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The effort to create a national bridge between youth, college/career and military ministries began in early 2004 with the Collegiate Ministry Leaders Group. This team assembled to share ideas and reach the campus at Arizona State University (ASU). In this context, Jeff Schadt raised the question of how many lost young adults (Christians who had fallen away from the church) were on campus. In that meeting, it was estimated that there were 7,500 to 13,000 at ASU alone. Today we know those numbers were low. As a result, a discussion ensued as to how these college ministry leaders could connect with incoming freshmen and ideas began to form. The magnitude of the loss rested heavily on Jeff’s heart. His continued research led him and the ministry leaders to the realization that they had less than 72 hours to connect with an incoming student or that student would likely never become involved with any campus ministry. Because of this, there was a conclusion that contact with the incoming student needed to happen before they arrived on campus. It became apparent that a significant majority of Christian students at ASU were falling away from the church during their collegiate years. Equally apparent was the fact that these students made many decisions during these years that affected the rest of their lives: their careers, lifestyles, spouses, etc. Even if they came back to the Lord later in life, this time of falling away often had the life-long implications and for some created life long scars. During Jeff’s process of discovery, he examined a variety of statistics that supported his findings. This led him to a defining point that this would require a full-time effort to try to build a bridge between youth and college ministries. During that year, Jeff hosted a college ministry leader’s conference while working for Phoenix Seminary as the Director of Enrollment. A large number of Arizona collegiate ministry leaders were in attendance and it confirmed the need and calling for this effort. In the November 2004, Jeff left his job at Phoenix Seminary, sold the family home to finance this new ministry direction and formed Ministry Edge as its Founder and President. The Board of Directors was formed and included Stephen Boatwright, Tom Brown, Gloria Gabler, Jess Lorona and James O’Connor. Shortly after beginning work to bridge the gap between youth and college/career ministries in Arizona given that so many students left the state to attend schools in other states, as other students from other states transitioned to Arizona. This led to a meeting with Paul Fleischmann, President of National Network of Youth Ministries (NNYM), who received of copy of Jeff’s plan by Corkie Haan of Mission America (MA). That meeting resulted in an April 13th, 2004 day-long MA/NNYM forum on the loss of youth issue with Jeff, Corkie and Paul Fleischmann, president of NNYM, presenting to 27 youth and college ministry leaders. At the conclusion of the forum the group formed the Youth Transition Network (YTN) and asked Jeff to lead the effort. Also created at that time was an Executive Committee of advisors which included Dr. Kara Powell, Executive Director of the Center for Youth and Family Ministries at Fuller Seminary; Chris Renzelman, Northwest Regional Coordinator for NNYM; Paul Fleischmann, President of NNYM; Tim Eldred, President of Christian Endeavor International; Corkie Haan, National Facilitator of Ministry Networks for Mission America; and Bill Tell, Vice President of The Navigators. In January of 2006, a powerful DVD was created which graphically depicted college students’ stories of their transitions. After showing this video and conducting sessions on culture shock with students at state youth conventions and at the Urbana conference, YTN found that these students were dramatically impacted, increasing their desire to: connect to a ministry, find a Christian roommate and to continue to follow Christ for life. The formation of YTN led to a series of meetings defining a coalition and leading to a meeting of denominational leaders led by Jeff, Paul Cedar, President of Mission America, Bill Tell, Vice President of The Navigators and Josh McDowell in January of 2006 in Orlando, FL. At that meeting were The Salvation Army, the Church of the Nazarene, the Evangelical Free Church of America, and the Church of God of Prophecy, the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, Ekklesia, Christian Endeavor International, Sojourn Church, MA and NNYM. At that meeting, the DVD was shown and there was a unanimous conclusion that YTN needed to move forward with the goal of motivating, preparing and transitioning our nation’s youth into college, career and military ministries. Throughout the rest of 2006 Jeff worked with various college ministries to bring together the receiving side of the equation, which resulted in an all-leader gathering in October 2006 in Chicago, IL at the IV Press headquarters. The national leaders there were:
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