among the wolves

Last Saturday at 3 PM I gathered with nine students to study John 3:1-21. Seven of those students were part of WULF - Wash U's League of Freethinkers. With the end of the semester rapidly approaching and no guarantee that they would want to continue to study Scripture with me in the spring I gave three of their leaders the choice of which passage we would explore and they chose John 3 - Jesus and Nicodemus.

Needless to say as I stood in front of the group and shared some background information on the passage and the basic ground rules of inductive Bible Study I felt like I was about to be fed to the wolves. Facilitation wise, it was probably one of the most difficult studies I've ever led. They had a really tough time actually making observations and kept diving directly into interpreting the passage. After a couple of hours I was exhausted and unsure if any of the main points were coming across. In hindsight, however, I can see some of the things that were happening:

• A couple of the students were clearly wrestling with the idea that spiritual birth is something that comes from "above" rather than something we can manufacture on our own.
  

• The tension created by the location of a verse about God's love as it is expressed in sending Jesus (3:16) and a verse about the condemnation of those who persist in unbelief (3:18) evoked a very strong negative reaction from one student in particular. Again, this gave me insight into his spiritual questions and struggle with the Gospel.
  

• Several of the students thanked me afterward and expressed that they had never actually studied any part of the Bible.

I expected hard questions and I definitely had those in abundance. I also expected that we wouldn't be able to answer them all adequately in the time allowed. This was also true but it provides an opportunity for further conversation with individuals who participated.

I would very much appreciate your prayers as I follow-up with the WULF students and challenge them to continue to explore Scripture with me this spring.

advent

Come, thou long-expected Jesus,
born to set thy people free;
from our fears and sins release us,
let us find our rest in thee.

Israel's strength and consolation,
hope of all the earth thou art:
dear desire of every nation,
joy of every longing heart.

The lines of Charles Wesley's hymn have been running through my head for the past couple of weeks. I am more thoughtful about this season of expectant waiting than I have been in the past. Clear identification of the unmet longings lying buried in your heart will do that to you.

And so I find myself desperately hoping for the arrival of this long-expected Jesus all over again.

proxé station

Extreme Makeover: Campus Edition

"If you could makeover one aspect of your external appearance what would it be?"

We had the opportunity to ask that question to dozens of Wash U students recently. Two weeks ago we experimented with a form of campus outreach known around InterVarsity as the Proxé Station. According to the guidebook that I used to train students prior to our event a Proxé Station is a guided experience that is used to clearly explain the Gospel and help people respond appropriately. It uses interactive art, questions, and conversation to enable participants to discover realities about God, themselves, and their world, which move them to respond to Jesus.

Students who responded to our opening question about their external reality were invited to respond to a question about their internal reality and it was fascinating to listen to their responses. While a few students said that they were completely happy with their physical appearance all of them had things about their inner realities that they wanted to see change. Quite a few were open to hearing us share the Gospel and explain how Jesus offers hope for true transformation of our internal realities. Good stuff!

The response was extremely positive and I am excited about doing more Proxé Station outreach at Wash U in the spring as a collaborative effort between all of the InterVarsity chapters on campus. Several students expressed interest in taking a look at Scripture with us after they were guided through the proxé experience. Please pray for fruitful conversations as we continue to pursue follow up interactions with these new friends who desire to learn more about Jesus.

Allison and Ly guide a Wash U student through the Proxé experience.

eager feet

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And wither then? I cannot say.

- J.R.R. Tolkien

Tomorrow we're setting up an interactive display on campus for a couple of hours in order to engage students in conversation about their internal realities and how the good news of the Gospel offers hope for transformation. Pray for good connections and the cultivating of much curiosity about Jesus.

This week One Voice is also committing to inviting our friends to study three passages out of John's Gospel over the first three weeks of November. These GIGs (Groups Investigating God) are a change to invite our curious friends to consider the things we've been learning about Jesus this semester. Pray for boldness as we invite and build community around the Word.

As we press on into the second half of this semester I am mindful that we are not always sure where the road is leading, but we are sure who is walking ahead of us. That makes all the difference.

sufficient

Confidence in the sufficiency of Jesus - my pastor in Tucson defined faith as such. I find myself agreeing with him more and more, especially as I step out into greater risks and invite students to do the same.

Tonight I am having to remind myself of this as I prepare to work on fundraising after a week full of other relational risks on campus. I am confident in his sufficiency.

living water

Yup, that's me - looking terrified in the last row and leaning forward.

Last weekend I fulfilled a lifelong dream: whitewater rafting on a legitimate river. I survived - thrived, actually - through the experience and it was every bit as exciting as I had hoped it would be.

Earlier in the week I had the opportunity to spend three days studying John 1-4 in the company of the Urbana Bible Study teaching team. In the final session we dove into Jesus' interaction with the woman at the well. While I am keenly aware of the way Jesus has been using this preparation time in each of the four passages to refine me, I've been mulling over the 4th chapter of John's Gospel for months now. This time Jesus' offer of "living water" stood out. We talked about living water carrying the cultural understanding of moving water as opposed to water from a well or cistern. For some reason I'd always associated that phrase with something tame, like a fountain. As soon as moving water came up in the conversation, however, the fountain image in my head gave way to a river: wild, untamed, and rapid.

As I rafted the living water of the Ocoee River I couldn't help but marvel at the invitation that Jesus offers us.

Our fitting response is to give it away.

On the last and greatest day of the Festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them."
John 7:37-38 (TNIV)

i will draw all people to myself

Visions Gospel Choir

I am spending a lot of time reading/meditating/studying Scripture these days. The Gospel of John gets a significant chunk of my time, thanks to Urbana. I am fascinated by Jesus' words about himself. He makes a particularly bold claim in John 12:32 - "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." (TNIV)

Last Saturday night Wash U hosted a huge party for the Class of 2013 at the St. Louis Science Center. Visions Gospel Choir, part of InterVarsity's Harambee chapter at Wash U, was invited to perform. I've been singing with Visions since last fall and it has been a great way to build cross-fellowship relationships and manage to have a musical outlet for myself!

There is something incredibly powerful about speaking - or singing - truth in front of a crowd. As I surveyed the freshmen gathering around us and leaning over the railings of the upper levels of the Science Center to listen to us on Saturday night it hit me that we were lifting up the name of Jesus in a public place and at the invitation of the university administration! Crazy, right?

I believe that Jesus speaks the truth. The drawing people to himself is his job, but we get to play our part in lifting him up!