That changes the way that I plan for the semester, adding depth to the busyness: in some mysterious way the Kingdom is advancing even through the administrative work of filling out requisition forms. It changes the way I speak to my students: the Spirit is sanctifying them over the long-haul, the way that a gardener tenderly waters and prunes day after day.
Every little thing — from changing diapers to the boardroom meeting — is wrapped up in the forward march of the Kingdom toward the day when we see Jesus face to face — so long as He establishes the work of our hands. Do you want to get semi regular email updates when James puts out a blog or does something or feels like saying something?
Click here! I imagine the way you answer that question depends radically on what your relationship to that person is, as well as your personal disposition. Some of us are shy and will move mountains and level cities to avoid having a conflict. Others of us will move mountains and level cities for a shot at having a good fight.
Why is it that, in the face of a conflict, people find it not only easier but more desirable to simply escape? People will jettison friendships, change housing situations, leave churches and ministries, or switch jobs over disagreements that most people would consider miniscule. Or, to take a different example, why is the young evangelist hopeful so crushed when the person he was talking to laughs at him?
These are multifaceted examples with multifaceted explanations, but I want to use them to illustrate a part of the answer that I think is unique to our current culture: young people myself included have such a stunningly difficult time with conflict because our instinctive understanding of language has changed. What does grammar have to do with conflict? You love talking to Tim.
Now, let me ask you a question: when you talk to Tim, how close do you stand without it being weird? Or to take another example — how did you become conscious of the fact that you were an individual? Who taught you to think of yourself as an individual first? No one — you picked it up from the cultural waters you swim in and I am assured that the experience is quite different for people who grow up in the East.
In one of his much more philosophical works, The Abolition of Man, C. Anyway, these two authors Lewis calls them Gaines and Titius had written a book on literature, and gave an example from a book where two men are observing a waterfall.
We appear to be saying something very important about something: and actually we are only saying something about our own feelings. This is a viewpoint normally called subjectivism. Those ideas are a part of me. This, as my old philosophy professor pointed out a long time ago, has huge implications for our ability to talk to other people.
Ultimately, I am the only one who knows how I feel. I have, as it were, first-person authority when it comes to my feelings. That is ugly. What does this have to do with people running away from conflict? Val is excited for the internship to help her grow in understanding of how God uniquely uses her in ministry, to be able to minister to students that are in a huge season of change, and for the study program to deepen her faith.
Amanda was born in Wasilla, Alaska and moved to Richford, Vermont with her family when she was 14 years old. She and Caleb look forward to meeting the students and exploring their new city!
Stephen is a Maryland native and an east coast boy at heart. During college at the University of Maryland he was a student at RUF before getting his call to ministry and transferring to Moody Bible Institute in Chicago to obtain a youth ministry degree. Louis to attend Covenant Theological Seminary where he obtained his M.
Div and Hannah received her Masters in Counseling. After seminary Stephen took a call doing college ministry in Annapolis, MD. After two years he took a call to do RUF with his old ministry and campus minister at UMD of which he is most excited! While not working Hannah and Stephen love to read, watch a good show, cook, grill, go for hikes, cycle, play sports, and just be with people.
Currently they are most excited about welcoming their first child this Christmas! Who We Are. Meet some of our students. Get Connected. Looking for God at Maryland? Everything we learned and did was very Gospel-centered. We were greatly humbled by all of our activities during the week; we experienced A LOT.
Each morning we went to help do restoration-work at the new church building for the Living Hope Church. We helped with things like insulation, painting, and cleaning. Brad Beier, the pastor, has persevered in amazing ways in order to restore this old, abandoned property.
Not only must Brad pastor his flock, and care for his family of 5 — he plays the role of construction worker, fundraiser and security guard for this space. We were all so impressed by his faithfulness to his call and his patience with theft problems and a difficult contractor. After lunch we did a variety of excursions. Monday we visited Pacific Garden Missions — an enormous, 30million dollar homeless shelter facility.
Tuesday we went for a long ride on the El train to talk to strangers. Wednesday we shared lunch with a homeless person I could write a whole different post about the man I talked with — Wardell — an awesome man. And Thursday we got to hang out with the local Sunshine kids. What made these exercises so fruitful was that the leaders of Sunshine took the time to brief and debrief us before and after our experiences.
They challenged us to think critically about what we saw and they pushed us to reach out of our comfort zones, to really engage people and our surroundings. There was a constant dialogue about what we were observing. I loved it! In the evenings we had bible lessons on topics like poverty, homelessness, racism, injustice, life in a city, and activism.
I am still processing everything that we talked about. Our teachers really opened my mind to the importance of social justice. How can an art major possibly contribute to ministry? Lots of ways!! Whenever my Campus Minister makes a request for a new Large Group series flyer, a t-shirt design, or as pictured here — a new logo, I eagerly open up Photoshop and start designing.
We want to be inviting to students. We want to reach students for Christ! Knowing that God has called me to this specific location, I have a tendency to over analyze this place.
Clearly, learning and understanding the demographic of a campus is an important aspect to college ministry because in order to be able to relate to students well and to reach out to them, one needs to have an idea of their culture.
Tuition is expensive and admission is competitive. Therefore, the student body is made up of mostly privileged and driven young-adults who come from a status and accomplishment-oriented background.
This is evident in the fact that girls and guys always look dapper and well-dressed when going to class. And Polos! The pressure to associate with the right crowd is also exaggerated by the dominant Fraternity and Sorority scene. Events like theme parties and date functions are what cause chatter and excitement on campus. They also have a great, night bus system to discourage drunk driving.
Intimidating crowd right!? Individuals who pack their schedules full with clubs and meetings, work-study or volunteer hours — they HAVE to be lonely!
Sometimes it gets discouraging seeing how individualistic these students are. Jon is constantly preaching for students to reorient their priorities from accomplishments to relationships. God has humbled me by bringing me here because this school aggravates my social insecurities. We embarked from Lexington on Friday evening with a group of 9 students to the lovely Camp Crossroad about an hour away. The colorful fall foliage, the roaring creek that passed through the property, and clear blue skies and zero cell phone service made it a very relaxing and enjoyable getaway.
It was interesting to draw from the Trinity as our model for the perfect giving-and-receiving relationship. These talks really spoke to me in my current position as an RUF Intern. I wish I could go into detail on every one of these, but that would make this post way too long! Saturday afternoon, in free-time, our group went on an awesome hike together and we planned our RUF Air Band skit. Each group prepared a lipsync to compete for the coveted chocolate gorilla prize — YUM! We had the whole conference roaring with laughter.
But they really made their Interns proud! Yesterday I read Chapter 14 in the Gospel of Matthew and the story of Jesus walking on water really struck me!
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