He wants nothing more than to reach students with hope.

I had the opportunity to meet Keith Robinson, the founder of Emerge Ministries (http://emergexperience.com/).  We sat around a fire at a mutual friend’s house and I got the chance to hear more of Keith’s story and his passion for doing what he does.

Keith’s story is very compelling, there’s no doubt.  He tells of the moment when he wanted to end it all and how God sent a woman to his door to save him.  Gun to the temple, the doorbell rang; Keith opened the door and was greeted by an older lady who wanted to tell him that God loved him.  Even though he was on house arrest at the time—and just 17 years old—she still entered his home, prayed for him, and invited him to church.  Perhaps for the first time, Keith was introduced to unconditional love.  There is so much more to the story (like how Keith eventually married that woman’s daughter!), but I’ll let him tell you.

Emerge Experience is about changing lives and infusing the next generation with hope.  EE goes into public high schools across the country and does a top notch assembly.  Schools are required to have at least one motivational assembly per year.  EE knows all of the policies, legal issues, and procedures, on how to bring them to your school.  They give a non-religious motivational program at school and then invite the students to another venue later in the week to hear their faith story.  Keith says something non-threatening like, “If you guys want to hear a little more about my faith story, I’d love to share it with you on Friday night…”  Typically, strategies like this do not yield much return, but EE regularly sees well over 50 percent of the students return to hear the faith story.  That’s how compelling Keith and EE are when they are in the schools.

Also, EE partners with the band Abandon, which is a hugely popular “cross-over” band, able to do both secular and Christian venues.  The students love getting to hear a concert from Abandon.

I was very impressed by Keith’s humility.  He wants nothing more than to reach students with hope and serve God with all of his heart.  You can feel that about him.  He doesn’t have an agenda, other than that of love, and isn’t in it to make money (I saw his car!).  Bearing only scars from the past and overwhelming-saving-grace, Keith uses his one life in the best way he knows how.

I rarely blog like a commercial (okay, I have never done this before!), but I urge you to find a way to get Keith and EE to your local high school.  EE knows their stuff and can help you make it happen.  You won’t regret doing so.

Here’s a video of Keith that is targeted to school administrations: