Month: September 2002

Another Example of America’s Universities Gone Insane

Schools go nuts trying to convince freshmen that their morals are stupid.

In BMOC: Big Mandate On Campus, World Magazine covers the amazing indoctrination that some schools put incoming freshmen through. I would have written the article differently, but it’s got a lot of good data.

They don’t mention Stanford, but I’m curious to see what sort of experience the incoming freshmen have in the next few weeks.

Here’s an excerpt: Others say outright that such presentations are designed to shake the soil from new students’ small-town roots, dismantle traditional values they might have brought from home… “I really want [freshmen] to understand that they are no longer at home, they’re not in high school anymore, and a lot of the values and morals they may have had from those experiences may change here over the next four years,” said diversity issues coordinator Marcus Newsom of Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa.

Thanks to blogs4God for bringing this link to my attention.

Ministry Wishlist

Want to make a one-time gift? Here’s what we can use it for!

DISCLAIMER: this information is on our website because some people actually come here looking for it. Other people get horribly offended at the mention of money and donations online. If you’re not of the former, chill. Just filter out this message and look at some of the more entertaining stuff on this site.

You’re still here? Good. 🙂

Sometimes people are more interested in making one-time donations than in becoming a monthly partner (and sometimes monthly partners want to make a special gift).

If that’s you, then here are some needs that we have in our ministry.

Expensive Items

$10,000,000 to establish a ministry center near Stanford.

Yeah, it really would cost at least that much. We’d be looking at purchasing an existing religious center or a business propert adjacent to campus and then remodeling it.

Failing that, $1,000,000 to purchase a home near Stanford.

Again, it really would cost that much. We’re currently renting about five minutes from Stanford and there’s a home across the street on the market for $1.1 million. And it’s not a really nice house–housing prices are just ridiculous here. This matters because the nature of our ministry is relational, and so we have students over all the time. If we had a home within 15 minutes of Stanford we’d be better stewards of God’s money (not spending it on rent) and we’d be able to up the quality of our ministry to students radically. We’d have more students over more often and accomplish more in the way of discipleship and modeling. Plus, we’d be able to host other ministers in our house for a week or two at a time and expose the students to them and their ministries, thereby increasing the likelihood that students would “get it.”

Midrange Items

$6,000 to set up a multimedia studio.

This would cover a digital video camera, a dedicated computer for video-editing, and the software necessary to do high-quality videos. With such a studio, we could create high-quality training videos for college ministries across America. We could also do some neat stuff in our large-group meetings at Stanford.

$500 for a smartphone.

This would help Glen be more organized–and he needs all the help he can get!

Inexpensive Items

Anything from Glen’s Amazon Wishlist or Delicious Wishlist.

These are almost all books or other resources useful for ministry. Of course, some are just random.

If you would like to purchase any of the above items, either give online or just send a check for the amount needed to
  Chi Alpha #2650299
  1445 N Boonville Ave
  Springfield, MO 65802

Also be sure to email us and let us know what you’ve done so that we know the purpose the funds are designated for!

9/11 @ Stanford

Some comments on how September 11th, 2001 touched Stanford University.

It’s already been a full year. It’s hard to believe. I was scheduled to preach at an AGTS chapel service that morning. As soon as I saw the planes hit I began changing my message, although I fully expected the phone call that came shortly afterwards: “We’ll reschedule–we just feel like we need to devote the full service to prayer.”

In that year I’ve moved from there to here, and I was surprised to learn how Stanford was affected by the terrorist attacks on our culture.

A few items in no particular order:

I found this brief story about the 40 Iranian nationals who study at Stanford interesting. I also thought this administrator’s perspective on their plight was interesting.

I also was shocked to learn that Stanford received fake anthrax mailings last October. Those incidents spawned an emergency response force. I did find it mildly humorous that the biosafety manager had to get special permission to just analyze everything herself. I’m sure the Stanford research laboratories were much better equipped (and the researchers more highly trained) than at the Santa Clara county facilities.

The community as a whole seems less traumatized and polarized than many other campuses: both Berkeley and San Francisco State have seen some pretty angry encounters over Middle-Eastern issues, but tempers at Stanford have been much cooler.

Larry Wall Discusses His Faith in Scientific Perspective

This is a follow-up to our article about famous living scientists who are Christians:

Larry Wall, creator of the programming language Perl, is a Christian. In a recent interview on Slashdot he was asked the following question:

I remember reading at some point that you are a Christian, and there have been suggestions that some of your early missionary impulses (a desire to do good, help others) are perhaps part of the zeal you have put into Perl over the years.

Preferring a scientific view, I am not religious, and have no desire to be. Perhaps there is a God, but if there is, I think he/she has no opposable thumbs; in other words, has no power to change anything; reality is just playing out according to the laws of physics (whatever those are).

Please tell us how in the world a scientific or at least technical mind can believe in God, and what role religion has played in your work on Perl.

If you’re a scientific sort of person, I encourage you to read his answer. It’s question number 7 in the interview.

Pledge Forms Online

Our pledge form is now online in PDF format.

You can download our pledge form

as a PDF file. The form is around 110k.

If you can’t open it on your computer, download the free Adobe Acrobat viewer and try again.

If you don’t know what a pledge form is or why you would want to fill one out, check out these pages:

How Missions Is A Partnership
The Biblical Basis for Supporting Missionaries
Questions and Answers About Support-Raising
How to Partner With Us

College Students Increasingly Irreligious

The 2001 freshman survey indicated record numbers of students with no religious preference.

This is pretty dated, but I just ran across it: according to the 2001 Nationwide Freshman Survey, college students are becoming less and less religious:

RECORD NUMBER REPORT NO RELIGIOUS PREFERENCE

When asked to indicate their current religious preference, an all-time high of 15.8 percent of students reported none, compared with 14.9 percent last year and 6.6 percent in 1966. The growth in students with no religious preference parallels the growth in the percentage of students who report no religious preference for at least one parent. A record high of 12.4 percent of freshmen describe their fathers as having no religious preference, and a record high of 7.8 percent report no religious reference for their mothers.

Additionally, there is a decline in the percentage of students who pray or meditate at least once a week (from 67.7 in 2000 to 65.7 percent in 2001). A new survey question asked students to rate their level of “religiousness” as compared to the average person their age, with results of 31.7 percent rating themselves above average or in the highest 10 percent. This represents the second-lowest figure among all 21 self-rating measures.

Another reason to see Christ proclaimed on the college campus!

Some More Thoughts on Christian Baptism

Baptism is an expression of salvation, and not a means of salvation as held by certain churches. Baptism is of vital importance in the life of the believer and is more than an archaic ritual, yet it is not ultimately salvific.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve had a chance to respond to all the things that Nota Bene and Integrity Blog have said in reference to baptism.

Mea culpa–I’ve been running around like a chicken with my head cut off. Which I understand is quite a sight, although I’ve never personally witnessed it. Which puts me in mind of Mike the Headless Chicken.

But I digress…

We’re discussing what it means to follow Jesus, and how baptism relates to that. The Catholic position is that baptism is the way one normally becomes a Christian. So far I’ve limited myself to discussing one specific passage that Sean first mentioned. They’ve made a LOT of observations since I’ve posted, so I encourage you to read their blogs to see what they’ve been saying. There’s no way I could respond to it all without this being my full-time job, so I’ll just do what I can. Hey guys: if I misunderstand, misrepresent, or fail to address what you consider to be your strongest arguments please let me know: I am being selective, but I’m trying to be selective with integrity.

In this post I’ll try to provide a broader understanding of baptism. It may be long, so buckle your seatbelts! My basic thesis will be that baptism is an expression of salvation, and not a means of salvation as held by certain churches. Baptism is of vital importance in the life of the believer and is more than an archaic ritual, yet it is not ultimately salvific.

Jack and Sean’s observations fall into two categories: scriptural and historical.

I’d like to begin by offering my own scriptural observations.
The Bible is clear that salvation issues from placing one’s faith [belief plus trust] in Jesus. There are several relevant passages of Scripture, referencing a few should suffice: John 3.16–18, Acts 16.31, Romans 3.23–24, Galatians 3.26–27, Ephesians 2.8–9, 1 John 5.1.

These passages are clear: God adopts us into His family when we place our faith in Jesus. I don’t see such a clarity in the passages Jack references or in the ones that Sean references. I do see an emphasis on the importance of baptism, but I don’t see a demonstration of baptism as a means of salvation.

The only texts Jack raised which might even seem to teach salvific baptism are towards the end of his post, The Church would also point to the words of Peter and Paul on how baptism incorporates us into the Body of Christ: Romans 6:3–4; Col 2:12 … 1 Cor 6:11. [note: I edited slightly for length]. In each of these verses, Paul is speaking descriptively: all the believers had been baptized, so he can speak of baptism as a synonym for being a believer.

Now I’d like to make a few historical comments:
First, I’d like to acknowledge that the early church clearly thought that baptism was salvific.

I’d also like to say that it’s an unpersuasive point. Theology evolves. Over time the church gradually comes to a deeper understanding of the ramifications of the Bible’s teaching and incorporates it into our theology. The most well-known example is the doctrine of the Trinity. All the clues were in the Bible, it just took the Church a few centuries to put them together in a consistent way.

The early church fathers were wrong about baptism. They clearly did not understand the Scriptures at this point. In fact, I’m willing to bet that there were divergent views among the early church theologians about baptism (I just don’t have the historical expertise to know them off the top of my head or the time to ferret them out).

I’d like to close by explaining what baptism does.
Jack asked me what exactly I think baptism does:
1) Baptism forces people to publicly profess their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.
2) Baptism requires a public display of solidarity with the Church.
3) Baptism is a test of obedience. Someone unwilling to follow Christ in such a small thing cannot be properly called a follower of Christ.
4) Baptism is an object lesson in faith, and provides excellent symbolism that can be used to help people understand the gospel.

Baptism does all these things, and probably a good deal more. It does not, however, save anyone.

Why Are There So Many Different Ministries?

I recently received an email from a student asking me why there were so many different campus ministries at Stanford. I think a lot of students have similar questions, so I’ve decided to tweak my reply and post it here.

Do The Various Campus Ministries Compete?
Only in intramurals.

Seriously though: I sure hope not! Ideally, we should each view ourselves as having a small role in accomplishing what God is doing on campus.

Then Why Don’t They Merge?
There are at least two significant reasons: we believe slightly different things and having different groups maximizes ministry.

Why Should Different Beliefs Lead to Different Ministries If You Agree On the Essentials?
Because beliefs drive behavior, and at some point different beliefs will call for different behavior. Let me give you a concrete example: some groups believe that you must celebrate communion at every weekly meeting and others don’t. In a given group, only one of those practices can prevail. By having two different groups, both sets of believers can flourish.

OK, Maybe. But How Does Having Different Groups Maximize Ministry?
In the same way that having multiple churches maximizes ministry in a town. Suppose there was only one church in a town of 10,000. Even if the church building can accommodate 500 people, it would take 20 services a week to accommodate everyone if they all decided to come!

Suppose, on the other hand, that you have 10 churches each of which can accommodate 250 people. If each church had 4 services a week everyone could attend.

In the same way, there’s limited meeting space on campus (and we’re not allowed to build our own buildings). We need to have different groups scheduling meetings at different times in different places.

Also, since each group develops its own flavor, personal preferences can be accommodated. There are some people who would never consider attending a religious group that worshiped God by means of 45 minutes of continuous light rock. There are others who would never consider attending a group that worshiped God by means of incense and hymns. By having multiple groups, there is a greater likelihood of a person finding a group that they click with.

But Shouldn’t We All Be In Unity?
Absolutely! But that doesn’t imply that the groups should merge into one. Just as you can be in unity with other Christians without becoming the same person as them, groups can remain distinct and exist in unity.

We are in unity in that we proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ and consider one another a part of God’s plan for exposing students to the gospel. We encourage one another on to love and good deeds, and we pray for one another. We rejoice at one another’s successes and commiserate over one another’s failures.

We do not, however, merge. To do so would be a bad strategy for reaching the campus.

Don’t You Ever Do Anything Together?
Yeah. There are some special prayer meetings and worship services–you’ll find out about those as the school year progresses.

There’s Gotta Be A Sermon in Here…

In a bizarre news story, a man fell into his own grave and died.

Here’s the synopsis:

63 year old Giovanni Greco was in the habit of visiting his future mausoleum to make sure it was being built the way he wanted it. One day he was trying to get a view of the roof and when he slipped, hit his head on a marble step, and fell dead into his own tomb.

This just sounds like some sort of parable…

Do Universities Really Need Missionaries?

Missionaries are people who are called to proclaim the gospel where there is no church to proclaim it, and there ain’t no church on campus!

For a while now I’ve been meaning to add this our site, but I’ve been a little too busy. I should have read Jon Walker’s article Did Jesus Rush Through His Week?!

My wife and I are considered missionaries by the Assemblies of God. That catches some people off-guard. After all, aren’t missionaries people who serve exclusively in pagan lands (preferably while wearing a pith helmet in the jungle)?

Not necessarily. A missionary is someone who is called to proclaim the gospel where there is no church to proclaim it.

There are a lot of nuances and qualifications I could add to that definition of a missionary, but I think it will suffice for this discussion. The key phrase is where there is no church to proclaim it.

That describes the college campus. College campuses (excluding commuter schools) are communities unto themselves. Students can attend classes, sleep, eat, watch movies, play games, do laundry, and shop for the necessities without ever leaving their campus. In fact, many campuses don’t even allow freshmen to have vehicles.

What’s the ramification? It doesn’t matter how many churches there are in the surrounding town–the college campus is a different world. Students are in great need of the gospel, yet they are insulated from the churches that proclaim it.

And so when we minister on campus we’re proclaiming the gospel in a place where there is no church to proclaim it. We’re missionaries.

That’s not to say there aren’t any differences between us and other missionaries. For example, the goal of most missionaries is to establish an indigenous church that is self-governing, self-supporting, and self-propagating. In other words, they’re trying to establish a church that makes the missionary unnecessary!

Our goal is different. We can’t create a church at Stanford that meets all three criteria (being self-supporting, self-governing, and self-propagating) because of the nature of the campus and the students who inhabit it. The challenges are chiefly in the area of self-governance (the students keep graduating, making totally student-run groups unstable) and self-support (college students have no money to provide for a full-time pastor). Incidentally, that’s why we raise missionary support.

In other words, the college campus is a perpetual mission field. We simply can’t build a church that will make our ministry unnecessary or redundant.

And that’s why universities need missionaries–they are self-sufficient communities that are isolated from any nearby churches. Since the students won’t come to church, the church must go to them.

And that’s missions.

Oh–I shouldn’t finish this without mentioning two more details:

1) There are roughly 14,000,000 college students in America: almost half the nations in the world have lower populations!

2) The world comes to America for education: of those 14,000,000 students over 500,000 are from other nations (over half of those are from Asia and another 7% are from the Middle East). Walking across virtually any college campus you can find students from countries that don’t allow missionaries entry. They’ve come here and they can be reached here. That’s one of the reasons Chi Alpha emphasizes International Student Friendship Ministries so strongly.