Leadership Weekend

Starting tonight at 6:00, we have our annual 24-hour leadership recruitment weekend.   We spend some hours going over important theological and biblical distinctives, team building, mission/vision and the vehicle and means by which we mostly do ministry in Equip, both at SDSU and USD.

It's packed, and we hope that several new students decide to commit themselves to prioritizing being an Equip leader for 2018/19. 

Would you pray for us?  Ask for :

1. wisdom and clarity in teaching
2. that the Holy Spirit would make the gospel message first and foremost, and that He'd grant great conviction and urgency about it
3. that relationships would form and deepen between students
4. and that God would grant us the right leaders for this next school year.  

I'm eager for this time, it goes fast but it is pretty darn significant in forming the shape of our next year of ministry.

Thanks!

White-Hot Zeal, Lukewarm Laziness & the Urgency of Leadership

Happy new year!

We (Ratio Christi) had an event on Monday night called "Three Myths of the University: Truth, Tolerance and Diversity", and it went well.  ~50 students (and others) showed up, we had a good time of Q&A and a long conversation with some ladies that weren't on the same page.  (You can actually watch the event here, we live-streamed it.  The quality isn't great, but doable if you're interested, the event doesn't start until 10min in).

Tonight I'm preaching at Equip on Zeal for the Lord, titling the message "White-Hot Zeal, Lukewarm Laziness & the Urgency of Leadership".  Please pray for the Lord to move in powerful ways.  The* application of the message is inviting students to participate in our leadership recruitment weekend on February 2-3.  The leadership team each year is a pretty huge deal, determining a good amount of what we do and how it's done, so I would really appreciate prayer for tonight and for our leadership weekend.

Thanks!

Relationships with the Opposite Sex - Searching for Clarity

Two Wednesday ago I preached on this.  I actually preached on it the night before as well, Tuesday night at Equip-USD and then the next night up here.  I thought it went well at USD, felt genuine God-given conviction and passion, and it seemed to be clear and helpful.  I didn't exactly feel that way up here, but, as these things go, I left that in God's hands.  Feeling passionate or perceiving myself to be speaking with clarity, although desirable and good, are not the measure of success or faithfulness in the preaching of God's truth.

And, as these things happen, God sees fit to remind me of this truth in stronger ways from time to time, like when I don't think I do a good job but in fact God uses that time especially to convict and persuade.
Which is what has apparently happened with several people.  It's good to hear good feedback sometimes, students telling me this or that that was helpful or convicting, and I'm always grateful to God for allowing me to hear such things.

However, I don't believe I've ever heard "I'm getting married in December because of what you said on Wednesday."  That is a first.  It's certainly among the scariest feedback I've heard.  She did clarify, after I pushed in a bit, that they'd been engaged but were planning to wait for another year until she graduated, but decided waiting that long wasn't wise, based on some of what I said the other night.  So, let's pray 1) what I taught was in fact true, and 2) she didn't misunderstand me.  :)

If anyone ever tells you that words aren't powerful in changing peoples lives, don't believe them. Words have power, and we have an awful responsibility to make sure our words are the words God would have us believe and say.

Oh also...an Equip regular also decided that the pseudu-lationship he had with his lady-friend needed urgent clarity after the same message.  We met to discuss it a few days ago, and hopefully he's on the right track, too.

Fall Retreat preview Report

This isn't the report of Fall Retreat, but it is a taste of it...you could say its an hors d'oeuvre. 

In brief, it was a really good time.  God was kind to us in preaching and fellowship and the students seemed to have a good time on top of that.

I'll share some more details soon, but here's a couple photos.

Jonathan Land, a friend and pastor of Connection Church was our guest preacher and we were very blessed to have him!

BBQ Report

So for the purposes of this entry I won't go into the details of how or why having larger numbers can be both a good thing and a difficult thing.  But, I'll simply report that God has seen fit to start us off with a bang.  The Student Engagement Expo yesterday was great, we had 350+ students fill out spiritual interest surveys.  That's more than double what we're used to.  So praise God for that, and this evening was probably the largest BBQ we've ever had, somewhere around 200+ students came, and many stayed around and played games and talked for many hours afterward.  Quite a few I spoke to were interested in coming to our large group  meeting where I'll share the gospel in more depth than what I did tonight.  But the gospel presentation tonight was clear and concise, as far as I could tell.
PLEASE PRAY for Wednesdays meeting, as I'll explore it far more and there will be a great deal of opportunity to interact with students more, set up times to meet and share the gospel in person for me and the leaders, and for Bible studies to be populated.  (You can sign up very specifically to pray, please consider doing that).

Good Gravy!

Wowy wowy wow...

• 6 days from now we have our big booth day S.E.E. (Student Engagement Expo...the artist formally known as C2F2, "Campus and Community Fall Festival).  Thousands of students walking by our booth, and lots of opportunities to get a jump on outreach and starting relationships.  
• A week from tonight is our big Fall outreach BBQ, which is also a pretty big deal for us as 150-200 students come.  They hang out for a couple hours, eat free food (free for them :)), they meet lots of current Equippers, they hear a ~5min gospel presentation and invite/explanation to Equip stuff and play lots of yard games, etc.  
• Nine days from now our first Wednesday night large group...!!!

Once the flood starts, it doesn't dry up for a few weeks, which means lots of paddling to just stay afloat...but while we float, God is granting a bunch of ministry opportunities, especially for the 2k+ scared and wandering freshmen.  

So, this post is mostly to ask for prayer.  I've put together a Prayer Volunteer form to get as serious and ordered as possible.  Would you please check it out and consider really laboring with us in prayer this semester?

New Student Orientation

Summer has quickly progressed, and we're already several hundred new incoming freshmen students during NSO (New Student Orientation).
It's proven to be a pretty significant time for us to do outreach and recruitment, especially for the Fall semester.

Adam, one of our student leaders, has been helping me man the booth at each of them, and Sydney has begun to help as well.

Please pray that God would grant us fruit at these.  The goal is to get an many contacts as possible, so that we can then follow up with as many of them as possible later on, especially once they arrive in the Fall.  Pray we'd get may names, but also pray that God would also grant a number of more personal interactions as well.