This week as I engaged in lament I was surprised by the help of an old Bible memory verse standby, Continue reading
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While meeting new students at Lincoln University this fall InterVarsity staff Adam Leong jumped right in starting conversations about faith. Last week, he used InterVarsity’s Hope Campaign as a visual way to gain students’ attention and start conversations with passersby. D came up to the station and asked what it was. Adam walked him through it and got to know his story a bit. He’s a freshman who just moved to Mid-Missouri a little while back to live with his dad. He said his mom is a Christian, his dad is an atheist and he’s not really religious but if he had to choose something, he’d probably choose being a Christian since that was how he was brought up. After hearing a bit more about what it means to be a follower of Jesus, He said, “this makes total sense!” Adam invited him to make a decision right then to follow Jesus and he said “yes.” They prayed, chatted a little more, and he went on his way, a new believer. Adam and D will be meeting to discuss the book Deeply Rooted in Christ starting next week. This is the first conversion at Lincoln University through InterVarsity. Praise Jesus for his faithfulness!
What are we to do when we hear about the killing of another Black man or woman during a traffic stop? A stop that I, as a White male, would make it home from to see my family. Many of us are uncertain.
Soong-Chan Rah in Prophetic Lament says our lack of fruitful engagement comes from our loss of the practice of lament to the “triumphant and success oriented narrative” (Rah p.72) in American evangelicalism.
The worship life of Israel took seriously the role of lament. In contrast, the worship life of American evangelical Christianity is often devoid of lament. We ignore a key expression of worship and prayer and the opportunity to speak to God out of the midst of suffering. (Rah p.177)
Without re-engaging this discipline we will continue to be stuck in uncertainty. Like any new thing we need teachers, we will stumble, but with God’s help we will begin to meet God and be led by him in the midst of the brokenness surrounding us.
It is easy as we read the Bible to resonate with the disciples and others who follow God in scripture. What could be wrong with this?
As a White American Christian I (we) am so used to centering myself (and being centered by others) in the story of God that I’ve forgotten a crucial element brought up by Willie James Jennings in The Christian Imagination. “Someone allowed us [Gentiles] to draw close enough to hear that there was a conversation going on between God and a people in the first place.” (Jennings, 252)
His challenge to me (and us) is to rediscover the position of reading scripture as an outsider brought in on an ongoing conversation in which we are not at the center.
While most of InterVarsity’s staff equip students to share their faith on campus, a few, like St Louis staff George Stulac, focus their efforts on reaching the faculty. Over the summer, Washington University hired a new professor in the Department of Philosophy. He is a strong Christian whose special interest academically is in the philosophy of faith. George had a dinner for him and his wife at his home to meet other Christian faculty couples. Now he is already working with Christian faculty in other departments on cooperative projects to promote dialogue about faith within the academic community. George met another faculty this summer who has been at Washington University for ten years. She shared how she had become a Christian through InterVarsity as an undergrad, but said she did not know any other Christian faculty at WU. Now she is also eager to get involved in the faculty ministry there this fall.
My first two months of sabbatical were full of reading, reflecting, retreating, working on my office and engaging with family. Often, I’ve thought, “I should do this more when I am not on sabbatical”. As I continue to engage in this time would you pray for clarity on how to include these life-giving practices regularly in my work?
On a recent retreat hike with Jadon we walked near the Meramac river. We were startled to find an enormous tree, the largest we saw on our hike, in the river flood zone. As I put my hand on the tree I thought of all that went on around this tree over its years on the banks – floods, droughts, exploration, and exploitation.
God’s invitation for me (and us) is to be like this tree planted by streams of water (Psalm 1, Jeremiah 17). May my (our) faith grow to withstand all that we face and be a testament to the grace of God.
What do you get when you combine 325 students from around the world, a garage full of furniture and the largest potluck you’ve ever seen? An amazing glimpse of God’s heart for the nations! Last Saturday, Washington University’s International Friends chapter partnered with other ministries to sponsor their 11th annual Furniture Giveaway. They filled a campus parking garage with donated furniture and household items which were then raffled off to new international students and delivered to their homes by an army of truck-driving volunteers.
Many of these students arrived in the US within the last week with only a couple of suitcases. One student grinned remembering how that morning she was sad that her apartment was so empty, but after winning three chairs and a cabinet, she couldn’t wait to get home and decorate. This year, staff Brenden Graczak also had the inspiration to find volunteers to make veggie and chicken dishes for lunch since many Hindu and Muslim students haven’t been able to partake of hot dogs served in past years. Amazingly, all the students and volunteers ate from the international buffet and there was food to spare. Even more exciting, were the friendships begun that will continue to give opportunities to share God’s love with these new students throughout the year.
One of my sabbatical projects is reflecting on the ways I’ve partnered with God in mission as an InterVarsity staff. As I sorted through 19 years of ministry updates, gratefulness for the faithfulness of God came up in my heart. (Also laughter as my kids mistook my earliest ministry picture on the bottom as a picture of their cousin Sam:)
Praise the Lord for his work and thank you for your partnership over these 19 years!
What would you do with $20,000? A new initiative in the region last year gave staff the option of allocating 1% of their regional overhead contribution toward expanding ministry to every corner of campus. This $20,000 was then used to encourage new ministries and resource staff in five key cross-cultural corners (Asian American, Black, International Student, Latino and Native ministry). In just one year, this initiative saw the hiring five corners-focused staff, grants given that enabled events like a 45 student LaFe launch and two new groups started to reach Asian American and Karen students. Who knows how God will use this initiative in the coming school year.