Christian Faculty and Staff Network gathering on 2/19 - Digging deeper

Come to the Christian Faculty and Staff Fellowship on Wednesday, February 19, at 11:45 AM (done by 12:45 PM). We meet at the Baptist Campus Ministries building (University Boulevard and 4th Avenue), and lunch will be served. 

It's 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. The first meal of the term is special, so you won't want to miss it. 

What to expect that day 

Phil Bishop will facilitate the discussion based on our current book, The Gospel Comes with a House Key: Practicing Radically Ordinary Hospitality in Our Post-Christian World by Rosaria Butterfield. Here's the summary from Amazon:

• What did God use to draw a radical, committed unbeliever to himself? Did God take her to an evangelistic rally? Or, since she had her doctorate in literature, did he use something in print? No, God used an invitation to dinner in a modest home, from a humble couple who lived out the gospel daily, simply, and authentically.
• With this story of her conversion as a backdrop, Rosaria Butterfield invites us into her home to show us how God can use this same “radical, ordinary hospitality” to bring the gospel to our lost friends and neighbors. Such hospitality sees our homes as not our own, but as God’s tools for the furtherance of his kingdom as we welcome those who look, think, believe, and act differently from us into our everyday, sometimes messy lives—helping them see what true Christian faith really looks like. 

Some administration 

You're welcome to facilitate one of our meetings as well. I pass around a sign-up sheet and invite all to participate. Some things you might want to do:

• Facilitate the discussion of the current chapter of the book we're going through. That involves asking questions and inviting responses.
• Giving a discipline talk about what you're doing in your area. It's a chance to get to know you and what you're doing at UA.
• Bring in a guest speaker (we can also dial up someone on speakerphone).
• Invite your pastor or college minister to chat about college students in your church.
• Etc. That's a catch-all in case you have a great idea about something else for our lunch gathering. 

Sanctuary for us wayfaring strangers 

I read an interesting article in Aleteia, a media site founded and managed by lay Catholics, about loneliness, its impacts, and how we can deal with it. This seemed relevant since we discussed the sanctuary theme in Chapter 4. Here are some quotations to whet your appetite:

• "…the experience and awareness of loneliness seems to be accelerating nowadays. Psychologists talk about an epidemic of loneliness."
• "…our bodies and souls are abiding reminders that we are made for communion and community…How then, can creatures of such origin, nature and destiny suffer from widespread and chronic loneliness?"
• "[CS] Lewis identifies for us the root of the problem. A culture that accelerates and deepens a loneliness at once as inhuman as it is ungodly is built upon an idolatry, a rebellious self-will rejecting what God offers." 

Happening nearby

• February 20. West Alabama Fellowship of Christian Athletes Annual Banquet. Tuscaloosa River Market. Tuscaloosa, AL.
• February 28-29. A Common Call Christian Faculty Conference. First Baptist Church Starkville. Starkville, MS. 

On February 19

• 1569 Miles Coverdale, translator and publisher of the first complete English Bible, died.
• 1812. Adoniram and Ann Judson sailed from Massachusetts for Calcutta, India and then for Burma. Their missionary work drew much attention from the public.
• 1948 Father Butrus Sowmy gave the first of the Dead Sea Scrolls to John Trever to determine their significance.