Some things to be thankful for.... ahead at Tulane

Let me practice a bit of gratitude for what God is doing, specifically at Tulane:

1. Our Campus Missionary in Training (CMiT), Kelsey Tomes is a great blessing. Her attitude and service are a blessing to Jen and I, and she is helping to lead an effective Satellite Group for young women at Tulane.

2. We recently raised donations of books and cash to provide a book for each child of two local elementary classes for Christmas. The Book Giving Tree promotes literacy among the under-resourced students of our city. While a couple UNO students participated with Chi Alpha, it was primarily a Tulane student venture.

3. We are looking ahead to a couple of exciting outreach programs in conjunction with several other campus ministries at Tulane in the spring semester.

• The Veritas Forum (watch intro video)

The Language of God

A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief

Wednesday, February 4 @ 7:00 pm

McAlister Auditorium

Join us as Dr. Francis Collins, world-renown geneticist, physician, and Former Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health shares his journey from atheism to faith, —propelled by science. His talk will be followed by a Q&A session.

• TU Know will take place the four Wednesdays following the Veritas Forum. There will be a free dinner, followed by a short talk and then open table discussion. The goal is to foster an open atmosphere for continuing investigation into what Christianity really is all about. The facts are that many of the students at Tulane have never truly heard the Gospel of Jesus. We aim to change that. This program was envisioned as an adaptation of the Alpha? Course.

Please keep these upcoming ventures in your prayers.

Also, if you would like to be a part of financially supporting these, please prayerfully do so. You can give online through PayPal, or mail a check to Chi Alpha, 211 Cherokee St, New Orleans LA 70118. Please note in your donation how you would like it to be directed; ie, Veritas Forum, TU Know, general...

Thank you to all of our prayer supporters, and financial supporters!

And, Happy Thanksgiving!

Downwardly Mobile

So, I just shared the linked message at our Prayer & Worship gathering at Tulane. This biweekly gathering invites Loyola and UNO XA to join us, too. But, it was a primarily Tulane group this week.

The message has been very powerful to me, as I've been wrestling through a lot of the content in profound ways, and multiple settings for a significant amount of time. I've been reading and thinking and listening about the letter to the Philippians since January, actually, care of the Mars Hill Bible Church podcast. I've been studying it, writing discussions about it, discussing it, praying it, teaching and preaching it since early August. This little letter is getting deep into me, and Jesus is making me uncomfortable. He won't leave me where I'm at...

Maybe these notes will make some sense to you. The introduction was supposed to a bit humorous, but it totally flopped. As for the message itself, it went alright, but I really feel like I missed it. The students were with me, and even responded, but the significance of the message that is still sitting in my heart didn't get out there. These notes need to be further distilled in a more communicative manner. They try to represent a whole lot of thought and prayer and work of the Holy Spirit, and I didn't get my hearers on the path with me very well.

I might have been overconfident - overconfident in the message (the heart of the message is world changing, but has to be fully communicated not just stated factually), and overconfident in my ability to communicate it, as I've sensed that the past few times I've spoken (in several different venues), God has gifted me to communicate quite well.

Anyway, this is not supposed to be one of those blogs where the blogger shares a personal diary to the world. So, I'll quit now. Thanks for your patience :)

Link to the Notes

ps: my friend, Dan Johnson asked me to post these notes when I was telling him how excited, yet nervous I was to prepare and preach it. Here's to you, Dan.

Against FOCA

I'm still in the midst of some serious theological and Biblical study regarding where Christians ought to be in regards to politics, and am more and more convinced that seeking to "put our hand on the arc of history" is not a Jesus-type practice; seeking to take control of the powers of this age is something Jesus rejected repeatedly through his life, death, and even after the resurrection.

However, speaking up for those without a voice is something that all believers in the God of Abraham are called to (Proverbs 31:8).

I am convinced that The Freedom of Choice Act is bad for America, bad for women, and bad for the unborn.

My friend, and co-laborer, Nikki Gordy posted this - I recommend getting informed, and reading her thoughts on why she is pro-life. As a progressive young women, she can say things more powerfully than I can as a man who can not be victim to an unwanted pregnancy.

I recommend these things as a concerned citizen, not from the position of any sort of religious or spiritual authority.

If my opening comments have grabbed your attention at all, one of the books I have read recently in this train of thought is worth checking out: The Politics of Jesus by John Howard Yoder. Maybe I'll get a review and response up here sometime soon.

A New Day

Wow, it was an historic election season. I was telling friends earlier this week that I was kind of excited that Barack Obama was our potential next president. Growing up in the 80s and 90s, I never imagined that our nation would be ready to elect a minority to the White House before I made it to 30. It's a ground breaking event, to be sure.

Of course, the grain of salt to take with all the excitement is that racial/ethnic/class antagonisms still exists all over our nation, and the color of one's skin can still equal advantage or disadvantage in many settings. 

So, I hope you'll celebrate the step our nation has taken regardless of your political perspectives, but I also hope you'll continue to search your own heart for any and all roots of prejudice - they are subtle and hard to root out. May the Lord give us grace!

My last election thought for the day is to encourage you to take a look at the post-election message from the Superintendent of the Assemblies of Good (sponsoring fellowship of Chi Alpha), Dr. George O. Wood at www.ag.org It's worth your time.

In other news, I'm taking the final exam for New Testament Greek II tomorrow. I'm a bit nervous, but beginning to have confidence that I will pass. After this, I'll be headed into graduate level NT Greek sometime in the new year.

In other prayer needs: We started this academic year with small, tenuous groups at UNO and Loyola. With their small numbers, and the challenges we had faced at those universities, we restructured what we were doing there with the hopes of breaking through some barriers. Well, God has answered our prayers, and now it's time to reevaluate as we head toward the end of the fall semester. Both groups will need to be restructured again in January because of the great growth we have seen!

At Loyola, we have a burgeoning community of Christian students with growing excitement to make a real difference at their school as witnesses to the Good News of the Kingdom of God!

At UNO, we have an diverse group of spiritual seekers intermixed with a few growing Christians. There is so much that God is doing.

I look forward to reporting more testimonies of God's continued work on these campuses as we wrap up the fall, and head into the new year.

One Quick Thought on Politics

I plan to have a ministry or personal update up on this blog by tomorrow - maybe even later today.

However, I feel that I need to get something off of my chest for anyone who happens to read this today. Well, anyone who claims to be a follower of Jesus Christ:

My heart is heavy today as our nation goes to the polls, and a major cause for this heaviness is the way in which the Church of Jesus in America is portraying itself to our neighbors. We are full of angst and arrogance in our political persuasions, cutting down our brothers and sisters in Christ who do not agree with us, to the point of calling into question their salvation because they do not support a certain party or candidate. We act similarly toward non-Christians in political debates: speaking loudly and without humility or gentleness.

We have been called to love one another.

Please don't let the foolishness of worldly politics tear us apart.

Remember who the King of kings and Lord of lords is. No one, but Jesus Christ, is going to restore this world to what it was created to be. Our allegiance is to Him.

As we act or vote, we hope for a more secure, peaceful, just world, but we stay committed to the way of Jesus. Let nothing hinder our allegiance to Him; let nothing separate us from our love for one another.