Glen and Paula Davis

Get Better Grades By Understanding How Your Brain Works

2010-09-02T16:37:45+00:00

One of my favorite blogs is the British Psychological Society’s Research Digest. It summarizes current research in a way interesting to non-academics. I eat that kind of stuff up.

Their most recent post is a real winner for college students: 9 Evidence-Based Study Tips. You’ll receive a lot of advice in college – but these principles actually have experimental support.

Adopt a growth mindset: believe that your brain is capable of getting smarter. You’re not stuck where you are.
Sleep well: internalize that all-nighters hurt more than they help.
Forgive yourself for procrastinating: as a minister, I was quite taken by this one. It’s a beautiful illustration of a more general lesson on grace as the primary catalyst for growth in life.
Test yourself: don’t just review the material – turn it into a quiz.
Pace your studies: review the material once 20% of the time elapses between the day you first learned it and the day of the test. Combining this with the previous tip will revolutionize your study life.
Vivid examples may not always work best. This is more of a tip for teachers, so here’s the student version: don’t assume that the charismatic teacher will help you understand better simply because they entertain you more. Be suspicious of vivid illustrations because they can make it harder to learn the abstract principles you must master.
Take naps: lie down and rest for 10–30 minutes. It will help more than you think.
Get handouts prior to the lecture: the evidence for this one seemed weak to me. Read it and judge for yourself.
Believe in yourself: confidence matters. Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re probably right.

Each tip has a brief paragraph explaining the principle in more detail including links to the research upon which it is based. Go read it now!

You’re welcome.

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2010-08-21T21:28:22+00:00

In album Photos from Dana's Camera

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Notes From God Is Not One

2010-08-20T00:13:00+00:00

I recently read/skimmed Stephen Prothero’s book God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World–and Why Their Differences Matter. Prothero is a professor of religion at Boston University who was raised Episcopalian but has since rejected Christianity. He now describes himself as confused. Be that as it may, he makes some true but unfashionable claims in his introduction. Here are some bits I was particularly keen on:

The book is well summed up on the inside front dust jacket:

To claim that all religions are the same is to misunderstand that each attempts to solve a different human problem. For example:

Islam: the problem is pride / the solution is submission

Christianity: the problem is sin / the solution is salvation

Confucianism: the problem is chaos / the solution is social order

Buddhism: the problem is suffering / the solution is awakening

Judaism: the problem is exile / the solution is to return to God

In a section called “Allergic to Argument” he described a frustrating reality that I see almost every day as a minister to college students:

In my Boston University courses, I work hard to foster respectful arguments. My students are good with “respectful,” but they are allergic to “argument.” They see arguing as ill-mannered, and even among friends they avoid it at any cost…. Especially when it comes to religion, young Americans at least are far more likely to say “I feel” than “I think” or (God forbid) “I believe.” (4)

I liked this bit, too:

All too often world history is told as if religion did not matter. The Spanish conquered New Spain for gold, and the British came to New England to catch fish. The French Revolution had nothing to do with Catholicism, and the U.S. civil rights movement was a purely humanitarian endeavor. But even if religion makes no sense to you, you need to make sense of religion to make sense of the world. (8)

I first heard the following observation from Joe Zickafoose years ago, and the longer I reflect upon it the more convinced I am of its truth:

What the world’s religions share is not so much a finish line as a starting point. And where they begin is with this simple observation: something is wrong with the world…. Religious folk worldwide agree that something has gone awry. They part company, however, when it comes to stating just what has gone wrong, and they diverge sharply when they move from diagnosing the human problem to prescribing how to solve it. Christians see sin as the problem, and salvation from sin as the religious goal. Buddhists see suffering (which, in their tradition, is not ennobling) as the problem, and liberation from suffering as the religious goal. (11)

And I think his four-part analysis is one of the more useful ways to summarize religions:

At the heart of this project is a simple, four-part approach to the religions, which I have been using for years in the classroom and at lectures around the world. Each religion articulates:

a problem;

a solution to the problem, which also serves as the religious goal;

a technique (or techniques) for moving from this problem to this solution; and

an exemplar (or exemplars) who chart this path from problem to solution.

(14)

And in one of his many non-PC moments:

While in Jerusalem researching this book, I struck up a conversation with an elderly Muslim. When I told him I was writing a book on the world’s religions, he looked at me sternly, pointed a finger in my direction, and instructed me to be honest. “Do not write false things about the religions,” he said. Religious Studies scholars are rarely honest enough to admit this in person, much less in print, but we all know there are things that each of the world’s religions do well, and things they do poorly. If you want to help the homeless, you will likely find the Christian Social Gospel more useful than Hindu notions of caste. If you want to find techniques for quieting the mind through bodily exercises, you will likely find Hindu yogis more useful than Christian saints. (20)

The rest of the book is fine, I suppose. If you need a summary of the global religions you could do far worse than this one, but it doesn’t live up to the promise of the introduction (hence the skimming alluded to in the first sentence of this post).

That notwithstanding, I must confess that I liked one image from his section on Pentecostal Christianity:

U.S. president Abraham Lincoln once remarked that, when he sees a man preach, he likes “to see him act as if he were fighting bees.” Pentecostalism is replete with bee-fighting preachers. (87–88)

That’s my tribe – the mighty bee-fighters.

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Last Seminary - Home

2010-08-10T21:27:23+00:00

Helpful collection of scholarly Christian articles.

A Professor’s Advice to Christians

2010-08-09T16:12:21+00:00

In Christians in Academe: A Reply, former evangelical Adam Kotsko minimizes a very real problem (recall that one study shows that 53% of faculty disdain evangelicals), but he nonetheless says things worth listening to.

A few bits stood out to me:

Above all, parents and pastors need to stop giving a blank check to anything that professes to be “Christian.” Conservative evangelicals have long been skilled at sniffing out what they consider to be pseudo-Christian liberals — developing some discernment on the other end of the scale would be a welcome shift.

I think he and I would differ considerably on the application of this point, but I like the fact that he brings it up. The truth is that there is a ditch on both sides of the road, and it matters little whether you wreck in the ditch of being too insistent on irrelevant details (theological conservatism) or whether you wreck in the ditch of being too unconcerned about important details (theological liberalism). Both will mess you up, yet most evangelicals practically ignore the ditch of being too theologically conservative.

He goes on:

For instance, if the professor Larsen describes in his opening paragraphs didn’t realize that he would get a paper like Larsen’s student handed in when he assigned an opinion piece on “traditional marriage,” then he or she was incredibly naïve. Personally, I would never assign a paper on abortion or evolution in an intro-level class, because I know doing so would basically mean condemning conservative evangelical students to do poorly. Many of them would simply parrot the stock arguments they’d heard from their leaders with very little reflection or fresh argumentation of their own — and the inevitable bad grade would only feed the persecution complex, turning me into yet another “secular indoctrinator.”

All I have to say in response to this is that I wish more professors were as wise as he. I’d like to order that paragraph to be read to every professor in America once a year.

But the part I like best is this:

More immediately, though, if conservative evangelicals are not willing to abandon their siege mentality, I would urge them to at least adopt the practices that the New Testament authors recommended to persecuted communities: live quietly, seek to be at peace with all, respect authority, work hard — in short, keep the moral high ground. The sober advice of the Apostles has stood the test of time and will endure long after whatever radical preacher is in the ascendant now is forgotten.

This is Biblical and good advice and should be the baseline for Christians at secular universities. If a university actually prevents you from obeying Christ, then by all means take a stand and deploy every peaceful tool in your arsenal to stymie them (this is to follow the example of the apostles – Acts 5:25–32 and Acts 16:36–39). But if a university is merely teaching you things you consider to be untrue, then suck it up, master the materials, and excel academically (this is to follow the example of Daniel and his friends in Babylon – Daniel 1:17–20). In the long run you will accomplish far more for the faith by getting good grades than by causing lots of disruptions in class.

Kotsko’s essay is worth reading and pondering (and so is the piece he is responding to, No Christianity Please, We’re Academics).

As I said, he minimizes a real problem. Anyone who thinks that some professors do not seek to destroy the faith of students is simply uninformed, and anyone who doesn’t realize that huge swaths of university culture are hostile to evangelical sensibilities has not been paying attention. But Kotsko is right to point out that evangelical students often create their own problems by allowing the evangelical subculture to define their relationship to the university rather than allowing the Bible’s teaching to prevail.

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Group Text Messaging

2009-09-04T14:22:10+00:00

For a few years, Facebook was one of the best ways to connect with college students. Not any more. It’s still useful, but not nearly as useful as it used to be. The novelty has worn off and so students aren’t as responsive on it.

So like Steve Lutz I’ve been thinking about text messaging lately. My younger students (frosh and sophomores) seem to be much more likely to have unlimited texting plans than my upperclassmen and grad students.

In the past I’ve just texted people individually, but now I’m experimenting with group text messaging services.

I considered using Twitter and telling people to subscribe via text. A few problems:
a) College students don’t use twitter.
b) It centralizes the communication too much.
c) I don’t feel confident in twitter’s reliability.
d) The verb “tweet”.

So I’ve been looking into other services. So far I’m drawn to txtBlaster. The thing I like best is that I can deputize as many of the subscribers as I want and allow them to text the entire group, so I can make this a student-driven thing. It’s a free (ad-supported) service. They claim to screen their ads carefully and to target them based on the type of group you set up. So far so good on that front.

Do you have
a) any thoughts on using text messaging effectively as a ministry tool?
b) another service to recommend (such as TextMarks or txtSignal or even the maligned Twitter)?

P.S. If you want to see txtBlaster in action, feel free to text xastanford to 25278. I’ll be playing around with it for the next few days.

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Tell Us How You Really Feel, Don…

2009-06-04T20:26:40+00:00

I was just reading an essay by D. A. Carson, “Worship Under The Word“.

Carson is, in my estimation, one of the greatest biblical scholars in the world today. And I don’t just say that because he loves university ministry. Approximately one gazillion (rounding up from three hundred and forty-four) of his writings are available for free online. They’re worth reading. Or at least saving to your hard drive so you can find them when you search your computer using Google Desktop…

Anyway, in footnote 39 on page 47 of this essay, he makes a rather pointed observation. I have bolded my favorite line.

Perhaps this is the place to reflect on the fact that many contemporary “worship leaders” have training in music but none in Bible, theology, history, or the like. When pressed as to the criteria by which they choose their music, many of these leaders finally admit that their criteria oscillate between personal preference and keeping the congregation reasonably happy—scarcely the most profound criteria in the world. They give little or no thought to covering the great themes of Scripture, or the great events of Scripture, or the range of personal response to God found in the Psalms (as opposed to covering the narrow themes of being upbeat and in the midst of “worship”), or the nature of biblical locutions (in one chorus the congregation manages to sing “holy” thirty-six times, while three are enough for Isaiah and John of the Apocalypse), or the central historical traditions of the church, or anything else of weight. If such leaders operate on their own with little guidance or training or input from senior pastors, the situation commonly degenerates from the painful to the pitiful.

Heh. Heh. Heh.

I would “heh” more, but apparently three times is enough.

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Christianity, China, and College Students

2009-06-01T19:58:06+00:00

I just read an interesting article

about Christianity in China. The emphasis of the piece is on the dominance of Reformed theology in Chinese Christianity, but I was struck by the comments on the role of universities in the revival.

And in China, the place where Calvinism is spreading fastest is the elite universities, fuelled by prodigies of learning and translation. Wang Xiaochao, a philosopher at one of the Beijing universities, has translated the two major works of St Augustine, the Confessions and the City of God, into Chinese directly from Latin. Gradually all the major works of the first centuries of the Christian tradition are being translated directly from the original languages into Chinese.

All of this is happening outside the control of the official body which is supposed to monitor and supervise the churches in China. Instead, it is the philosophy departments at the universities, or the language departments and the departments of literature and western civilisation that are the channel.

“The [officially recognised] churches are not happy with universities, because it is not within their control. And their seminaries are not at the intellectual level of the universities,” says Dr Tan. “Chinese Christianity using Chinese to do Christian thinking has become a very interesting movement.”

And

If [May Tan] goes to preach at an official church, she says, “There will be perhaps 1000 people and 95% of them are over 65. So it’s a sunset church. But if I went to house church – there would be 1000 people; perhaps 20 of them in their 50s, and all the rest are youngsters. The older ones will all be professors at the universities. So these are the future of the churches. They have registered pastors, and no access to seminaries: But they have youth, and future, and money.”

And later on

“Very soon”, said Dr Tan, “Christians will become the majority of university students… that could happen.”

May it come to pass.matrix the divx download

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Evaluating Sermons

2009-08-17T16:25:57+00:00

I evaluate a lot of sermons. I don’t just mean that I listen to sermons and decide whether I like them or not – everyone who goes to church does that. I mean that I professionally evaluate sermons and give formal feedback to the preacher. Some I evaluate in my role as a ministry trainer and others I evaluate in my role on a preaching team (before one of us preaches we preach the sermon to each other and get feedback on how to strengthen it).

So I’ve thought about this a lot. Most sermon evaluation forms you find on the internet and at seminaries are not very helpful because they measure too many things.

These were the top hits when I googled for “sermon evaluation forms”
Calvin Seminary’s (30 questions)
The Orthodox Presbyterian Church’s Form for Ministry Interns (41 questions)
Reformed Baptist Seminary’s (35 questions).

Do all the things these long forms ask about matter? A little. But using that to evaluate a sermon is like evaluating your church’s statement of faith based on its grammar. It sort of misses the point. Of course you want a statement of faith that is grammatical, but if its content is sketchy then every moment spent improving its grammar is wasted time. Sinfully wasted time.

In the same way, focusing on the superficials of a sermon when the underlying content is bogus is ridiculous. I realize that’s not the intent of these forms, but that is what they encourage.

So this is the form I use:

Pointers (what should I change?)

Keepers (what was so good I should be sure not to take it out)?

That’s it – two questions. I sometimes do it on a 3×5 index card. Keepers on the front, pointers on the back (a tip I got from Earl Creps).

And this is the grid I’m putting it through:
1) Was Christ proclaimed clearly?
2) Was the sermon Biblically sound?
3) Was it interesting?
4) Did it ask me to do something appropriate in response?

I try to never give them more than three pointers and three keepers, and I try to be as specific as possible.

There are lots of other aspects of a sermon I could nitpick, but if the person is preaching an interesting, Biblically sound sermon that exalts Christ and challenges me to obey Him then they’re doing fabulous. Why would I nitpick them at that point? To demoralize them? To clone my habits (“at this point I would have told a joke – you should tell a joke”)?

Anyway, this post probably wasn’t relevant to most of you. But for those of you who have to evaluate preaching on a regular basis, I hope I’ve given you some food for thought.

And to those in my ministry, now you know what I’m trying to do when I prepare a sermon: proclaim the good news of Jesus in a way that is faithful to the Biblical text I’m working with in an interesting way that challenges you to wholeheartedly respond. From time to time, be sure to let me know how I’m doing.

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College Ministry and Global Transformation

2009-03-18T18:00:11+00:00

One of my favorite subjects to talk about is the strategic nature of campus ministry. As I was reading the most recent issue of Books & Culture scar divx

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, one passage from a book review popped out at me:

I saw a striking pattern in these books [Evangelical Christianity and Democracy in the Global South: Africa /Latin America/Asia] that the editors and authors did not mention: a distinct source for much of the more principled evangelical social and political engagement across the regions. Repeatedly, the leaders of parachurch ministries and reform-minded NGOs that worked on behalf of the poor and the vulnerable, who spoke up for human rights and electoral reform and against corruption and autocratic rule came from two sources: student Christian movements and the worldwide network of evangelical leaders affiliated with the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization. Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship joined the People Power movement in the Philippines, while Campus Crusade played a central role in the formation of the Citizens Committee for Economic Justice in South Korea. Likewise in South Africa, it was the members of Youth Alive, the evangelical student fellowship started in Soweto by Caesar Molebatsi, who drove the Concerned Evangelicals movement to resist apartheid in the 1980s. The Latin American Theological Fraternity, an evangelical network with strong ties to both the Lausanne Committee and the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, figures prominently in pro-democratic evangelical work across Latin America.

INFEMIT [the International Fellowship of Evangelical Mission Theologians] itself is a product of this network, which might help explain these authors’ interest in highlighting this strain of evangelical social thought and action. But it is indeed significant. Little could the Anglo-American founders of the Lausanne and campus ministry movements have imagined that their emphasis on thoughtful Bible study and a “whole gospel for the whole world” would help animate democratic movements around the globe.

source: “Now What? Revivalist Christianity and Global South Politics” by Joel Carpenter. Books & Culture March/April 2009, page 36.

If you want to change a culture, change its campuses. They are the steering wheels of society.

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Baptism on Campus

2009-02-10T20:12:27+00:00

January 29th I had a great privilege. I was able to baptize my friend Kelly in the Claw Fountain in between the Bookstore and Old Union.

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The water was cold. In fact, I saw Kelly’s eyes shoot open when she went under the water and I could practically read the thoughts running through her brain, “I want to gasp. But if I gasp, I’ll drown. Drowning is bad at a baptism. But I want to gasp so badly.”

Fortunately, the warm California sun brought her back from the brink of hypothermia right after I pulled her up. I’m just glad I told her to bring a change of clothes and a towel!

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If having a baptism out in public strikes you as a little odd I’d like to point out that it has ample Biblical and historical precedent. The most famous Biblical example is from Acts 8:36-38:

As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?” And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him.

Yeah. So we did that.

And I hope we get to do it again soon.

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Digital Discipleship

2009-02-03T00:08:09+00:00

In one of the first conversations I remember having with Scott Aughtmon, he tried to sell me on the advantages of using sequential autoresponders in ministry. I had no idea what he was talking about, so I smiled and nodded.

Turns out they’re awesome. I wish I had listened to him sooner.

Consider the case of Dick Schroeder. He speaks at retreats and frequently prays with people to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. Over the years, he has put together a series of emails that he sends to people afterwards to coach them from a distance.

One day he asked me if there was a way to automate the process. My mind flashed back to Scott’s enthusiasm for these autoresponder things, so I downloaded a free PHP script called Infinite Responder and set up http://chialpha.com/resources/holyspirit.

Now if someone signs up, they begin receiving coaching emails from Dick once a week. Since the messages appear to come from his email address, students can just hit “reply” and ask Dick about anything they found confusing or that they need special advice about. It’s very low-maintenance for him, and Chi Alpha students nationwide get a year’s worth of Dick’s expertise.

Since rolling this out at the World Missions Summit (Jan 1st), we’ve had just over 200 people subscribe to these updates. That works out to about 7 signups a day. I have no idea where the total will cap out, but momentum is building and I don’t even feel that the resource has been thoroughly publicized yet.

Things I like about the tool:

Low-tech. It’s just email. No one has to install a special plugin, put headphones in their computer, or have some insanely fast connection.
Personal. The emails come from an actual human being to whom you can respond.
Low-maintenance. Once the email is in the database, it’s just there. Neither Dick nor I need to do anything special to send them out. And Dick only gets replies from people who have specific questions, which is only a fraction of the people who receive any given email.

Pretty cool, eh?

Lately I’ve been wondering what other opportunities are out there. Some ideas that I’ve had:

Emails for new believers
A “40 days” type campaign for Chi Alpha with daily emails where each campus that chooses to participate picks its own start and stop times and the script takes care of all those details.
A first two weeks of school devotional to get students fired up when they return from summer break
Coaching emails for people who are called to ministry
Monthly emails for Chi Alpha grads to help them make the transition out of college gracefully
A term’s worth of weekly emails for people pioneering new Chi Alpha ministries
etc,etc

It’s just a matter of finding a person with the right expertise and hooking them up. So if you’ve got an idea, I’d love to hear about it. I’d especially love to hear if you’re a Chi Alpha leader who has content ready to go. I can just run it past Dennis and get that stuff online faster than you can imagine.

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Jesus Wants Friends Not Fans

2008-10-22T18:59:10+00:00

I was chatting with De Wen (a student in our ministry) yesterday and he made a comment that really resonated with me: “God wants friends, not fans.”

A lot of us settle for being fans. I often settle for being a fan. But there’s so much more available - like Abraham, we can be friends with God (Isaiah 41:8, James 2:23). As he did to the disciples, Jesus yearns to say to us, “I no longer call you servants but friends” (John 15:15).

But the temptation to be a mere fan is strong. In Jimmy Tate’s memorable phrase, we substitute praise for prayer. We allow the life of the church to displace our own spiritual journey and we live vicariously through the pastor’s insights or the worship leader’s zeal. Like a dutiful fan, we turn out for the game (Sunday morning) and cheer at all the appropriate places. But we don’t call the coach after the game to congratulate him or shoot the breeze. We don’t invite him over for a victory bbq. That’s the stuff a friend would do.

We’re just fans, so we go home and talk about how great the game was.

And we miss out on something wonderful.

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Stanford at the Olympics

2008-08-08T21:39:21+00:00

Stanford has 46 athletes competing in the Olympics this year. Get a summary of the latest news or see stories with pictures and more details.

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Stanford Rocks It Again

2008-08-07T23:35:02+00:00

The 2008 world ranking of universities has just been released, and yet again Stanford occupies the #2 spot in the whole world.

It really is an amazing place to do ministry. Big thanks to all of you who pray for and support us.

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California Is Amazing

2008-07-18T01:38:52+00:00

In the last few days, my work has taken me to preach in Sonora, CA (where I was able to take an excursion to Yosemite Valley and also stand upon Glacier Point), it has caused me to spend a day at Seacliff Beach (near Santa Cruz) helping with a youth camp, and it’s allowed me to have lunch with a worship pastor in San Francisco. And in the middle I got to hang out with some of the most amazing people in the world at Stanford University.

If you’re keeping score, that’s two instances of mountainous beauty, one day of beachy fun, one incident of cosmopolitan elegance, and several heaping sides of academically elite intellectual stimulation. All in under a week.

I’m blown away at (a) how cool my state is and (b) how delightful my job is.

If your life is insufficiently fabulous, consider coming to California to do college ministry. It rocks.

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Fifteen Minutes and Counting

2008-04-23T14:47:37+00:00

One of our worship leaders, Awa, has some of the most quotable lines of anyone I know.

As exhibit A, I submit the following excerpt from an email to our group last week:

It’s spring quarter people, time to procrastinate so you can enjoy the beautiful warm weather and the beautiful peeps of Chi Alpha. I mean, we are a good looking bunch…I say that in truth and with humility…

How magnificent is that language?

Anyway, at least one reporter at the Stanford Daily agrees with me: Awa was quoted not once but twice in a recent article as was Chris, another of our students.

For context, the article is about a Hawaiian Lu’au on campus.

…kahlua pig … is traditionally prepared by filling the pig’s abdominal cavity with hot stones, then placing the pig in a pit containing hot stones.

“But I’m sure Santa Clara County wouldn’t have been too open to that idea, so we hand-shredded the 40 lbs. of pork ourselves using forks,” said Lu’au Co-Chair Awapuhi Dancil ‘10. “The hardest part was figuring out how much of each item to buy. People at Costco kept staring at us since we had 40 tomatoes, pineapples and pounds of salmon.”

And then later on,

“The members of the Hawai’i Club poured our heart and soul into this event, working at 100 mph,” Dancil said.

And the contribution from Chris:

Perhaps the most interesting side dish was the poi, pounded taro root that is kneaded into a smooth paste, traditionally meant to be eaten by scooping it out of a bowl with one’s fingers.

“I still haven’t made up my mind about the poi,” said Chris Olivares ‘10. “But everything else is absolutely delicious. I came last year and had to come again to support friends and watch the great dances. And how often do you get to have authentic Hawaiian food that’s really good?”

So a big shout out to you both for your 15 minutes of fame.

Although next time you’re talking about slaughtered pigs and root paste try to figure out a subtle way to work in “Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship meets at 7:30pm every Wednesday school is in session in building 300-300.” I’m not quite sure how to do that elegantly, but there must be some way. Maybe something like “Of course, slaughtered pigs cannot atone for our sins. They are merely tasty. However, there is one sacrifice that has already been given on our behalf, and we’ll be talking about it this Wednesday… etc, etc”.

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Historical Jesus booklet by Craig Blomberg

2008-03-26T16:38:51+00:00

A short booklet (28 pages), Jesus of Nazareth: How Historians Can Know Him and Why It Matters was released for free this morning by the Christ on Campus Initiative. It’s written by Craig Blomberg, a well-respected scholar.

One thing I really appreciate about this piece is that Blomberg footnotes his sources well and provides an annotated bibliography at the end. So if he makes a claim someone finds sketchy they are welcome to investigate it more thoroughly. Christian outreach pieces are rarely considerate in this way, and I applaud the decision.

Highly recommended if you (or your friends) have questions about what we can possibly know about a man who lived 2,000 years ago.

found via JT

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Notable Pentecostal Leaders from Secular Universities

2008-03-20T18:45:29+00:00

It struck me the other day that there are a lot of Pentecostal/Charismatic/Third Wave leaders with degrees from secular universities instead of Bible colleges/Christian liberal arts schools, so I started putting a list together.

The list is heavy on the Assemblies of God because those are the circles I run in, and it’s also minister-heavy for the same reason. I’d love to add some business leaders. I’m leaving out Chi Alpha missionaries because we’d swamp the list.

In alphabetical order:
For Their Undergrad

Bret Allen (pastor, Bethel Church of San Jose) – Eastern Washington University
John Ashcroft (politician and author) – Yale for undergrad, University of Chicago for law school
Glen Berteau (pastor of Calvary Temple in Modesto, CA) – Louisiana Tech
John Bevere (author and conference speaker) – Purdue
Brady Boyd (pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs) - Louisiana Tech
James Bradford (pastor of Central Assembly in Springfield, MO) - University of Minnesota (all the way through Ph.D.)
Frank Cargill (district superintendent of Oklahoma) - Oklahoma State University (undergrad), University of Oklahoma (master’s),and the University of Central Oklahoma (another master’s).
Dennis Cheek (pastor/church planter & Vice President for the Kaufmann Foundation) - Towson University (undergrad), another undergrad from Excelsior College, a master’s University of Maryland Baltimore County, a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction/science education from Pennsylvania State University, and a Ph.D. in theology from the University of Durham.
Alicia Chole (author and conference speaker) – UT Austin (through her master’s)
Earl Creps (church planter, author, educator) – University of Pittsburg for undergrad, Northwestern for Ph.D.
Mark Driscoll (pastor of Mars Hill in Seattle) - Washington State University
Denny Duron (pastor of Shreveport Community Church in LA) – Louisiana Tech
Jonathan Gainsbrugh (evangelist and author) - University of Virginia
Randy Garcia (pastor of Fortress Church in San Antonio, TX) - University of Texas at San Antonio
Paul Goulet (pastor of International Church of Las Vegas) - University of Ottowa
Wayne Grudem (theologian) - Harvard
Stanley Horton (theologian and author) - B.S., University of California, S.T.M. from Harvard
Roger Houtsma (founder of World Outreach Ministries) - UC Berkeley
Tim Johnson (Congressman) – University of Illinois – Champaign/Urbana
Steve Lim (Academic Dean at AGTS), UC Berkeley
Mike McClaflin (Africa Regional Director for Assemblies of God World Missions) - University of Wyoming
Lee McFarland (pastor of Radiant Church in Surprise, AZ) - University of Colorado
Marvin Miller (director of Rayne Project Ministries) - Whitter College
Donnie Moore (evangelist) – University of the Pacific
J. P. Moreland (apologist and scholar) - University of Missouri
Marilyn Musgrave (Congresswoman) - Colorado State University
Rich Nathan – (pastor of Vineyard Community Church of Colombus, OH) – Case Western Reserve University
Ray Rachels – (Southern California District Superintendent) – Troy State University
Cecil Robeck (scholar) - San Jose City College (for his AA)
Mark Rutland – (president of Southeastern College) – University of Maryland
Anthony Scoma (pastor of Southwest Family Fellowship) - University of Texas (Austin)
Charlie Self - undergrad and Ph.D. from UC Santa Cruz (break for Graduate Theological Union in the middle)
Sean Smith (evangelist) – University of the Pacific
Zollie Smith (Executive Director AG US Missions) – Florida State University
Sam Storms - University of Oklahoma
James Watt (politician) – University of Wyoming

For Grad Work Only

Gordon Fee (scholar and author) - Ph.D. from USC
Richard Hammar (AG legal counsel) – Harvard Law
Rich Israel (scholar) - Ph.D. from Claremont
Doug Peterson (scholar) Ph.D. from Oxford
Everett Wilson (scholar) - Ph.D. from Stanford University
George O. Wood (General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God) - Law degree from Western State University College of Law in Fullerton, California
Amos Yong (theologian) - M.A. from Portland State and Ph.D. from Boston University

Why compile a list like this?

First, if you’re a student at a secular school don’t assume that you can’t go into vocational ministry. As this list shows, some of the most well-known ministers in the Pentecostal world come from the same place you do. And the trend isn’t abating - when I was in seminary I learned that half of my classmates at AGTS had gone to non-Christian schools for their undergrad just as I had.

Second, if you’re a youth pastor (or a parent) don’t be scared to sent your kids with a ministry calling off to secular schools to major in business or physics something. Bible colleges aren’t the only route to ministerial preparation - and for many people they’re not the best route.

Third, don’t feel alone if you’re in ministry and graduated from a secular university. At least in the Assemblies of God it’s pretty easy to feel isolated, because they have all these Bible college alumni reunions at every big minister’s gathering and there’s never a gathering for “went to a pagan school.” You may feel alone, but you’re not even close to alone.

Anyway, there are no doubt dozens more who aren’t coming to mind right now. I welcome contributions to the list - leave any updates in the comment section or email/facebook me. (If you’re reading this on Facebook, by the way, you’re only reading a copy. Click on the link at the top to go to the original where you can leave a comment). When you make a suggestion, please indicate your source (personal conversation, published bio, heard them mention it in a sermon, friend of a friend, etc).

edit 3/20/2008: first update is Mike McClaflin - thanks to Dennis and Jen for this!
edit 3/21/2008: Rich suggested Roger Houtsma along with Gordon Fee and George O Wood (I’m leaving those two off for now because only their doctorates that came from a secular school - trying to decide what to do with that). I’m also leaving off Mark Batterson for now because he started his undergrad at University of Chicago but finished at a Bible college. I also added a third reason for the list.
edit 3/21/2008: Charlie also suggested several Ph.Ds, so I’ve started a second list of those who did grad work at non-Christian schools.
edit 3/28/2008: Brady Boyd, Marvin Miller, JP Moreland, Mark Driscoll, Sam Storms, and Wayne Grudem added
edit 6/18/2008: Frank Cargill, Dennis Cheek, Randy Garcia, Jonathan Gainsbrugh added
edit 7/1/2008: added Anthony Scoma - doh! How did I overlook my bud?

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The Year of the Rat

2008-03-16T02:55:11+00:00

Calorie Vectors

Winter quarter is winding down, and so we had our last official function this Friday. One of our students, Andy, made an awesome little treat. Take a cherry, cover it in chocolate, affix a Hershey’s kiss to the non-stem end, add some almond chips for ears, and decorate the face. Voila!

I’m not sure what the proper name for this treat is, but I’m personally calling them “Calorie Vectors.”

They’re cute as a button. Unfortunately, I’ve had to kill five rats in my apartment over the last two weeks, so I took visceral satisfaction in slowly lowering the little chocolate rodents into my mouth and swallowing them like a snake.

Anyway, good luck to all my students with their finals! Enjoy spring break.

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Orant

2008-03-04T22:51:58+00:00

I just learned a cool word: orant (on Wikipedia and Brittanica).

It means to worship or pray with your hands raised. That’s something I do a lot, but I didn’t know it had a name beyond “raising your hands”.

I don’t expect that I’ll ever have a chance to use this word in casual conversation (and I really don’t think it would be good while leading worship - “I said assume the orant position. Do it now!”), but it’s a cool word to have bouncing around in my head.

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Valentine’s Day - Chi Alpha Style

2008-02-16T01:27:20+00:00

Some of the Chi Alpha fellas made a Valentine’s Day video for our Chi Alpha gals. I thought it came out well: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Bs34q2K91Po

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Mom will find out

2009-09-23T05:54:05+00:00

Sunday afternoon the kids and I had a relaxing afternoon at home. I sewed most of the afternoon while the kids played together. The thing that kept them occupied the most was a mighty magnet construction set. It consists of little rods with magnets on the ends and metal balls to connect them together.

As I sewed I heard a gagging sound coming from the hallway. I called out is everyone ok. Then I realized what was happening. Xander was trying to have a marble snack. I ran around the corner to find him sitting on the floor looking very casual. I questioned him about what was going on.

Me: Xander are you ok.
Silence.
Me: Xander did you try to eat the marbles?
Silence.
Me: Honey, you need to tell Mommy if you ate the marbles.
Silence
Me: You are not in trouble but I need to know if you ate the marble.
Silence as he moves to the timeout spot.
Me: You are not in trouble, if you did eat the marble I need to know. It could hurt you and Mommy needs to know how to take care of you.
Xander: I don’t want to talk to talk about it. Go over there.
Me: Xander if you ate the marble Mommy will find out about it. You may choose not to tell me but I will find out.
Silence.

Fast forward to today. Xander spent the morning at my neighbors house. When I picked him up she gave me the update. They played well, a little trouble sharing toys and Xander went to the bathroom a few times. (He and his friend are potty training so that is info we share).

Later in the afternoon my neighbor came over to share that she had just gone to the bathroom and found that Xander had not flushed the potty. So she did the job for him, unfortunately the pooh would not go away. After a few attempts she being a mom went in to see what the problem was. She then presented me with a ziplock bag with two Mighty Magnet Marbles in it.

Xander came over hoping to find his friend coming over for a playdate but instead he was brought face to face with the truth. Mom was right. She would find out if the marbles had been eaten.

I hope he remembers this lesson as I teenager.

PS. In case you are wondering the neighbor did clean the marbles off before bringing them home. However I do not thing they will be reappearing in the magnet box.

Xander’s first day of school!

2009-04-16T21:45:38+00:00

Well it was his first and last day. I wanted to go to Sacramento for a day trip and needed someone to watch him. I spoke with the director at Dana’s school and they were willing to take him for the day. To say the least Xander was very excited to be going to school with his big sister. I packed his lunch in a big truck lunch box. That excited him even more. When I dropped him off he never looked back for me. I think he is ready for school. Hopefully this summer he will be able to go with Dana while I teach.

Xander's first day of school photo

Dana was the Valedictorian of her Preschool Class

2009-06-15T01:56:03+00:00

Ok not really, but since no one else claimed the spot we just decided that she would have been the valedictorian if the preschool gave out such honors. It’s the shotgun rule of valedictoritude.

This Saturday was the graduation ceremony for Dana’s preschool class. The walked in wearing caps and gowns, while pomp and circumstance played. The class sat on the stage in colored chairs with big balloons tied on to them. The students sang two songs and recited a poem.

Dana was very proud of herself.

Xander could have cared less. He just wanted one of the balloons.

Dad did his duty by taking pictures. Even though he thinks “Preschool Graduation” is an oxymoron.

Mom did her part by crying. I really should not be allowed at this events. I am an embarrassment to myself and those who know me.

You can view more photos of the graduation by visiting our photo album.

Does God Mind?

2009-05-01T04:35:56+00:00

Glen and I try to instill Godly beliefs and values in our children. We have taught Dana and Xander that God is real and that he has an opinion of how we live our lives.

Since the concept of a sleepover was introduced to Dana by a book about two years ago. She has wanted to have one. One of Dana’s best friends for the last 3 years has been a little boy. She has repeatedly asked if they could have a sleepover.

Trying to cut off problems in the teen years. We told her that little boys and girls should not have sleepovers with each other. She then wanted to know why mommy and daddy could sleep together. So we added that if you are married, then God is ok with you sleeping with a boy. She has excepted that as the way life is.

The other night as the kids and I were driving home Dana posed a thoughtful question.

Dana: I know God is not ok with me having sleepovers with a boy until I am married, Right.

Me: Yes, that is right Dana. Not until you are married.

Dana: Do you think God minds that I share a room with Xander?

Me: No, I do not think God minds. There are different rules if the boy is your brother.

I think she is trying to find a way to have her brother evicted. Unfortunately her limited theology is not helping her at this point.

First Day of Kindergarten

2009-08-25T21:23:53+00:00

Today was Dana’s first day of Kindergarten.

We have been gearing up for this day for several weeks now. Grandmas shopped for school supplies, backpacks and clothes. I took her to the store to buy the ever important first day of school outfit. (I remember pick out my back to school outfit each year).

Yesterday we went to get the start of school haircut. We made it special by stopping at the coffee shop for Dana to get a cup of hot chocolate. Then off to the grocery store to get the first day of school food. I let Dana pick out her favorites for all of the meals.

Breakfast: Pancakes with blackberries in them and whip cream on top, and juice to drink

Lunch: Sandwiches with fancy toothpicks in them. this meal was all about the toothpicks.

Dinner: Pizza with ice cream

After getting the groceries we laid out the clothes for the first day. We then packed her backpack and went to bed for a good nights rest.

She woke up excited and ready to go. I woke up excited and somewhat ready to go. Very excited for all of the new and fun experiences she will have.

I was a little sad that life will never be the same again. She will never again have the kind of freedom that she did before starting school. Her life will now be spent and influenced by other people more than Glen and I.

We went to school a little early so that she could play on the play ground and get used to being there. When the bell rank she went to line up by her room. It is the only time she looked concerned. I reassured her that she would be fine and have a great time. The teacher had them hang their backpacks, get their name tags and then go play. Dana followed all the directions except putting on her name tag.

Teacher: Dana can you put your name tag on.

Dana: No thank you, I already know my name.

After this I knew that Dana would be fine at school so I left.

When I picked her up she was very excited. When I asked how the day went she said “Great! No SUPER GREAT! Can I come back tomorrow and everyday after?”

Yes Dana everyday for the next 12 years. I hope she keeps up the same level of excitement for all 12 years.

They will eat just about anything.

2009-08-23T14:39:52+00:00

For the most part my kids are good eaters. Some times they will surprise me and eat things that I would never have expected. Like the lettuce raps I made for lunch the other day.

The other morning I made oatmeal for breakfast. We normally have oatmeal for breakfast but for some reason on this day it was as if I put mud cakes in front of them. No one wanted to eat it but me. Then I pulled out one of my greatest parenting tricks, Food Coloring. A few drops of food coloring or a few shacks of sprinkles and they will eat that mud cake.

Dana wanted Red and Xander wanted Blue. They at it all and asked for more when they were done. It is amazing what a little color will do.

Why don’t you blog?

2009-08-02T02:30:04+00:00

It have been asked why I don’t make regular blog post any more. It is not because I am lacking material to write about. I have tons of photos to share, so that is not the problem. So why don’t I blog.

* For the last 6 weeks I have been working full-time. I have been teaching Jr. High kids how to cook. Lots of stories to share from this experience.

* I need a new lap top. Any time I start to do something my computer has taken to shutting its self off. Just up and dies.

* But the number one reason I do not blog on a regular basis is my children. Just in the time that I have written this short post I have had to get up 3 times to parent them. Once to change the sheets because while I was typing a cup of chocolate milk made it to a bed and was split all over.

So to those of you who want to know why I do not blog on a regular basis, here is my defense. I have to go someone is jumping on the bed, I again am called into duty.

Easy, Open and Affordable Web Conferencing and Webinars | Dimdim

2010-06-06T19:21:16+00:00

Free for one webcam (to host a webinar, for example).

Tinychat - Free online video chat rooms

2010-06-06T19:07:47+00:00

CityTeam > Conference Center > Home

2010-03-04T02:57:41+00:00

Can handle up to 160 people overnight. 2 nights and 5 meals for $99. Auditorium seats 250.

99 Free Games from 2009

2009-12-24T22:24:11+00:00

Some great games here - mix of download and browser-based games.

Testimonies on Stanford faith

2009-09-25T02:53:21+00:00

An article in the Stanford Daily about a website two of our students created- http://testimonies.stanford.edu

Free Video Countdowns

2009-09-23T16:07:17+00:00

What it says. Variety of video formats. 1-3 minutes long.

How American Health Care Killed My Father | David Goldhill

2009-09-05T18:43:49+00:00

A great (but long) essay about what's wrong with the American healthcare system with some surprisingly practical suggestions for fixing it.

Freshmen Re:Orientation: Essentials to a Meaningful College Life

2009-08-24T16:19:00+00:00

A free Bible study from Threads Media for college freshmen.

Holding ALL Your Places: Making a Multi-threaded Bookmark | DIY Planner

2009-07-25T15:50:54+00:00

What a brilliant idea!

Do Elite Colleges Produce the Best-Paid Graduates?

2009-07-22T16:49:30+00:00

Fascinating little article exploring the initial median salary and the mid-career median salary for graduates from a wide range of institutions and majors.

New English Translation of the Septuagint: Electronic Ediiton

2009-07-02T16:13:41+00:00

A very fresh (2007) scholarly English translation of the Septuagint in free PDFs.

Glen and Paula Davis

Get Better Grades By Understanding How Your Brain Works

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Notes From God Is Not One

Last Seminary - Home

A Professor’s Advice to Christians

Group Text Messaging

Tell Us How You Really Feel, Don…

Christianity, China, and College Students

Evaluating Sermons

College Ministry and Global Transformation

Baptism on Campus

Digital Discipleship

Jesus Wants Friends Not Fans

Stanford at the Olympics

Stanford Rocks It Again

California Is Amazing

Fifteen Minutes and Counting

Historical Jesus booklet by Craig Blomberg

Notable Pentecostal Leaders from Secular Universities

The Year of the Rat

Calorie Vectors

Orant

Valentine’s Day - Chi Alpha Style

Mom will find out

Xander’s first day of school!

Dana was the Valedictorian of her Preschool Class

Does God Mind?

First Day of Kindergarten

They will eat just about anything.

Why don’t you blog?

Easy, Open and Affordable Web Conferencing and Webinars | Dimdim

Tinychat - Free online video chat rooms

CityTeam > Conference Center > Home

99 Free Games from 2009

Testimonies on Stanford faith

Free Video Countdowns

How American Health Care Killed My Father | David Goldhill

Freshmen Re:Orientation: Essentials to a Meaningful College Life

Other Companies Should Have To Read This Internal Netflix Presentation

Holding ALL Your Places: Making a Multi-threaded Bookmark | D*I*Y Planner

Do Elite Colleges Produce the Best-Paid Graduates?

New English Translation of the Septuagint: Electronic Ediiton

Holding ALL Your Places: Making a Multi-threaded Bookmark | DIY Planner