Musician and Compassion spokesperson Shaun Groves on unleashing the American college student:
In college I called myself “busy” and “poor” and “tired.”
I didn’t know “busy”—I wasn’t yet spending time every day with three small people, married, and working a full-time job.
I didn’t know “poor”—I’d not yet been to Ecuador, Mexico, El Salvador, Uganda and Ethiopia . . .
I didn’t know “tired”—I’d never been up all night with a sick kid, experienced jet-lag or driven across country with a minivan full of kids and Christmas presents.
My life was a lot like today’s American college student’s - and so was my perspective:
College students spend 1.7 hours in class per day, 1.6 hours studying, 2.6 hours at work, 6.8 hours sleeping, and have 11.3 hours of free uncommitted time left over—most of it spent on-line and watching TV.
College students have $287 a month to spend on discretionary items: College students spend $11 billion a year on snacks and beverages, $4 billion on personal care products and $3 billion on music.
They aren’t truly poor or maxed-out busy or tired to the point of exhausted uselessness. And, to their credit, if they’re inspired by a tangible something bigger than themselves, they’re very willing, thirsty even, to reorganize their lives in order to invest their time and money and whole selves into it. “Busy” and “poor” American college students are a powerful bunch—I have to remember this or I’ll underestimate them.
Here is a great post from John Piper at desiringgod.org...
Your life hangs on how you relate these two statements:
“If anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Righteous” (1 John 2:1).
“Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you” (John 5:14).
Do you experience the first one weakening the second?
Or do you experience the first one joyfully empowering the second?
Your life hangs on your answer.
Service Project Alert!
We are collecting school supplies for Cottage Cove Urban Ministries. All month long bring school supplies to any of the Sunday night Element worship services, and we will collect them and deliver them at the end of March to Cottage Cove. This is a great, easy way for you to help out a great ministry that serves and empowers underprivileged kids in Nashville's inner city.
When God called Moses to demand release of the Israelites from Egyptian captivity, Moses felt inadequate and unqualified. He asked, "Who am I to do such a thing?"
Now, when I ask this question of God, I usually ask in false humility. What I really want is God to reassure me of my qualifications and giftedness. What I really want is God to pump up my self-esteem. "Please remind me how awesome I am so that I'll be confident enough to do this," I ask God. And I fully expect God to respond, "Jared, you're good enough, smart enough, and doggone it, people like you."
This not what God said to Moses . . .
Last year Christy Howard, a Vanderbilt Divinity grad student, asked if she could "use" Element for a congregational case study in her coursework. Despite our reminding her of the fact that we do not consider ourselves a church, she was not dissuaded, received approval from her professor, and was then welcome to speak to anyone and everyone who entered the sphere of our weekly gatherings, from regular attenders to first-time visitors.
I'd like to share the results of her study with you. This is obviously flirting with pride here, especially as much of her study involves appraisal of yours truly, but I'm just dang proud of the people I get to attempt Christian community with, every last one of them, and so I thought I'd share this as a way of publicizing what can happen when a pathetic start-up focuses on the gospel first. It has some interesting insights about young adults and young adult ministry, and reflects on the relative effectiveness or ineffectiveness an approach like ours might have.
Straight from Sarah's lips....Heartbreaking
Aunt Lorena fell yesterday and broke her hip. She made it through surgery today but will never be able to walk again because her bones are crumbling. She's 95 and ready to go home to Jesus, but has to endure this pain in her final days. it breaks my heart
Please be in prayer for Sarah and her family. This is a tough time.
Tonight at Praxis we looked at a passage in Galatians 5 that spoke about the fruit of the spirit. The question was asked which of the fruits of the spirit listed we felt that we saw most in our life and which we saw least. The one that I see most in my life is joy. Jared replied to that by saying that nothing seems to faze me, that I take things in stride. For the most part I guess that is true. Tonight is different.
I received a phone call earlier tonight from my sister informing me that someone I went to high school with had died.
Founded in 1994, Cottage Cove has become a safe-haven for many inner-city children of the Vine Hill Community. The mission of Cottage Cove began with a simple hope of offering Bible-based learning as well as free after-school tutoring to the children in the Vine Hill Community. After 14 years of existence, today Cottage Cove has fulfilled its mission by offering the children a program including Bible studies, worship opportunities, music and art lessons, free individual tutoring, and the chance to worship with their families at the Sunday morning church service.
Element, in conjunction with taking our next step in ministry growth, is relaunching our web presence. These are exciting times, and we'd like your thoughts and opinions! To get in touch with us click the "Contact Us" button at the top.
