Campus Toolbox–Practical Ideas Click Below
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Feb
16
Ideas: Micah Challenge US
Filed Under Activism, Poverty | Leave a Comment
“And what does the LORD require of you but to act justly, love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”– Micah 6:8
Check out the Micah Challenge US
Micah Challenge is part of a global Christian campaign. Their aims are to deepen our engagement with impoverished and marginalised communities; and to challenge leaders to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, and so halve absolute global poverty by 2015!
Micah Challenge USA is a movement of Churches, organizations, Schools, families, and individuals united by their desire to see the end of Extreme Global Poverty. Join the movement!
Feb
13
Stories: God of The City
Filed Under Cities, Music, Stories, whole gospel | 2 Comments
The Back Story
The Passion movement recently released the album, God of This City. The title was taken from a song, sung on the album by Chris Tomlin, but originally written and released by the Irish band, Blue Tree. I love the whole song, but my favorite lines come from the chorus:
Greater things have yet to come
Great things are still to be done
In this city
Greater things are still to come
And greater things are still to be done here.
I love this lines because the capture the “fighting edge” of Christianity–a Christianity that, as C.S. Lewis says, believes “a great many things have gone wrong with this world that God made and that God insists, and insists very loudly, on our putting them right again.” The lines drive us to be a people who incarnate Jesus, declaring and bringing the rule and reign of Christ to every place, including the darkest of places — a truth illustrated in the back story of this song.When asked about the song, lead vox Aaron Boyd recalls:
“There’s a couple from Carrickfergus, Ian and Leslie, and they moved out to Thailand to a place called Pattaya. We got asked to go and be part of an event called Pattaya Praise. Pattaya is a seaside town/resort place, and physically, it looks to be like the darkest place you’ll ever go to. And spiritually, it is THE darkest place we have ever been to. You just feel the evil. You just feel the enemy all over that place. It’s a very small place. . . But in that small area in Thailand, there are 30,000 prostitutes and that figure excludes kids and excludes anything that’s outside of the range of, say 18-30, and who are female. . .
Part of what we were asked to do was to go out and be part of an event which runs for four or five days. It had things like 24/7 worship and prayer and social action going on helping the people who clean the streets every morning. We played in a school and ministered in an orphanage and tried to get a heart for that city. As a band we were getting cold feet because we had four days in Bangkok to start, and in those four days it was great. We’d be quite hyperactive, and it was flat-out, four days; not an hour was lost to sleep in those four days. On the Sunday we managed to play in one church and it was brilliant, but we wanted more. And then when we got to Pattaya . . . we said, ‘If you can get us anywhere else to play, anywhere, we want to play. We just want to do what we do in the middle of somewhere and just go head-on into it.”
“There was a bar called The Climax Bar – on a street that’s about 10 metres wide, it’s a kilometre long and it’s filled with everything you can physically imagine. And I promise you, as a red-blooded male, to keep your head in the right place you’ve got to look down at the ground and walk down that street and pray because it is just so in your face. People hit you with menus about everything, flashing lights, just everything you can imagine goes on in that place. You see kids as young as eight, nine, 10, just selling themselves, you know?! You see 60-year-old guys walking down the street with two 13 or 14-year-old girls. Forget about the Christian thing, you just get raging! You properly get raging when you see that happening, you know?!”
. . . We got the chance to play in this bar, a two-hour worship set in this bar. I don’t think the people in the bar spoke a word of English but we basically got to go in. The deal was that we play and we bring a following of people with us; so we’re there, set up, really good gear! So we all set up and there was like 20 Christians all standing in front of us, and the deal was we play, they buy lots of drinks, alright? I don’t think the place has ever sold so much Coke in its whole life in one night!
And we got to play for two hours. And just the way the band set up, we like using loops, and at one point I just started singing out. I started singing “Greater Things”, something along those lines, almost prophesying over the city. And without going into the band dynamics, slowly this groove emerged from this thing. And long story short; we walked out of that Climax Bar with pretty much a nailed song, as strange as that sounds. Then we were on the way home.
We were all. . .it was that tumbleweed silence, you know? It was like, ‘What actually just happened in that time?!’ It was one of the most powerful worship experiences we’ve ever had. I actually remember looking out, and you’re looking down a wee alleyway, into the street, and it was just 50 or 60 probably British tourists and they’re just sitting there listening going, ‘What is this all about?’ Coming from The Climax Bar which is pretty much a strip club. Just, here we are singing about Jesus in the middle of this. . . It was one of the most random experiences but it was a God thing, God was there.”
And where does name Bluetree come from?
“Bluetree stands for standing out. The whole concept of that is that, if you’re walking through a forest, everything you look around at is pretty much going to be green; green trees, brown branches, brown bark: you know, that kind of thing? But if you saw this tree that was bright blue and everything about it – leaves, branches, bark – was blue, it would stand out and you would stand and look at it and take notice of it. As Christians, Jesus Christ has called us to be salt, be light, in this world and really make a difference.”
Feb
11
Resource: The Clapham Commentary
Filed Under Africa, Wilberforce, whole gospel | 1 Comment
Here’s a great resource. Mike Metzger writes an ezine that’s worth subscribing to: The Clapham Commentary from The Clapham Institute. You can register here.
Below is an example:
Eyes Wide Shut
Written by Mike Metzger
Friday, 08 December 2006
Innocently blind.
On business trips, he would spend several hours praying and reading the Bible each morning, with another round of prayers at midday. As a ship captain, he enjoyed long spells of solitude on deck, keeping a diary and recording that he knew no “calling that… affords greater advantages to an awakened mind, for promoting the life of God in the soul.” His expensive cargo required extra officers and crew, reducing his onboard responsibilities. “I never knew sweeter or more frequent hours of divine communion, than in my last two voyages to Guinea, when I was either almost secluded from society on shipboard, or when on shore… I have wandered through the woods reflecting on the singular goodness of the Lord to me.”
John Newton recorded those words while transporting African slaves and having his savings invested in the slave ship business.1 For more than thirty years after he left the slave trade, during which time Newton preached thousands of sermons, published half a dozen books, and wrote Amazing Grace and 279 other hymns, he “seems never to have heard God say a word to him against slavery.”2
Like Billy Joel, I think Newton was an innocent man. A saying among management experts today goes like this: “Your system is perfectly designed to yield the result you are getting.”3 Newton was the product of a system that “was focused on changing not the social order of his world but its spiritual life.” He “was falling more and more under the influence of the Evangelical movement.”4
Feb
8
Micah Declaration on Integral Mission
Filed Under Discipleship, Holistic Gospel, Micah 6:8 | Leave a Comment
The following Micah Declaration captures a sense of the “integral mission” at the heart of the gospel. It’s another example of how the evangelical church is trying to express the need for both passionate proclamation and compassionate demonstration of the gospel. As an organization committed to building movements everywhere, we’re faced with the challenges of bridging and blending our organizational mission and Christian responsibility. Statements like this help us wrestle with what we often separate–evangelism and social action. Instead of “either-or”, I think its helpful to hold both ideas in the mind at once. As we do so, we can move toward a synthesis that contains elements of both and improves them both. (Similarly, it seems worthwhile to let the apparently opposable ideas of “going after leaders vs serving the marginalized” ferment in the mind together as well. Just a thot.) — jay
Integral Mission
Integral mission or holistic transformation is the proclamation and demonstration of the gospel. It is not simply that evangelism and social involvement are to be done alongside each other. Rather, in integral mission our proclamation has social consequences as we call people to love and repentance in all areas of life. And our social involvement has evangelistic consequences as we bear witness to the transforming grace of Jesus Christ. If we ignore the world we betray the word of God which sends us out to serve the world. If we ignore the word of God we have nothing to bring to the world. Justice and justification by faith, worship and political action, the spiritual and the material, personal change and structural change belong together. As in the life of Jesus, being, doing and saying are at the heart of our integral task.
We call one another back to the centrality of Jesus Christ. His life of sacrificial service is the pattern for Christian discipleship. In his life and through his death Jesus modelled identification with the poor and inclusion of the other. On the cross God shows us how seriously he takes justice, reconciling both rich and poor to himself as he meets the demands of his justice. We serve by the power of the risen Lord through the Spirit as we journey with those who are poor, finding our hope in the subjection of all things under Christ and the final defeat of evil. We confess that all too often we have failed to live a life worthy of this gospel.
The grace of God is the heartbeat of integral mission. As recipients of undeserved love we are to show grace, generosity and inclusiveness. Grace redefines justice as not merely honouring a contract, but helping the disadvantaged.
Integral Mission with the Poor and Marginalised
The poor like everyone else bear the image of the Creator. They have knowledge, abilities and resources. Treating the poor with respect means enabling poor people to be the architects of change in their communities, rather than imposing solutions upon them. Working with those living in poverty involves building relationships that lead to mutual change.
Feb
8
Campus Toolbox: Bibles Studies
Filed Under Bible Study, Campus Toolbox, Materials | Leave a Comment
The folks at Micah Challenge US put together an excellent set of bible studies. Use them to help your students/disciples to develop a heart of compassion.
Bible Study 1 – Who is my Neighbor?
Bible Study 2 – What is True Religion?
Bible Study 3 – Neighbors Local and Global
Bible Study 4 – The Church, Pop Stars, and Politics
Feb
7
Follow-up #8 “The Christian and Good Deeds”
Filed Under Campus Toolbox, Discipleship, Materials, Resources | Leave a Comment
When someone comes to faith in Christ, it is vital to establish them in their new-found faith. Campus Crusade for Christ has a series of “follow-up” materials for this purpose. They are: 1. Christian Certainty; 2. Confession of Sin; 3. The Ministry of the Holy Spirit; 4. Growth; 5. Bible Study; 6. Prayer; 7. Godly Relationships
The material for download below (or at this page) was developed by Andy Swanson when he was on Stint in East Asia and was burdened to teach believers the privilege and responsibility of walking in “the good works prepared in advance for us to do.” (Eph 2:10)
Andy suggests the following as “Follow Up” #8.
– Andy Swanson
Feb
7
Works of Mercy and Justice
Filed Under Church History, Holistic Gospel, Jonathan Edwards, Justice, Mercy, Revivial | Leave a Comment
Thoughts on Revival – from Dynamics of Spiritual Life, by Richard Lovelace
“Jonathan Edwards was especially concerned to make clear that fallen human nature is fertile ground for a fleshly religiosity which is impressively ‘spiritual’ but ultimately rooted in self-love. High emotional experiences, effusive religious talk, and even praising God and experiencing love for God and man can be self-centered and self-motivated. In contrast to this, experiences of renewal which are genuinely from the Holy Spirit are God-centered in character, based on worship, an appreciation of God’s worth and grandeur divorced from self-interest. Such experiences create humility in the convert rather than pride and issue in the creation of a new spirit of meekness, gentleness, forgiveness and mercy. They leave the believer hungering and thirsting after righteousness instead of satiated with self-congratulation. Most important, their end result is the performance of works of mercy and justice.”
“In the extensive section on good works which closes Religious Affections, Edwards establishes the principle that a full-fledged revival will involve a balance between personal concern for individuals and social concern. A revival is therefore not something exclusively ‘spiritual’ and ‘religious.” Edwards insists that the proliferation of religiosity in the form of meetings, prayer, singing and religious talk will not promote or sustain revival without works of love and mercy, which will ‘bring the God of love down from heaven to earth … to set up his tabernacle with men on the earth, and dwell with them.’”
Contributed by Chris Musgrove, CCC staff at Auburn University
Feb
6
Campus Toolbox: A Different Way of Thinking Part II
Filed Under Campus Toolbox, Churches, Evangelism, Holistic Gospel, communities | Leave a Comment
Several weeks ago, Marrty Dormish (Staff STINT–Barcelona) suggested a different way of thinking. He encouraged missional team leaders (staff, faculty, volunteers) to experiment with brainstorming about ways the university (community college, etc. ) could to be a blessing, to extend the rule and reign of God on their campus and in their surrounding communities.
Marrty suggests that we start believing that “resources exist on every college campus to help transform, restore and heal the cities and towns in which these institutions of higher learning exist.”
I was reading Scot McKnight’s excellent book, “The Jesus Creed: Loving God, Loving Others” in which he mentioned the Anglican churches in Singapore who have developed an integrated ministry of reaching into their surrounding community. Trying to avoid the so-frequent “division of labor” into evangelism or social action, these churches are dirtying their hands in help. Their outreach ministry is called SHOW: Softening Hearts and Opening Windows where everyone learns that a broad and integrated ministry is the heart of following Jesus.
I think their four step strategy (to which I’ve added one) might serve as a model for some experimental thinking on the part of our missional teams. What if missional teams approach a campus (either staffed or non-staffed) and initiated the following?
- Pray for the community corporately and privately
- Profile the surrounding community to discover real needs
- Prepare leaders/volunteers to share the story verbally
- Pursue projects of both kindness and penetration
- Partner with others –Christians or non-Christian–to maximize impact for the kingdom
– jay
