we, with grateful hearts, have the privilege of partnering with him and his movement in Ukraine. To him be the glory forever! Amen.
Read Story

Events, Stories

The Right Learning for the Right Person at the Right Time

Stop and think about the times in your life when you grew the most. What were you doing? What were the circumstances? What did you feel? What were you excited about, and what were you worried about? When I look back on my own life, I notice a pattern. Growth usually happens when the challenge in front of us is outside of our comfort zone or outside of our skill level. It happens when we’re stretched. I remember learning this in a very tangible way in college. I took a class called Experiential Learning, and, throughout the semester, we worked through various team-building exercises. At the end of the course, we went to a ropes course, which culminated in a challenge known as the “Pamper Pole”—a towering 10-meter telephone pole. The challenge was to climb to the top, stand on a tiny platform, and then leap to grab a trapeze bar. My professor had seen me go through most of the challenges fairly easily. Just as I was about to climb the Pamper Pole, he quietly walked up behind me, put something in my back pocket, and said, “Just in case you want a little bit bigger challenge.” I reached inside and found a blindfold. And I decided to put it on. I climbed the pole blindfolded, made it to the top, and then jumped. My hands hit the bar, but I didn’t grab it. Of course, I was strapped in, so I didn’t hit the ground, but that moment has stayed with me. Even though I didn’t “succeed” in the way I had hoped, I chose a harder pathway up, and I learned something important: growth often requires stepping into something beyond what we currently know how to do. The missionary life is a lot like that. When Brooke and I first stepped onto the mission field, we were eager and ready to say yes to whatever God put in front of us. We had vision, enthusiasm, and a desire to serve. But looking back, we didn’t realize how steep the learning curve would be or how much God still needed to form in us. Those early years were full of trial and error. We made countless mistakes and learned by trying something, realizing it didn’t work, and trying again. Over time, the Lord shaped us and grew us, but the learning curve was long. Some of the lessons we needed most came through hard seasons, and they didn’t come quickly. The Josiah Venture Winter Academy was established to help provide the resources necessary to give our staff a foundation for healthy, effective ministry that lasts, grounded in Christ’s strategy, and strengthened by shared language, practical tools, and a community that helps them grow through every season. This year, we gathered 52 Josiah Venture staff at our training center in Malenovice, Czech Republic, for a week of discussion, connection, and spiritual encouragement. Every staff member has the opportunity to participate in Winter Academy within their first year on the team (Year 1 track) and again within their second year (Year 2 track). At its core, Winter Academy is about helping our staff build a foundation that will serve them for the long haul, so they can be steady and fruitful through the ups and downs of ministry. Ministry is full of seasons. There are times of blossoming, when the work feels joyful and full of momentum, and there are times of drought, when setbacks and discouragement threaten to parch the soul. Some seasons even hold those highs and lows at the same time. Jeremiah 17:7–8 reads: “Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” These verses don’t deny hardship; they assume it. But it also points us to the keys to long-term fruitfulness: staying rooted and drawing consistently from the resources we have in Christ. Winter Academy was created to help staff establish those roots early. We wanted to shorten the learning curve so that new staff would be prepared for the obstacles they would inevitably face, and so they could respond with bold faith, with wisdom drawn from best practices across the team, and with perseverance, knowing they would have a team standing with them. Year 1 focuses on the path of a growing disciple. Our first-year staff get grounded in who we are as Josiah Venture and how Christ’s strategy shapes everything we do. They also learn the Five Challenges of Christ in a way that moves beyond theory into real life and real ministry. Year 2 is focused on ministry coaching through the Five Phases. Year 2 builds on that discipleship foundation and helps our staff grow in how they serve and multiply through others. Participants learn how to evaluate ministry health and direction as well as practice coaching conversations that help leaders take meaningful next steps. Once our staff complete Winter Academy (Years 1 and 2), we want them to know three things with certainty: I am not alone. I know who to turn to for help. I look to Jesus as my model for ministry. We’re grateful for what God has done through Winter Academy over the years, and we invite you to join us in praying that this event continues to deepen roots, strengthen faith, and produce fruit that lasts.