EDGE Teen Center turns 10!!

By Steve | Published Friday, March 8, 2019


In the Fall of 2006 I began putting feet to the vision I had when I arrived at Wellspring Community Church in Ohio. You see upon my first visit to Ohio I happened upon this place called Rave movie theatre and saw what must have been about 100 to 200 youth just hanging out. I thought to myself, "There has to be a better place for them to hang out?” Upon accepting the position at Wellspring I encountered a place called the  Underground which was a wildly successful teen hot spot off of 275, I pondered why more students did not go there to hang out and found through a very non-scientific focus group that teens thought it was to far away, that it seemed to be place to be on the weekends but not weekdays. Most teens said they’d only gone because they liked the bands that were playing.  I also visited an up and coming teen center in Springboro called, The Garage.  Seth was very transparent with me and shared, the good, bad and the ugly of teen center life.  One thing was apparent after that meeting… it was making an impact. 
I was also rattled that school year as a young lady attempted to take her life at Lakota East High School. I realized that our teens are not immune to tragedy, hurts and depression just because we live in the suburbs of middle America. Ten years later we now know what mass tragedies were on the horizon for Americas schools. Teens can escape face to face conversations through social media, cell phones and video games. I wanted to create a space where they would  encounter people that would listen to their needs, concerns, problems and dreams without fear of being judged or ridiculed. Don’t get me wrong teachers, administrators and counselors are there but they can only do so much! This drove me to rally other adults to create a space where teens and adults could connect in creative ways and share their lives together.  A place where adults could give their lives to impacting teens, a generational center where a life from one generation meets the new generation. 
So in September of 2006 I put together a proposal for our leadership at Wellspring explaining the necessity of a teen center in Liberty Township. Upon evaluating and discussing this proposal I was tasked to do further research.  So for the next year I interviewed, visited and discussed teen centers with anyone who had anything to do with one throughout the nation.  I discovered three prevailing tendencies of a successful teen center. It had to:
- be within walking distance of the school
- have huge support and communication between the teen center director and school administration.
- have a teen voice who help make decisions about activities and programs within the center.
So loaded with these prevailing factors and a plethora of other info I presented this info at our annual senior leader retreat and was warmly welcomed and approved to be part of a fundraising effort at the end of  2007.
Our vision was to provide high school students with a diverse, youth-driven teen center dedicated to creating life-on-life mentoring, relationship with caring adults through community service, social activities, counseling, tutoring, and life skills development.

Upon raising the money for EDGE through generous donations time, money and resources. Axis Teen Centers was established as a not for profit 501(c)(3) and would oversee the Edge and future teen center locations within walking distance of area schools focused on empowering students to impact the world through interaction with caring adults, social activities, life skills courses, counseling services and community service program.  Over the 18 months much was accomplished, including:
  • Creating a Teen Center Advisory Group that meet from January through June to create the framework for Axis and Edge Teen Center.  The group consisted of Wellspring members, student, and local community leaders;
  • Organized a  focus group comprised of teenagers to gain insight and name the first center;
  • Organizational infrastructure was developed and implemented including, mission and vision statements, project plan, capital, cash flow and operating budgets, program charters, policy and procedures program;
  • A Board of Directors was established comprised of Wellspring and local community leaders;
  • Developed and launched a funding campaign comprised of corporate, individual, foundation and grant funding raising over $40,000 in funding;
  • Created alliances with Butler County United Way and West Chester Liberty Community Foundation to advocate for the teen center and supply resources to assist in early development;
  • Designed and selected Edge Teen Center site located in between Lakota East High School and Freshman Campus providing easy access for students;
  • Gained support from Lakota School District especially from Mike Taylor, Superintendent and Dr. Keith Kline, LEHS Principal.
  • Designed and completed an assessment of LEHS student needs through a survey given to over 2,000 LEHS students;
  • Began build out of the first teen center through financial, in-kind donations and many volunteers both within Wellspring and from our community;
  • Created community interest and support through public relations and media information opportunities.
  • Analyzed the survey conducted at LEHS to determine how will use the information in developing programs, communicating the results to the community and grant writing;
  • Aggressively pursued funding through corporate, individual, foundation and grant venues;
  • Finalized the design and implementation plan for the programs that will be offered to the teens;
  • Finalized operating policy and procedures;
  • Generated curiosity and  interest by local teens;
  • Recruit and secure volunteers to help run the teen center;
  • Design Opening Day campaign and publicize to the teens and community
On March 7, 2009 Edge opened it’s doors to the community and over 500 teens and adults came to check it out. We were finally up and running!
Over the years we have had thousands of students come through the doors, tens of thousands complete community service hours. We have had many board members come and go, numerous teen center managers come and go, my apologies for not naming you all. I don’t even volunteer there as much as I use to and have even since stopped going as frequently, However I’m always proud of the way our little community made this happen. All thanks should actually go to a few couples, the Yablonsky’s and Ricca’s! They put a lot of sweat equity and money into this place. They along with Annie Droege and the small board they had at the time, brought about funding, fundraisers, community involvement, programming, grants, partnerships, Americorp and many other programs. It absolutely blows me away! It is no longer JUST a safe place for students to hang out… it’s a place where high school students encounter a diverse, youth-driven teen center dedicated to creating life-on-life mentoring, relationship with caring adults through community service, social activities, counseling, tutoring, and life skills development! 
At yesterdays 10th birthday, when a surgeon walked up to Brenda and I and said,  “I’m interested in mentoring students." I fought to hold back my emotions. WE (volunteers, board members, staff, community leaders and business men and woman, past and present) have truly created a place where teens are being equipped to impact the world! For that I am proud!

The next 10 years are going to be amazing! I’m not even sure that Lakota West and Hamilton High School know what resources are about to be used for the benefit of their students! It will impact them in a great way!
I know I have not named many of you at all... but ALL of you played a part in making edge happen, I do not take that lightly or for granted! Thanks for making a dream a reality!

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NCAA Football Top 10

By Steve | Published Wednesday, November 1, 2017

College Football and MLB are quickly becoming my favorite sports to watch.  They both have their issues but... I like the product. Not sure I'll do this every week but I've crafted a spreadsheet/calculations/brilliance Jeff Sagarin that will give you my top 10 for the College Playoff's each week. I won't go into the details of how my saber metrics work (TRADEMARK) but... here you go!

#1 Bama: Georgia and Bama are close. You stay number one until you get knocked off or my calculations change things!
#2 Georgia: You beat Bama... you get to be #1
#3 Clemson: They've got a tough schedule
#4 OSU: That's where I have them now... but the road does not get any easier!
#5 Wisconsin: They control their destiny
#6 ND: Their D is just not that good. Top 20... but not top 4!
#7 PSU: They can climb back in it but will need help
#8 Washington: The Pac always get the short end. But who have they played?
#9 OK: You can't depend on Mayfield every week. Defense needs to step it up.
#10 Miami: The dark horse! They could move up in rankings quickly!

There you have it... Not perfect. Go ahead and sound off!

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There is some good worth writing for!

By Steve | Published Thursday, October 5, 2017

After the last month of negativity toward others and then praise and helping of each other and back again I decided on Tuesday to write a letter to a woman that had been years in the making. I'm not really sure what took me so long to thank her, because I would not be where I am today had it not been for the Holy Spirit speaking through her. 

On her blog Esther Burroughs describes herself as follows: "Esther has a holy calling as she travels, encouraging woman and families of all ages with God’s Word and lessons on life’s journey.

Her passion is calling women to an intimate walk as His beloved child. Out of the overflow of God’s love in her heart, the Word of God in her life, and the Spirit’s power, she is compelled to leave a legacy of faithfulness in His family, His community, and His world."

Here is my letter to Esther...

Dear Esther,

This email has been a LLLOOONNNGGG time coming! In the fall of 1996 I attended a Baptist (College) Student Conference at Hyde Park in Waco Texas. During that "talk", I refer to it as a talk because as you well know woman were frowned upon to preach! However, Esther you were bringing the word and that word cut through my heart. I'm so glad you had the perseverance to fight and last through all that gender bias! 

On that day I remember that you were talking about God's calling on our lives, I was in the second year of college, but my grades my first year of college were so bad that I was basically retaking all my classes.  I was like a ship without a rudder not knowing what I was called to do. During that message you talked of how some of us were called to be police officers, teachers, pastors and even youth pastors etc.. All I heard as you went through that list was "PASTOR". As you continued to talk I relived my childhood and teenage years and how I had younger people always hanging around me and the influence I had on them. I quickly realized that God had a plan for me,  a plan for me to make an impact as a pastor. 

Twenty one years ago on the first weekend of October I surrendered my life to be a pastor and it has one heck of a ride since then. I have served as a student pastor in 5 different churches in Texas, Maryland and Ohio. I am now an associate pastor at an awesome church in Springboro, OH and loving every minute of it.

This email has been way to long in the making however I wanted to say thanks after al these years for the impact your message had on my life. I'll never forget that lady that spoke truth that day. I'm forever grateful! 

Esther responded today and said she appreciated the email and how it brightened her day. She also stated that she was 80 years old and still speaking! I can only hope to strive for that! So, how about you? Who has made a huge impact on your life? Take a moment and let them know today. Let's fill up posts, facebook and email boxes with some positive, faith building vibes instead of all this negativity!

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Hunter Holt 2.0

By Steve | Published Wednesday, March 22, 2017

As many of you recall, Hunter had a spontaneous pneumothorax two years ago. On Saturday he had another episode except for this time on the right side. Surgery was on Monday and he is making steady progress toward healing and full recovery. He just had an x-ray and the lung looks good and they have turned off what we call the bubble machine or an integrated chest drainage unit. His lung is now on what is called a water seal as long as there are no bubbles in the next 6 hours he will get the chest tube taken out tonight. If everything goes well he might get to go home tonight! Many of you have asked what causes this and what is the treatment? After experiencing it ourselves, talking to several doctors and research here is what we've found.

 Spontaneous pneumothorax is an abnormal accumulation of air in the space between the lungs and the chest cavity (called the pleural space) that can result in the partial or complete collapse of a lung. Hunter has never had a full collapsed lung, but the one on his left side was almost halfway down.  Spontaneous means the pneumothorax was not caused by an injury such as a rib fracture. Spontaneous pneumothorax is likely due to the formation of small sacs of air (blebs) in lung tissue that rupture, causing air to leak into the pleural space. Air in the pleural space creates pressure on the lung and can lead to its collapse. Hunter had a cluster of them on the left side that they removed and on the left side they found three. A person with this condition may feel chest pain on the side of the collapsed lung and shortness of breath.

 Blebs may be present on an individual's lung (or lungs) for a long time before they rupture. Many things can cause a bleb to rupture, such as changes in air pressure or a very sudden deep breath. Often, people who experience a primary spontaneous pneumothorax have no prior sign of illness; the blebs themselves typically do not cause any symptoms and are visible only on medical imaging. Affected individuals may have one bleb to more than thirty blebs. Once a bleb ruptures and causes a pneumothorax, there is an estimated 13 to 60 percent chance that the condition will recur. 

 This condition is often found in tall. slim, male athletes. Researchers suggest that the rapid growth of the chest during growth spurts may increase the likelihood of forming blebs. Long-term smoking also greatly increases the risk of developing primary spontaneous pneumothorax in both men and women. We know for a fact that the later is not what caused Hunter's condition. What we have discovered is that Hunter is slim and an athlete but not necessarily tall. As they have taken x-rays of Hunter's chest they always miss a portion of his lungs. So one doctor finally told us to remind the technicians that he has very long lungs. So it made Dr. Holt deduce that possible in the growth of his lungs they may have formed because of the very small space in his chest cavity. 

 How do they fix this problem?

 In some cases, a chest tube is placed in the chest wall to relieve the collapsed lung, however as the statistics say above if it has happened once you have a 60% chance of it happening again. So we decided to go ahead have the same procedure on the right side that they did on the left side.

 The lung is collapsed and a thoracoscopy is performed. Basically three tiny incisions in the chest wall, one for the camera and the other for the tools. The blebs are found and cut out of the lung and stapled back together.  Then the surgeon irritates the pleura (chest wall) with either a rough pad, gauze or a mechanical rotary brush. This is done so the lining of the lung adheres to the chest wall. This is done in case they missed a bleb or he may form another one. Since it adheres to the chest wall there is much less risk of him ever having a collapsed lung again.

 Recovery is usually from 3 - 7 days in the hospital and a recovery time of 2 weeks before resuming normal activity.

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SPEECHLESS

By Steve | Published Wednesday, December 2, 2015

I'm not sure why, and you'd think I would have figured this out by now, I'm always amazed how God is always at work aligning the things that we do. In essence I always find myself speechless! Yesterday I attended an awesome seminar by Joe Boyd and his team from Rebel Pilgrim, you can also check out Rebel Storytellers. The summary of this meeting was to give us tools to make us better story tellers. To look through the eyes of story's we are telling/reading with empathetic eyes. We were also challenged to look at people we come into contact with on a day to day basis with empathetic eyes. Simply by asking, "WHY?". Why do they act that way, why do they say those things? There is always a deeper meaning!

I took this practice into my Advent devotional this morning, if you are not doing it I implore you to check out Touching Wonder: Recapturing the Awe of Christmas by John Blasé. He takes the traditional Christmas stories of scriptures and adds to them, makes them come alive, invites you into the story, drills down in order to understand the main character of the story. Today's reading was the message of the angel to Zachariah. Blasé picks up the story from the time that Zachariah leaves the temple and heads to tell Elizabeth. Here is a brief excerpt: "His pace slowed as a grin lined his face. “Elizabeth, your wife, will bear a son by you. You are to name him John … many will delight in his birth.” He stopped in the middle of the path and looked heavenward. He mouthed words only the Mighty One could hear: “Who am I that you are mindful of me? Why should you touch her womb in these old days with new life? What kind of man-child is this to be born of her, this one named ‘John’?”"As I read, reread the story and placed myself in it one name kept popping out, "Abijah." Why in the world, in the telling of this story, would God mention this obscure name? Abijah was the great-grandson of David, the grandson of Solomon. He reigned as Israel's king for 3 years, he was known for defeating Jeroboams army of 800,000 when his was only half the size. By winning this war he stabilized the Kingdom of Israel. Alhough Abijah had “leaned upon Jehovah” (2 Chr. 13:13-20), nevertheless, he went on walking in all the sins of his father Rehoboam.[7][5] Abijah allowed the high places, the sacred pillars, and even the male temple prostitutes to continue in the land. “His heart did not prove to be complete with Jehovah his God” (1 Kin. 14:22-24; 15:3).[7]


Abijah a man that continued to walk in His sins, an unbelieving old man named Zachariah is exactly who God used to tell His story and to bring in to the world the forerunner of the Savior of the World. Yet Zachariah says, “Who am I that you would be mindful of me?” May I ask the same question of us today… Who are “WE” that God would be mindful of us? What great story are we a part of? Once you find out, who knows maybe will leave you speechless as well!

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Advent 2015

By Steve | Published Wednesday, November 18, 2015

For the last few years I have created an Advent calendar for my family. It originated several years ago when I made Advent calendars for our student ministry in order to encourage them to SLOW DOWN and have families spend time together.

The Advent season (“advent” means “a coming or arrival”) is the period of anticipation before the arrival of Jesus. We all know that Jesus arrived in the little town of Bethlehem now we await His second coming. We wait for Jesus to return to make everything right. So in the advent season, we practice the patience of waiting expectantly for something wonderful. Many church traditions observe Advent every Sunday, this year Advent starts on Sunday November 29th this year I hope you will celebrate with us.

A few notes about the calendar:

SUNDAYS: You will see scripture that is aligned with what church traditions would use for their advent services. Our family will be taking a few minutes of SOLITUDE, time to read the SCRIPTURE. We will write on a white board, in our kitchen, one word that the Holy Spirit places on our minds as we read from the scriptures each day. Here is that white board that we currently are using for Thanksgiving.

TUESDAYS & THURSDAYS: We will be using “Touching Wonder” by John Blase for our devotionals. Similar to Sunday, we will creatively display what God is communicating to us. We have teens and a college student, so social media and the use of their phones is always prevalent. If you have children you may want to have them color it or make a craft. On these days there is a word next to the scripture reading. Several years ago Rethink Church created what is called Visio Divina ("Divine Seeing" contemplative practice). Here is how it works, we will take that word ponder it’s significance and then create, find or take a picture of something that best represents that word to us. We will then put that picture on instagram with #holtfamilyadvent and #(whetever the word is). For instance if it’s peace it will look like this, #holtfamilyadvent #peace. Feel free to follow us and participate as well. I’d love to see your creativity. We did this with our small group a few years ago and it was a lot of fun!

READING GUIDES: Feel free to use whatever devotional guides you’d like. Here are a few that we have used and like that you might want to use. Honestly, there are a huge assortment of devotional books, just look on Amazon.

Advent by Erik Willets (If you have teens) *DISCLAIMER: IF YOU’D like to support a great organization that is doing great things for teens then go to The Youth Cartel to order this book. Adam Mclane and Marko Oestreicher do a great job!

God is In The Manger by Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Adult and College Oriented)

Advent Devotional For Busy Families by Laurie Ostby Kehler (Young Children)

Celebrating Christmas With JESUS by Max Lucado (Adults, teens, college students)

SERVICE: Every year we do our best to spend time making cookies and Christmas goodies and giving them to neighbors and friends. We are commanded to give rather  than receive! This year our family will also be serving at several of our churches 9 Christmas services. What can you do to serve others not only during the holidays but all year long? Mark 10:45

FRIENDS/EVENTS: We all need SUPPORT of friends. This time of year find ways to spend time with friends and family. You will find that during this time of year we LOVE to do family times and many times this is done with friends as we go with them to many of the events we attend. The events will need to change for your location and your traditions but the ones on the calendar have become yearly traditions for us and our friends. Yeah.... I even take my kids to the Family Force 5 Christmas Pageant,  you gotta have some fun!

THE CALENDAR: Here is the calendar I have created for our family to use. (ADVENT CALENDAR 2015) It is a PDF that I created using pages. If you’d like the pages version so you can edit yourself let me know and I’d be more than happy to send that to you. That way you can edit the calendar for your family.

Whatever you do this year take time to slow down, take some time of solitude, pause to  read the Christmas story from scriptures. Find a way to serve those around you, hang out with those close to you, that support you and who knows…these may become some of the most significant events in your life! 

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Dealing with death

By Steve | Published Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Over the last 10 years I have dealt with death way to many times, with the loss of my brother, parents, father in law, brother in law and close friends. During many of these times I ran to scriptures and prayer to get me through. During one of these events I came across a book called CHAD. I believe the publisher was Focus on the Family, I have tried to do an online search for the book but had no luck. The following thoughts are things that I wrote in my journal after my brothers death and nuggets from the book. I hope you find some help and solace in them.


"IT'S IS NOT EASY TO COMMUNICATE THESE EXPERIENCES
The pain of losing a brother is worse than anything I have ever imagined in this lifetime!

I would like for you to understand that these things are hard to verbalize. You don’t just sit down and write these impressions. You feel thoughts like these. You cry thoughts like these. You write and rewrite thoughts like these.

Many times I have encouraged friends to journal these thoughts, talk about these thoughts. In the past week I have had a friend from high school who's mom passed and I was able to encourage the writing of memories of mom on Facebook.  

At some point, you will be ready to share your most intimate experiences with those you love. As I’ve read books, I’ve realized nobody has cornered the market on feelings.


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