Eager Apollos

Through out the summer we are doing a bible study through the latter part of the Book of Acts. The content of these chapters is Paul’s journeys through out the Mediterranean. We are currently in our fourth week and are in chapter 14 of Acts.

We aren’t meeting in the SURC (Student Union and Recreation Center) on campus during the summer, instead we meet in students’ apartments, my house or Matt’s place. Meeting in our personal residences affords us the opportunity to experiment a little bit with our meeting time.

Last week we placed a little altar in the front of the room. We opened in prayer, talked about Acts 13 then moved into a time of prayer where students had the opportunity to come forward and light a candle. As they lit the candle they had the option of saying out loud what they were seeking from God or thanking him for.

I have done this in the past, when I was in youth ministry. The kids always enjoyed this kind of prayer because it was engaging, active and involved fire. I figured I would give it a shot with the college group to see how they would respond.

When the students were done we prayed once more and moved into a time of communion.

After we finished up at my place we headed out to Dollar Scoop Night at Winegars. A good time was had by all.

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.

For the past quarter and a half, every Friday I have meandered on to campus, cracked my bible and read aloud a passage of scripture to a few students. Lectio Divina is a practice involving reading of scripture, meditation, contemplation, and prayer. It’s the practice of listening to scripture and exploring what God is trying to speak into our lives.

To start, a few students and myself find a quiet room in the SURC. I write an outline of the process on the white board, along with some meditation questions. I select a short passage (like a psalm or proverb) and then we begin.

I read aloud the passage and the student listen, some read along and some let the passage wash over them. After the first reading the students are asked to recall a word, phrase or idea that stood out to them. Then they have time to reflect on why that idea struck them. Occasionally I ask them to write that word up on the white board.

I read the passage again and the students are asked to reflect on how this passage touches their lives or the lives of others in their sphere of influence. A time of reflection follows.

I read the passage a third time and the students are asked to ponder what God wants them to do or be in light of this passage. After that final reflection time, there is a period of personal prayer time, followed by a communal closing prayer.

The students that have experience Lectio Divina have enjoyed it. They say its a good time of quiet reflection at the end of a hectic week.

Friday Potlucks get odd sometimes. Above you see a picture of me desperately trying to knit. Heather brought her needles and yarn and she used those tools to put me in my place. I hope she didn’t have to redue the whole thing.

The Potluck before the knitting debacle I brought Quelf a board game. A board game more affectionately known as “embarrassment in a box.” This game is like Cranium on steroids and is know for its ability to turn any party to a bucket of laughs instantaneously (at the expense of every player). Above is Brian trying to muscle through one of the absurd tasks given unto him by the not-so-benevolent cards.

For the past couple of weeks I have been attending the Liberty Club. I was invited by a student that periodically attends The Cave discussion on Fridays, so I decided to show.

The Liberty Club is the objectivist club on campus. The philosophy stems from Ayn Rand and her writings. She was a novelist who wrote well known titles like Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. She espoused a libertarian like philosophy in which government is minimized and personal freedom maximized, hence, the Liberty Club.

Objectivism doesn’t really lend itself to a Christian worldview, which is why I was surprised to get an invite to the meeting. The meeting consist of discussion time of relevant text that were read prior. This week was Chapter 13 of Hobbes Leviathan. While you might not recognized the title you will probably recognize the phrase “the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” This is Hobbes’ view of humanity without a government (specifically, a monarchy). Through power, government enforces the liberties of those under it.

The group noted that this view didn’t jive with Locke’s opinion on the matter. One student summed up Locke’s view like this “we have the right to property because we are God’s sons.” Locke writes about “inalienable rights” which come from our creator.

This launched a discussion as to whether rights were inalienable (innate, bestowed, endowed, or in some sense metaphysical)  or were they merely a product of a social contract (simply agreed upon by society). I pointed out that we (in America) like to talk as if they were inalienable and that Hobbes’ view seems to violate that idea.

Another student then asked, “well can you choose to not be a son of God.” The question was deferred to me (being the resident theologian of sorts). I thought about the question for a moment and trying to stay true to Locke’s way of thinking and the biblical text I said “Humanity was made in the image of God. Its an image that all of humanity shares. This is why it was a sin that Cain killed Abel. In this sense you can’t choose not to be a son (child) of God any more than you could choose not to be human.”

The comment hung in the air for a bit. A couple of the students were intrigued, but time prohibited further conversation and they began talking about club business.

I thought that it was interesting that I was invited to speak to a theological topic, in a context that really didn’t warrant it, without any manipulation on my part. I especially enjoy these kinds opportunities.

Last week Karen hosted a viewing of the DVD Collision. The movie is about a series of debates between Christopher Hitchens and Douglas Wilson. It is not just a recording of a debate but is more of a documentary of the series of debates and the interaction between the men. I recommend it.

The students enjoyed the viewing and the Mac and Cheese that Karen served along with the debate. Thanks to Karen for her hospitality. She was a gracious hostess. This is was a program that was entirely student led. Kudos to Karen for being willing to serve the students of CA.

D&M is the destination spot for all people in Ellensburg who desire coffee and productivity.  College students brave the cold weather and walk the five blocks from campus to enjoy the brew and study for classes. Matt and I meet here on Mondays to prepare for the week.

While the Mexico trip isn’t for a few more months Matt and I are already planning for it. Coordinating with Amor and Church’s who host us on our way down takes time. With in the month volunteers will sign up, teams will be formed and (much like Jesus set his face Jerusalem [Luke 9:51]) we will set our faces to Mexico. The teams will gather tools, prepare financially (raise support), inspect vans, and pack their gear.

This isn’t a vacation but a service. The group’s mission is to build houses for families in need of more space. The conditions that these families live in can range from tolerable to crowded to completely unbearable. I have been present for the building of three new homes and only one of the former homes had a foundation (I am being generous in my description). Its our goal to serve the families in that way.

It isn’t all work, the drive down has a road trip feel even given the aggressive pace. We stop briefly at a beach in California and our building is occasionally interrupted by a game of soccer.

I have never heard of a student who had a bad experience on a Mexico trip.

Pray we meet our fund-raising goals to take the pressure off the students and that Matt and I are on top of our game when it comes to planning.

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.