So Labor Day is over, the fireworks have exploded and it’s back to the grind. Don’t forget that CollegeLife is back this Sunday @ 7pm at Greenbrier.
We are starting a new series entitled, The Way I See It (based off of the Starbucks cups). We are going to talk about how our circumstances often affect our faith and skew our view. See you there.
This is it! The first Sunday Night CollegeLife!
I hope you can make it out Sunday Night @ 7pm at Greenbrier Ridge Apartments Clubhouse- imagine a Starbucks, but with more space!
This Sunday the lesson is titled, “Imagine…” What would our lives look like if we thought about others the way Christ does? What would our churches look like if we treated the “sinners” the same way Jesus did? can you imagine?
See you Sunday @7pm.
And don’t forget on Monday at 6:30pm before Crossroad we will have a free pizza dinner to find out more about CollegeLife this semester. There is a facebook event you can go join to tell us you will be there.
Thanks
Thanks to all who came out to the Pool.Movie.Cookout party at the Neely’s house last night. There was swimming, food, and the movie Hitch for everyone to enjoy. Again, be sure to check us out next week at our new location and time. We will meet on Sunday Nights at 7pm at Greenbrier Ridge Apartments Clubhouse (directions are in Direction section of the webpage). We hope to see you all there!
This Sunday, August 19th, Pool.Movie.Cookout party at Ed and Paulette Neely’s House!(Click on the Directions Tab above) We’ll swim for a while starting at 5pm, eat some dinner, and then watch a movie out by the pool. Email jneely@fefc.com if you have any questions!
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.
So after another wonderful Tuesday Night Gathering at Greenbrier many headed over to chick-fil-a to grab a milkshake and play a little apples to apples! What fun- games at a chick-fil-a on a Tuesday night!
Last night we talked about running the race in Hebrews 12. Ed, J.C.’s dad, led us in an energetic discussion of what does it mean to “run the race.” So for you what does it mean?
Are you running the race?
What does it mean to win the race?
Many said that death would be winning, but Ed was quick to point out, now that Christ is IN us, winning the race is daily letting Christ live through us. God is His grace isn’t making us wait till Heavn to know Him, God came here!
So I’ll end with his question: How are you doing in the race?
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:
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!
So last night at our Tuesday Night Gathering we talked about faith? Hebrews 11- the Hall of Fame of faith. But how do you really define faith? It would be easy to quote the author of Hebrews and say, “it’s being sure of what you hope for and certain of what is unseen.” But what does that even mean? That’s easy to quote, but hard to put action behind.
We landed on a couple of different analogies- faith is hope in action. It’s more than just memorizing information about God, it’s being transformed BY God. Not having faith is like being a chef who has memorized a cook book but never actually cooked anything, what a waste! Not having faith is like creating an amazing chair but never putting your weight on it and letting it hold you. HAVING faith is like looking at a “magic eye” poster and “getting it”. Even if the world around you can’t see the picture, you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you see it.
That’s how it is with Christ. Even when the world around you says they don’t understand, having faith is being certain of who Jesus is! Having faith is being sure that God is who he says he is and he’s going to do what he says he’s going to do.
So what is your faith like?
How would you describe your faith? Is it mental assent or is there action behind it?
Chapter 11 of Hebrews has a lot of action words- does your faith have action? Not works- just stepping out in faith, trusting God is who He says He is and God will do what He says He’s going to do.