Tag: Collegiate Ministry

Joplin Bound

On Sunday morning we are heading down to Joplin with 10 students for our 2012 Spring Break Trip. We’ve already had one team down there this week and they’ve had a great time and even made the news! (Sojourn in Joplin) I’m excited for our week, excited to see students stretch and grow. These trips are always great for the experience itself, but also (and more importantly) for the space it provides to re-imagine what life could look like here in Boston. I’m sure we will come back with some great stories!

No blogging next week, but I’ll pick it back up when we return.

Nailed It!

We introduced a new award last month to our leadership community: The Golden Hammer. The golden hammer will go, each month, to the team that “nails it” when it comes to living out our values. For January, Northeastern won for the work they have been doing, tutoring kids in turnaround schools with a program through Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI is a great organization that one of our staffers, Nathan, serves with on their board of directors).

For February, the hammer was passed on to our UMASS-Boston team for their work with the Kinect for a Cause event that we did to raise money for our Spring Break Trip to Joplin. So proud of these guys! They continue to embody what it means to be in proximity with all different kinds of people who on their journey back to God. Well done!

ReadRetreatServe

We took students to Dorchester on Saturday for our Spring ReadRetreatServe (you can read more about RRS here and here). The pics are from all parts of the day: our morning in quiet reading and reflection…our middle of the day conversations…and our afternoon of serving alongside Quincy Street Missional Church. I love these days…the ongoing work that goes on there all through the year and these moments where bridges are built…bridges from campus in to the community. Beautiful…

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Things I Love About My Job

– Great conversations with students

– Leaders stepping up and/or emerging

– Reading excellent books and talking about them

– One on one conversations, asking questions, listening

– Planning and preparing (for something like our ReadRetreatServe or Spring Break Trip)

– Watching our students Perform* (we know some wicked talented kids)

– Meeting new people, getting them connected

– Eating dinner with a good friend and supporter who knows how to bless us

All of this and more happened just this weekend! Grateful to be a part of it…

Kinect for a Cause

We have brought over the X-Box Kinect to UMASS-Boston a couple of times. You can read some of my previous thoughts about this here. We did it again this past Friday but with a twist…to raise some money for our Spring Break to Joplin, MO. We are heading down there two weeks in a row (Northeastern and others March 3-10, and then UMB and BU March 11-18) to help rebuild after the tornado damage that hit last May.

I’m really excited about this trip for several reasons…I’ll give you few here: 1) One of our staff team members grew up in Joplin and some of our strongest supporters are from there. (2) I love that we are taking two trips this year and that students from at least 5 campuses are going. (3) I love that UMB and BU are doing this together, and (4) We’ve set a goal of raising $5000 to bless a family with the items they need to move into their rebuilt house.

All of that to say, it was incredible to watch 60-70 UMB get together, have a great time hanging out, dancing, and getting to know each other better, and supporting our cause. A major part of the success of the event was the partnership of the UMBEvents crew who publicized Kinect like crazy. They even made a $40 donation. Very cool stuff. Huge win!

Spring Break (Flash Forward)

It’s official: everyone is back and the spring semester is on. UMASS-Boston starts today, BU’s first official gathering is tomorrow night, leadership community is going down on Friday, and yesterday we had the first of 3 Spring Break prep meetings. Excited for the trip this year (two trips actually) and for the ways it is connected to a place (Joplin, MO) that supports us and cares about what we do in Boston. It’ll be great to serve folks there.

Updates Abound

Just sent my sister, Beth, off on a train to Virginia. She came out for a visit and to check out two Dietician programs at Beth Israel and Mount Auburn Hospitals. We rocked Boston hard…a free Harpoon tasting, a tour of the ICA, program check out day, Angela’s Cafe (Rino’s was closed this week), McGreevy’s with friends for the Niners game, REUNION, and some good chats around the dinner table. We are not so secretly rooting for her internship process to lead her out here!

Amy’s sister, Stacey, arrives on Thursday…a permanent move! We are excited to have some family move closer and, even more, we are excited for this new adventure for Stacey.

Boston University starts class tomorrow and UMASS-Boston gets it going next Monday. It’s go time! I am looking forward to many things this semester, but perhaps the thing I am looking forward to the most is the leadership development plan we are putting into action. In particular, Amy and I are prepping (see pic) to spend 10 weeks with 7 prospective leaders at BU reading this and talking about this and this. I CANNOT wait to get started!

Quote of the Week

Actually, two quotes…

As a staff we’ve been reading through Stephen Lutz‘s excellent book College Ministry in a Post-Christian Culture. I met Steve at the first Leadership Network Leadership Community for University Ministry last fall.

His book has been a great resource…it feels like Sojourn in a book. Among other things, he also provides some great material and reasoning behind the importance of campus ministry.

For example: “It may be an understatement to say that ‘perhaps the most important mission field in contemporary America is the college campus.’ [quoting David T. Olson, The American Church in Crisis] Higher Ed students make up nearly 7 percent of our national population (20.5 million undergraduate and graduate students according to 2006 census data). But because these people grow to be leaders in every sphere, the impact they have on the world far exceeds their numbers…College ministry is the most strategic mission field in the world today.”

Perhaps, he overstates the case, but I’m with him!

As important as Campus Ministry is, it can be overwhelming…how does a team of 7 staff and 25 student leaders reach 250,000 students (in Boston)? If you include our Providence team, how does 9 staff and 30 student leaders reach 350,000 students?

Seems daunting.

I’ve also been reading a biography of Herb Brooks, coach of the 1980 “Miracle” Ice Hockey team that won the gold medal. You might have heard of this before.

I find a lot of inspiration in that story, and here’s a quote from the book that sums up that inspiration perfectly:

“An imaginative tactic, when executed by a team totally committed to it, can upset a vastly superior opponent.”

Yes!