Read What Every Body is Saying!
At least it worked on Kyle. I kept pointing out different clues I was picking up from his and other people's body language. This bothered him for some reason...
I read the book to help me as I counsel and disciple Christian students, meet with non-Christians, and interview potential leaders. I hope it will help me tell when someone is holding something back, not so I can manipulate them, but so I may invite them to share what may be weighing on them. I hope it will also help me gauge a student's comfort level, so I can provide encouragement or wisdom. And, if they start exhibiting nervousness through their gestures, I'll know they're uncomfortable, possibly because they're telling a lie. And there's nothing quite so humbling as being caught in a lie - it can lead to repentance and transformation. I hope these new skills help me be a better servant to my students.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Breaking the Rules
I finished this during NSO, but I didn't have time to write a blog post about it. Now that ministry has settled into a more regular pace, I wanted to share what I thought. Breaking the Rules by Fil Anderson was a freeing, enjoyable read.
His message of freedom from performance struck me. I appreciated his stories and the way he illustrated truth with them. I actually drew from his discussions on the woman who anoints Jesus in Mark 14 for my Large Group talk earlier this month. Doing what we can for God is beautiful to him. Wasting our time, energy, and resources to be with him and follow him - that's what matters. And when the world, or even the church, judges you for being wasteful, you know the truth.
If you struggle with perfectionism, wish you could let go of the drive to find worth in your performance, experience desperation to be freed for intimacy with God, then I think this book is for you. He doesn't give a ton of practical help. But then, most of us who struggle with performance mostly need to start thinking in new ways and receiving God's love. And while that's terribly practical, I don't think tips will do us much good. We just start judging our performance in how well we're following the plan and how far we've come in fixing the problem!
His message of freedom from performance struck me. I appreciated his stories and the way he illustrated truth with them. I actually drew from his discussions on the woman who anoints Jesus in Mark 14 for my Large Group talk earlier this month. Doing what we can for God is beautiful to him. Wasting our time, energy, and resources to be with him and follow him - that's what matters. And when the world, or even the church, judges you for being wasteful, you know the truth.
If you struggle with perfectionism, wish you could let go of the drive to find worth in your performance, experience desperation to be freed for intimacy with God, then I think this book is for you. He doesn't give a ton of practical help. But then, most of us who struggle with performance mostly need to start thinking in new ways and receiving God's love. And while that's terribly practical, I don't think tips will do us much good. We just start judging our performance in how well we're following the plan and how far we've come in fixing the problem!
Monday, September 26, 2011
A New Addition to my Resume
Guest Lecturer at Rice University. That's right! Friday night, I spoke at the Large Group for InterVarsity at Rice University. I drove down to Houston to share what I had learned from Luke 19:1-10, about Zacchaeus and our purpose.
Earlier that day, I engaged in some spiritual conversations with Aggies. Andrea Thomas, my chapter building coach and Associate Regional Director, drove from Austin to do ministry with me Thursday and Friday. We met with a Greek student interested in starting an InterVarsity Bible study in his frat (more on that as it develops - please pray for him!) and she brought the fun to our Core Team leadership meeting. Then 8 of us from AgIV and AAIV gathered Friday morning to pair up and ask spiritual questions to students we found on campus. Ben and Josh got to talk with a guy who was into philosophy, and was looking at Buddhism, existentialism, and nihilism. Andrea and David actually ran into some AAIV students who thought what they were doing was scary, so they did a mini-discipleship meeting. Cody and I got to pray for a single mom, and I'll hopefully be starting a GIG this week with a guy we met!
It's been a full week, especially since I was recovering from a nasty cold. But with a Blinn outreach, the new frat Small Group, a Christian artists group wanting to partner with us, 3 weeks of prayer and fasting with other Christian groups coming up, and the South Asian Small Group taking off, I am feeling God's blessings in ministry. Thanks for praying!
Earlier that day, I engaged in some spiritual conversations with Aggies. Andrea Thomas, my chapter building coach and Associate Regional Director, drove from Austin to do ministry with me Thursday and Friday. We met with a Greek student interested in starting an InterVarsity Bible study in his frat (more on that as it develops - please pray for him!) and she brought the fun to our Core Team leadership meeting. Then 8 of us from AgIV and AAIV gathered Friday morning to pair up and ask spiritual questions to students we found on campus. Ben and Josh got to talk with a guy who was into philosophy, and was looking at Buddhism, existentialism, and nihilism. Andrea and David actually ran into some AAIV students who thought what they were doing was scary, so they did a mini-discipleship meeting. Cody and I got to pray for a single mom, and I'll hopefully be starting a GIG this week with a guy we met!
It's been a full week, especially since I was recovering from a nasty cold. But with a Blinn outreach, the new frat Small Group, a Christian artists group wanting to partner with us, 3 weeks of prayer and fasting with other Christian groups coming up, and the South Asian Small Group taking off, I am feeling God's blessings in ministry. Thanks for praying!
Monday, September 19, 2011
I'm back with New Student Outreach updates!
It's been a month and a half since my last post. I can't believe everything's that happened! I've been sick this weekend, so I wasn't able to visit my mom like I had hoped. She had to head back to the hospital last weekend, but she's out again. With her illness, a new staff partner, new NSO activities, some students stepping up and others kinda fizzling out, it's been an NSO of ups and downs. Thankfully, God's been with me through it all. I'll be updating this blog quite a bit over the next few weeks. In the meantime, here's my prayer requests and updates from New Student Outreach:
Pray for outreach events.
We will help students move in Aug. 21 and keep serving and meeting them for the next few weeks. Pray for growing relationships. Pray students start 3 GIGs (Groups Investigating God, seeker Bible studies). Finally, pray for our Small Group Leaders to plan risky new outreach events that draw many new students in.
Pray for 20 new students to join our fellowship. Please pray that some of these students are "missional," looking for ways to follow God. We specifically need a worship leader.
I was planning on speaking Aug. 25 at our first Large Group. But my mother will be in surgery for an acoustic neuroma, a benign tumor on the nerve that runs from your ear to your brain. It's a pretty poor stopgap measure. They won't be able to get all of the tumor and there's a chance of minor facial paralysis. It's 8 hours and will take a month to recover from. First, please pray for healing beforehand. For my whole family, ask God for peace, comfort, and trust in him. Finally, please pray for Fern, UH alum and speaker at Breakthrough spring training conference, who will be filling in for me last minute. Large Group that night may be the only time a student comes to one of our events, potentially the only time they hear the gospel. Pray for open ears and ready hearts!
We had to ask for an exemption because TAMU says we are discriminating in leadership based on religion. Pray we're approved before we move to restricted status Sept. 1. Pray also for grace from officials for last minute requests to hold outreaches in busy places.
Our new student retreat Sept. 9-10, where we'll study Philippians. Ask God for 15 new students, 30 total, to attend from our fellowship. Pray for Linson, our speaker, to clearly call students to faith. Pray for staff to lead excellent inductive Bible studies with small groups. And pray students decide to follow Jesus as Savior and Lord, and join in Christian community.
Pray for outreach events.
We will help students move in Aug. 21 and keep serving and meeting them for the next few weeks. Pray for growing relationships. Pray students start 3 GIGs (Groups Investigating God, seeker Bible studies). Finally, pray for our Small Group Leaders to plan risky new outreach events that draw many new students in.
Over 3 weeks, we gathered 250+ students' contact info, and we're still following up with them. We have at least 4 students interested in a GIG, with 1 starting this week. Our Small Group Leaders were bold to reach out, and made great connections.Pray for missional Christians.
Pray for 20 new students to join our fellowship. Please pray that some of these students are "missional," looking for ways to follow God. We specifically need a worship leader.
We have at least 10 new students involved, and many more checking us out. Some are very missional. One new student didn't seem that interested in attending CrossRoads until I mentioned we were studying Philippians. Another who is still checking us out feels like it's her life mission to serve people. Old and new students are offering their voice, guitar, djembe, keyboard, violin, and trumpet for worship. We have so many students volunteering to be on worship team, we may have more students leading than being led!Pray for August 25th.
I was planning on speaking Aug. 25 at our first Large Group. But my mother will be in surgery for an acoustic neuroma, a benign tumor on the nerve that runs from your ear to your brain. It's a pretty poor stopgap measure. They won't be able to get all of the tumor and there's a chance of minor facial paralysis. It's 8 hours and will take a month to recover from. First, please pray for healing beforehand. For my whole family, ask God for peace, comfort, and trust in him. Finally, please pray for Fern, UH alum and speaker at Breakthrough spring training conference, who will be filling in for me last minute. Large Group that night may be the only time a student comes to one of our events, potentially the only time they hear the gospel. Pray for open ears and ready hearts!
My mother's surgery went miraculously well. The surgeons believe they got all of the tumor out, and there was almost no facial paralysis. I felt God's peace, and was glad to be there with my mom before and after the surgery. But there have been several minor complications since the surgery. Please continue to pray for complete healing. Large Group also went well. Thank you for praying while I couldn't be there.Pray for our relationship with TAMU administration.
We had to ask for an exemption because TAMU says we are discriminating in leadership based on religion. Pray we're approved before we move to restricted status Sept. 1. Pray also for grace from officials for last minute requests to hold outreaches in busy places.
David, a student leader, met with the administration for an hour, explaining our organization's purpose and how we try to carry that out. At the end, they said, "Well, it sounds like you need this exemption." And although there was lots of scrambling, we were able to find places to hold our outreaches in high foot traffic areas.Pray for CrossRoads.
Our new student retreat Sept. 9-10, where we'll study Philippians. Ask God for 15 new students, 30 total, to attend from our fellowship. Pray for Linson, our speaker, to clearly call students to faith. Pray for staff to lead excellent inductive Bible studies with small groups. And pray students decide to follow Jesus as Savior and Lord, and join in Christian community.
We had 9 new students and 10 returning members from Aggie IV, and 80 students total from A&M, Rice, and University of Houston. I had a great time leading a Small Group over a couple passages in Philippians, and our speaker was excellent. 8 AgIVers made significant decisions in their relationships with Jesus. At least 1 student at the retreat decided to start following Jesus and another wants to learn more - but neither signed their names on the evaluations. Pray we find out who these students are!
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