Christian Faculty and Staff Network gathering on 10/13 - Next discussion: Chapter 6 – When you're in love

Join us on Wednesday, October 13, at 11:45 AM (done by 12:45 PM). We meet at the Baptist Campus Ministries building (University Boulevard and 4th Avenue), and (drum roll!) lunch will be served! At $1 per meal, it's the best meal deal in town. 

Meeting logistics 

Meet space change - reminder 

Weather permitting, we'll gather at the picnic tables by the front door of the building. That should give us an opportunity to enjoy the fall weather. 

When we do meet indoors or when weather precludes using the picnic tables, we'll meet in the Baptist Campus Ministries library to take advantage of a little more square footage. 

The latest on masks 

Here is information from the Baptist Campus Ministries director regarding masks in the building: You are no longer required to wear a mask with a few exceptions. However, we encourage you to wear them 1) if you prefer to or 2) if you are not vaccinated.

• Masks and gloves will still be required in the kitchen when preparing or serving food.
• Masks will still be required on home game days.
• Masks and hand sanitizer will still be available at the main door. 

Chapter 6 preview 

Many thanks to Jerran Hill for leading a bracing discussion of Chapter 4. On 10/13, we'll discuss Chapter 6 of Francis Chan's Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God. Francis Chan gets us thinking about how to respond to God's love and break out of lukewarmness. Here's a bit of what we'll discuss:

• "When we love, we're free."
• "I need God to help me love God. And if I need His help to love Him, a perfect being, I definitely need His help to love other, fault-filled humans." 

Items of interest 

Think about it 

Francis Chan will tell us in Chapter 6, "If you merely pretend that you enjoy God or love Him, He knows. You can't fool Him; don't even try. Instead, tell Him how you feel." Christina Rossetti's poem, Good Friday, gives the words of someone who does just that:

 

Am I a stone and not a sheep

That I can stand, O Christ, beneath thy cross,

To number drop by drop Thy blood’s slow loss,

And yet not weep?

 

Not so those women loved

Who with exceeding grief lamented thee;

Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly;

Not so the thief was moved;

 

Not so the sun and moon

Which hid their faces in a starless sky,

A horror of great darkness at broad noon—

I, only I.

 

Yet give not o’er,

But seek thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;

Greater than Moses, turn and look once more

And smite a rock. 

Christian community is an outgrowth of responding to Christ's love. Writing for Lausanne.org, Roberta Hestenes tells us, "One of the great barriers to effectiveness in worldwide evangelization is the way Christians treat each other." Read the linked article to learn what she suggests to resolve that problem. 

These happened on the day of our meeting

• 539 BC. Cyrus the Great's armies captured Babylon, setting the stage for a return of Jewish exiles to Israel.
• 1605. Theodore Beza died. He had succeeded Calvin as the leader of the Swiss Reformation.