Archive - July, 2010

Your Online Go-To Resources

July 21, 2010 in Sharing with 0 Comments

This post is more of a solicitation for help than having anything to offer.

This morning I was having my QT and journaling/typing through my thoughts on how prideful I am (maybe another post on that later). I was fairly easily able to diagnose the problem – I care about my glory and man’s approval more than God’s glory and His approval. But I kind of felt stuck there.  How can I practically move forward today in believing the gospel as it relates to pride?

So like any other modern, I turned to the internet/my computer. Thank God (genuinely) I found a great resource in a John Piper sermon transcript – perfect for what I needed. All of John Piper’s sermons are transcribed, way faster/easier to get what you’re looking for than listening to 45 minutes (and I prefer reading Piper than hearing him). I also found great insights in the Gospel Centered Life bible study (that I mentioned a few posts back).

I found Piper’s sermon by going to Justin Taylor’s blog and searching the Gospel Coalition (which to me, sounds like Superman would be a part of: “Gospel Coalition, let’s go get some bad guys!”) site.  Unfortunately it appears that their search does not return “blog posts”, only sermons and articles. [there's a search box on the right hand column that searches an individual blog] What I was looking for was a good couple Justin Taylor posts on Pride.

But it made me realize I am severely lacking in good online resources.

So, help me out, what are your Online Go-To Resources?
Not so much for ministry help/philosophy.  But for help on pursuing Christ or when you’re writing a talk/Bible study?

Here are my top 3 (off the top of my head):

  1. Desiring God Resource Library – all of Piper’s books in PDF form (searchable!), all of his sermons transcribed (quick reading!).  Amazing.
  2. Dr. Constable’s FREE online commentary of the entire Bible - I will not teach a passage of the Bible without first consulting with this commentary.  Dr. Constable is a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary.  I’ve been studying through Romans in my Quiet Times this summer and his commentary has been an immense help (and I love that you can copy and paste notes from it into a Word document (where I journal).  In addition to his commentary I was using the Expositors Commentary and I found Constable’s to be far better (and he actually quotes the Expositors Commentary half the time).
  3. Gospel Coalition site - specifically Justin Taylor’s blog but the whole site is searchable from there

Photo by Heather from Flickr

Our Vision

July 20, 2010 in Movement Building, Sharing with 0 Comments


Our vision for our college campus (and I’m sure many Crusade ministries use this) is that:

“Everyone would know someone who passionately follows Jesus”



That vision pretty much summarizes everything we do.

Everyone = Scope – every student on campus (meaning we need to think of the campus as a waffle – see previous post)

Would Know = The gospel travels along the road of relationships (we rarely do “randoms” – almost exclusively for training purposes).

Someone = Our Means of reaching scope = College students (students reaching students; success for us is not staff having a thriving personal ministry but staff equipping students to do ministry)

Who passionately follow Jesus = What must be true of our students involved in our ministry – gospel infused/motivated



But there’s one element missing from that vision. It’s not enough that Joe Freshman meets a passionate follower of Christ.  His likely response, “that’s cool for him, it’s just not for me.”

The missing element?  Equipping. We have to have a way to effectively (and efficiently) equip our students.

Our Vision hinges on whether our students are not only passionately pursuing Jesus but can articulate their faith to their non-Christian friends (and, I’d add, be able to mobilize their Christian friends to start doing the same).

Maybe we need a new, more comprehensive vision?


What vision statement do you use?
What do you do to systematically equip your students to multiply their lives (and know how to share their faith)?

Pancake vs. Waffle

July 20, 2010 in Evangelism, Sharing with 7 Comments

This is a snippet from our most recent prayer letter.  The reason I decided to start this blog is to share resources – those of you who send out prayer letters and want to use the above .jpg for your letter, right click here to download (the linked file has the references to the “University of Arkansas” removed).


This video gives a good snapshot of what God is doing in spreading his name to every “waffle pocket” at the University of Arkansas – students reaching students in their spheres of influence:

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Are college students antagonistic or ambivalent toward religion?

July 19, 2010 in Evangelism with 2 Comments

It’s either or.  As a whole, college students are either hostile toward religion or ambivalent/open toward it.

Yes, I know every college student is unique and they range from passionate follower of Christ to atheist.  But when you think about doing college ministry, especially evangelism, what college student are you imagining you will encounter?  An angry, Christian-hating atheist or an open-to-discussion student.

Obviously, your approach to evangelism (as a ministry and as an individual) will be vastly different depending on your answer to that question.

Two landmark books have been published in the last few years on spirituality among the college-aged:

unChristian  &  Souls in Transition

I highly recommend both of them.  Incredibly eye opening.

I just read Souls in Transition this summer and will unpack its content over the next few weeks on this blog.

But, although they have some similarities in their findings  (and both are rather dry books written by researchers – Souls is far tougher to wade through of the two), I think they paint a very different picture of Young Adults (as they call those of college age).

This is a gross generalization but here’s what they conclude about Young Adults:

  • unChristian - There is a growing tide of hostility and resentment toward Christianity
  • Souls in Transition – Most “are OK with talking about religion as a topic, although they are largely indifferent to it”

Working with college students in the Deep South I find the results from “Souls” to be much truer to my experience.  But we live in the Bible belt and I know our students aren’t typical of the average American college student.  College ministers at Cal Berkeley or NYU obviously will encounter a different audience.

What has been your experience in working with “outsider” college students (as unChristian calls non-Christians)?

Music Mondays – Best Albums of 2010 So Far

July 19, 2010 in Music with 0 Comments

I can’t help but let my other passions bleed into this “thoughts on leadership and college ministry” blog. Consider it cultural exegesis.

2010 is more than halfway done and here are my 3 favorite albums so far.

Broken Bells – “Broken Bells”

  • The lead singer from the Shins joins forces with Danger Mouse (of Gnarls Barkley and “The Grey Album” fame).  The result is great indie-electro-pop.  Upbeat and fun.
  • Get one of the best songs on the album for free – High Road
  • Buy the album on Amazon here (do any of you buy albums on iTunes anymore?  It’s $5 on Amazon and $10 on iTunes) – %CODE2%

Vampire Weekend – “Contra”

  • Carefree and happy.  Perfect music for summer.
  • Get Horchata – a great introduction to the album – for free
  • Buy the album on Amazon here – %CODE3%

The National – “High Violet”

  • Moving and melancholy.  Little more challenging of an album – not perfect for happy summer days.  But well worth a few listens.  You will end up loving it.
  • Get the best song of the album (and maybe the best song of 2010) for free
  • Buy the album on Amazon here - %CODE1%

Any albums you would add to the list of best-music-so-far-of-2010??

All individual song links are legal, free downloads.

The Gospel Propels us Outward

July 16, 2010 in Movement Building with 3 Comments

I used the Gospel-Centered Life Bible study this year with my Senior guys Bible Study and it’s phenomenal.  Almost zero prep.  Incredible heart-probing, Christ centered content.

I just skimmed thru it again this morning during my QT and came across great material to use with students re: being missional. I plan on using this for our student Leadership Retreat to kick off the year.


It’s from Ch. 7 – The Gospel Propels us Outward.

“If the gospel is renewing you internally, it will also be propelling you externally.”

There’s a Bible passage to work thru (Gal 5:13-15), an article and great discussion questions to think thru at the end like:

  1. Identify a missional opportunity in your life in which you are not motivated to do what you “should” do. Here are some categories to jump-start your thinking: showing hospitality to neighbors; actively praying for and engaging with co-workers; sharing the gospel with a family member; serving someone in poverty; giving generously;
  2. What heart issues hinder you from rightly motivated action in this situation?
  3. Repentance: What sin do you see in yourself that you need to repent of?   Faith: What specific gospel promises or truths are you not really believing?

Here’s a link where you can purchase it from World Harvest Mission (it’s written by a couple of former Cru staff – Bob Thune and Will Walker).  You download the file from them – it’s $7 for one copy, $40 for the license to print 20 studies.

Assuming the No

July 16, 2010 in Ministry with 2 Comments

I’ve been raising some support this summer which brings  the usual amount of faith-stretching experiences.  I had asked a friend to financially support our ministry and he said he wanted to and would give online.

And then a month passed.

I went out of town for vacation and visiting family.  When I got back in town, I knew I had to contact him again but I hesitated to ask  - I didn’t want to pester him or affect our friendship.  But I e-mailed him and this was his response:

sorry for the delay. I am embarrased that you had to send me another note. I hope I didn’t put you in an uncomfortable position. this is totally on me. I am terrible about paying bills and anything else that doesn’t have an element of fun.

Ben Arment had a great post on this last year on his blog.

Whenever you “make an ask” and don’t hear back from the person, it’s not because they’re giving you a silent ”no.”

It’s because you’re number 37 or 52 in their in-box… and they’re busy. They don’t despise the ask at all.

But that’s not where we go first.

We think, “They hate me for asking,” “They’re avoiding me now,” “I’ve upset the relationship,” and “I should never have gone there…”

But it’s usually ask #2 or #3 that gets a response. And if we’d stick it out… we’d discover it’s more often a good one.

Sharing

July 13, 2010 in Sharing with 2 Comments

I’ve finally had the time this summer to sit down and start a blog.  The goal = to share:

  • Thoughts on Leadership
  • Resources
  • Ministry Strategy
  • Articles/Websites that have challenged me

Inspired by others who have taken the time to share their thoughts/learnings/resources I thought I would stop mooching and start contributing to the conversation.  Seems like everything I’ve been reading online this summer (especially within our organization Campus Crusade) has been about sharing the wealth.

Particularly:

  • Russ Martin’s thoughts from the CCC Blogference on Tithing your Time Online: “By spending five minutes to upload the presentation from your last small group leader training you could save someone hours.  Instead of pinging someone with an email”
  • Ken Cochrum’s thoughts shared in this video:

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Love what these guys are doing – sharing the wealth and moving us all forward.

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