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Want to know more about Following Christ, InterVarsity's triennial conference for graduate students, faculty, and professionals?

Go to http://www.followingchrist.org/ to register, to explore scholarship info, and to download audio from Following Christ 98 (which includes the material N.T. Wright used for The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering the Jesus Who Was & Is) and Following Christ 02.

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Thank-you to my friend in campus ministry who passed along, John Stackhouse's recent post The Reality of Sex. May followers of Christ not be found to be fools regarding the gift of our bodies. Here is a benefical quote:

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Thank-you to my campus ministry friend who passed along Findings: The Advantages of Closing a Few Doors. Here's a quote from the article regarding a study at MIT,

Closing a door on an option is experienced as a loss, and people are willing to pay a price to avoid the emotion of loss,” Dr. Ariely says. In the experiment, the price was easy to measure in lost cash. In life, the costs are less obvious — wasted time, missed opportunities. If you are afraid to drop any project at the office, you pay for it at home. 

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Thank-you to those which have kept me up-to-date on Tim Keller's ministry as pastor of Redeemer Church, NYC, NY. I have found his material, particularly his work on A New Kind of Urban Christian, of great interest. 

Tim's The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism stands at No. 18 on the New York Times bestseller list (anyone interested in passing along a copy in my Easter basket?) and recently he's has spoken on material from his book at a number of Veritas Forums.

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Pray for us as Tom's in Chicago, IL, from March 11-15 for meetings with InterVarsity's Graduate & Faculty Ministry (GFM) followed by InterVarsity Press' (IVP) Staff Advisory Team.  During the GFM meetings, Tom will have some significant conversations regarding the development of materials for the Emerging Scholars Network, role as director of the Mid-Atlantic Winter Graduate Student Retreat, pioneering of faculty ministry in Central PA, and continued support of GFM in Pittsburgh. 

During the IVP Staff Advisory Team Mtgs, the staff present will consider how to best use IVP publications on campus with students, faculty, and InterVarsity staff.  This will be our second official gathering, but our first at the IVP headquarters.  Pray for clear communication, packaging of resource offerings, and next steps in distributing our recommendations.

While at the IVP meetings, Tom will stay w/Dr. James Sire in order to discuss Sire's April visit to central PA.  Pray for our preparations for

-campus outreaches at Dickinson, Franklin & Marshall College, and Penn State Harrisburg.  Pray for insight w/regard to how we might find an opportunity for him to interact with several other campuses including a possible visit to Penn.
-campus missions presentation on Tuesday, April 1, for those who desire to learn more about our work with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.  For more on this drop us an email or go to April_Events_James_Sire_and_InterVarsity.pdf.
-prayer retreat on Saturday, April 5.  For more on this drop us an email or go to April_Events_James_Sire_and_InterVarsity.pdf.

I spent Friday evening meditating upon Manufactured Landscapes. For me, the peak of the film was the shipbreaking beach, I was filled with prayer as I watched the children work in the oil sludge (earlier in the film I prayed through watching a village recycle computer parts/metal and need to ship water in due to the pollution). Here's the trailer

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York Moore, InterVarsity staff colleague and author of Growing Your Faith By Giving It Away, posted video from the Price of Life outreach in which he addressed the relationship between child sex slavery and the freedom available through the power of the gospel. Note:  He also brings attention to the remote consumption of trafficking victims, making the U.S. complicit in child sex slavery and forced prostitution. 1,000 students attended this event at Michigan State University in November, 2007 and over 100 became Christians through the campaign. Praise the Lord!  May the Spirit speak to you through his testimony, challenge, and witness . . .

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The other night Theresa and I were discussing love languages.  One's probably not surprised to find  words of encouragement speak to me deeply, even if its only from the few [Note:  Theresa's is acts of service.  So help her out :-)].  Last night's sharing by graduate students and faculty regarding the value of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship affirmed my personal sense of call and passion for our work.  Here's a few tidbits I'm passing along to affirm your prayferful support of this brave, pioneering, out-of-the-box ministry endeavor:

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Both faculty and InterVarsity staff desire to shape lives, but many times we find our efforts falling flat. Here’s an article of interest from the Chronicle which argues students have become adults, with their identities in a lockbox before their first year and are not to be enlightened: The Myth of First-Year Enlightenment. I recently had a conversation with a faculty and undergrad campus staff worker at a small liberal arts college which waded through similar material as we discussed the potential for campus outreach which would truly engage students, faculty, and the campus as a whole. Here’s a quote from the article:  (More)

Christianity Today at the Movies put me onto the new PBS documentary The Better Hour: The Legacy of William Wilberforce, see trailer. I've been looking for such material to share with Hayley and Ellen, who turned 8 this morning. Praise God!

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My friend Miller passed along a recommendation of Arseny James Melnick's America's Oldest Corporation and First CEO:  Harvard and Hendry Dunster (infinity pub, 2008, isbn 0741442744).  Note:  Jim is a graduate of Westminster College and Harvard University.  Go to bbotw.com for the cover and link to take a sneak peek inside.  Here's Miller's comment:

i'm trusting that jim melnick's new book on the early history of harvard and its first president henry dunster receives attention...on page 175  jim says, "Harvard's abandonment of its Christian core values would sadden him (Henry Dunster) deeply but not in any final sense.  Henry Dunster realized that 'an inordinate love of human learning' apart from God leads to emptiness. ..he beileved that pride of learning for its own sake, without bringing knowledge under clear direction (to Veritas, to truth) would leave both the individual and the College soulless...as former harvard Dean Lewis said in his book "Excellence without a soul"..

Also of interest, R.R. Reno's First Things article Harvard’s Postmodern Curriculum, take particular note of the conclusion:

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The Chronicle’s post Pope Cancels University Visit in Wake of Protests has been receiving quite a range of responses and attempts to clarify the facts. The post/responses (and a little more research) might be a helpful discussion topic for faculty regarding freedom of academic/religious conversation on campus and how one should respond to controversy. I’m thinking about bringing it up with some faculty later in the week and/or in early next week. I don't currently have the time on hand to research the complexities of the situation.  If someone comes across helpful material, please pass it along to me.  Thank-you.

Came across an excellent interview of Os Guinness with regard to The Call provided by Impact 360 (a nine month residential high school to college transition ministry).

Calling is the truth that God calls us to himself so decisively that everything we are, everything we do, and everything we have is invested with a special devotion and dynamism lived out as a response to his summons and service (Os Guinness, The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life, p.4).

I'd encourage you to take the 25 minutes to listen and pass it along to those which would find it helpful at this time in their life. 

Pray for me [Tom] over the course of January 2-6 as I take part in InterVarsity Christian Fellowship's National Staff Conference, St. Louis, MO. I'll briefly share in two seminars:

1. How to 'identify, encourage, and equip' Christian scholars to be redeeming influences in higher education:  I'll relate how to begin the process. Pray for the ability to choose 1-2 stories from the various campuses from which I'm connected: Carnegie Mellon, Dickinson, Duquesne, Elizabethtown, F&M, Penn State Harrisburg, & Pitt.  (More)

Kevin Offner, a friend on InterVarsity Christian Fellowship's Graduate & Faculty Ministry, will be leading the below seminar on Sunday, January 20, in Washington, D.C.  If you're in the area, I commend it to you.  If you're not in the area, take a few minutes to read his Touchstone magazine piece, Three’s No Crowd.

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Dear Partners in Ministry,

Follow this link for our year end mailing in PDF.  If you attended our dessert or receive our mailings (paper/email), then you will most probably already have seen it. We rejoice in your prayer, encouragement, and support of our vital vocationally forming home mission. 

In addition to a number of year end donations and faith commitments for the coming year (which have addressed about 20% of our $10,000-15,000 projected June fiscal year end shortfall), we're receiving a printer/copier combination to replace our broken unit, following up to an offer for assistance with daytime volunteer support for mailings/special events, and Christmas gift cards for the family -- thank-you!  If you'd like to donate time, materials, or services (particularly as we prepare for some special events in the spring semester), drop us an email or give us a call.

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Well stated Mike!  Wish we could have this clarity in conversations on campus.

Praise God for followers of Christ which take the time to call us to remember/learn the context, history and meaning of the Christmas carols which have become part of the background in Christmas parties, coffee shops, malls, and road trips!  Here's a recent post passed along to me by my friend Kevin.  May this research bless your own journey in Christ this Advent/Christmas/Epiphany and be a blessing to others as you share Word-, Logos-, Light-, Incarnational- and Spirit-based reflections with others at your local congregation, home, workplace, and various Christmas-time socials.  By-the-way, make sure you follow the link to Ben Witherington's post No Inn in the Room-- a Christmas Sermon on Lk. 2.1-7. What a prophetic academic!

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The Terminator-like Beowulf comes face-to-face with us on the screen, again (note:  also received press in the recent graphic novel).  Anyone seen this version?  Not sure I'm up to it.  My friend in medieval lit reminded me Beowulf is about the necessity of fighting evil, while not allowing the power you must cultivate to do so in turn destroy yourself and your civilization.  Beowulf, literally, spends 10x as much time talking as fighting, because one of the poem's main points is that he is NOT an out-of-control warrior, but a fighter governed by the laws and customs of civilization -- and THAT is what makes him an ideal hero. But WE make him a muscle-bound clod.

Wish I had time to get back to the classic in the midst of all of my reading, reflection, and writing.  For those with interest, Never Mind Grendel. Can Beowulf Conquer the 21st-Century Guilt Trip? in the Chronicle for Higher Education has an excellent survey of the original writing, its interactions with Christian thought (including Tolkien), and the current film. Below is the provoking conclusion:

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 Placing The State of the University by Stanley Hauerwas on my Christmas list, if you'd like to bless me with copy, let me know (note:  other request below).  Here's a quote from the Books & Culture Review, Hauerwas at School: What's a university for?

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Rick Pearcy's (publisher of the Pearcy Report) testimony to the work of God at L'Abri through Francis Schaeffer is posted at various places on the internet.

Here's part of the introduction to the Pearcy Report Post, followed by the conclusion:

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Remember Taylor Mali from Speaking with Conviction? He has quite a way with words: here's What Do Teachers Really Make?  Good to see someone not only articulating a defense for teachers, but also recruiting them for the classroom.  Note:  not how I'd put it out on the table.  Let me know if this is appropriate for posting, particular the ending.

 

As many of you know, listening is difficult for me.  Here's a quote which has provoked some thought:

Listening is a rare happening among human beings.  You cannot listen to the word another is speaking if you are preoccupied with your appearance or impressing the other, or if you are trying to decide what you are going to say when the other stops talking, or if you are debating about whether the word being spoken is true or relevant or agreeable.  Such matters have their place, but only after listening to the word as the word is being uttered.  Listening, in other words, is a primitive act of love, in which a person gives self to another's word, making self accessible and vulnerable to that word.  --William Stringfellow, A Keeper of the Word

Ever since being a little kid chatting w/patients in my Dad's Dental office, (More)

My friend Miller came across Speaking with conviction on Bradley R. E. Wright's Weblog, note: his UConn page is http://sociology.uconn.edu/socifaculty/wright.html.  Another Christian in the sociology field studying Christians, looks like some interesting research. 

But back to the main question, are you willing to be caught Speaking with conviction? (More)

As an encouragement in ministry, a friend on InterVarsity Christian Fellowship's Graduate & Faculty Ministry team emailed the below quote by C.S. Lewis on latent Christianity (Thank-you Kevin!)

A professor recently pointed to the fragrance of Christ emanating from followers of Christ on campus being the compelling witness of enabling other members of the campus community to glimpse God and explore following Christ with the People of God. C.S. Lewis' interaction with Hugo Dyson and J.R.R. Tolkien serves as an excellent illustration of such an initiation into the Kingdom of God.  One's relationship with God, or lack of relationship, shapes a way of life which overflows into all aspects of one's life, even one's vocation. (More)