It was a good run...

As you read below to find out about the end of Project Hangout as we currently know it - please understand that a seed must die for other things to give birth. The lifestyle mentor philosophy lives on in the lives of those trained and many good things that Project Hangout started. Many will still continue - Like Nova-Do martial arts, coffee groups and www.FEEDtheMUSIC.net (Ryan's latest project).

Please continue to root Ryan and Jenn on by showing up to FEEDtheMUSIC and participating in the intergenerational music community that happens every month. Ryan currently has found a job working with emancipated foster youth ages 18-24.

The Story:

June, 2009

Dear Project Hangout Supporter,

From the inception of Project Hangout Ministries, we have been accountable to the stakeholders, including the donors and those we have ministered to. Under that responsibility, the Board members have maintained a code of integrity in managing the ministry. One key element has been transparency in all we do. We honor the Lord by doing so and avoid issues that may undermine our ministry or call our purposes into question. With that desire to be forthright as to the status of Project Hangout, I must regretfully announce that the Board and I have determined that Project Hangout Ministries will end operations on June 30, 2009. The reason for our decision is not unlike those currently faced by other non-profits and businesses. Since the economic downturn, the ministry has seen a drop in income (contributions) of over 40%. This has caused drastic reductions in expenditures, including a substantial cut (80%) in the salary of our Operations Director, Ryan Zeulner. Beginning last month Ryan’s work at Project Hangout was reduced to a part-time basis. Understandably, as a father and husband Ryan needs a full-time position and cannot continue at Project Hangout under this arrangement. Without someone like Ryan running the day-to-day operations, the ministry is unable to continue. It is due to this and the other effects of the economic downturn on our ministry that we must in good faith end the operation.

While we are saddened by the turn of events we are not discouraged. Over the span of eight years we have seen hundreds of kids learn of the love of Christ, dozens come to a saving knowledge of Jesus and many more turn from destructive behavior. We know that the successes at introducing the Word into the lives of these youth will not return void. It is His grace and love that has made all of this possible and it is in the same that we continue on.

To wind up the operations, we have determined that the ministry has a cash need of $8,500 for our remaining obligations. This includes back-pay owed to Ryan. I would ask you to prayerfully consider sending Project Hangout a generous gift so that we can properly meet every obligation as we close our books. If through the Lord’s provision there are any funds remaining after fulfilling these obligations, we will transfer the balance to Terra Nova Church in Irvine, California after June. This church is where Ryan is the part-time youth pastor and where he will continue his work in Lifestyle Mentoring. If necessary we will continue to receive donations after June 30th until all of the obligations are fulfilled.

I cannot begin to express my thanks for your commitment to serving the Kingdom through your gifts and sacrifices for Project Hangout. I am extremely humbled by your involvement and the impact we have had for God’s glory.

With Blessings,


Dale Hedges
Founder & President
dwhedges@projecthangout.com

The Sage Pt. 2

After working on Project Hangout for about a year and a half I have discovered a number of ministry principles that are true to everyone’s spiritual life. One principle I’ve found is that longevity is spurred on by experience. Seems easy enough and yet in the real world how do we expect twenty somethings to continue in ministry if they are inexperienced in ministry. They are full of energy and have the time, but we all know that can fade quickly when things get tough...

That is where the Sage comes in.

The key to a healthy spiritual life is being connected with your vertical relationships. Those older than you and those younger than you (and of course God). Those older hold wisdom and experience - enough for someone younger to draw strength from in order to carry on. This kind of relationship is beneficial for both involved as we all need to give in order to receive. Wisdom is passed down ensuring successful development of those new to ministry to help them form those in their teenage years. Its a trickledown system that cannot be cut off if we expect positive results.

I’ve found that teenagers that have: (1) mentors and (2) pour into those younger than themselves, have a greater chance of making it through college. This is a natural conclusion as those that live and breathe their faith by walking with others older than them can glean the necessary tools to forge through life’s constant rough terrain.

My conclusion is that if we want young adults and college age students to live missional lives with high school students and junior high students we must first find those that can be their backbone of support. We need wisdom first and that can only be found through the tested, not the untested.

More to insights to come...

-- Let's build up the Church to be mobilize everyone within it to reach everyone not yet apart of it!

Volleyball With Impact.

I wanted to call this blog post "Purpose Driven Volleyball," but that has probably already been trademarked. Here is a great story from a great guy who is doing incredible things down at Doheny:

"Beach volleyball. Words that bring to mind images of busy summer days, Top Gun, or even Summer Olympic gold. What these words do not make you think of is ministry, unity, and salvation. But these are exactly what beach volleyball has brought to the college group at our church. My wife and I spent the past year playing regularly with a couple of friends and after Misty May and Kerri Walsh put the sport back on the
map this summer, we decided to give our college students an opportunity to learn how to play. It was a pretty simple set-up: meet at 8am, warm-up, teach a few skills and play some games. Week by week we were having what we expected, a lot of fun and some memorable moments.

Soon we started grabbing lunch together afterwords and some incredible results began to manafest. What started as a fun interest began to bear a lot of fruit. Here are three realizations as we began to look at what was happening:

1. Ownership. The people who came to volleyball began to take ownership of the group and their faith. These where the ones that became the most excited to participate in our other Bible studies and even planned additional times to get-together to hang-out building up the unity of our group.

2. Evangelism through relationship. Some of our students started to stick around and join up with the Saddleback college class that meets at 10 am. As they built relationships based on volleyball, they started having opportunities to actually show Christian love and share the good news of Jesus, inviting people to church and other
gatherings...

3. and lastly... after playing volleyball, a girl from the college class accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior with one of our college ministry students who had taken a particular interest in volleyball and living out his Christian faith.

The idea of living out our Christian faith is living missional! Praise God for reaching others through us by a fun and silly game!"

A story from Derick Zeulner, a pastor at South Shores, Dana Point.

A Lifestyle Mentor's Support Goes A Long Way

I'd love to share one story from a relatively new lifestyle mentor:

My group currently consists of 3 young ladies and we all are becoming very close. I love it! There is one person that I've been focusing on who I'll call "Mary." Her parents are homeless and they want Mary and her little sister to live with them. Unfortunately this means staying at a motel or in their van in a store parking lot. The kids have been bounced back and forth between their parents and a family that would love to become foster parents to Mary and her sister. Recently Mary had to attend a custody hearing in court, which would decide if Mary and her sister would be able to stay at the foster parent's house for good. I went to court with Mary to give her and her sister support. It was very difficult for Mary because she had to tell the truth about her parents and Mary knew it would expose her parent's faults. Mary had to tell about her parents alcoholism and that they let her and her sister drink with them. It was a very tough time for Mary. We are still waiting to hear what the court's decision is in this heartbreaking situation.

I know God is using me to touch Mary's life. For two weekends in a row Mary has not taken a drink even when her parents offered it to her. She says she does this as a promise to me. Mary also cuts herself and as we've talked about it she has promised to stop that too. Two months ago I couldn't get Mary to talk to me. Now she tells me everything that is going on in her life. It is the same way with the other girls too. Sometimes they give me way too much information but I count it a privilege that they are so open with me. I thank the Lord for giving me this opportunity to serve these girls.

The Relational Tangible Object

In ministry some have found that its hard to measure effectiveness because relationships are viewed as intangible objects. I however disagree! I believe a relationship is a tangible object. Its who you turn to and lean on when things get tough.

Its our relationship with Jesus that has saved us. We needed saving and Jesus, in relationship, put skin on and came to our rescue. A guy named Thomas once put his hands in His nail holes - that's tangible.

We have been sent to be the tangible Jesus. Help us make that possible. Your donations and support help us to train up and send out college and young adults that are committed to walking students through their toughest years. We want to train up and send you out as well. Lets begin our relationship. Times are tough. Let's lean on each other.

From the mouth of our mentors:

Davey and I have been sailing for a few months now at Lake Mission Viejo. God has given me a catch twenty-two circumstance in our sailing outings. The wind at LMV isn't the greatest, not to mention the most reliable. But as it turns out, that's not a bad thing. Sometimes we have a hoot, hiking out (that's when the boat is tipping, and you lean out over the water to keep from capsizing) - those are the times we come for the adrenalin rush.

Others times the water is dead calm. Times like these are when the deep spiritual conversations spark and I really get him. God has blessed me by using me in Davey's life, and he is slowly becoming more comfortable with our conversations.

Eric - Lifestyle Mentor
Passion: Sailing
Church: Terranova
Lives out Passion: Mondays

The Highest Recommendation

If your faith is looking to be challenged and grown or you are seeking to understand why we do what we do at Project Hangout then I have a recommendation for you. This is the kind of book that I am telling everyone about and am thankful that Al Seibert told me about it. The book is an easy read as it is broken down into devotional (1 page style) morsels that you can chew on each day. The author, E. Stanley Jones summed up the book in its title, "The Word Became Flesh." It will challenge a person of any faith to live the way God intended and yet it flies in the face of the traditional church structure. Enjoy the reading, I hope it turns your world upside down.

The Word Became Flesh, By E. Stanly Jones

The "Living Missional" Challenge

Our challenge to you is to live missional. Try it. See how it changes your view on life and see if it makes the red letters of Jesus jump off the page. I know it has for me. After all it was he who said, "Come, follow me ... and I will make you fishers of men. (MT 4:19)"

Have you gone man fishing lately? Probably not, but you can - and we are here to help because Jesus also said to "make disciples. (MT 28:19)" We believe you have what it takes, after all God has given you specific gifts/talents/passions to connect with people. (Mt 25:14-30, Psalm 139: 13-16)

LIVE MISSIONAL, live with intention and purpose. Be invitation and relational Make opportunity of the places you are and the things you love. Dive deep into pursuing relationships with others WITH the goal of LOVING THEM like Jesus did.

Remember, this is what Project Hangout is all about. We are here to help. We have training, resources and people to guide you. You will never feel more gratification than serving your God in the way that His Son did.

Leave your stories as comments. Let's hear about them as we encourage others to live without boarders by following Jesus and being all about relationships.


Project Hangout Testimony from Project Hangout on Vimeo.

Open Mentor Training July 12

Please RSVP By July 7th to rz@projecthangout.com for our free training

Mentor Spotlight (May): Ashley Silver

Ashley Silver
is our first second generation lifestyle mentor. She joined us in January. Listen to her story:


My lifestyle mentor during my high school years was Jenn Zeulner. Seeing how great Jenn turned out after all her obstacles she had overcome as a teen gave me hope, I looked up to her. She was an anchor for me as I stumbled through high school - a friend in my times of need. I believe every high school student should have someone older in their life (besides a parent - because let’s just be honest - what high school student listens to their parents?). I am now apart of Project Hangout and loving on a small group of girls. “Kim” is a great example of the type of ministry Project Hangout is offering. Kim came to a youth group only because she had gotten in trouble in school. Her parents forced her to come. It was either being locked up in a house with her family, or church. She chose church, to come and sit in a corner. Kim and I connected at a winter camp that I was asked to counsel. Through a 7 hour car ride and endless hours in a hotel room with the power out and a storm raging outside, we grew close. I became someone she could relate to and open up with. She began to spill her heart and ask me questions she didn’t think she could ask her parents or even friends her age. After the trip was over, we began to hangout and I got to know her in her own environment. One day I received a call from Kim’s mother. She called to tell me of the great impact I had on Kim. Her mom explained in detail the transformation that was beginning to take place every time we hung out. The mom stressed how much Kim looked up to me. I am committed to my relationship with Kim and I’ve learned that it takes time; teens just want someone to listen, someone to talk to, to laugh with and someone to trust. I am a lifestyle mentor and one day my hope is that Kim would follow in my footsteps.

--Ashley

Age: 20
Town: Lake Forest
Church: Saddleback, Lake Forest
Group: 2-3 core, relational including coffee, hanging out and shopping.
Meet: Weekly

What is Project Hangout?

A group of us who believe that the way to reach the next generation is to do what God has created us to do and bring along side those who love it as well. This is the definition of lifestyle ministry. Its a passion based ministry that transcends generations through discipleship and mentoring.

Project Hangout is a non-profit mentorship umbrella that aids the church in the training, supporting and the encouragement of lifestyle mentors. Our Life-style mentorship groups are passion based with a relational emphasis to model the way of Jesus Christ. Project Hangout strengthens the church through young adult and college leadership development, lifestyle mentoring for relational impact and community events.

(To find out more about lifestyle mentoring, please read "What is Lifestyle Mentoring")

Our community events are a chance to get everyone together for a great time! We pull off concerts in places that have space to relax and experience a healthy environment. We don't just stop there, but we are also working on broom ball nights, fashion shows, dodgeball tournaments and the like.