- Just had a thought today: It seems like so many students nowadays study abroad, what if we actually promoted (at our weekly meeting) the idea of STINT-ing while studying abroad. One of our sharpest girl leaders is doing that next year in Buenos Aires. Usually, students studying abroad means losing a key leader for a year and them not walking with God for a year. But I could get really excited about it if we were SENDING them out to the world. What do y’all think? Is that a workable idea (to STINT and study abroad concurrently)?
- Benson Hines has a great post on investing a disproportionate amount of time investing in training (and I would add, raising up) small group leaders.
- I’ve recently started following a bunch of students on Twitter. It’s been so good for understanding their world. And an easy way for me to connect with them quickly via responses to their tweets. When I see them at Cru I feel like I really know them (as opposed to them just being another freshman whose name I can’t recall). Â And it has led to the next idea. . .
- During our weekly training time, we often have students share what God is doing across campus. It’s always my favorite part of the gathering. And students get to hear and be challenged by their peers. It makes it feel like everyone is passionately representing Christ (“I’m not alone repping him my little dorm). We recently (OK, today) just started using our ArkansasCru twitter account to broadcast what God is doing all across campus so that daily students (who follow us) can hear what God is doing and be spurred on (and praise God). Up until this point we’ve just used it (and we hardly use it) toÂ
spamtell everyone when we have events. Three examples from today (from three freshmen!): - RT @Brittonwilson My prayer journal entry just now was crazy sloppy & it makes me really happy! Excited about praying for my lost friends!
- RT @modern_mafia: Gotta love it when God answers prayers right after listening to a speaker talk about the importance of prayer
- RT @nikimangan: Just spent 2 hours filling out an intense application to spend 3 weeks in Ethiopia this summer with @arkansascru! So excited!
Kierkegaard and John Mayer vs. The Internet
I’ve been thinking recently about  the irrational gravitational pull that the internet/iPhone exerts on my life.
I wake up in the morning and immediately check my email, daily websites, and Twitter.  Then throughout the day I spend every free second (at a stoplight, between appointments) on my iPhone catching up on Twitter/Blogs/etc.  I am enthralled by what Søren Kierkegaard called the “passing moment”.  He insisted: “all moral elevation consists first and foremost in being weaned from the momentary”.
I read an article this past week with somewhat parallel insights from John Mayer on why he quit Twitter:
“Has any artist, since they’ve begun to give you daily insights into their life created their best work yet? Are the best writers of our time on Twitter?
Those who decide to remain offline will make better work than those online. Why? Because great ideas have to gather. They have to pass the test of withstanding thirteen different moods, four different months and sixty different edits. Anything less is day trading. You can either get a bunch of mentions now or change someone’s life next year.”
Over 200 years ago, for Kierkegaard it was not Twitter but the Daily Newspaper! Â Such an applicable thought for our modern world:
“On the whole the evil in the daily press consists in its being calculated to make, if possible, the passing moment a thousand or ten thousand times more inflated and important than it really is. But all moral elevation consists first and foremost in being weaned from the momentary. There has never been a power so diametrically opposed to Christianity as the daily press.”
So, put down the blog and go listen to Josh Harris’ sermon –
Self Control in a Wired World
Very convicting for me — “A little web surfing, a little Facebook, a little folding of the hands around the smart phone and spiritual poverty will come upon you like a robber.”
Hearing that sermon is the first time I really understood how essential Wired Self Control (self-denial) is to following Jesus.
For the record, I think Twitter, Blogs, iPhones, et al are invaluable for leadership, effectiveness and efficiency. Â Just trying to find the balance!
photo courtesy of guccio at Moleskiner.net