Eager Apollos

While I was brushing my teeth the other day I was struck by, what I am assuming was, the Holy Spirit. I was given the inspiration to sit in the library and put up a sign indicating that I will pray with people if they desire some prayer.

It is finals week and the library is filled with students that are cramming for finals, frantically typing papers or groups bickering over their last project. When you look around the fishbowl you see exhaustion on the faces of these study groups occasionally interrupted by moments of levity that get them through the next half hour or so.

Look at the computer screens and you see words racing across a virtual page or power point presentations full of data and graphs. Look at the faces of the typists you see that hope that the next word will be their last.

Between all night study sessions, quad-shot lattes, and Red Bull, Sabbath is the farthest thing from the minds of these students. It is in this context that I hope to offer a moment of rest.

I started late last night and had one taker. A student walked up to me and asked if the sign was mine. I was expecting to pray for all the reasons I just listed above, but I was in for a surprise. The student wasn’t concerned with finals or papers or anything of that nature, but he was worried about his mother.

He made his concerns known and we took a minute and offered up a prayer for her as well as for him. After, we had a brief discussion about each other’s backgrounds and then he jumped back into the fray.

I hung around until about 11pm. I had no other takers and spent my time reading, studying, typing or praying for those around me.

I am trying to spend a couple hours everyday this week in the library. We shall see what God has in store.

Every night, after the work was done for the day, we would gather around the fire for a delicate blend of devotion and tomfoolery.

Josh would lead us in a few songs of worship and then Matt would stand up and give us a message on community or serving or something that was relevant to our mission.

Both Josh and Matt wore a head lamp so they could see their notes. Occasionally they would look out over the group and blind everyone around them.

The time was good and the group really enjoyed it. It kept our thoughts on God.

After the evening devotion the camp site erupted into friendly banter and all sorts of antics that made me wonder how no one left without third degree burns on their body.

Two of the photos below are a group of people running over the fire.

When we weren’t playing with fire, we were simply enjoying one another’s company and getting to know each other.

Quite time was at 10pm. At which point, people would talk quietly and eventually trickle off to bed.

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Today, we sent off the first four vans of the carrying the first 25 of the members of the Mexico Team on their way. Myself and 5 others are going to leave tomorrow and drive 16 hours straight to catch them.

We met at Matt’s place. Everyone was running around loading gear, checking passports, and generally being excited. I was so busy I forgot to take pictures.

Just picture in your mind’s eye everyone running around, Matt is nigh frantic, I am double checking everything and then the group gathers around the vans. We circle up and for a solitary moment we calmly pray for safety in our travels. After the “Amen” is uttered, brief chaos ensues as everyone rushes the vans, shuts the doors, and pull out headed for Salem OR.

Pray for our vans, some are old and tend to brake down in interesting and novel ways. Pray for our safety, we drive long hours and in rough places. Pray the houses get built, that we bond as a team and that we communion with the God that has sent us on this mission.

The news put out to the battalion this morning was difficult even for me to hear. I did not know the soldier well but it was obvious by your reactions that he was a vital part of your lives and of the battalion.

I just wanted to let anyone who needs someone to talk is welcome to get a hold of me. I plan on being in the SURC most of today. My status in the upper right corner of this page will indicate where I can be found. Feel free to track me down. Your chain of command should be able to get my phone number if you want to schedule an appointment.

You can also email me at:Include your name and phone number and I will get back to you as soon as I am able. I will check my email often for the next couple of days.

Today from 12:00-3:00 I will be in the SURC room number 140. Feel free to come in an hang out and talk if you need to.

I am here to serve you all during this time. If all you need is a listening ear, I am glad to be just that.

My prayers are with you all. I hope you all find peace beyond understanding.

While I was researching for the Cadet Bible study that I host on Tuesdays (5-6pm, upstairs in the SURC), I came across an interesting passage in a commentary.

Collins, Raymond F.. 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus: a commentary Westminster John Knox, 2002.

Paul may or may not have been aware of the similarities between his list of attributes for an elder and a military officer. He may have read Onasander’s list and adapted it for the purpose of communicating what it required to be an elder in God’s church. Or maybe it is coincidence that Paul and this philosopher demanded such virtues of their leaders. Paul may have been affirming in that culture the timeless truth of what God demands of a leader.

Any of those cases being true, this discovery made me laugh. When I am at my weakest or am being particularly shallow, I sometimes think that God has demanded too much of me in the position I am in. That it would be much easier if I had just gone into the Army as a regular officer.

As it turns out, the expectation of military tradition is not that far off Paul’s mark. Aside from managing the church and not being a recent convert, the lists are almost identical. The expectation would have been just as high had I gone in and done anything else in the Army.

I hope the cadets take this to heart. The expectations (stated or unstated) for a military officer are high. They are stepping into a role that comes with a daunting amount of responsibility. Neither they nor myself have ducked any responsibility in the courses that we have chosen to take in our lives.

Perhaps the similarities between the lists indicates that all believers should strive to be such a person described by these virtues. Maybe all believers are called to be such people of virtue. No one ducks responsibility, no matter what path is laid out before them.

This was the Book Table “Question of the Day.”

A few days ago, I recieved an email from the head of Campus Ambassadors. She was congratulating me on my fund raising for the month of August. She told me that I had done well and to keep up the good work.

I had to laugh. For about a month now. My efforts toward fund raising have been stunted by buying a house, moving, and getting settled. I have just recently begun to send letters, make phone calls, and continue in my efforts to be fully funded.

During that gap, I still received support from people though. I had a couple seek me out to see if my ministry at Central was something they were interested in supporting. I had another couple that started sending in support without so much as talking to me. And last but no least, during a chance meeting, I had one couple that said to me “we feel that God is leading us to support you.”

Now if you know me at all, you know that my ability to rely on God to come through in a pinch is strained most of the time. If I can do anything to make my situation pan out in my favor I will do it and if I think I have to rely on God to come through then I am probably losing sleep rather than resting in the comfort of his sovereignty.

My skepticism and cynicism tend to get the best of me, but when I got that email, I laughed. I had to hand it to God. He really came through on this one. Without me having the time to write a letter, make a phone call or meet a single person, the support rolled in.

To you all:

Thank you all for your support and thank you for your generosity. I wouldn’t be able to do this work without you.

To God:

My hat is off to you. Even with all my doubts, you still came through.

Once a year people from all over the state (and even further) descend on the small town of Ellensburg to watch the rodeo. The pace and tone of the town is completely different during these five days. Parking is impossible. Restaurants and bars are packed. Main St reached the congestion that I thought was only possible on I-5 during rush hour (it took me 18 minutes to drive 1.4 miles).

I spoke to a woman that had come all the way from Arizona to see the rodeo. Apparently it is ranked in the top 25 rodeo’s in the nation. Every other part of the year you wouldn’t know that Ellensburg is a destination spot, but stand anywhere in the town and the roar or the echo of the announcer’s voice will tell you otherwise.

Campus Ambassador’s has a relationship with a local church and as long as we participate in their Mexican food booth we get a portion of the pie. These funds go toward ministry expenses, such as books for poor college students that want to participate in our small groups or scholarships for fall retreats.

In addition to fund raising, this event was a good way for me to meet people in the community. I spoke with a bunch of people that helped out at the booth and before we were completely slammed with food orders I got to know each of them at least a little. I conversed with some of the youth that were there to raise money for their youth group. I also spoke with some adults volunteering to aid their church. Some expressed their excitement that Matt (my boss) finally had  some help on campus. They spoke of their opinions of how great Matt’s ministry was and how unique that he dealt with the more “intellectual” or “tougher” crowd.

They also spoke to the side of Matt’s ministry that is sometimes under appreciated. Matt and Susi (his wife) have eight kids who’s ages range from twenty four to four years old. I heard a few comments that Matt’s ministry wouldn’t be the same without his family. I believe this to be true. I have seen these kids grow up over the past couple of years and it is amazing to see how they have taken on the world and their faith in a way only Matt and Susi could raise them to do. Matt has stories about the impact that his family has had on former students and how his interactions with his children have changed the way that students look at family, parenting, and even God.

Between fund raising and good conversation I realized how lucky I am to be involved in this ministry. I hope I will have a unique impact on campus and I hope that I quickly fall in the unique niche that God has carved out for me here.

The University of Michigan recently released the results of a study that indicated that there is a correlation between choices of majors and religiosity. The study shows that those who choose a major in the social sciences or humanities are likely to become less religious, those who choose education tend to become more religious and those majoring in the sciences tend to stay the same.

This is surprising because I always assumed that the hard sciences would be the place to lose your faith. However, it seems that it is not the naturalistic assumptions that drive students away from the churches but rather being exposed to a variety of worldviews and having them treated evenhandedly.

The press release for this study explained the phenomena like this:

Our results suggest that it is Postmodernism, not science, that is the bête noir of religiosity. One reason may be that the key ideas of Postmodernism are newer than the key scientific ideas that challenge religion. For example, religions have had 150 years to develop resistance or tolerance for the late-19^th century idea of Evolution, but much less time to develop resistance or tolerance for the key ideas of Postmodernism, which gained great strength over the course of the 20^th century.

I don’t entirely agree with their explanation because I still perceive a tenuous relationship between science and religion. You don’t have to go back a hundred and fifty years to see strained interactions between the two. Search for the latest trial blocking Intelligent Design from the science curriculum at a high school and you will see that science has made religion so uncomfortable that their adherents created their own “scientific” method.

I do agree that the church has had less time to adapt to postmodernity and the debate around the “Emergent Church” is evidence of the birth pangs of this process. How the greater church deals with this shift to postmodernity is not my primary concern. My primary concern is that believing college students deal with their avenues of study in a way that they maintain their faith.

I am always on the look out for studies like this one. It helps me keep an eye out for certain trends and how those trends affect my methods of evangelism. In this case, I have learned that I need to be less concerned about how the student majoring in Biology is going to deal with the naturalistic assumptions of the discipline and be more concerned with how the Psychology major is learning to deal with the presentation of their religious experiences as being solely brain states.

Part of me thinks I should have seen this coming, because I have lived the story that the study seeks to understand. The difference is that I wasn’t a believer prior to starting my studies. But once I converted I struggled enormously with what my studies presented to me. I remember walking out of the L&L building wondering if Jesus was just another avatar of Vishnu. I sat in a desk during Philosophy 101 convinced I did not and could not justify any of my knowledge about the world. I paddled the white waters of higher education and survived the rapids. I may have gotten into sticky situations but always came up smiling.

But, I did not do this alone. I had my guide and now I am serving as a guide to others.

Acts 2:17 ‘And it shall be in the last days,’ God says, ‘That I will pour forth of My Spirit upon all mankind; And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, And your young men shall see visions, And your old men shall dream dreams;  18 Even upon My bondslaves, both men and women, I will in those days pour forth of My Spirit And they shall prophesy.  19 ‘And I will grant wonders in the sky above, And signs on the earth beneath, Blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke.  20 ‘The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the great and glorious day of the Lord shall come.  21 ‘And it shall be, that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

My current church is experiencing a certain amount of upheaval. The pastor has decided to move to another state in pursuit of God’s call. The community has been disappointed but supportive and everyone wishes him and his family, “Godspeed.” He has some desires and some dreams, but nothing firm has presented itself. He is leaving completely on faith, under the most uncertain of circumstances, and prayerfully awaits God’s provision.

The fact that I am embarking on a similar journey at a similar time brings this passage from Acts to mind. We both are making major moves. We are both relying on God to meet our needs. The uncertainty in our futures is enough to scare anyone and often scares me.

Outsiders looking in on these events would come to the correct conclusion that we are both crazy. Why would anyone apply for a job in which you have to raise your funds? Why not try to find a job in a real church? Why would a successful pastor and teacher leave his position for nothing more than the faint hope of God’s future provision? Well-educated people don’t make decisions like this. Where is the list of pros and cons? What about your bills? What about career advancement? You are all crazy!

I agree. I often gaze into the mirror and wonder how the skeptical Mike I knew in college ever landed himself in this position. How Mike, the guy who does nothing without a safety net, signed up for trusting God for his ministry expenses. I look at the pastor, a man I all but envied, and wonder if he hasn’t suffered a blow to the head recently. Or maybe it’s a tumor! Something is in the water. We drank the kool-aid. Maybe kool-aid with a bit more vodka in it then we had intended. There must be a logical explanation of the fact that everyone in my church has lost their reason.

But no one has lost their reason. Their faculties are intact. It is the pouring out of the Spirit that has everyone acting so strange. The reason that this pastor and I can start acting so strange and our community supports our foolishness is because of the Spirit. This answer of the Spirit is less of a justification and more of a cause. It will satisfy no objection, but the Spirit has always caused Christians to do foolish things.

Having just been accused of being drunk, Peter addresses a crowd with a message of insane hope.

“Your children, who have little value in the eyes of this world, are going to become the source by which we know what God is doing.”

Your young men will see crazy things and want to emulate them. They will lead your community in the way they see God moving.

Your old men will not focus on their legacy. They won’t worry about their last enduring mark on the world, but will be inspired by new ventures. They will care for the future and not be intimidated by it.

In the days of the pouring out of the Spirit no one will be left out. The poor and oppressed are included. Race, gender, and social status will not exclude you.”

Everyone is encouraged to participate in the unthinkable. To engage in something that doesn’t make any sense. God has invited us to help in his master plan and it involves a logic that work against what benefits us on this planet. Continuing his quote from Joel, Peter informs the audience that if you think the outpouring of the Spirit is odd, wait until Jesus comes back.

“You think this is crazy, you ain’t seen nothing yet.”

Becoming apart of the people of God is not a benign event. It is not a neutral decision. Your life will be effected it is simply a matter of how. Perhaps God has enough trust in your judgment that he will require very little of you, your direction in life requires little deviation. I was not that trustworthy and required a fair amount of redirection. Regardless of amount or severity, it is safe to say that at some point God will cordially demand something from all of us. In that event, are you going to cling to that which makes sense?

Cynicism is safe. It is also worthless. All great ventures are just a little bit crazy. It depends whether those called to it are willing to suspend certainty in favor of potential success in attaining that which is implausible.

This is the essence of hope and hope is the sole subject of the Christian faith. Hope that God cares enough to act and faith in Jesus as God’s initial and final act to save creation. With an insane hope such as this the out come of our crazy ventures is almost irrelevant. We may be a stellar success or a dazzling failure and God will pick up the tab in either case.

Even though I sometimes fear what I am stepping into I hope I never buy into the cruel math of amassing resources for me and mine. I hope my cynicism doesn’t rule over me. And I hope that at least half the time God calls I am stupid enough to answer.

I mentioned the problem with my shins, in a previous post. It has been a source of anxiety for me because it has prevented me from preparing myself physically for PTing with the ROTC unit on campus.

I was mentioning my concerns to a friend of mine who immediately loaned me the materials and tools to start heart monitor training. I was skeptical but I was desperate to try anything.

This running program requires that your run at 70% of your heart rate which equates to a pace that is MIND NUMBINGLY SLOW.  If you look at the picture you will see it took me an hour to run three and half miles. These are not figures that are going to impress anyone at the battalion. But if you look at the later runs you will see that in just a week I have improved my time by about two minutes. My effort remains constant but pace is decreasing.

What is more important is that this training program is forcing me to reevaluate my form which I think has played into my shin splints. Before I couldn’t run 2-3 miles without a two day recovery. Now I am running 3-5 miles and sometimes back to back. My pace isn’t where I need it to be but I am confident it will be close by the time I need to start PTing with the battalion.

Thank God for A-Ron and his desire to spread the good news about heart monitor training.

I start speed drills Thursday, pray I don’t break myself.

If you know me at all you know I have a tenuous relationship with music and singing in church. I once read in Augustine’s work that if he even felt like the aesthetics of the music were affecting him he stopped singing, as if at that point it ceased being worship. I was struck by this idea because when I asked my many of my friends, the most commonly stated reason for going to a particular church was “the worship” (music).

I know Augustine’s philosophical underpinnings. I have read Piper’s opinion on the matter and I am not wholly unconvinced. I will briefly say that I am not sure what role music-as-worship plays in a consumerist culture, but I am not sure I am comfortable with it.

I went to compline for the first time in a couple of years. I have always enjoyed going there and taking others that haven’t been before. I went to pray for my supporters and others in my life. This is another chapter in this prayer experiment of mine. When you walk in to the church where compline is held you can’t help but be impressed by size of the building. You are dwarfed by the massive of amount of empty space. The big glass tapestry behind the alter is dazzling as the light shines through it, refracting and reflecting all over the sanctuary. It is hard not to be affected by such a scene.

It wasn’t a pleasure to pray in such a place. I didn’t feel closer to God. It was just easier. Maybe it was the chanting, maybe it was the immense building, or the candles, or the people, or maybe it was just that I took an hour of my time and set it aside. But it was easier to pray.

So I guess this is more of a confession, I am affected by the aesthetics of church life. I am just unwilling to be comfortable with it in light of our current culture. I guess I am holding out for the church to draw more boundaries.

While I am raising support and planning for this coming fall I am also preparing myself physically. I am hoping to do physical training (PT) with the ROTC unit on campus. I haven’t been just sitting around the last few months since my last military school down in Georgia, but I haven’t been breaking records either. I am alright at push-ups, I am fine with sit-ups, but I am really concerned about my run.

On and off for the last year or so I have had problems with shin splints. I have been to the doctor and I have been managing them just fine for the last couple months. I have been keeping my runs between 2-3 miles and I just stepped it up to 4 last Monday. I have been stretching a taking medication when I need it, but they still linger. I am currently running 2-3 times a week and I would like to take it up to 3-4 and I am just not certain I can take it to that point without bringing back a full blown case of shin splints.

I would pass a PT test now but that isn’t good enough to keep up with the pace of a 3 time a week work out with the unit. They probably do a long run (4-5 miles), a short run (3-4 miles) and a interval run (2-3 miles of alternating intense and rest paces). Chaplains have a bad enough rap as it is, when it comes to PT. I cannot be the “wannabe” chaplain that falls out of runs at an ROTC unit. It won’t reflect well on me or the chaplaincy… or maybe just me. :)  Thus the preparation.

One of my commitments to those who support me in my ministry, either monetarily or through prayer or by other means, is that I pray for them regularly. I keep track of supporters’ prayer requests in a book and I review it on occasion.

This is an experiment for me. I have never considered myself a prayerful person. I generally leave prayer for those who are passionate about it. I have met “prayer warriors” (a term I have never really been fond of), those who have put literally thousands of hours in prayer. Often, on behalf of people they have never met and know nothing about. I belonged to a campus ministry that divided up a list of every student on campus and “covered” every name in prayer. I can’t image sitting down picking up the forth “h” page and trying to imaging what this person’s needs must be.

This is not to say I don’t pray. I pray for all kinds of things on different occasions. I pray for personal needs, for wisdom or for others, but you will never find me spending four hours attempting to talk to God. I have often talked about it in terms of gifting. God gave me my gifts and others, theirs, and prayer just wasn’t on my list. But now I have made this commitment and I plan on sticking with it.

What I have noticed since starting this experiment is that my thoughts often go back to those I have been praying for. I think of this or that person with this or that need while I am ironing my shirt or doing the dishes. I used to leave the TV running to fill the void. Now, the void is filled with concern or well wishing for those who are in my little book.

I am writing about this to inform those who are in the book that they are being prayed for and to let those who want be apart of my “people of the book” that all they have to do is email me their requests.

Thanks, for your prayers and support. This is a process for me and I am growing everyday in new ways, so please pray for me.

In a new chapter in Pat’s life, he has taken the oath of office as a Second Lieutenant in the Army of the United States. He isn’t sure how the Army is going utilize his services, but will find out if he got his first choice of jobs in the Army.

Pat and I have have known each other since high school. We were both active in J.R.O.T.C. and he eventually followed me to CWU. Pat wanted to join the R.O.T.C. program at Central but was unable. It wasn’t until Pat was almost done with his degree that the Wild Cat Battalion accepted him and his willingness to serve his country. He stayed at Central for an additional two years getting his minor in history and military science in order to complete the R.O.T.C. program.

He was suppose to go to his month of evaluation and training (also known as Warrior Forge) last summer but was injured and had to postpone until this summer. He has completed his training and only has to wait for his orders. Pat, in all likelihood, will beat me into the active duty Army. Pat has taken the long and hard road into the Army and his journey has only begun. He deserves to be commended and I hope that those he leads appreciate the path he has taken to get to his position.

When Pat came to CWU, I invited him to go to Campus Ambassadors. He showed a little interest but it was a few months before he joined us. He eventually started coming regularly and we started meeting one-on-one. You would have to ask him how beneficial that our time was. Eventually, I graduated and moved on to Mars Hill Graduate School, but Pat kept meeting with Matt. A few years later Pat was baptized at Calvary Baptist Church, which I was fortunate enough to attend.

About a week ago Pat called me and invited me to come down to Ft. Lewis to give him his oath so, of course, I couldn’t turn him down. I am glad I could do this for Pat and I feel honored that he asked me to do it.

As of June 11, 2009 I am a Campus Intern with Campus Ambassadors. My appointment to the position comes with the pleasure of planning for the fall and the character-building burden of raising support for the ministry.

I have to be fully funded by the time I step foot on campus which sets the priority on fundraising, but in between sending letters, making calls and meeting with potential donors I do day dream about what I am hoping to do come the beginning of fall quarter.

One hope for the future is to have some presence within the R.O.T.C. battalion on campus. I would like to do physical training (PT) with the unit on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. I have been training on my own in preparation for this opportunity. These future officers tend to be 18-22 and I am not in that age bracket anymore, meaning I am going to have to work harder to keep up. I am sure that even with all my hard work I will be getting a big dose of humility when it comes time to run with this group of soldiers.

I am also hoping that I will be able to train with them during their Lab time on Thursday afternoons. This is a time where they run through battle drills and go on road marches so that these students have some hands on experience prior to going to their summer course where they are evaluated for their leadership potential.

If R.O.T.C. cadets show an interest I want to host a leadership study out of a book called Leading with a Limp by Dan Allender. Allender’s book focuses on leadership as having to do with character and also finding the unique way you lead. I think that the future leaders of the U.S. Army would benefit from reading it. I hope they take me up on offer.

My involvement with the R.O.T.C. unit will depend primarily on the Commander’s approval of my attending these functions, so pray that I put the effort in to prepare myself and for the battalions openness to my presence.

Aside from R.O.T.C., I am planning a program that integrates the arts and the Bible in a way that injects drama into the Biblical text and helps Christians learn to read the world through a Christian lens. An example would be to watch a movie like Scent of a Woman and compare it with the stoning of Stephen in Acts 6-7. Or using Salvador Dali’s painting The Persistence of Memory and compare it to Ecclesiastes 1:2-15.

The general idea being that you take a piece of art (i.e. painting, sculpture,poem, music, film clip) and compare and contrast it with a loosely relevant Biblical text. The students would then have the opportunity to journal about what they experienced, the ideas they tied together and how their viewing of the movie, poem, or what have you, influenced their reading of the text or vice versa. After the journaling time, there would bean opportunity for the students to share what they wrote, either in open mic fashion or maybe I would take submissions and present them the following meeting.

This is going to be quite the experiment. I think that this experience will help students deepen their reading of the Bible and also help them to see how reading the Bible shapes the way we as Christians view the world. I think I will try the experiment every other week for a few months and see if it is accomplishing the goals I am setting for it.

In addition to R.O.T.C. and the experiment I will be doing the weekly meeting, small group bible studies and one-on-one meetings. We will still do the Cave each Friday and the book table on Tuesday. I may even teacha class with Matt (my supervisor). The possibilities are only limited by my time and student interest and I am hoping to have an abundance of both.

In the mean time it is back to sending letters and making calls. My dreaming time is done for the day. Please pray for the ministry of Campus Ambassadors at Central Washington University and that I am fully funded by the time freshmen start moving on campus.