family ramblings lifewalking spiritual formation theological ramblings

Just Another Reason Why We Love Our Life Group

May 15, 2012 – 7:20 am

Sunday night, the guys in the group attempted to pull off dinner for the wives/moms in our life group. We had lasagna, garlic bread, salads, and all kinds of dessert – chocolate, strawberries, cheesecake. We did have to call in the ladies for help on a couple of things but all in all – very nice effort by the fellas.

We had two couples in our group do the baby dedication in the services that morning at church. It was nice – very cool slide show and I never want to underestimate the significance of those moments. But at life group, I wanted to do something a bit different.

We went around the room and each of us gave the parents a nugget that we thought would be helpful on their journey in raising their kids under the authority of Jesus. Here is what was said:

Enjoy the time with them. It will go by very fast.

Create an environment in your home where they love being home and what to bring their friends over. Be that house for your kids.

Say “no” to your kids. And mean it. And when they get in trouble, let them feel the consequences while they are still small. It just gets harder the older they get.

What your kids want most from you is you. Not your insight or knowledge or even stuff. Just you. So say yes to that as much as you can even when you are tired, cranky, and lazy.

Pray for your kids, pray over your kids, and pray WITH your kids.

Listen to your kids. You will learn great spiritual truths from them, more than any sermon from Grant.

Don’t ever be afraid to apologize to your kids when you’ve messed up. It won’t undermine your authority, they won’t take advantage of it. They forgive quickly, it shows them true humility, they’ll grow up respecting you more for it.

What would you add?

Permalink | Comment (0)
cultural ramblings theological ramblings

Now That The Closet Is Open

May 14, 2012 – 8:15 am

This past week, President Obama finally made clear and public his thoughts on same-sex marriage. It is not all that huge of a surprise. Much will be said by all sides as to why he chose now to do this. The politics involved at that level are beyond me.

There are so many different ways to process all of this. Our culture’s current addiction to twitter and soundbites will not be helpful at all. The reality is that it isn’t going away. More and more states are passing laws that define marriage and these political wars are getting harsher and harsher.

Stating The Obvious
Let me get the obvious out of the way. As a Christ-follower, I can’t in anyway be faithful to the scriptures and condone homosexuality or gay marriage or civil unions. It is a sin. One man, one woman, for life is the scriptural standard for marriage.

However – and I had this argument with a local politician last month – I am not prepared to hang the future of the entire civilization on ‘family values.’ Making gay marriage illegal is NOT going to fix our country. It’s just a symptom of a larger problem – the insatiable selfishness of people. That is the sin problem killing our world. I’m fairly certain that no legislation will ever cure that.

Dual Citizenship
The larger point is this – as a Christ-follower, I have dual citizenship. In the Kingdom and in the USA. Sometimes they coexist peacefully, other times they do not.

As a citizen of the USA, I have the right and responsibility to vote and participate in government informed by my values. And I do so. In our system of government, I can vote, argue and challenge to get laws that confirm my understanding of truth and right. We chose this way over civil war. It’s not perfect but it’s better than the alternatives.

As a Christ-follower, I have another citizenship. One to the Kingdom. It’s not a democracy. There is one King. It’s here and I am already a part of it AND it is not yet fulfilled, not yet complete. I have no voice in what is right and wrong.

My Kingdom citizenship WILL prevail eventually, in the long run. It must prevail inside my own life. But I understand that more than likely, it will NOT prevail in the short-term. In fact, it will be persecuted and challenged. Jesus told us as much.

So while I will vote my conscious, my other citizenship tells me to expect persecution and hardship. Christ tells me to love my ‘enemies’ and be a blessing to those who curse me.

I do not want lying, cheating, or slander legal. I don’t approve of divorce or adultery or gossip or greed. However, I still hang out with ‘those’ kind of people. Some days, I am those kind of people. I still love them. ‘They’ still come to our church, worship in our church and serve. They are welcomed in our church.

Just as I can’t compromise the clarity of scriptures on issues such as homosexuality, I can’t compromise the clarity of scripture on how I am supposed to treat all people.

I will vote my beliefs as will the rest of the country. But we Christ-followers were told how the world would really come to know Jesus – and it wasn’t by how we vote.

Tags , , , | Permalink | Comment (0)
cultural ramblings technology

Apple TV (2nd Gen) vs. Roku LT vs. Online TV

May 11, 2012 – 6:30 pm

We’ve dropped the cable (Uverse, technically) but I’m not sure we’re even missing it all that much. It’s been great. We hang out with each other more. Kids are reading and playing outside more. And it’s nice not having that bill at the end of the month. It wasn’t all that big of a deal. We still are able to catch most of the shows we want to see anyway, thank you, online content.

OTA TELEVISION
I remember those days of snowing images and tin foil around the antenna. OTA (Over-The-Air) HD is nowhere near that bad these days as long as you are in range of a local television. We get all the local channels very clear with a simple HD antennae. We don’t watch a lot of television like this – live sporting events, weather – but it’s there and “free” after you have the antenna. COST: $20-40 for HD antenna.

APPLE TVs
We have 2 Apple TVs.

The 1st Generation model is white, big, noisy, and runs hot. I got mine on ebay for $40. It also has a 40 GB hard drive you can store movies, music, photos, or television shows on through iTunes. You can watch YouTube through it but it does NOT have Vimeo or Netflix. We jailbroke it – legal – and now it can pull media off of our family iMac.

The 2nd Generation model of Apple TV is the small, black box. It pretty much is a small box of awesomeness. Netflix, Vimeo, YouTube, MLB.com – all great but the coolest thing is AirPlay. If you have an iPhone or an iPad – pretty much anything you can get on your phone will “AirPlay” on the television. In the 3rd Gen model, there is a mirror mode with the iPad. We have one up at the church – what an incredible teaching tool. I can zoom up maps or pictures or video from an iPad to the whole room. $99 retail.

Roku LT
It’s pretty cool. It’s basically a clumsy Apple TV. It’s got Netflix, Pandora, and Northpoint church has a channel. And Life Church and Granger Community. Pretty awesome. It’s also got Plex and Playon that allows you to stream a lot of online TV stations and whatever else you have on you computer.

It’s cool but takes a while to setup. Have to go back and forth from computer to TV. Not well laid out but it works. $40-90 depending what model you get.

Overall, we haven’t missed it all that much.

Tags , | Permalink | Comments (2)
cultural ramblings random ramblings

Random Thoughts on a Tuesday Morning

May 8, 2012 – 9:51 am

I’m studying and writing and prepping for the message this week but for some reason – I am incredibly distracted. Can’t seem to figure out why so I’m going to just jot all these thoughts down here and hopefully I can get back to writing.

Theism vs. Atheism
Hearing two people debate atheism versus theism. There is a huge part of me that wants to interrupt and join in. Think they are both getting distracted on points of ‘argument’ that really doesn’t matter at all.

Both want to point to people inside their perspective ‘camps’ as either good or bad examples of their belief system. This to me is utterly ridiculous. This is like pointing to an elementary school band trying to play Mozart and say – “That Mozart guy was terrible. Who would ever write this and call it music??”

If you are going to look at examples – look at ideal from both camps and compare/contrast from there. Truth is truth and all truth will win out eventually. Don’t need the straw man or ridiculous examples to make a point.

Parenting
I’ve got a couple of friends right now just going through the ringer with their kids. I have no idea what to say to them other than…”hold on.” I find myself going back to the Prodigal Son story so much. It’s a deep, profound story on so many levels, particularly if you put yourself in the place of the dad. He had to know that the decisions that his younger son was making were stupid, hurtful and deadly. Yet he wisely recognized, he couldn’t stop him. That boy had his mind made up and the only thing he could do as a dad was hang on and be there when it all came crashing in.

I wonder how many sleepless nights that dad experienced? Praying that the son would return, would be broken enough to return but not killed or forever lost? The older son didn’t get it because he probably didn’t have kids. One day, he would. Maybe.

Brazil
We leave shortly. I love mission trips. I think they are the best kind of trips to take. Even for lost students. I know a lot of churches make a huge deal of who they take on a trip – and they should on one level. We are representing more than just ourselves when we go on these trips. We stand as representatives of our country and our God. That’s why it may be more important to make sure the student (or adult) is responsible, mature, teachable, and trustworthy – more than just “saved.”

A ‘saved’ immature, selfish kid on a trip is worse than an atheist, mature responsible kid.

Not sure why this thought has popped in my head.

Permalink | Comment (0)
family ramblings humorous ramblings

How To Teach Your Kids About Grease Fires

May 8, 2012 – 8:42 am

Cinco de Mayo is normally an official holiday for the English family. We love it. This past weekend, it sort of snuck up on us but it was a fun day.

The plan was to fry some fish, make some homemade salsa and guacamole. I normally fry fish in corn meal and a “not-so-secret” mix of spices that include Creole seasoning, salt and pepper. My grandmother fried fish this way. It’s awesome. Even people that don’t like fish, like my fish.

And I wanted to try something different. Mistake 1.

We found a batter that was flour based. I put the grease on the grill, getting it hot and ready to fry.

Normally, I stand there and watch it. Yes, it’s slow and boring but it’s safe. My dad’s a fireman, some things just sort of stay with you.

Whatever made me run inside and try to finish up the batter for the fish, I don’t really know. I do know that it was taking forever. Batter was working, was too thick, wasn’t sticking — just not working – when Coop says – “Man – the grill is really going good.”

There is nothing but smoke coming out of the grill. I know what’s happened. The grease in the iron skillet on the grill is so hot that it is burning, more than likely when I open the lid there is going to be a fire ball….on my brand new back porch.

I run outside and kill the gas burner. (Good.)

I can feel the heat from the grill and see the flames. (Not good.)

Amy grabs a bowl to smother the fire. (Good.)

I open lid of grill to put lid on skillet. (Not good.)

Fire shoots up into the sky. (Cool looking, but overall – not good.)

I get the bowl over the skillet and smoke goes everywhere. (Good.)

I tell my son that no matter what happens, he is NOT to put water on a grease fire OR call Topeka Fire Department. I would never hear the end of this if the Chaplain had to call the FD to put out a fire.

Meanwhile, new batter recipe has hardened a bit. (Not good.)

We move iron skillet off to the side so that we can get Fry Daddy out to continue making dinner. In process of moving iron skillet, bowl is knocked off pan and grease is still so hot, it catches on fire again. (Not good.)

Amy comes out with a big iron lid. That snuffs out fire. (Good.)

We finally get to frying fish. (Good.)

Batter will not fry right for some reason. Fish is dried out, crispy mess if we fry batter right. Batter is dripping goo if we keep fish moist and white like it’s supposed to be. (Not good.)

We dump new batter recipe, go back to old way. (Good.)

Cooking fish has now taken us 3 times as long as normal. (Not good).

Good news — the fish was awesome…finally. And I’m not changing my fish recipe ever again.

Tags , | Permalink | Comment (0)
family ramblings travel ramblings

Help Get Me and Cooper Out Of The Country

April 26, 2012 – 6:26 am

With all the craziness this year, our summer mission trip to Brazil has kinda completely sneaked up on me. Cooper smoked me this year getting his support letter out.

Cooper hit all the basics in his. I’ll add a couple of details.

First, we will again be taking a group of teenagers to Porto Alegra, Brazil to partner with Thomas and Agnes Schneider and the Word of Life crew. Last year was the first time we tried this kind of a trip and in July. It’s cold, wet and none of us – Brazilians or Americans – had a clue if this would even work. The idea was to promote a spiritual getaway weekend with Americans. We had local churches come as well as a winter retreat.

Word of Life would not only bring in students but youth workers, pastors, and church leaders for the weekend to get some spiritual training and refreshment. I’d also have the opportunity to do some discipleship training with the missionary staff. It was a lot to do in a short amount of time. We had no idea it could even work.

It was a huge success. Again, because we are Americans and speak English (most of us), we are a huge commodity for them. We gain Word of Life access to schools they would have no chance of getting into, allowing them to reach even more kids with the story of Jesus. We saw many kids come to Christ. You can read about last year’s trip here.

Second, after this year, this will become an every-other year mission trip. It’s an expensive trip but we’ve been able to partner with another US church who will go in our off years. So they will go in 2013, we will go in 2014.

Third, like last year while the kids are playing soccer and hanging out with other teens, I’ll be working. Seriously, I’ll be teaching some discipleship courses to college-age kids as well as giving some theological training to some national youth pastors who would never be able to afford seminary or college classes.

It’s a huge honor for me. I think I end up learning more than they do but their eagerness to learn, their hunger for the Word of God, their desire to be closer to Christ is just infectious. I wish you all could go with us just once to experience it.

How can you help?

First, you can follow me on twitter (@thegsides) and follow me on this blog. It will keep you updated on the trip and you’ll have a better idea exactly how to pray for us. Plus, I’ll post pics when I can and tell you all kinds of funny stories along the way.

In a country where Spiritism is the leading religion, it is NOT cliche’ for me at all. I will need a huge amount of prayer support. We all will. Every year this trip is awesome, every year I see or experience something that reminds me how real spiritual warfare is.

Obviously, you can support us by sending us money for the trip. The trip is $2,000 and anything you give is tax-deductible. You can donate online by going here. There are instructions to guide you through it. That is a secure server so it’s a safe place.

You can also mail me a check. Make it out to Western Hills Baptist Church. NO WHERE ON THE CHECK CAN IT HAVE MY NAME ON IT! You can put “Brazil” in memo. You can either direct message on Twitter, leave a comment, or fill out my contact page for my address. I try not to post it online.

This year, Cooper is going with me. 14 years went by very, very fast. I’d never thought back then that one day I’d be going on a mission trip with my son going as a worker as well. I can’t put into words what that is like – serving alongside your kid and watching them grow a heart for Jesus and other people. All of my kids are so much further down the road than I was at their age. I’m a proud dad.

If you have any questions or would like to know more about our trip – just leave a comment or DM me on twitter. I love talking about Brazil!

Thanks for your support.

Tags , , | Permalink | Comments (2)
family ramblings travel ramblings

Cooper’s Brazil Mission Trip Letter

April 25, 2012 – 7:35 pm

The following is the letter Cooper wrote and sent out to get support for the upcoming Brazil Mission trip. I’m going with him (yes, you can support me as well. My plug and plea for money is comin later on this blog on on twitter).

I’m just kinda…no, I’m a whole lot of proud of Cooper. All of our kids really. They are developing a hear for missions, for serving others. They are so much further down the road spiritually than I was at their age and it’s one of the best things in my life to be able to do ministry WITH them.

Here’s Cooper’s letter.

Dear friend,

I get to go to Porto Alegre Brazil again! We are going to work at a camp for Brazilian kids where they can have fun and learn about God and having a faith in a place where its not so easy. Camps take place on the weekend. When we are not at camps, during the week, we are speaking at schools. We talk about our daily lives here in the states and then at the end we share the gospel! It is a blast!

In Brazil, being an American is like having an all-access pass to anywhere. We are invited to speak at all kinds of schools. Public, Private, Secular, Religious, you name it. They love it if we talk about life in the states. Thomas acts as our translator. We talk and then, after we have shared the gospel, we either go to another classroom or we play sports and talk to the kids. This will be the second time I get to go to brazil.

One of the things I am especially excited to do is to play soccer with the other kids. The kids there are so good at soccer, a pick-up team of them could probably beat a school team here. Soccer in Brazil is basically a religion.

I am also excited to go and see all of the missionaries! When I got there last time, I knew that I had never seen any of these people before in my life, but it felt like I was their family. They just welcomed us in.

Another reason I am excited this year is because I can’t wait to tell the story of Christ to a bunch of kids. The two weeks is kind of like cinderella. Famous in the day, doing dishes and cleaning toilets at night.

You can support me in three ways.

The most important way is prayer. This trip is so amazing and God has to prepare me for the challenges and experiences I will go through. The power of prayer is never to be underestimated.

Second, follow me, stay up to date (as best as I can) and even encourage me via twitter. My name is @buckshot643.

The third option is financial. The entire trip costs $2,000. Anything you give is tax-deductible. You can donate online at http://www.whillschurch.org/2012/03/2012-brazil-mission-trip. It’s a secure server login from there.

Or you can write a check to Western Hills Baptist Church, put Brazil in the memo and mail it to me. [If you are interested in supporting him or me - contact me, leave a comment. I'll send you our address.] NO WHERE ON THE CHECK CAN IT HAVE MY NAME ON IT!

This is going to be a life-changing trip and I thank you for you time and prayers.

Sincerely,
Cooper

Coop on a wire

Coop on a log

Fun way to end trip.

Permalink | Comment (1)
church & emergent musings cultural ramblings theological ramblings

Church and the Government

April 24, 2012 – 2:16 pm

What a conversation I had this morning. There’s an invitation to me to join a group of churches that are coming together to research and discover a ‘justice’ need for the city of Topeka. Then have a focus group that will next come up with a plan of action. Then they move to garner support from the community to implement that action. The examples that were given consisted of holding rallies to support the cause then lobbying the government to make changes in favor of that cause.

But here’s the conflict of the American church experience. As an American citizen, I have a right and responsibility to participate in government. That includes voting, debating, standing up for the things I am for, standing against the things I am against. That’s the system we work with. We are not a monarchy or dictatorship – we are a democracy. As a citizen, I have the responsibility to petition and lean on my government when they are leading in a way I do not agree with or spending money on stuff I don’t want. I get that on an individual level.

But this sounds a lot like what lobbyists do, doesn’t it? Common interest with a common agenda form a group that tries to influence policy and decision makers. Is this what Jesus intended for the church to be involved in?

I do understand the intent – one church might be able to help 25 but a whole community of churches can multiply that by thousands. Add in the political sway to change the system and the influence could be limitless.

However, I wrestle with two HUGE issues.

ISSUE 1: Identity Confusion
Reality paints a different picture when church and politics mix. It seldom goes well. The Religious Right may have won a lot of battles for morality but it could be argued that it did just as much damage as it healed. Folks don’t look at those kind of churches as places of hope and healing, but of moral judgement and condemnation. In the effort to afford some kind of political power and leverage, the church sold out on the opportunity to minister to real people with real hurts.

Is it the church’s role to influence policy? Civil Rights don’t happen without the church involvement, slavery doesn’t end without church involvement. Those are great examples of the church doing what is right versus what is just politics. But there are also the examples of the Salem Witch Trials, Women’s Rights, and Prohibition to counter that.

But even these examples aren’t that clear cut. There were Christ-followers that fell on both sides of all of those issues. Who was right? That’s not exactly an easy question to answer. We can tell you who WON but that’s a different question than who was right.

As a pastor, I know that my ultimate hope for healing and life change is in Christ. And the organization that God chose to work through is the church. He loves the church, gifts the church for this purpose. So no government agency or policy – as well-intended as it may be – will ever completely solve any of our social problems. And to be fair – our governments were never designed to function in this role. That’s a whole other conversation.

I’ve heard the rhetoric that if God’s people would tithe – the church would have so much money to minister to the world, governments would have no need for social services. I’m not really sure how accurate that is – but it’s a well known fact that over 75% of churchgoers do NOT tithe. Of course not all churches think to minister to those outside their walls. So the church is flawed in her delivery system of social ministry as well.

My point is this – it is clear in scriptures the church is a light house, a house of prayer, a place for healing and restoration. The question becomes does a church’s involvement in politics hinders her from accomplishing her first mission, her first calling? Or is her involvement in politics because she is being hindered by the government to do them?

ISSUE 2: Core Solutions
There is also the whole sin nature problem. No matter what the issue is, we are all sinners with a HUGE selfish streak in us. No program or system can solve that. Only Christ. The backsnacks program we do is great but…that program in and of itself is not bringing anyone to Christ. We don’t have a stack of cards with decisions for Christ because of the BackSnacks program.

So why do it? Why not just join a focus group and start holding rallies and leveraging our government to start spending money and passing policy on social justice issues?

I think one of the reasons God calls us to serve is that there are some areas in our character that He can only change in the lab of serving others. To not serve would be to miss out on our own spiritual transformation journey.

I also think that when the Church serves, she is showing the culture the true heart of God. It does more than thousands of sermons.

__________

So I’ll go to a couple of meetings. I’ll listen and ask questions. I’ll listen some more. But this is where I am today.

Permalink | Comment (0)
family ramblings

How I Handled My Son Being A Thespian

April 23, 2012 – 11:26 am

Cooper’s debut into the world of theater was last night and I must say – I was impressed. Not just with him, the whole cast. You could tell that this particular bunch of kids were all in.

You never know what you are going to get with middle school drama…that applies to more than just the theater. But this was a pretty significant risk for an 8th grade boy – going out for the school play.

I remember when the roles were posted and he got the lead, I was just as excited about it as he was. Then reality hit him – “I have to learn 187 lines of dialogue.”

“Yeah……yeah, you do.”

He absolutely nailed it on both nights. The whole cast was outstanding in fact.

(Although I do have to say that Friday night’s performance was better than Saturday’s…just saying.)

It was a fun weekend and I do think Cooper will do this again. He was good. I’m not just saying that as a “dad.” I did some theater in high school, I know how hard it can be. And he did great considering he’s in 8th grade and it was his first time ever on stage.

Okay, I am a little biased but I’m not apologizing about that either!!

20120423-110837.jpg

20120423-110851.jpg

Tags , | Permalink | Comments (2)
leadership ramblings travel ramblings

My Visit to Sterling College

April 19, 2012 – 9:00 pm

I spoke yesterday at Sterling College in Sterling, KS. It’s a 3 hour drive from Topeka. It sounds worse than what it really is.

The official by-line of Sterling College is a Christ-centered college with a mission “to develop creative and thoughtful leaders who understand a maturing Christian faith.” Having been on my fair share of Christian college campuses – I was dubious. Most campuses that I have experienced had great intentions of being a Christ-centered college but ended up morphing into yet another Christian sub-culture “ghetto” of rules, simple answers, head-in-the-sand understanding of culture.

Through a friend of a friend (Jim Turner) I had already met Dr. Dewey, a Vice President of the college. I’d been impressed. Articulate. Heart for culture. Desire to impact world – through business, art, science – with Christ. BUT one adminstrator a college does not make. Or something like that. It was going to be nice to actually be on campus.

Met the president the moment we got on campus. Dr. Paul Maurer. I don’t have a lot of experience meeting college presidents – only have met two…well, three counting Dr. “Please call me Paul” Maurer. So I don’t know if this is a normal experience or not. I could have sat and talked with him all day. Sports, academics, theology, art, current events – the exact opposite of the stereotypical college president – or at least what I was expecting a college president to be like. I liked him. Engaging, thoughtful, articulate – I could go on. The point is – I can see this man speaking just as easily to a 19 year old freshman from Hays, Kansas as the governor of the state. Both would feel like they are his honored guest.

His only fault? He’s a Cincinnati Bearcat fan. For the life of me, I can’t figure that out. I’d like to at some point in the future dig deeper into his psyche to see what’s up with that. Hard to believe that he is a fan of Thug University. Hopefully his time in Kansas will convert him to the real basketball university. Rock Chalk.

Spoke at chapel. It’s hard to tell how that went. I was told that it went well but then again, they have to say that. Hard to tell with the whole required chapel thing. Let me just say this – God has an incredible sense of humor. I spent most of my college career trying to get out of chapel only to now be the speaker at a required chapel.

After chapel, got to hang with a group of students along with the president, and Dr. Dewey and Dr. Kerr – he is the Director of Academic Affairs. In other words, he hires faculty. But, his second claim to fame is the flower-cutting coach. It’s a long story that I don’t think I can really explain to its full potential. If you ever get to Sterling, ask for Dr. Kerr and ask him about it. Besides a good laugh, I’m fairly positive he’d tell you the rest of the story.

I think I loved the student interaction the most. Wish we would have had more time with the students. Even in an informal arena. Good to hear their perspective of the campus.

Lunch with the staff and faculty. I realize that on trips like this, the college makes sure they put their best foot forward – playing to their strengths. What Sterling lacks in campus resources such as buildings and eye candy, they seem to more than make up for with their faculty and staff. Not just incredibly smart and articulate, but humorous and insightful. They aren’t locked in their ‘ivory towers’ but seem very aware of the culture around them. More on this later.

Quick Observations and Impressions:

The Good
Had more than one student use this phrase – “It’s a Christ-centered college…not a Bible College.” When pushed to explain what that meant, he said “I’m given information with multiple viewpoints, one of which is a Christ-centered worldview. It’s then up to me what I want to do with that information.”

Nice distinction. And one I appreciate. This kind of education actually prepares students for life after college, not just brainwashes them to one certain point of view.

The college has a 94% medical school acceptance rate of their pre-med majors. That’s ridiculous and unexpected. Their debate team ended the season ranked 12th in the nation. That’s alongside every university – D1 or otherwise – in the nation. That further proves my point above.

The Not So Good
It’s a private school so you can figure that it’s a bit more expensive that KU or K-State. I didn’t get the stats on how many of the students get scholarships. I’m guessing it’s fairly high as most small private colleges try to help out as much as they can to get students on campus.

I’m not going to lie to you – it’s a small campus. Very small. Around 700 students. It’s in Sterling, Kansas – 30 minutes from anywhere. Coming from Denver – it’s a shock to the system to realize how small it is. I don’t think that affects the quality of the staff or education these students are receiving.

The Surprise
There appeared to be the absence of a Christian bubble/sub-culture. Again – I was on campus for less than 8 hours. So my perception may not be reality. But the people and staff that I met would be people that I’d hang out with. And I’m definitely NOT the bubble.

Maybe they were just being nice and kind but maybe they weren’t either. Maybe that’s just who they are. There seemed to be a freedom for the students to deconstruct their faith, ask questions and explore truth without the harsh judgement that normally comes within certain Christian circles.

One more thing about the faculty and staff – and I’m not naive enough to think that they all are this way – but they seem to really enjoy students. There is nothing worse than a prof that is more in love with the subject than they are people. I didn’t get that impression with this crew. Granted – I didn’t meet them all.

Overall, I had a great time on campus. I regret that I was so caught up in the visit, I didn’t take pictures. Hopefully, I’ll be invited again and I’ll take pictures then.

Tags , , , | Permalink | Comment (0)

Next Page »

Next Page »