Tag: Collegiate Ministry

Holy Ground

885637_551159211583285_352943300_oI’ve been on a lot of “mission” trips. I’ve been to Mexico, India, Kentucky, inner-city Chicago, etc. Each experience has been formative and important and memorable, no two trips alike.

But I have never had more fun on a trip than I did this last week leading students to Joplin, MO for the second spring break in a row.

What’s weird is that, in many ways, this was also the most stressful trip I’ve been on. The weather didn’t cooperate, most of our original work plans fell through, there were twice as many people as last year, and I was away from my wife and daughter for the longest time since Marina was born.

I have a couple of theories:there was little to no interpersonal drama, we had no complainers, and I love the staff I get to work with.

Those are all true, but here’s a brief version of what I shared with our team at the end of the week…

In Genesis 28, Jacob wakes from his “stairway to heaven” dream and says: “God was in this place, and I, I did not know it.” In Exodus 3, Moses walks up to a burning bush, meets God, and realizes he is on holy ground.

Here’s the thing: the bush is always burning…God is always in this place. Not just in the spectacular moments and the times when all our plans come together, the moments where you pass a set of key to a homeowner who has tears in their eyes.

No, God is in the mess
and the plans that fall apart
and the spontaneous conversations
and in the bad weather
and the late-night sonic run
and laughter
and spike ball
and banana grams
and sharing life on a deep level.

But, sometimes we don’t notice.

I think this is why Jesus talked about ears to hear and eyes to see.

This week was a good gift to me for a bunch of reasons, but it was a reminder that I love college ministry, I love students, and that no matter where we go…

the ground is always holy.

SojournBoston Leaders Being Awesome

We held our monthly leadership community gathering on friday night. We ate fajitas prepared with love by the legendary Cuban John. We shared stories from the past month. And, we celebrated what God has done through our community, in the community this year. I am so proud of the ways our students have invested in work that is ongoing all over the city: tutoring and mentoring kids, fighting human trafficking, building relationships with neighbors, serving the least. Beautiful stuff. We committed to finish the year strong and not let these issues become back-burner priorities as we begin thinking about the end of a school year, summer plans, etc. Good stuff!

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Craftsmanship

‘Craftsmanship’ may suggest a way of life that waned with the advent of industrial society–but this is misleading. Craftsmanship names an enduring, basic human impulse, the desire to do a job well for its own sake.

Every good craftsman conducts a dialogue between concrete practices and thinking; this dialogue evolves into sustaining habits, and these habits establish a rhythm between problem solving and problem finding. The relation between hand and head appears in domains seemingly as different as bricklaying, cooking, designing a playground, or playing the cello–but all these practices can misfire or fail to ripen.

There is nothing inevitable about becoming skilled.

~ Richard Sennett “The Craftsman”

“Most American …

“Most American teens do not, by and large, abandon their identification with religious faith during the first year out [first year in college]. Religious involvement drops, to be sure, but not teens’ self-identification as a religious person…

“Teens who deposit their religious identities in a lockbox during the first year out do so because they see everyday life and religious identification as separate and distinct entities. Teens view religious faith and practice as largely irrelevant tot his stage in their life cycle.

“The religious story of most teens is the story of a thousand missed opportunities…it is striking how haphazardly most congregations go about it…they gain only sketchy and frequently mistaken understandings of what their religion believes and practices…

“When all is said and done, what most teens gain from this haphazard religious socialization is reinforcement of the theistic and moral dimensions of popular American culture: ‘There is a God; God wants me to be a nice person; and he’ll help me out if I am.’ It is a simple faith, but a surprisingly enduring one, as it can withstand long stays in an identity lockbox.”

From “The First Year Out” by Tim Clysdale

Don’t Go Back

Consider this:

They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” – Exodus 14:11-12

Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?”  And they said to each other, “We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.” – Numbers 14:3-4

During times of transition and uncertainty there is something within us that makes us want to go backwards. This is interesting, especially when you consider this:

  • Joshua Slocumb was a sailor in the late 19th century who was given a boat called “The Spray”. It was a run down boat that needed some love, so Joshua grabbed his axe, headed into the forest, cut down some trees and fashioned planks (by hand). He then rebuilt The Spray and sailed it around the world. By himself. He was 51 years old.
  • Sue Oldham decided it would be cool to swim to another country. So she conquered the English Channel, all 21 miles, in 16 hours. At the age of 64.
  • Bill Snyder was a good football coach who retired, got a stadium named after himself, and then came back several years later to have his most successful season in 2012. At 73. (I find this particularly encouraging since he is a college football coach).
  • Betty White, experiencing a career resurgence, hosted Saturday Night Live at the age of 88. It is, to date, the highest rated episode of SNL. She’s still going strong into her 90’s.

What is the point of all this? None of us is guaranteed a long life, but there is a really good chance you have not peaked yet. Your best years, your biggest adventure, your gnarliest risk might still be ahead of you.

Don’t go back Egypt now, it might be time to sail around the world!

I find this particularly helpful in my work with students, many of whom have been promised that college will be the best years of their lives. When college turns out to be the hardest years of their lives the reality can lead to frustration, to turmoil, and even depression. But that student might be years away from the pinnacle. They have plenty to look forward to.

Organizations can do the same thing. Remembering and reminiscing are important, but too often we become overly nostalgic about the “way it used to be.” Don’t go there! Your organization might be decades away from its heyday. And that’s ok.

Enjoy the moment. Celebrate where you’ve come from. But look forward to and anticipate the future because the best may still be to come!

A New Year

Heading into a new year I found this to be helpful:

“Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:8-9

Why You Should Care About Collegiate Ministry

Final reflection piece for the year. Will have another marina pic and some top 5 lists, but regular blogging won’t happen again until 2013.

This post reflects a little bit of my journey over the past year…I wholeheartedly believe in the work we are doing here in Boston: here’s why…

—–

Confession: a pet peeve of mine is the minimizing of the importance of collegiate ministry. Our field has not always done a great job advertising our awesomeness (probably because campus ministers are too busy to do marketing). But, in my lower moments, I find the misunderstandings of our work to be aggravating.

Some look at college ministry as intellectual youth ministry. Others dismiss it as a mere “life-stage” ministry. Some deride it as an unhelpful “parachurch” organism/parasite. I get asked about once a month: “so when are you going to become a ‘real’ pastor.”

There are many people who get it and who invest in it and who think what we are doing is important. And that is beautiful. But the misunderstandings still drive me crazy.

Recently I’ve had the opportunity to hang with people from other ministries all over the world. When I asked them to tell me the story about how they got interested and inspired to do their work they all started with this:

“When I was in college…”

That phrase has been difficult to get out of mind over the last several weeks.

Collegiate ministry may not be directly addressing poverty, or dirty water, or whatever other issue or cause you might care about, BUT it will have an impact on all of those things.

If you care about the fact that church attendance is declining rapidly in the remerging generation you should care deeply about collegiate ministry.

If you care about issues of class and race and poverty that affect our cities and the education of our young people you should care deeply about collegiate ministry.

If you care about global missions you should care about collegiate ministry (for two reasons: US students will be called at this point in their lives to go abroad and international students studying in the US will take the good news of Jesus back with them).

If you care about sex-trafficking, human slavery, and other rights-based issues you should care about collegiate ministry.

If you care about the direction of technological advancement, research, medical and scientific developments, and the progression of philosophical thought and practice you should care about collegiate ministry.

If you care about politics you should care about collegiate ministry.

And, at the risk of exploiting current events, if you care about the deep, deep brokenness in our country you should care deeply about collegiate ministry.

I had the opportunity to meet with some Boston University officials at the end of the Spring semester and they revealed a startling development:

During that semester the school, for the first time that anyone could remember, made more hospital calls for students struggling with mental health issues than for alcohol related incidents.

Among emerging adults there is a profound crisis centering around questions of meaning and being.

The shootings in Newtown and other communities are the extreme expressions of a culture that is failing miserably to answer these questions in any kind of meaningful way.

We don’t know how to talk about truly significant things like evil, life, and ultimate meaning.

Most of the people (men? boys?) committing these unthinkable shootings are between the ages of 18 and 25.

Over the next couple of weeks and months we will hear about gun control and mental health reform, and both are important and needed conversations.

But, neither get to the heart of the issue. President Obama got us there for a moment in his speech on Sunday when he asked: “Why are we here?”

This question and other questions of meaning and being (what is a human? what does it mean to be human? is there purpose and meaning and importance to life and the universe? etc, etc) are at the center of our national crisis, a crisis that impacts our young people (specifically college aged students) more than anyone.

And if you care about this, if you care about how we answer and will answer these questions as a nation and a culture, then you should care deeply and passionately about collegiate ministry.

‘Cakes for a Cause

At the beginning of November I challenged a few of our leaders at BU to think of throwing a christmas/advent conspiracy/fund-raiser/cause related event to end our semester. I gave some parameters and guidelines for how to plan out an event 6 weeks out, and then left the rest up to the team.

They pulled off a GREAT event. ‘Cakes for a Cause was held Wednesday night (12/12/12!), and raised $400 for Amirah Boston. If you’ve been reading my posts recently you’ve seen this name/cause pop up a few times now. SojournBU continues to do well in its partnership with this organization, and lots of great stories are coming from it.

I am proud of our leaders for several reasons. I’m proud of Bridget for setting the vision and the pace for this event…she’s stepped up her leadership game big time: taking risks, calling others to action, and inviting, inviting, inviting. I’m proud of Stef for her ongoing involvement in several of our causes and for championing Amirah. She’s set a strong personal example and is inviting others into that. I’m proud of Rebecca for her work on the details and the design (she’s got skills people). I’m proud of Faith for her help on the design too, for all of the risks she is taking in inviting people to Sojourn events, and for her servant’s heart on Wednesday night. I’m proud of Ruben for his willingness to do the dirty work and the worst jobs, and for reaching out to people during the event (and for making awesome signs). I’m proud of Jack for doing anything and everything to make the night run smoothly and for always being relational. I’m proud of Anna and Dorsa for all their help in planning, their endless promotion of the event, for being willing to look silly at the hot chocolate table, and for bringing people! (Special credit to Dorsa for photo bombing several pics).

One final shout outt: we are super grateful for the folks who donated money to help us supply the actual pancakes (mix and toppings) for the event so that all the money we raised could go to Amirah. We expected to get school funding and were rejected at the last-minute, so thank you so much for your generosity which helped make the night a huge success.

Enjoy the pics!

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