Tag: Sojourn

DIG!

We had a great weekend: our fall DIG (also known as Sojourn’s Service Weekend) was a success. We headed down to Cape Cod on Friday, played some crazy games, built a campfire, watched the sunrise on the beach, and had many great times. Saturday we came back to Boson and served alongside some of our partner ministries in Dorchester, introducing many of our students to our work in the neighborhoods of the city. Check out some of the pics from the weekend:

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Campus Ministry and The Great Emergence

I just finished Phyllis Tickle’s newest book, Emergence Christianity, and while I did not find it as compelling as The Great Emergence it did give me a lot to chew on. As she attempts to predict what the future of the church might look like in the West I couldn’t help but be overwhelmed with how important campus ministry is both to the present and the future.

Consider this statement:

“Given the Emergence concern about formal theology and seminaries, and given the declining figures and resources within Protestantism and possibly Roman Catholicism, who will become the Christian philosophers and ethicists among us, who will train them, who will provide for their work as a community of scattered but connected scholars?”

I wish I had the time to elaborate, but as I was reading I said, out loud, Campus Ministry! Not that CM is the answer to everything, but this is, in part, what we have been doing, what we aim to do, and it is role we are well suited to take on if this is how the trends continue to develop.

October

Amazingly we are already in October! Marina is almost 3 weeks old, the Giants are in the playoffs, and students are starting to get ready for the first round of midterms. A couple of ministry notes to start off a new month:

  • I am really excited about our Service Weekend (this coming weekend). Essentially, this is our version of a Fall Retreat, but with a twist. We’ll be heading to the Cape Friday night and then back to the city to serve on Saturday.
  • Our groups are growing on campus, new students are getting involved and growing in our communities.
  • REUNION’s attendance has been stellar to start the Fall, a very encouraging sign.
  • I continue to learn how to balance being a dad and not sleeping with college ministry. Every day is an adventure!

Nailed It

Well, we are still on cloud nine because of this. But, the world keeps on turning, and one of the great events of the last couple of days (non-parenting category) was Sojourn’s first leadership community of the new semester. Last spring we introduced the “Golden Hammer” as a way to celebrate one of our teams that “nailed it” during the past month.

SojournBU won the golden hammer for the first time, and I am so proud of them! They’ve done a solid job inviting new people into the community and we are starting to see some good stories come in. Like this:

We held a welcome/intro event during the first week of class…I had a few students leave our set up time to randomly pass out fliers to people nearby. This was a bit of risk, and you can always look and feel stupid doing these kinds things. But they were up for the challenge and a handful of people who received fliers ended up coming to the event. One of the girls who came ended up joining a small group, at which she shared about her desire to connect more deeply with Jesus. She just didn’t know how to do that at BU. So, it was quite fortuitous that she happened to be handed a flier. Now she’s a part of a conversation about Jesus and Acts and the early church at one of our small group gatherings! Very cool…BU hasn’t had a ton of these kinds of stories but because our students are taking risks and making invitations they are going to become a much more regular occurence.

Summer with Sojourn

We just wrapped up a 10 week summer experience called “DIG”. We had about 20 students on average (a big week being 25, small about 15), and we had some amazing conversations about integration, virtue, stories, and faith in practice. Also, I was encouraged to see students get more involved at church in various capacities (kids, set up and tear down, etc). We’ve never done something quite like this before…definite win!

Globalscope, Board Meetings, and Staycations

Awesome, but busy, week last week. Hanging out with the globalscope crew was inspiring and fun, a good reminder why I love campus ministry. They are doing some amazing work in Germany, England, Spain, Mexico, Chile, Thailand, and soon in Scotland. I also had the opportunity to lead one of their breakout workshops on the storytelling curriculum we’ve been using and developing here, another good time with good feedback and questions

Saturday we crammed two days worth of board meetings in to one. A full, but encouraging, day. I really appreciate these folks and they had some solid, challenging things to teach us, to ask us, and to guide us towards.

This week I am taking some time off to complete the transformation of our home, and hopefully get us physically ready for this baby to come. I have a big list, and I am excited to knock it out!

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Retreats, Wiffle Ball, and Tacos

Last Monday and Tuesday, the Sojourn staff got away to New Hampshire for some evaluating, planning, and sports. This picture makes it look like all we did was play, but we really did work…a lot…and in to the wee hours of the night. Progress was made. I think last year helped clarify some important things for us, and this next year is going to be a time of growth. Just a gut feeling.

On a different note: Amy, and our friend Aleyda (umb student), made tortillas on Saturday. Amy made flour and Aleyda corn and they were both excellent. Especially when stuffed with delicious meat, guac, and salsa. So good!

Birthday, Community, Etc

Yesterday was my birthday. Thanks for all the love everyone! It was a fairly normal day overall…carrot cake for breakfast (thanks babe!), went to the eye doctor, ran some errands, did some work, tried to stay cool (the first day of summer came in with a vengeance: 97 degrees!), and then hung out with our student summer community (see pic). They sang me happy birthday and gave me some great cards. Love it!