Christian Faculty and Staff Fellowship meets March 20

No gathering on March 13 and then we'll resume on March 20. Here's to a wonderful Spring Break. 

Come to the Christian Faculty Network lunch meeting on Wednesday, March 20 at 11:45 AM (done by 12:45 PM). We meet at the Baptist Campus Ministries building (University Boulevard and 4th Avenue). 

Plan on the best meal deal in town: You can get lunch there for $1 thanks to the generosity of local churches. Don't forget to thank the church workers for what they do for the students. 

Barry and Karen McGlothin gave a wonderful overview of Navigators International. It's exciting to think about how we can impact the world from right here just by ministering to the international student community. 

We'll pick up on Chapter 6 of our book at the next meeting. 

Our book for this term: Love Your God with All Your Mind: The Role of Reason in the Life of the Soul by J.P. Moreland (NavPress, 2012). The title is linked to Amazon. Make sure to get the 2012 version.

• It's an updated version of the book from 1997. If you have the 1997 edition, you'll find Chapters 7-9 are different. The other chapters have few changes. It's OK to use your older copy, however, because there is some good material in those older chapters. We won't include those chapters in the final exam!
• We will have a few spare books for those unable to get their own copy.
• Moreland makes the case for the intellectual appeal and rigor of Christianity. It has a cultural, worldview, and apologetics outlook and is relevant to us who want to be salt and light in the groves of academe. The book can be a basis for other readings we would do. 

Click here to get outlines of the book chapters. 

I came across an interesting article about how we can help our children with their faith. The implication for us is the role of the Christian mind in all this. Some telling quotations:

• "…students’ opportunities to express and explore their doubts were actually correlated with greater faith maturity. In other words, it’s not doubt that’s toxic to faith; it’s silence."
• "Researchers for the National Study for Youth and Religion discovered that young people have become inarticulate about their faith, often lacking the language to express their beliefs and convictions. Further exploration revealed another telling part of this story: so have their parents."
• "…faith needs to be talked about and processed, and if these conversations diminish as our kids get older, we miss opportunities to help them remain fluent. What we call 'faithing,' or the ongoing act of faith, depends on practice and use for it to become deeply part of us. It is through faithing that language, behaviors, beliefs, and values are internalized." 

On March 13, these things happened to shape the history of the church.

• 1785 Mozart's cantata, Davidde Penitente, was first performed. The Society for the Relief of the Widows and Orphans of Musicians commissioned the piece for fundraising.
• 2013 Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina was elected Pope. The 1st Pope from the Americas, he took the name Francis.

On March 20, the story of Christianity involved these events.

• 1473 Catherine of Genoa's mystical experience of her spiritual condition and the condition of others led her to devote her life as a spiritual teacher and servant of the sick and poor. Catholic Church beatified her in 1675 and canonized her in 1737.
• 1813 David Livingstone was born. The missionary-explorer spent much of his service in Africa.