CollegeLife

So we got back from Passion late on Saturday Night/Early sunday morning.  I think that everyone who went had a really good time.  The worship was powerful, the speaking was honest, passionate and true, the production was top notch….But the challenge last night at collegelife was not to talk about “Passion”.  The world is not hungry to hear about a conference, your roommate is not interested in another retreat, your family is not dying to hear about another experience–the world is hungry to hear about CHRIST. 

We started the discussion last night with this thought, “God is teaching me….” So it doesn’t matter whether or not you went to passion- What is God teaching you? When’s the last time you shared with someone what God was teaching you? Are you confident in the power of what God is doing in your life?

You should be…because you’ve got Christ in you.  Your story is powerful.  Your story can change the people around you.  Your story is part of HIS story.

So tell your story this week.  Don’t talk about the stuff, talk about what Christ is teaching you.  Tell your story.

We are starting a new series this weekend: Tattoo- do not be conformed…be transformed.

What would it look like for scripture to be tattooed upon your heart? What if your mind was filled with scripture? How do we remove the images, words, thoughts, etc…that are already ingrained in our thinking? Paul tells us- if you want to be different, renew your mind! So how do we do that?

Tattoo: A new series- 7pm Greenbrier Ridge Apartments. 

Oh you know! It’s time for a winter retreat and it’s coming up fast.  Pretty much if you watch the super bowl, go for jog after all the pizza and chips, get your “special someone” a Valentine’s gift, and celebrate arbor day- after that- it’s the winter retreat!!!!

February 22-24th!  Sign ups have begun, so you won’t be the first to sign up, but you definitely don’t want to be the last! It’s going to be a great weekend to get away and think, pray, worship, laugh and grow HARD! $65 dollars gets you in the door! But if money is a problem let us know and it won’t be anymore.

Email jneely@fefc.com if you have any questions. You can get a sign up sheet from him at church on Sundays or at Crossroad.  The dealine is Feb. 17th.

So we wrapped up our “The Way I see it” series last night. We continued to see that Joseph is the ultimate example of living like he was confident that God was with him.  Even in the midst of having all the power, he did not take it out on his brothers!? Instead of paying them back, he forgives them- it’s sort of crazy!

But the question remains for me and you- how will we live this week?  Will we leave in our circumstances, or will we let our faith guide us through our circumstances?  No matter how good or bad, will we live like we are certain God is with us?

The way I see it…I’m confident God is with me!

 See you round.

 That’s right pack the boxes, dust under the rugs, grab a dolly- we’re moving!

Those of you who were in CollegeLife yesterday heard the big news that CollegeLife is moving to Sunday Nights starting this fall, and those of you that weren’t there- now you know !  We will kick off the fall semester with a pool/movie/cook out on Sunday the 19th at 5 pm at the Neely’s House (you can find out how to get there on the directions page).

Then on August 26th we will start our all new CollegeLife!  We will meet on Sunday Nights at 7pm at Greenbrier Ridge Apartments Clubhouse (again directions are listed). This will give us more of an opportunity to be with one another, spend time together and just dig into life.

So here we go!

So how do Christians think? What’s the grid you use to tell if something is good?  Is it possible for something to be technically excellent with a bad message? What about the opposite? 

If you were in CollegeLife yesterday you heard an interesting lesson on how we as Christians can engage the culture.  Frank Mashburn challenged us on how we interact with non-Christians.  Is it more of a war, everyone smiling and simply getting along, viewing yourself as the light to your classroom, etc…

Perhaps we need to look through a different grid as we dialogue with those who surround us.  The grid had 4 quadrants:

1. Technically Excellent- Good Message= Frank’s Message

2. Technically Bad- Good Message= Some Christian Music

3. Technically Excellent- Bad Message= Some Secular Music

4. Technically Bad- Bad Message= Lots of music, art, etc…

These are just examples.  Plenty of things fall under these categories: your professors’ lectures, art, music, conversations, books, thoughts, blogs, etc… 

So this challenges us to interact with people and not simply have a definitive answer for everything. Perhaps we can learn from the non-Christian sitting next to you in class. Just maybe your math teacher does know the quadratic equation even though she doesn’t know John 3:16.

 Can you watch South Park? What about listening to Barlow Girls? Can you learn from your philosophy professor?  What about science?

Like Paul on Mars Hill, we must know those we are dealing with and not simply act like all of culture is ignorant.  What Frank challenged me with is this: We as Christians DO have a Good message- the question is do we portray it with excellence?  It would be easy to claim that we have THE message and not worry about doing everything we can to paint that message with excellence.  That means our social lives, our homework, the way we deal with unbelievers, everything; done with excellence.

As the summer comes to an end, many students ask, “What has happened this summer? Have I changed any?” Well in College Life today, the topic of discussion was about the summer, how the summer has affected us spiritually. During discussion, we heard a story of a mission trip to Japan where 23 people came to have a personal relationship with Jesus. Also, we heard about mission trips to Vietnam and Mexico where people just need love. Finally, we heard stories about how God has moved the students who resided in Knoxville.

In summary, what has God done for you this summer? Is it what you expected? What does God have in store for you as we approach the upcoming school year? Is it unfathomable? Post your comments, or tell your story about the summer, and how it has affected you.

What comes to mind when you think of psychology, and how it relates to Christianity? Do college classes/cultures fully explain our behavior in words? Well, yesterday in College Life Kevin Huggins explained how psychology has formulated throughout the past decades and “How Psychological Models View the Human Soul.”Psychology is an ever-changing topic with the interval of theories being about twenty years because new theories are determined to find the force behind human behavior. The past decades of Psychology can be broken up into four groups:

• First Force Psychology or Psychodynamic Psychotherapy thought that the primary force behind human behavior was unconsciousness drives in a person’s soul. Some subgroups that fall within the First Force are: Psychoanalytical, Transactional Analysis, and Neo-Freudian. (During the 1950’s)
• Second Force Psychology or Behavorial Psychotherapy thought that the primary force behind human behavior was a person’s present environment. Groups that fall within this category are: Behavorial, Multimodal, Systemic, and Feminist. (During the 1960’s and 1970’s)
• Third Force Psychology or Humanistic Psychotherapy thought that the primary force behind human behavior was human choice. Person-Centered, Reality, Gestalt, and Narrative were some subgroups of the third force. (During the 1980’s and 1990’s)
• Fourth Force Psychology or Postmodern Psychotherapy thinks that the primary force behind human behavior is spiritual calling. The three subgroups are Empirical or Outcome-based Psychotherapy, Integrative, and Tanspersonal. (In our culture today)

With psychological theories ever changing, the one theory that truly answers the nature of our human soul and behavior is the Biblical Counseling Theory. This theory explains that all souls share a nature by dependency-on resources that only God can provide, duty-to serve the God who created them, dignity-to choose their own behavior/character, and depravity-that compels them to advance their own interest at the expense of God and others.

So after diving into psychology, what is your view of it? Does the Biblical model of the soul overcome the four models viewed over the years?

In other news, this is a reminder of the study of Hebrews tomorrow night at Greenbrier 7pm. After Tuesday Nights, you are all welcome to come out to the Chick-fil-A (on Kingston Pike). It’s going to be way cool!