Christian Faculty and Staff Network gathering on 11/3 - Next discussion: Chapter 8 - Profile of the obsessed and book interest survey

Join us on Wednesday, November 3, 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 

Chapter 8 preview 

On 10/27, we'll discuss Chapter 8 of Francis Chan's Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God. We've had a profile of the lukewarm. Now a profile of those who have responded well to God. These are the opposite of the lukewarm characteristics.

  • "There has to be more to our faith than friendliness, politeness, and even kindness."
  • "It's just this sort of love, that is crazy to the world: true love, a kind found nowhere but

through Christ."

  • "This is Christ's love. He gave us something for which we can never repay Him, and then He asks us to keep giving like He gives." 

Items of interest 

Book survey. It's that time of the semester when we think about a book to discuss in the fall term. Here is the link to the survey: https://forms.gle/NUMWLa4srVbTcrtb7. Would you mind indicating your preference before Thanksgiving. I'll announce the book before the end of the term. 

Think about it 

James Houston, Professor of Spiritual Theology, Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia, shared some thoughts about prayer and spiritual friendship. It's a different take on the idea of having an accountability partner.

  • "A spiritual friend is therefore needed, to awaken my heart out of the sleep of conventionalized, institutionalized, professional ways of our ‘normal existence,’ to so individuate me that I can take the first serious step in personal prayer."
  • "Prayer comes from the insights and the abundance of the heart, where we are free to disclose, to divest it of encumbrances, and to free it from its religious conventions and even its prejudices about God Himself."
  • "Indeed personal prayer is like possessing ‘spiritual fingerprints,’ expressive of the uniqueness God has gifted to each of us, while at the same time freeing us of the relational bonds, or healing us of the personal wounds, we have received from others. This dual growth in prayerful intimacy with God, and of personal development, will, as a result, enlarge our friendships and also extend our walk with the Lord. This must be so, for prayer helps us to grow inwardly within ourselves, as well as upwardly with God, and outwardly with our friends." 

These happened on the day of our meeting

  • 1534. The British Parliament passed the Supremacy Act, establishing the king  (Henry VIII at the time) as the head of the Church of England.
  • 1970. Charles Chidongo Chinula, pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Malawi, died. He had translated Pilgrim's Progress into the Tumbuka language.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Christian Faculty and Staff Network gathering on 10/16

 Christian Faculty and Staff Network gathering on 10/16 - Are we selfish about work?  Come to the Christian Faculty and Staff Network lunch gathering on Wednesday, October 16 , at 11:45 AM (done by 12:45 PM). We meet at the Baptist Campus Ministries building (University Boulevard and 4th Avenue).  More: 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. Our book for the term is Tim Keller's Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God's Work . Here's a summary from the Amazon page: "With deep conviction and often surprising advice, Keller shows readers that biblical wisdom is immensely relevant to our questions about work today. In fact, the Christian view of work that we work to serve others, not ourselv...
Read more

UA Christian Staff and Faculty Fellowship - Chapter 4 - Making a difference; and don't forget the book survey, 4/7

Come to the Christian Faculty and Staff Fellowship on Wednesday, 3/24, at 11:45 AM (done by 12:45 PM).  We'll finish Chapter 4 of The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship by George M. Marsden. If Christians are informing their scholarship with their faith, what would that look like and what difference would it make? The Amazon links are: Paperback: https://amzn.to/3pIQRwL Kindle: https://amzn.to/32W0iPM   From the abstract on Amazon: "Marsden argues forcefully that mainstream American higher education needs to be more open to explicit expressions of faith and to accept what faith means in an intellectual context."  Meeting logistics   We'll continue to meet on Zoom until it's clear that staff, faculty, and students are fully back on campus and pursuing their regular activities. I'll keep checking for announcements about that.  The Zoom link is: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87919167217?pwd=cVJjbHhUaXhidllPMkM1UXVCbzc0QT09   You're welcome to eat your...
Read more

Christian Faculty and Staff Fellowship meets November 28

  I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoyed the time off. We'll resume on 11/28 with a visit by Jennifer Waddell , Athletes in Action , thanks to Phil Bishop.   Next semester's book: Love Your God with All Your Mind: The Role of Reason in the Life of the Soul by J.P. Moreland (NavPress, 2011). The title is linked to Amazon. Make sure to get the 2012 version. It's an updated version of the book from 1997. 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.   Looking ahead: I came across this announcement for the Dallas Conference on Science and Faith in January 2019 . It looks like it has a substantive agenda for those who might be interested.   And since we're on the subject of science and faith, today is Red Planet Day to commemo...
Read more