SLU Goes Bowling to Build Community

Sometimes the best things to do to meet new people are to enjoy the simple things in life. Like hurling a 10lbs ball down a wooden alley to smash into things. A couple of the SLU students put together a bowling night to build community between some InterVarsity regulars and others on the fringe of our community. We had quite a few fringe people show up and had a great time bowling together.

We decided to quit after one game and run out and get some ice cream and just hang out and talk afterwards (no pics of that - sorry!). One non-believer commented how she loved hanging out with this group of people that could just have fun wherever we went and without anyone in the group feeling left out or like an extra. The two students that put the bowling night together are hosting a movie night next week - please pray that it goes just as well!

City Lights 2007!

CityLights is always an excellent experience for students that changes the way they see God at work in the world. Too often we see Christians who aren't willing to step outside their own comfort zones or beyond their dreams of a comfortable life to help those less fortunate than them. CityLights takes students from around the country and transplants them into the heart of the inner city in St. Louis where New City Fellowship (a local church that partners with us) places them in workgroups where they will not only get a chance to serve those around them but also be challenged in their ideas of justice, diversity and faith.
Since we started CityLights nearly 40 students have relocated to St. Louis to continue working / living amongst those in the inner city who they developed relationships with during their Spring Break. For SLU, many students felt challenged to reach out to people that SLU generally tries to keep away from their campus: the poor, the widowed, the abused, the addicts etc... Students at SLU are continuing to think about how to spread their new found heart for the city & for those less fortunate than themselves to others around campus who generally think of projects like CityLights as a gold star on their resume.

On a more personal note, at CityLights, I had the opportunity to lead worship with over 20 students from different cultural, ethnic and musical backgrounds. On a more personal note it became more clear to me how God has grown me in the past couple years as it was much easier to coordinate this large group of students and keep a fun, energetic atmosphere than it had been for me before. Many people at CityLights were blessed by the worship team I directed - staff commented that most of the transformational work they saw being done in their students was done during the times of worship we led. One student even commented that "this was the best worship I'd ever experienced, thank you!".

Asian American Staff Conference

So every 3 years all the Asian American staff get together, network and address certain ethnic specific issues as well as common issues that it is helpful to go through with other people of the same cultural upbringing. This year it was held in San Francisco so we had some beautiful weather during the conference.
Personally, I had a great time there for three reasons:
1) I got to work with a great team of people doing worship and gained yet more insight into how different people lead. Erna, the worship director for the conference, was on the Urbana 2003 worship team and is a great worship leader. I enjoyed her sense of where the spirit was going and assertiveness to change the schedule in order to do God's will. I also met another young staff named Audrey who has a heart for worship and is working on developing her own worship curriculum to better the training teams receive. I hope we can compare what we both have in the future.
2) The focus group I attended was incredibly helpful and insightful in shedding light onto how one might transform their job on staff to something that is a more custom fit to their specific gifts / call by God. I hope that I, like a few others in InterVarsity, can eventually create a custom position on staff where I can work on the issues that concern me most as opposed to being called to do everything under the sun.
3) I networked and met a number of interesting people - a few of which have a similar desire to work in a more specialized capacity within InterVarsity. I was also invited to put together and team and lead worship at ONS (orientation for new staff) this coming June - of which I'm very excited.

Overall the experience was great if not very tiring as I spent a couple nights up very late trying to get our sound equipment setup and working properly (seems to happen at many conferences I'm at). Please be praying that I get an opportunity to run in a more specialized field in InterVaristy because I feel very strongly that it would benefit both me and the people around me.

1st Talk

Hello again supporters! I gave my first talk @ SLU this past Monday. I exposited on Ephesians 2:11-22 where Paul is addressing the church there about how they are trying to define themselves as Christian believers. The people there at the time believed that God did save people through grace based upon His original covenant with Abraham. However, they believed that because the promise was made to Abraham and his offspring, the Israelites, it didn't apply to those who weren't directly related to Abraham --- unless, they were marked through circumcision, therefore identifying them as 'children of God'.
There is of course something wrong with that picture. Paul corrects their thinking in Ephesians 2:11-22 by redefining the power of Christ as the force that identifies and unites us as a body of believers -- not circumcision. Today this means that Christianity is NOT about quiet times, devotionals, Bible Studies, Laws, church attendance etc... which is revolutionary for many students at SLU.
To help the students process through this rather abstract concept - we spent 30 min at the end of the evening in reflective worship where students were also offered the opportunity to write on a piece of parchment paper something they wanted to offer to Christ that was a pattern of this world they felt trapped in. We then tied these pieces of paper to a tower of incense (in the OT incense represented both God's presence and purity) to help us better picture our prayer being offered to God as symbolized by the smoke and the Holy Spirit poured out among the people as symbolized by the scent diffusing in the room.
Please continue to pray that the students will continue to strive to define themselves as believers by the transformation Christ does in them - by the breaking of the usual patterns that exist in today's society.