Dottie HinesleyDottie is serving as our Schools-Network Coordinator, and also as our Brazoria-Galveston County Coordinator (our goal is for her to become full-time).
In 1981, Dottie joined Camp Peniel’s “Barnabas Project”, as the Girls Chaplain at the Harris County Youth Village, ministering to delinquent youth. In 1984, the ministry merged into Youth for Christ, where Dottie was assigned as a staff chaplain at the Harris County Juvenile Detention Center until late 2000.
In 1991, as part of her YFC ministry to develop student leadership and open doors for local youth pastors, Dottie started the Pizza@Lunch program at Pearland High School. She also coordinated Pearland’s Baccalaureate services until 2010, enabling Pearland’s churches to “bless” hundreds of high school graduates each year, and reach out to their families. Also, as part of her YFC ministry, Dottie served the Pearland Ministerial Alliance, as their liaison with the local youth pastors.
When YFC/Houston closed in 2008, Dottie continued her ministry under Cross in the City, continuing to serve the Pearland students through the Christian clubs. In July 2013, CITC closed due to finances.
In September, 2013, Dottie joined YSN/TheNet, expanding her ministry to schools by helping connect school-based Christian clubs and outreach programs throughout our nine-county area. Her primary focus for now, is on the Brazoria and Galveston County’s school districts. As an active member of the National Network of Youth Ministries, Dottie assists in connecting and encouraging area youth workers. She is also serving as the nationally recognized Every Student – Every School (ESES) “County Strategist” for her two counties.
Dottie and her husband Dean, live in Alvin. They have three daughters, now adults.
Note: Dottie currently serves on our board of directors, but may resign that position, when more board members are recruited.
John ButlerExecutive Director (full-time)
After John’s honorable discharge from the US Army in 1970, he began serving with Camp Peniel’s “Barnabas Project”, overseeing their ministry in two facilities operated by the Harris County Juvenile Probation Department. In 1984, the ministry merged into Youth for Christ/Houston’s Youth Guidance department, which grew to ministries serving seven juvenile correction facilities, until 2000.
From then until early 2008, under YFC, John served in Houston’s “community transformation” efforts. City-wide efforts such as the “Houston Profile Project” and “CityFest”, were valuable opportunities for helping connect local churches with community-based outreach programs. When YFC/Houston closed in 2008, John began developing YSN/TheNet, while also serving part-time with Cross in the City, and as an elder in his local church for six years. In 2012, John left CITC to serve full-time in developing YSN/TheNet. As an active member of the National Network of Youth Ministries, John is serving as the NNYM Metro Representative for the Greater Houston Area. John is also serving as the nationally recognized Every Student – Every School (ESES) “Metro Strategist” for our area.
In 2019, John was asked to also volunteer with the NNYM National Team, as the “Juvenile Justice Ministry Network Coordinator”. The role is to help recruit state coordinators for the “Every Youth Every Facility Coalition”. The mutual goal is to identify and support ministry leaders in every juvenile correction facility, in all 50 states. Those efforts are now overlapping work to reach kids-on-probation, who are attending our public schools.
John and his wife Sandy, live in Houston, near Hobby Airport. They have been married 56+ years, have two grown sons, two faithful daughter-in-laws, twelve wonderful grandchildren, and one sweet granddaughter-in-law.
We expect our “Future Staff” to begin as Volunteers. Then as funds become available, and they/we sense God’s calling … they can transition into part-time and perhaps full-time staff. For each role, we trust our “Lord of the Harvest” to send His laborers in whatever order He has planned. All new staff will be expected to raise support for at least 50% of their salary and payroll taxes, from a team of supporters. Our current staff have been responsible for 100% of their support, but we hope to raise more program support in the future to supplement their designated support.
Since we are a tiny team, our admin chores are very small, but as our team grows, we will need part-time assistants to help with the bookkeeping and technical support for our new staff. These roles will not be entry level but will need different staff who are capable in using one or more applications like Adobe’s apps, ESRI’s ArcGIS Pro (for mapping), Mailchimp, Microsoft Office (Enterprise-3) apps, QuickBooks Online (Advanced), SharePoint, Teams, WordPress/Elementor Pro, and Zoom. These tools are already in-place and are being used in our projects.
Logically, our part-time staff may also serve as staff in local churches, or in secular positions where their skills provide them additional income. Or, they could be retired persons, who want to serve significant hours, and but need a little additional income.
As part of our focus on developing other leaders, these tools can also benefit the ministries led by the children and youth workers that we are serving. This will enable our Assistants to support other leaders, as they develop their own skills and systems so their ministries can grow and be sustainable.
County CoordinatorsTo deepen the depth of our services, we need more hours devoted to each of the nine counties in our area. Our efforts to identify (or build), connect and strengthen the local networks is core to helping encourage the local churches to serve their local schools. The County Coordinators will develop the local relationships needed, to serve the school districts in the different communities. Some of these functions could be provided by other local organizations, who we can develop common goals and shared information as strategic partners in their communities.
John Alexander is serving as the volunteer Montgomery County Coordinator. He has six school districts and is doing well in the Spring/Conroe/Willis areas, but he needs help to reach the Magnolia, Montgomery and New Caney districts. Dottie Hinesley, is part-time, and focuses on Brazoria and Galveston Counties, with a total of sixteen districts, and many-miles in-between. John Butler does what he can when requests come from the other six counties (with 39 school districts), but obviously he is also very limited. Some of our counties can be served well by part-time or shared staff, but most will need full-time staff to build the momentum and depth we desire. Of course, Harris County will need multiple full-time Coordinators.
As we help more churches look for ways to serve their local schools, we will naturally partner with existing ministries like Loving Houston, Modern Acts and others. These other programs have strengths and resources that we do not need to duplicate … and we certainly have no desire to compete with them! Our work seems most needed in “plowing the ground” where the work is limited. “Plowing” takes time and expertise, which a “school-focused” coordinator can provide, to assist our County Coordinators who are serving their school districts. Also, our goals for Schools, our Every Student – Every School projects, and local See You at the Pole training … will all benefit from focused strategies that can be used by the County Coordinators. Dottie Hinesely is filling this role now, but she needs more support to become full-time.
Key volunteers, who have experience serving in public schools, can be invaluable volunteer assistants in the different services we want to encourage for students and school staff. However, if we are going to serve these volunteers as needed, we need a full-time staff member in this role.
As more youth ministry networks are discovered, new ones are started, and training begins for the Local Network Leaders, a part-time Networks Coordinator will be needed to expand our capabilities in serving these networks and training their leaders. Starting with 10 hours per week, the Network Coordinator’s time can increase, as funds become available. As we make progress toward identifying and supporting our goal of 100 networks in the Greater Houston Area, this position will require at least one full-time staff member. See our Networks page for more information.
This role will be to support the local efforts by the County Coordinators, by bringing expertise and connections to outside resources through the National Network of Youth Ministries, and other valuable networking partnerships.
VolunteersAs processes are developed for researching local schools, churches and networks, the repetitive tasks can be done by local volunteers in the communities and counties being served. Volunteers with needed technical skills (such as graphics, web design, bookkeeping, database, etc.) can assist the direct ministry leaders we serve. Other volunteers can provide coaching, training and support in areas related to schools, special events and youth ministry networks.
We hope that some of the volunteers who begin serving with us, in supporting other direct ministries, will later transition to staff-roles in these other organizations. Thus, we will be helping train future part-time staff, who will serve in other organizations.
