Meta-Ministry

Clarity, Movement, Alignment, and Focus

2009-06-16T22:42:00.002-04:00

The following is one of the documents I shared at the campus ministry student leaders' lock-in last spring. It forms a conceptual basis for the Ambassadors for Christ discipleship process. I wanted to post these items here as a resource for future A4X leaders and to recommend the book from which I am drawing.

From the Book “Simple Church”
Essential Elements of a Disciple-Building Process

Churches and ministries stagnate when they become inefficient and overly complex, when different sub-ministries compete for time, space, resources, and volunteers. In their study of 407 churches, Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger found that the churches which were growing were very simple. They did fewer things than the other churches, but they did them better. These “simple churches” had a ministry process that possessed the following traits:

CLARITY – this means the process can be communicated and understood by the people. The process must be simple and clearly defined. It must be clear to the leaders before it can become clear to the church. The goal is that the process will be internalized by everyone.

MOVEMENT – This means that the process has a series of sequential steps to move people to greater areas of commitment. This is about flow and assimilation, about getting people to the next step. Picture a relay race, which is won or lost based on the handoffs. Movement is about how someone is handed off to the next level of commitment.

ALIGNMENT – This means that all ministries and staff are arranged around the same simple process. This ensures that the whole body is moving in the same direction. All programs and activities follow the same blueprint. There is no competition for resources, calendar time, and volunteers.

FOCUS – This means we are committed to abandoning everything that falls outside of the simple ministry process. It means saying “no” to things that don’t contribute to the process. Focus takes guts, but it gives power to the other three elements. We achieve simplicity by viewing everything through the lens of the simple process.

Ambassadors for Christ: A Church of Christ Campus Ministry

2009-06-13T13:00:00.001-04:00

The following is part of an older document I prepared to help bring focus to the campus ministry and keep it true to its roots.

Ambassadors for Christ is the campus ministry in Tallahassee which represents what is known as the “mainline,” non-instrumental churches of Christ.

The Christian families known as “churches of Christ” are the product of the American Restoration Movement (or Stone-Campbell Movement), which was a “back-to-the-Bible” unity movement of the early 19th century. The Restoration Movement sought to unite a divided Christendom by discarding sectarian names, denominational superstructures, man-made confessions, and non-biblical terminology. By doing so, we sought to “restore” the Lord’s church to its original theological teachings, polity, and worship practices as seen in the New Testament.

Although many of us now believe that the New Testament does not necessarily provide a single clear pattern of how the church is organized and how it worships, we do hold to several concepts which distinguish us from other Christian groups:

(1) We believe the Bible teaches that penitent believers have their sins forgiven (and become part of the body of Christ) at the moment of baptism, an immersion in water that re-enacts the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, and symbolizes the cleansing of our sin. As Romans 6 explains, baptism is the line of demarcation between the old life in the flesh and the new life in the Spirit.
(2) We prefer to worship together without the accompaniment of music instruments, as this is how the earliest Christians worshiped. Furthermore many of us are uncomfortable incorporating instruments into worship when the New Testament appears to lack specific authority for doing so.
(3) We believe that churches should be led at the local level by spiritually qualified leaders (known as elders, overseers, or shepherds) selected from among the congregation itself. Each body of believers is autonomous, with no higher authority besides Christ our Head. In this sense we feel that we are non-denominational – we have no controlling body or written confession.
(4) We believe in observing the Lord’s Supper every week, as this appears to be the practice of the first-century church and forms the core of our worship experience together.
(5) Churches of Christ are non-charismatic in that we believe that the indwelling Holy Spirit works among us today in subtle, invisible ways and rarely if ever through what could be considered miraculous signs. We believe that God has called us to use our spirit-aided intellects to draw truth from Scripture without the need for extra-biblical revelation.
(6) While recognizing that the Bible is not in essence a legal document or instruction manual, we strive to establish biblical authority or precedent for everything we do and teach so that we do not corrupt God’s message or our lives of worship with “human teachings.” This is exemplified in the Restoration Movement motto, “We speak where the Bible speaks and are silent where the Bible is silent.”

Our motivation behind each of these distinctive teachings is full submission to God. Our passionate desire is to live completely in harmony with God’s laws in our ethics, organization, and worship. Thus we are committed to the ongoing task of restoration, which means that each generation must re-evaluate everything we do in light of Scriptural teaching and precedent so that Christ’s church can exist pure and unblemished before him.

Ambassadors for Christ: An Older Mission Statement

2009-06-13T12:11:00.001-04:00

The following is an older "vision" document I created to help give me clarity in shaping the campus ministry. It is written in a gospel tract format to appeal to outsiders.

Ambassadors for Christ is a guerrilla force in God’s resistance movement to battle the forces of evil and oppression. But the battle begins in your own heart.

RESTORING GOD’S CREATION (BEGINNING WITH YOURSELF)

We believe that Jesus will be ultimately victorious against the powers of evil, and we want you to join us in his resistance movement. Joining Jesus means becoming part of the “Kingdom of God.” The Kingdom of God is wherever God has complete control. We challenge you to submit to God and let him direct every moment of your life. The Kingdom is manifested on earth in the organic body known as the church, or more literally, “assembly” of God. God adds you to this family, according to the Bible, when you turn your life over to God through faith, repentance, and baptism. The person who comes to believe in Jesus as God-in-the-flesh and commits to following Christ instead of the world (repentance) is then baptized (buried in water) in a ceremony that represents dying to your earlier way of life and being resurrected or born again as a new person empowered by God’s indwelling Holy Spirit.

SERVICE AND TEACHING (OUR WEAPONS)

We fight evil through doing acts of love and through teaching the truth about God, humankind, and world we find ourselves in. As we purge the evil (the temptations of the flesh) from our own hearts, we also battle to purge society of injustice and to rescue individuals from whatever oppresses them, whether that be destructive sinful habits, addictions, bad relationships and life situations, etc. We wish for all people to achieve peace, which is a state of wholeness, balance and meaning given by God.

WORSHIP AND FELLOWSHIP

We are overwhelmed with gratitude that God has rescued us from ourselves and called us to join this movement. Our natural response to God’s love (and a necessary part of achieving inner balance) is to engage in the regular worship of the Creator. It is essential to our battle plan to gather together, direct our energies toward thanking and worshipping our divine benefactor, and then challenge each other to greater personal development and acts of service.

SCRIPTURE

We believe that a resistance movement must operate on the basis of authority higher than itself. As such, we seek to fully submit to the Bible. We read this collection of stories, laws, and poetry as a manifesto for change and we seek its guidance in every area of our lives, especially in the realms of ethics, theology, philosophy, and in how we organize ourselves and conduct our worship toward God.

A CHALLENGE TO YOU

If you wish to join our movement and pursue this dream of a healed creation, then you must pledge your loyalty to God, turn from self-destructive violation of his will, and become a new person with a fresh start through baptism. Make loyalty to God the focus of your existence, and it will fill your life with direction and purpose.

"Radical Faith" Lesson Plans Online

2009-06-03T15:30:00.000-04:00

So far, our "Radical Faith" class at FSU has drawn from two lesson plans. The first one, an introduction to George Barna's Revolution, has already been posted here.

The second one is an attempt to understand the uniqueness of the early church based on Frank Viola's approach in Pagan Christianity. You can download it here.

The third lesson plan, for use on June 4, lists the topics in Pagan Christianity so we can choose a couple of them to discuss. You can find it here.

May 2009 A4X Schedule

2009-05-16T14:17:00.000-04:00

Here's the schedule of upcoming post-Spring -graduation campus ministry activities (complete with links to applicable web sites and Facebook groups).

Regular Events

Brennan's On-Campus "Radical Faith" class @ FSU: Tuesday and Thursday nights at 7:30pm May 12-28

Sunday Afternoon On-Campus Worship @ FSU's Union Green: Sundays at 3pm, starting May 17.

One-Time Events

May 17 (Sun) Meridian Woods High School Graduation Banquet (6pm)

May 22-23 Men’s Camping Trip @ Torreya State Park

May 30 (Sat) Beach Trip and Film Discussion (“Lord Save Us from Your Followers”)

May 31 (Sun) Potluck Farewell Party for the Hugheses @ Meridian Woods

June 17-21 "Youth for Christ Conference" in Orlando

July 9-12 “Campus Ministry United” Workshop @ Harding

July 30-Aug. 1 NCMS/”Connect” Conference in Atlanta

Radical Faith Class #1 (May 12)

2009-05-12T17:23:00.003-04:00

The lesson plan for the first meeting of our on-campus "Radical Faith" class is available for download off my website here.

In this lesson, I bring out some of the main themes from George Barna's Revolution which pertain to our class and campus ministry.

Before class #2, I also recommend reading my old blog post on The Ideal New Testament Worship Service.

Schedule for "Radical Faith" Class

2009-05-05T16:53:00.003-04:00

Here's what to expect from our Tuesday-Thursday On-Campus Bible Study, which will meet at 7pm at FSU's Askew Student Life Center. Click here to get an overview of the books I'm referencing.

Class #1: Revolution: Taking Your Spiritual Development Into Your Own Hands (May 12)

We begin the May study with a challenge to the students to take responsibility for their own spiritual growth, and to think about where they want to take the Church in the future as they grow into positions of leadership. George Barna's Revolution will alert us to some of the spiritual trends which will be shaping that future.

Class #2: Constructing a Picture of the Early Church (May 14)

We will look at the books of Acts and I Corinthians to get a picture of how early Christians worshiped, and why they worshiped that way. This will allow us to think critically about our own church experiences. As Restorationists, the original New Testament church is our pattern or base-line, the ideal picture toward which we struggle in our modern context.

Class #3: The Beginnings of the Restoration Movement (May 19)

As future church leaders, we can not chart a wise course for the future without a grasp of our past. In this class, we'll look briefly at the foundational documents, concepts, and people which gave birth to the Restoration Movement and Churches of Christ.

Class #4: Radical Restoration: A Re-assessment of the Restoration (May 21)

In his book, F. LaGard Smith argues that there are very profound and specific ways we can more closely emulate the New Testament church, and how doing so could revolutionize everything.

Class #5: Pagan Christianity Part 1: The Origins of Our Traditions (May 26)

In his book, Frank Viola contrasts the New Testament Church with Protestant churches of today and charts, through deep historical research, the origins of many of our practices, traditions, and terms that differ from what we see in the early church.

Class #6: Pagan Christianity Part 2: Reconstructing the Early Church Today (May 28)

In our last class, we review what we have learned historically about the development of modern church practices and dream about how we as church leaders can help steer God's body toward habits that are more faithful to scripture and God's vision for how the church is to function.

Summer Students

2009-05-03T22:47:00.002-04:00

For campus ministry leaders and organizers. . . here is a list of the Meridian Woods-attending/associated students (and student-like people) I know so far who will be in Tallahassee this May (and probably most of the summer). In other words, here are the people to invite to things. No doubt I've left somebody off, so corrections would be appreciated.

Guys:
I.T. Antigha
Tyler Bidwell
Gregory Culmer
Alex Cutts
Doug Davis
Jared Kinyon
Matthew Lavery
Brandon Marsters
John Melton
David Schubert
Jared Vernon
Danny Wagner
Daniel Watson
Adam Wimpee
Daniel Wise

Ladies:
Lacey Connelly
Kristen Cotton
Alaina Cribbs
Bethany Lambert
Chelli MacDonald
Rachel Masters
Lynn Papapetrou
Katrina Rivera
Bekah Samples
Nakeisha Smith
Courtney Warren
Leah Wells
Brittany Wix

For the Future: A Campus Ministry Proposal

2009-05-02T20:15:00.004-04:00

I wrote this proposal shortly before my announcement that I would be leaving campus ministry to return to grad school. I believe that the campus ministry could be conducted more effectively for less money if it was conceived as a church plant (instead of a cooperative multi-church effort or a ministry of Meridian Woods) and conducted by a team of adult volunteers (instead of a full-time campus minister).

I know this may not be the best plan for this time (and the decision is not in my hands), but I wanted to disseminate it as a possible guide for a long-term campus ministry project. I offer it in a spirit of helpfulness and nothing more. My experiences with the churches in Tallahassee have been fantastic. And some people who knew of my proposal's existence have asked me to make it available.

You can download the proposal in PDF form here.

By the way, the references to "feeding, friendship, and functioning" refer back to the mission statement /discipleship process found in this earlier post.

May 2009 A4X News

2009-05-01T12:05:00.003-04:00

Here's the scoop on what's new from your friendly neighborhood campus ministry.

Starting May 17, we're moving the weekly campus worship from the A4X House to FSU's Union Green, and from 6:30pm to 3:00pm (at least for this month). We're working on making the campus worship more evangelistic, so we're making it more visible, more campus-convenient, and focusing more on short lessons (the first three weeks will focus on "what makes a Christian"). So please come check it out, bring a friend, and come prepared for spiritual discussion.

My on-campus focused Bible study group will resume May 12 with a six-lesson series meeting on both Tuesdays and Thursdays through the month of May. Unlike the "Sex God" study, Thursdays will not be repeats, but each meeting will be different (though we'll certainly recap). The classes meet at 7:00pm, and we'll gather for the first class at FSU's Askew Student Life Center. To get more info on the class, see this blog entry, and to stay informed you can join this Facebook group.

Perhaps my last two official campus ministry events are coming up the last two weekends of May.

The first is a men's camping/hiking excursion to beautiful Torreya State Park. We'll have fun guy time and talk about the challenges of being Christian men. I have reserved a primitive campsite at the top of a hill in the woods. Meet at Meridian Woods at 5pm Friday May 22. You can RSVP via Facebook here.

The second is a trip to the beach. We haven't travelled to St. George Island since last July, and this time we're also incorporating a thought-provoking film experience. En route to the beach, we'll watch the documentary "Lord Save Us From Your Followers" on the Meridian Woods bus, and discuss the film over lunch when we arrive. RSVP here for this event, which starts at the A4X House at 10am on Saturday May 30.
This is a beefy buffet of fellowship and spiritual contemplation, and I know nobody can attend all these opportunities, but please make your plans now, as time rushes past us quickly, and we must give an account to the Lord!

Ambassadors for Christ's Discipleship Process

2009-04-30T13:49:00.000-04:00

The following information was discussed recently at our student leaders' lock-in, as well as the Wednesday night Bible class. This plan is an attempt to bring clarity, movement, alignment, and focus to our campus ministry. We must be purposeful about how we foster spiritual growth among the students God brings into our fold.

Ambassadors for Christ

Vision and Mission Guide

Vision: Ambassadors for Christ (A4X) exists to develop college students into mature young disciples who bear fruit which demonstrates that they love God with their whole being, they love their neighbor as themselves, and they're crazy about Jesus.

Mission Statement:

Ambassadors for Christ (A4X) is a counterinsurgency force against the powers of evil. We fight the powers through feeding, friendship, and functioning.

“Feeding, Friendship, and Functioning” is the process through which A4X grows college students into mature Christian workers. The three steps can be visualized as the three bases on a baseball diamond.

First Base: A person who encounters our ministry first engages in “feeding” activities such as Bible classes and worship at a local church

Second Base: People who attend these worship and education events are then encouraged to progress to the next level – getting involved in a small group which focuses on building relationships and accountability. This is second base: friendship.

Third Base: Students who are plugged in to a friendship group are then encouraged to progress to third base, which is to become engaged in a service team. A functional Christian is one who is giving back by leading in the campus ministry, serving in a local church, or getting involved in another service or charity organization. Some student-led activities are “encounter activities” whose purpose is to bring new people into the ministry. Encounter activities which do not get results will be abandoned so something more effective can be pursued.

Home Plate: Finally, after the three bases are crossed, the student reaches home plate as he or she graduates ready to become an active contributor in a local church, in the community, and in a Christian home. Our task is to help each student become active at all three bases so they can reap the full benefit of the ministry.

The following list shows where many of our activities fit into the "running the bases" discipleship process. Any activity that does not contribute to the process is to be discarded in the name of simplicity. Let us excel at a few things, rather than be mediocre in many things.

First Base: Feeding

Bible classes and worship services at a sponsoring church

Calvin's Bible Study group on campus

Brennan's special study on-campus group

Second Base: Friendship

Sunday night A4X House worship

Friday night Springhill Road devotionals

Student-led small groups

Third Base: Functioning

A4X Officer/organizer

Small group leader

Leading encounter activities for meeting new students (like sports events)

Follow-up team (for visitors and new students)

Car parking fund-raising team

Bible teacher at a local church

Campus chalk promotions team

Campus tabling team

Student center cleanup team

Campus or youth ministry intern

Active member of a service organization (Big Brothers, Invisible Children, etc.)

Bible Camp Couselor

Summer mission trip worker

Encounter Activities (for meeting new prospects)

Tabling

Volleyball

Intramural Sports

Game nights

“Welcome week” activities

Picnics and church dinners

Talent shows

Nature trips

Don't Be Okay With Tepid Relgion

2009-04-29T13:49:00.006-04:00

This May brings my last on-campus Bible study series. We'll be meeting on Tuesday and Thursday nights at 7pm on campus at FSU. Our six-lesson study will draw from three different books, all arguing a similar thesis but from different starting points.

What did the original church look like, and how does it compare to the churches of today?

Am I complacent in my faith, or am I a radical, fruit-producing disciple of Christ?

How can campus ministry activate me spiritually and help me improve the churches of the future?

The first book to help us wrestle with questions such as these will be George Barna's Revolution. George Barna is a well-known statistician who has written many books dealing with spiritual trends. He believes that the congregational/institutional way of doing church is dying out, but he sees this as a good thing because it is being replaced by an underground "radical" version of Christianity which seeks sincere, effective, and efficient spiritual transformation.

The second book is Frank Viola's Pagan Christianity (a new edition co-authored with George Barna). This book is a historical study of where our current church practices came from. How did the early church worship, and why? How have we changed, and why? Frank overstates some things, but his general thesis is the the post-apostolic church has adopted many aspects of Pagan and Jewish religion which the first-century church had previously rejected. He challenges us to re-think the way we do everything and to be wholly faithful to the vision of church found in the New Testament.

The third book comes from prolific church-of-Christ writer F. LaGard Smith. In Radical Restoration, Smith argues that the churches of the Restoration Movement have not yet successfully restored the actual New Testament "pattern" for church organization and worship. He paints a picture of how things could be if we returned to a simple pattern of mutual-edification house churches.

These books are not required reading, but I will be drawing from them, and you are welcome to order them and read them yourself. It is my hope that they will enable the students to think outside the box and dream big about what A4X (and their future Christian experiences) can become and accomplish.

Classes will be every Tuesday and Thursday from May 12-28. For location and more info, please join the following Facebook group:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=86761071063

How I Ended Up Becoming a Law Student

2009-03-08T23:57:00.000-04:00

It was one of those weird things. I always considered myself a humanities kind of guy and had been envisioning myself becoming a professor for years. So it really threw me for a loop when I heard a voice inside my head (specifically my right temporal lobe) saying "You should go to law school." Say what? I had never thunk that thought before. But there I was, at 2am in Tallahassee Memorial Hospital with Chet asleep in the little bed beside me, an I.V. plug in his arm.

"Okay," I said. "I'll check it out."

I immediately pulled out my laptop computer and starting researching law schools and legal professions. It really started to look like something I could do: research, writing, public speaking. . . the same skills I utilized as a minister and scholar. But lawyers had lots more career options and earnings potential. And having 3 kids has made me a much more practical thinker. Having a Juris Doctor versus a Ph.D. seemed suddenly like such an obvious choice.

And FSU here in Tallahassee has a good law program. They recently penetrated the "top tier" of the law school rankings, coming in at number 49 according to U.S. News & World Report. But, I knew law school was three years full-time. They won't let you work while you attend, and I had hoped to keep doing campus ministry while going to grad school. Nevertheless, I signed up for the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) to see what would happen.

I took the test in June, kind of at the last minute. It was on a Monday afternoon at Valdosta State. After driving up there and walking across campus, I was worn out. By the time I got to the last section of the test (which was my worst section -- logic games), my brain just wasn't working anymore. I bombed the last section and got a 162, in the 86th percentile. That was a bummer. I'd never scored so low on a standardized test.

I put the plan on hold for a while. The fall school year started and I got so involved in work that I pretty much forgot about my law school dreams. Then one day when I was really stressed out, I went down to St. Mark's wildlife refuge to walk in the sun on the levees and clear my head. After about a half mile on the Florida Trail, though, I came upon a group of wild hogs. Yes, large wild hogs. I thought they were deer at first. They didn't notice me because they were busy chewing on some carcass. I'd never come upon such beasts before, but I had heard they were agressive. They were obviously carnivorous. I watched them for some time before deciding it would be in my best interest to turn around and not attempt to finish the trail. I returned to my car, and drove back to Tallahassee.But I didn't want to go home just yet. Kind of at random I ended up driving to the Wal-Mart at Appalachee. As I was walking in, I stopped to talk to this Hispanic fellow in a wheelchair who was asking people for money. As I talked to him about his tough breaks in life, who should walk up but one the college students, A.J. Walker! He worked at that Wal-Mart, and was coming in to check his work schedule. I walked around the store with A.J. and ended up going to Hungry Howie's with him.

At Howie's, A.J. talked about his dreams of being a preacher and asked me about my dreams and my grand master plan for my life. I told him about the law school thing and about how the idea had kind of fizzled and I wasn't pursuing it really anymore. Then A.J. gave me the pep talk of my life about how I need to follow that dream and let nothing get in my way. It totally got me psyched for law school again. I went home and got right to work filling out applications. I applied to FSU and Vanderbilt and signed up to re-take the LSAT. I got an LSAT workbook too, so I could conquer those rascally logic games.

I couldn't take the test in October because of our statewide retreat, so I signed up for the test on December 6. It would be in the morning and at FSU. Both good. Also, it would turn out to have logic games as the first section. Also good. What wasn't so good was that I came down with mononucleosis over Thanksgiving break. I was thus really sick and fatigued when I took my second LSAT, but I still managed to raise my score to a 172, which is 99th percentile and basically an incredible achievement in itself. The path was made clear, and on January 27 I found out I had been accepted to Vanderbilt (the #15 ranked school, if you're counting).

So, you see, this wouldn't have happened if I hadn't heard a voice and if I hadn't run into wild hogs at St. Mark's and if I hadn't stopped to talk to the guy in the wheelchair and if A.J. Walker hadn't taken me to Hungry Howie's. So thanks, A.J., wild hogs, wheelchair guy, and whoever was speaking in my right temporal lobe (you know who you are)!

What's Next?

2009-03-08T23:23:00.003-04:00

So, I've decided to go to law school in the fall (see the last two posts for more info). What's happening between now and then?

THE HOME: I am attempting to sell my condo through a 5-day bidding process this coming week. An ad will be out from Wed.-Sun. We'll have an open house Sat. and Sun. from 10-5, during which time I'll take bids from the guests. On Sunday night, I'll call all the bidders and let them show me how much people are willing to pay for my property. It's my hope that Monday I'll have an acceptable buyer. If that doesn't work, then I'll try something more traditional. I'm not in a hurry to leave, but I would like to get the house-selling out of the way so I can concentrate on other things.

A4X: I will be talking to the elders and the board about where the campus ministry can go from here, what long-term goals we might have for the ministry, and how it might be retooled to make it more effective. Tallahassee's universities are a mission field which cannot be ignored, but our previous efforts may have been hampered by inefficient ways of doing things.

VANDY VISIT AND OUR STUFF: I'm attending an admitted students' program on April 10. Lydia and I are taking this opportunity to send most of our possessions off to TN. I'll be packing a moving van on the 8th, driving to TN on the 9th, attending the orientation on the 10th, and unpacking the van on the 11th. I'll stay a few more days in TN to visit some people and get the house up there organized. We'll continue to live in Tallahassee, just without much stuff, like when we were diplaced by flooding for three months in 2007.

MARCH: We're in the process of electing new officers for A4X @ FSU. I'd like to take these current and future leaders on a camping trip the last Friday of March to spend some time thinking about the ministry strategically and philosophically. Spaces at the campsites are very limited. I'll have more info forthcoming soon. The Farm Trip and Veritas Forum are also big events.

My Announcement and Its Timing

2009-03-08T17:32:00.003-04:00

If you haven't read the details behind my decision to go to law school, please see my previous post. . .

This past Sunday after the "elder's prayer" at the beginning of worship I announced to Meridian Woods Church that I will be leaving by the fall to attend Vanderbilt Law School. Though the decision had been made a few weeks prior, I delayed the announcement until now for a number of reasons. I wanted to put off being the "outgoing campus minister" for as long as I could. I am going full throttle at my job (which I love) and did not want to appear like I was trying to back out of it. I wanted to give the church and its elders some time to enjoy the new preacher before I hit them with a new staff vacancy (and possible new minister search). And I wanted to have everything confirmed and lined up ready to go.

The only people at Meridian Woods whom I told what I was working on were the ones who come to my house every week -- the Elliott's LIFE group, Jan Davis, and Katie Gudgel -- and we had asked them to keep the information to themselves until we were ready to disclose it.

I had been wanting to make the announcement sometime around Spring Break to give the elders and AFC Board enough notice that they could have some time to plan where to go from here. What made this past week the critical time to go public was my decision to try to sell my condo through a bidding process this next weekend. There'd be no hiding things once my home was up for sale.

So, this past Wednesday night, I kind of barged into the elders' meeting and told them my plans. They were very understanding and supportive. I told them I wanted to tell the college class that night as well, but they encouraged me to save the announcement until Sunday morning. It's not just the college students, they pointed out, who care a lot about me and my family. And, they thought it would be best if the information didn't "trickle out," but was delivered at once to the whole congregation.

So, I made the announcement today. What I didn't expect was that so few college students would be there. I knew it was Spring Break, but I also knew that 40-50% of my college class would be still in town (mostly because of work). Perhaps the change to Daylight Savings Time took them by surprise.

Which is all to say that I wish there weren't so many of my students who didn't hear the news from me first. I really wanted to tell you all in person, but it didn't work out that way. It would have been nice to have made it a big production like when I did a slide show of our ultrasound pictures one Wednesday night and revealed to the class that they were actually looking at twins.

I love Tallahassee. I love Meridian Woods. I love campus ministry. But I feel strongly called in another direction now. I don't know where I'll end up, but I have faith that God has been preparing me for something even greater in the future. And I hope you understand. Now, let's have a great spring and summer!

One of Four: Ultra-Meta! Foundational Thoughts on Campus Ministry

2009-02-20T12:06:00.003-05:00

When I get a quiet moment, I often spend it thinking about philosophy of campus ministry. Why am I here? What am I really supposed to do? How do I measure success?

In the next few posts, I'll be publishing some things I wrote last year to help guide myself philosophically. One of my shortcomings has been not sharing these guiding principles with my students, but this will soon change. I'm currently working on a new mission statement and process for the ministry, which I'll be posting. But for now here's some older stuff which I hope is thought-provoking.

Keep in mind, these documents were written to be posted on this blog and for students to read. But when I got mono in December, they kind of got shelved for a while.

Car Parking, Round Two, UPDATED

2009-01-09T12:00:00.000-05:00

In this post, I'll keep a running tally of our car parking revenue from the final four FSU home games.

10/25 -- $820.
11/08 -- $740
11/15 -- $600
11/29 -- $1040

This total doesn't take into account expenses for food for the parking helpers, but it's still our biggest take ever, thanks to our being able to use the lot next door and thanks to FSU for scheduling so many home games.

My Health

2008-12-22T21:09:00.003-05:00

It's been a really rough month.

On November 30, after taking Krista's dog Pepper for a walk, I announced to Lydia that I felt exhausted and sick and needed to go to bed right away. The next morning was Sunday, and I made the rare move of staying home from Bible class and worship. But Krista was with us at the time, and had been throwing up for two days. I sensed something was wrong and took her to urgent care, which ended up two nights later with her gall bladder being removed.

I visited a clinic the next Wednesday with a list of weird symptoms. The nurse took samples for a battery of blood tests while I waited and wondered whether I had some horrible disease or just some really bad anxiety symptoms. A week after my visit, I got the call that I was diagnosed with mononucleosis. It was "resolving," she said, but resolving could take months.

People with mono generally are bedridden for 2-4 weeks. The whole disease lasts for about seven months. At this point I'd already been plugging along through really bad symptoms for a coulple of weeks. Additionally, a sebaceous cyst on my back had become infected and was growing more red and sore every day.

I had a similar infected cyst on my back five years ago, so I knew what I was dealing with. I'd actually gone to a dermatologist in October to see if he'd preemtively remove it, but he said it wasn't infected and didn't need treatment and sent me on my way.

The day after my test results I saw my doctor, who said he knew a lot about skin stuff and wanted to put me on antibiotics to knock out the infection so the cyst would shrink back to normal and he could remove it. That sounded good, but I went for a week on two different antibiotics, with no effect. On Friday the 19th, I visited the doctor again to have the thing dealt with more aggressively. The cyst was getting so swollen and sore I occasionally screamed and collapsed when I touched it the wrong way. The doc injected me with lots of anesthesia (very painful), then he cut the abcess open and squeezed out lots of sebum and puss, which was also very painful because the anesthesia wasn't working on me. He packed the wound with some antibiotic gauze tape and sent me home with instructions to change the pad daily and return on Monday. He left a "wick" of the gauze tape sticking out of the hole in order to drain the puss from my cyst. Click here to see a photo of the human candle.

On Monday morning (this morning), I visited the doc (this time with Lydia), and he yanked out the gauze tape and showed Lydia the procedure of how to clean out my wound. She's supposed to do this twice a day. After using a warm compress to bring the wound "to a head," Lydia then dips a Q-Tip in hydrogen peroxide and thrusts it into the hole in my back. Ow. Then she milks my incredibly sore bruised abcess and pushes the puss and little white chunks of sebum out of the hole. It's all quite painful, even though I'm on pain meds.

Meanwhile, for the past week, all three of our kids have been sick with a cold (lots of fevers, phlegm, mucus, and tears), and my in-laws have been visiting. I've spent a lot of time in bed, thankful that I haven't had to hold crying babies very much. I look forward to my abcess drying out and closing up so that Lydia doesn't have to squeeze it like a giant zit anymore. And I look forward to the kids getting well so they won't be constantly waking up in the night because they can't breathe.

Meanwhile, in other news, Chet has an appointment for surgery in Jacksonville on January 27 to correct and undescended testicle. And, my dad has surgery probably in January to replace his pacemaker battery and also to repair a pucker on his (formerly detached) retina which is severely impacting his vision. Also, my grandmother and her husband were in a car wreck on the same morning I found out I had mono. She got a broken sternum from the airbag, but was released that day to heal at home. So it's been quite a month. I'm way behind in answering emails and phone calls, and I've gained ten pounds over the last two months because I couldn't do strenuous exercise (in retrospect I see now that my mono symptoms may have started as early as late September). But I guess really the timing couldn't be better, as most of my students are gone and we've got family here to help through the holiday times (the Wilsons are leaving in the morning, and the Hugheses are coming Saturday). And, as my mother-in-law says, mono is a young person's disease, so having it should make me feel young, right?

Service Projects Begin to Abound

2008-11-13T14:35:00.002-05:00

On Oct. 31, while many of the college students were in Atlanta for the FSU game, some of us stayed behind and took 15 kids trick-or-treating. These are kids who get tutoring at the Grace Mission just outside Frenchtown. When some kids said that they needed costumes and wanted someone to take them trick-or-treating, it was college students to the rescue! Brennan picked them up in the bus, and then took them to the Trunk-Or-Treat at Faith Presbyterian and to Chic-Fil-A which gave us a special deal on kids' meals. Bailey Spitzner and others were able to collect money and costume donations to make the evening a success.

Last Sunday, members of the Meridian Woods college class reparied the bridge down the hill from the church parking lot using replacement parts crafted by Jim Morgan. We did this project to make up for the fact that Brennan has a prior engagement and many students will be studying for exams on the upcoming Meridian Woods work day Dec. 6. Next, the college group will be replacing light bulbs!

Several members also attended the screening of the "Go" film by the "Invisible Children" organization last Monday and learned more about the suffering in Northern Uganda.

On December 13, some of our crew will be travelling to Orlando to build bikes for the annual "Bikes and Trikes for Tykes" project.

Adam's Tuesday night group has been discussing turning their meetings into a service project, rather than just Bible study, time. Interestingly, just after emailing Lynn a list of needy people I had already compiled, I got a phone call from a lady raising 5 grandkids who was desperate for food. Three students took her a box of nonperishables after Bible class Wednesday night. We're working on the best way to follow up and see this family through the end of the year.

Velvet Elvis and Sex God on Tuesday Nights

2008-11-04T11:59:00.005-05:00

In late September, I started a new group and only invited new students. I wanted to make up for lost opportunities: Tropical Storm Fay forced us to cancel our two biggest kickoff activities, and I was unhappy with the fact I was in internet contact with a number of new students, but had actually met so few. I also wanted to establish a group at FSU that was separate from our core upperclassmen group that meets at Adam's.

The Tuesday Starbucks group has turned out to be my best idea this semester, and interest flourished after I decided to use Rob Bell's Velvet Elvis as our text. We've had about nine students attending each week. Most are new, but we've also pulled in a couple of non-freshmen, which adds some diversity.

If you'd like to join us, I still have three extra copies of the book, or you can find your own. We will meet on Nov. 4 (ch. 4), 11 (ch. 5), 18 (ch. 6), and 25 (ch. 7), which will finish us up before the holiday season.

I'll start the group up again on Jan. 20, with Rob Bell's follow-up book Sex God as curriculum. I already have ten copies of the book, so see me if you'd like one. The schedule for Starbucks Sex God group is as follows:

Jan. 21 -- Intro and Ch. 1
Jan. 27 -- Ch. 2
Feb. 3 -- Ch. 3
Feb. 10 -- Ch. 4
Feb. 17 -- Ch. 5
Feb. 24 -- Ch. 6
March 3 -- Ch. 7
March 10 -- SPRING BREAK
March 18 -- Ch. 8
March 24 -- Ch. 9 and Epilogue
March 31 -- VERITAS FORUM

Car Parking Revenue

2008-09-23T14:37:00.002-04:00

So, every time there's a Florida State Home Game, we do a fundraiser in which we park cars in the yard of the Ambassadors for Christ house. The amount we charge depends on the popularity of the game. So far, we've had three home games. The first two, we charged $10/car. The third, we started at $20, then went down to $15.

In the figures below, I am also including our Labor Day party, because I bought supplies for that party and for parking together.

Here are the round numbers of what we brought in through parking (and selling a little bit of food):

Labor Day Party: $34
Sept. 6 Home Game: $480
Sept. 13 Home Game: $520
Sept. 20 Home Game: $696

TOTAL Income: $1,730

However, in conjunction with these events, we've purchased $137 in supplies (signs, food, etc.), which leaves us with a net income of $1,593 (and there are still four more home games to go).

So, big thanks for the students who have organized and worked these fundraisers. You rock!

College Ministry Bulletin Board at Meridian Woods

2008-09-18T13:44:00.013-04:00

I just wanted to share the nifty bulletin board that several of the students at Meridian Woods put together recently. I believe thanks are due to Mallory, Lynn, Katie, Bethany, and Dave.

Break-In

2008-09-18T13:44:00.010-04:00

I was very excited about Tuesday night. Because FSU cut their orientation week short and because Tropical Storm Fay rained out our activities on the weekend before classes start, I didn't get my usual opportunities to meet new students (although I have tracked down 30, mostly on Facebook). I decided to start a group on campus for new students meeting at the same time as the Proverbs Bible Encounter at Adam's apt.

So I arrived Tuesday evening at the A4X House, planning to get on my bike and ride to campus like I often do. But the bike was not in the computer room where it usually resides. I was concerned, but in a hurry, so I huffed over to the Park Ave. Starbucks on foot.

After the study group, I returned to the A4X House to put on a more thorough search for the bike. What I discovered was that one air conditioner had been removed and the back door was open. Someone had pulled the air conditioner out of the window, crawled in through the window, taken the bike, and left out the back door. Nothing else was missing, not even the computers and my musical equipment.

So, hastily, I screwed the window shut and packed up much of my equipment to store in a more secure location. I must admit that I was not really surprised that the house was infiltrated. It's not exactly a secure place, and its unoccupied and dark at night. But I'm very thankful that only one thing was taken. Now maybe I need to start asking around for a new air conditioner.

A4X T-Shirts

2008-09-18T13:44:00.007-04:00

The new Ambassadors for Christ T-Shirts have arrived. Get one while they last for $10 a piece. Available in two designs: the squirrel and the fish-cross A4X symbol. Our campus ministry is like a squirrel because it's small and fast and plants seeds all over campus. Write me to reserve your shirt.

Our Campus Ministry Is Like A Squirrel

2008-08-20T14:37:00.003-04:00

Our campus ministry is like a squirrel because it is small and quick and plants seed all over campus, and who know when those seeds will grow into something impressive!

As part of my aforementioned re-branding of the campus ministry, I have been looking for unusual, funny, and quirky to set us apart. The result is the new squirrel logo. Like our last T-shirt (seen below), the squirrel T-shirt is designed to elicit a query. Instead of "what do those symbols mean," it's "why do you have a squirrel on your T-shirt?" Students should respond with the answer above (and let the querist make the obvious remark about us gathering a bunch of nuts).

For those unfamiliar with our previous T-shirt graphic (which Carley G. stole for us from the Gators for Christ), the five symbols represent the gospel, namely the incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and future return of Christ.

[If you noticed that the T-shirt image erroneously has 2 Cor. 5:10 instead of 5:20 as our theme verse, you get an imaginary gold star!]

Re-Branding Ambassadors (And Ancient Christian Symbology)

2008-08-15T12:55:00.009-04:00

I am constantly aware that in my ministry I am working on foundations that others have laid. The entire setup of Ambassadors for Christ as a nonprofit corporation and registered student organization are things which I inherited, not strategies I thought up myself. Other things I inherited include the name "Ambassadors for Christ" and the logo of the globe.

I knew before I got here that there were many other organizations with the name Ambassadors for Christ, and we get confused with them all the time. Just google the name and you'll see a Lutheran ministry, a ministry for Chinese intellectuals, and more. It's a pretty common ministry name, but it conveys a good message and it's ours for the long haul.

Upon my arrival some of the students were eager to work on developing a new logo which perhaps communicated our identity more accurately than a globe. The globe logo is indeed generic, and contains no distinctively Christian imagery. Like our ministry name, its origins are clouded in mystery. I asked Carlin Trammell to re-tool the logo a bit, and he came up with a slicker variation on the globe which we've used for the last two years.

Meanwhile, I've been fiddling around with new logo ideas and sharing them with some of the students. My concept was to write the ministry name with the "A" in Ambassadors shaped like a Jesus fish (but a bit more lopsided like the Star Trek logo), and with the "T" in Christ forming a large cross. Lydia had the idea of just taking the A and T and putting them together into a fish-cross logo, with the crossbeam forming the gills and turning the fish into an A. Additionally, where the fish and cross intersect you can see the number "4," which is homophonous with "for." The result is now here for your inspection, and I hope you like it.

I also, at least at FSU, hope to move in the direction of abbreviating Ambassadors for Christ as "A4X" instead of "AFC." First, this will differentiate us somewhat from all the other AFCs in the world. Second, A4X just seems like a cooler and edgier acronym.

A=Ambassadors
4=for
X=Christ

I used to think that using X as a substitute for Christ (as in X-Mas) was somehow disrespectful, but this was before I learned Greek. The earliest Christian symbols are the fish (the Greek word ICHTHUS forming an acrostic for the names of Christ) and the Chi-Rho symbol, in which the first two letters of the Greek word Christ (which looks like an X and a P) are superimposed. In fact, in the oldest New Testament manuscripts, the title Christ (Messiah or anointed one) is almost always abbreviated as XP (the name Jesus is abbreviated with iota eta: IH).

The letter X is an ancient and appropriate abbreviation for the title of our Lord, as it is the first letter of "Christ" in the language of the New Testament. And in modern youth parlance, the letter X denotes that which is mysterious (X-Files, X-Men) or radical (X-Games, eXtreme sports). And our Lord is indeed both mysterious and one who expects radical obedience and radical change. Being his follower is indeed eXcellent, eXctiting and eXtreme to the maXXX!

Working Vacation

2008-07-29T12:11:00.002-04:00

So, I'm in Tennessee for the next two weeks, but I have lots of ministry stuff I hope to get done.

Every semester, Florida State gives me a list of students who indicated a "Church of Christ" preference on their applications. There are 42 new students this year who did so (few students actually indicate any religious preference), 40 of which I haven't already contacted, so now I have my AFC officers hunting for them on Facebook.

This past weekend, I was at the Spiritual Growth Workshop in Orlando manning an AFC recruiting table. The goal was to increase awareness of our campus ministry, so that parents and churches would encourage their graduating seniors to look us up when they came to school in Tallahassee. In addition to getting a few names of incoming students, I also spoke at length with someone trying to set up a campus ministry in Ft. Lauderdale, and I got to know Dan, the new campus minister in Orlando. I also attended the lectures by church statistician Flavil Yeakley, and purchased his booklet "Good News, Bad News: A Realistic Assessment of Churches of Christ." It's good stuff which I recommend.

Yeakley is in the process of surveying students in Christian colleges and campus ministries, so early in the fall semester I need to have my students complete the online survey (which is located here).

Meanwhile, I've got more fall activities to plan. I'm trying to work in a coffee shop, a henna tattoo party, and a rap concert. I also think I'm going to designate November as AFC Sex Month, and devote that period to a deep discussion of that most fascinating topic.

Things That Have Been Going On

2008-07-17T13:19:00.002-04:00

Here's a glimpse into some of what's been happening in my ministry life.

The FSU Campus Ministry Association did a great thing this summer. They set up a table at new student registration and collected cards upon which students indicated their campus ministry interests. I only got a handful for AFC, but those are contacts that I didn't have to work for at all!

I've got a cool new tabletop display which folds up into a briefcase. I got it for a deep discount on Ebay. Katie and Lynn have agreed to get it decorated for me before next week's student involvement fair at FSU. I believe it will really improve the appearance of our table and attract more interest at Market Wednesdays, Tabling on the Set, and more.

I was able to attend Florida Bible Camp this past week as Cabin 10 (senior-most boys) counselor. I got to get to know a great group of future college students, as well as spending time with AFC-ers Doug, Katelan, Brett (actually a GFC-er), Courtney, and Alaina. Two Meridian Woods kids were baptized, and two others expressed an interest to be immersed soon.

What I'm Working On This Week

2008-07-17T13:10:00.004-04:00

I just got a haircut and mowed the AFC House front lawn. Here's a preview of what's coming next. . .

Tonight, I trek to Springhill Road to visit their VBS and keep in contact with the brothers and sisters who support me over there.

Friday night, I'm hosting a young families and young singles study group at my place. Somebody's cooking Russian food and we're studying chapter 3 of C.S. Lewis' The Four Loves.

Sunday, I've invited the college class over after worship to work on the new AFC Tabletop display. I'll need it next week at FSU's Get Involved Fair and the Spiritual Growth Workshop. The Disc Golf Devo at Tom Brown will follow at 2:30.

There are several future projects I'm working on this week besides preparing for next weekend's Spiritual Growth Workshop in Orlando (where I'll be running an AFC recruiting table next to the youth rally area). These include a canoe trip down the Wakulla River in August, and a possible Christian Rap concert in September. I need a big event to get the different churches' college groups together again, and that might be just the thing.

Additionally, the Seminole Sensation Week schedule has just been posted, so the FSU officers and I can now work on what's been known as "Two Terrific Weeks." We needed this schedule from the school in order to plan around it.

I'll also need a game plan for all the car parking in September, and I need to arrange how Lydia and I will manage to visit everybody on our upcoming vacation to Tennesssee (July 28 - Aug. 9).

Johnathan Leonard also recently floated an idea to me about the different FSU campus ministries hosting a forum to talk about our religious similarities and differences, and where they come from. I could really see this happening because similar ideas have already been batted around in CMA meetings.

Getting Together On Campus

2008-05-19T20:19:00.003-04:00

One new AFC program I'm starting for the 2008-2009 school year involves all three Tallahassee campuses. It's a weekly get-together meal for AFC students and friends. By meeting to eat weekly, I will be able to spend more time with students (so we can know each other's lives and concerns), and the students will have another non-threatening on-campus activity to which they can invite friends. Each eatin' meetin' will necessarily involve prayer and some sort of spiritual discussion.

Tentatively, I plan to meet at FAMU on Tuesdays, TCC on Wednesdays, and FSU on Thursdays. It remains to be seen whether we will meet outdoors somewhere or at one of the school cafeterias, but I will post the meeting places and times as soon as they're worked out with the student leaders.

Meridian Woods College Bible Class Curriculum Plan

2008-05-19T20:10:00.004-04:00

When I first came to AFC/Meridian Woods, I planned to develop a college curriculum that covered the whole Bible in three years. However, in response to student feedback, I ended up constantly experimenting with formats, guest teachers, and more. Now, having finally shaken off my grad-school way of looking at things and communicating, I believe I can return to my original vision and teach through the Bible in an impactful, practical way. Thus, I have developed the following 3-year curriculum plan.

Some biblical books are left out (so that student-led Bible studies can have some texts to pursue on their own), and certain key short topics are repeated, so that new students can quickly be taught the same overall view of the biblical story and the function of the church, which I believe are so crucial for this ministry.

Meridian Woods College Curriculum Plan

Summer 2008
Sun: Prison Epistles
Wed: Deuteronomy

Fall 2008
Sun: Seven C’s (Bible Overview), Gospel of John
Wed: New Testament Church, Romans

Spring 2009
Sun: OT Psalms & Wisdom Literature
Wed: I & II Corinthians

Summer 2009
Sun: Major Prophets
Wed: Hebrews

Fall 2009
Sun: New Testament Church, General Epistles (James, Peter, John, Jude)
Wed: Luke

Spring 2010
Sun: Wilderness: Exodus-Numbers
Wed: Acts

Summer 2010
Sun: Emerging Adults and Emerging Church
Wed: Personal Ethics

Fall 2010
Sun: New Testament Church, Matthew (unique synoptic material)
Wed: Seven C’s (Bible Overview), Genesis

Spring 2011:
Sun: History of Israel, Minor Prophets
Wed: Galatians, Church History

Each school year will have one Sunday and one Wednesday Q & A class (addressing students' written questions).

Special Tues. or Thurs. classes (one in October, one in January):

Restoration Movement
Personal Evangelism
“Velvet Elvis” book
Revelation
History of the Bible
Water & Spirit

Coming Soon: Our Campus Ministry Accountability Project

2008-05-08T14:07:00.003-04:00

Can you commit one hour a week to a spiritual tune-up?

For the last year or so, we've been discussing ways that we can keep each other accountable to our Christian commitments. We find ourselves slipping, and realize we need each other's help. Bible study and worship times aren't enough. We need focused periods to deal with our moral, intellectual, and psychological struggles with Christian brothers and sisters (also known as bearing each other's burdens). We need repentance, confession, and intercession in the presence of our fellow priests, and we need it on a regular basis.

This coming Sunday night, I plan to unveil our new Watchmen Project. It's a program calibrated to help us challenge each other as equals, in groups of 2-4, without falling into the traps of control and authority that plagued the Boston/Crossroads movement.

So watch this space for more info. And, it's for all Tallahassee college students (not just Meridian Wooders). This major new campus ministry directive will start this summer, and you can help make it a success.

Deuteronomy Class Recap (Chapters 1-3)

2008-04-24T13:35:00.003-04:00

Last night's class was one of those classes after which I ask myself, "was that material really worth teaching?" I only have a few precious hours with my students, and I want to give them the meatiest, most challenging material I can.

I'm excited about studying Deuteronomy. But the fact is that the book begins with three chapters of historical prologue. We read of the Hebrews leaving Horeb, of Moses appointing elders, of the Kadesh-Barnea rebellion ("you grumbled in your tents. . ."), and the defeat of kings Sihon and Og (the guy with the big bed). I contemplated just skipping through this material with a brief mention, but in the end, we basically covered the content of chapters 1-3. There were interesting rabbits in these chapters that I could have chased, but I want to keep things useful and practical, and I'm afraid that dwelling on these historical stories stole time that I could have used on the Decalogue, Shema, and other powerful passages in this book.

So I just wanted to express some of my continual struggle as I teach the college class. I have so much to tell them, but it's so easy to get lost in the many stories of the Bible which seem to have little practical impact other than as historical curiosities. On the other hand, having an overall picture of the chronology from the Exodus to the conquest may be useful at some juncture. Who's to know?

Either way, we still get great stuff like this:

“Have no dread or fear of them. The LORD your God, who goes before you, is the one who will fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your very eyes."

So the lesson I extracted from Deut. 1-3 was this: That we can become, like the Exodus generation, grumblers. We can become jaded by all the blessings we've experienced, and only see the problems around us. The Exodus generation had seen the plagues, crossed the sea, trembled at the mountain, and followed the flaming pillar. Yet, when intimidated by other people who were seemingly stronger and more prosperous, they lost their faith and grumbled against God.

Do we grumble because the campus seems like an impossible field to evangelize? Do we grumble because we only see the negatives in our brothers and sisters? Instead, we ought to trust in what God can do through all of us!

Deuteronomistic Musings -- 1

2008-04-24T12:19:00.003-04:00

So, the Wed. night class just started a study of Deuteronomy. To me, Deuteronomy is a book about creating a just society in the midst of a violent and ungodly world. Deuteronomy paints a picture of what Israel is called to be, and the following biblical books (called the "Deuteronomistic History," i.e. Joshua, Judges, and Kings) document Israel's failure and occasional success at meeting God's high standards.

And yet the difficulty for us in dealing with Deuteronomy is that our post-Christian society's standards are so different. In the cultural climate of the ancient near east, the laws in Deuteronomy were progressive and redemptive. Slaves, foreigners and women were given greater rights and more social value than in ancient society at large.

But since the intervening 3000 or so years, our ideas of justice and equality have continued to evolve (largely as a result of the impact of the New Testament). Now, the culture Deuteronomy envisions, with its slavery, capital punishments, and holy wars, can come across as primitive and uncivilized.

My response to this situation is that, despite the strides in human rights which have been made since the Reformation, human society remains primitive and uncivilized in many ways. Though we may be tempted to feel superior in our modern liberal democracies, the fact remains that the human tendencies toward violence, exploitation, and other forms of selfishness remain barely reigned in (or even supported by established social systems).

What Deuteronomy provides is a base-line, a minimalist exposition of what a human nation is called to become. The Ten Commandments themselves are very minimalist in their moral demands. Yet Jesus invites us to read beyond the letter of the commandments, and embrace the spirit in which they were written. Thus, as in Matthew 6, the prohibition of murder is really a prescription to love everyone. The prohibition of adultery is really a command to radical spousal faithfulness. We can read all of Deuteronomy through the same lens by which Jesus read the Decalogue. By piercing through the concrete maxims of the Torah, we can glimpse the spirit behind the Law. And that spirit, if carried to its logical conclusions, will create a community that transcends slavery, oppression, and violence.

The point is that just as Israel was called to create a just community in the middle of the blood-stained ancient near east, so today we are called to create a new family of communal of love and devotion to God in the midst of a culture in the grip of demonic influences.