Author: Glen

Some February Thoughts

Last night’s episode of the West Wing was the first one in a while that wasn’t completely lame. The ending was a bit contrived, but I liked the flow of the episode.

That, however, is neither here nor there.

Also, I noticed that a Stanford grad joined Cirque de Soleil while at the same time becoming Ms. Fitness USA. I swear, those students can be such overachievers… I bet her mom has some funny conversations, though. “So your daughter has a grad degree from Stanford–what does she do?” “She’s performs in the circus.”

That also is neither here nor there (but I note that you’re still reading, and so it was at least interesting).

Paula is doing well–she’s got just under two months to go until she gives birth to our first child. The biggest item on our to-do list now is buying diapers. Lots of diapers.

Things are going well with Chi Alpha, especially on a district (statewide) level.

Speaking of the district level, my district superintendent is retiring this April. This led Tim Smith, who leads Chi Alpha at Sacramento State to have some fun:


From: Tim Smith
Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2004 1:24 PM
To: Glen Cole
Subject: Chi Alpha

Dear Bro. Cole–

I don’t want you to leave your current office, but as talking you out of it at this point seems unlikely, I am writing today to offer you a new job as an Associate Campus Pastor with me here in Chi Alpha-Sacramento.

The perks of this job include:
–unlimited time off for “Plus One” concerts and/or tours.
–a more relaxed dress code when on campus.
–the opportunity to have direct involvement in shaping the immediate future of our world’s leadership, both domestic and foreign, on a daily basis.

I’m pretty sure I can get Chi Alpha and AGHM to waive the year-long Campus Missionary Internship and Berean requirements, so we could have you on campus immediately after raising your budget. Also, if Mrs. Cole goes to work, they will count her income toward 20% of your budget, so that could help.

Anyway, you think about it, let me know if you’re interested, and we’ll schedule an interview over pizza and Coke.
Have a great day!
Tim Smith

To which the amused Glen Cole replied:


Dear Tim:

I knew God would speak to me about my future. Yours is the first offer, so we will be in prayerful consideration about this. 

Blessings!

GDC

That’s a lot funnier if you know Glen Cole at all. Or if you know anything about how Chi Alpha ranks on the internal AG pecking order.

And Now For Something Completely Different

From the realm of just plain gross: the BBC reports that scientists have found a way to make mice produce monkey sperm.

Yes, you read that correctly.

*shudder*

That’s just creepy on so many levels I don’t know where to begin.

Religion and Economic Growth Linked

Here’s an interesting story from the New York Times: Research Around the World Links Religion to Economic Development.

Intriguing excerpts:

Since the German sociologist Max Weber wrote about the Protestant work ethic and the spirit of capitalism, social scientists have argued that culture including religious habits is part of the complex mix that determines a country’s economic health. What distinguishes the work of Mr. Barro and Ms. McCleary, some scholars said, is that it uses a sophisticated analysis of a huge set of data to quantify the arguments of anthropologists, sociologists and political scientists.

…

As the couple began their study, Ms. McCleary said, it was clear that the widely discussed secularization thesis the idea that a country becomes more secular as it becomes richer and more industrialized did not apply to the United States, one of the most religious nations in the world.

And over the last 30 years, many East Asian countries, including Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea, have experienced both rapid economic growth and the spread of Christianity, Mr. Barro said.

“South Korea is a good example of that rapid growth and more religion,” he said. There the number of converts from Confucianism and other Eastern religions to Christianity is growing rapidly, he explained. 

Some of the lowest levels of religiosity were found in China and North Korea. The lowest levels of economic growth were in sub-Saharan African countries. The former East Germany (which includes Weber’s birthplace) was one of the lowest in both religiosity and growth.

Booze, the Bible, and Bad Theology

As I promised in last night’s message Booze, The Bible, & Bad Theology, here are some resources outlining what the Bible says about fermented beverages.

* First, a list of every passage in the Bible that discusses alcohol.
* Daniel Whitfield has a good essay Alcohol and the Bible–well worth reading.
* Daniel Wallace wrote The Bible and Alcohol, an extremely helpful article from a very solid scholar.
* The Christian Counterculture project has an insightful collection of articles in their What Would Jesus Drink? collection.

There is diversity within the Christian camp on this issue, and a simple google search will find arguments from all corners. The ones I listed above are the ones I find most credible.

UPDATE: I just ran across a fascinating article at Christianity Today that gives a solid historical overview — Amassed Media: The Drink Debate.

Retreat Messages Online

The messages from College Winter Retreat are online now in Windows Media format.

I would have put them in MP3 format, but every time I tried to convert the file sizes swelled by an order of magnitude and I couldn’t figure out how to change it.

If you want to give it a go, feel free.

Chi Alpha blogring on Xanga

I just stumbled across a Chi Alpha blogring on Xanga. It’s pretty small now and everyone seems to be from one campus (the one I ministered at previously), but it’s still cool.

If you’re on Xanga sign up!

Retreat Rocked

College Winter Retreat was great, but I’m just now recovering from all the work. I was really pleased with out everything turned out. Our speaker, Sam Huddleston, really connected with the students and challenged them deeply. The students were responsive to the challenge and were touched by God. Everything was good! Numbers were up (a lot), the location was phenomenal, and the core goals were accomplished. Woohoo!

You can check out our retreat photos–some of them are quite good.

Off to Retreat

I’m coordinating the district college winter retreat this weekend, so Paula and I are heading up today to start getting stuff set up.

I’m pretty excited–our attendance is up by about 60% over last year and so it feels like we have a lot of momentum going into it.

On a more personal note, around half of our Stanford Chi Alpha group will be heading up. Paula and I are deeply excited about that. In our experience, few things cause a group to bond as much as a road trip to and from retreat along with all the fun things that happen while there.

Strongbad Videogames

On a more frivolous note, there’s a new Strongbad email with four video games at the end!

Flannery O’Connor on writing Christian fiction

Take heed, all you budding novelists — Flannery O’Connor has shown the way! Read all about it in O’Connor v. the Antichrist.

A few quotes from O’Connor taken from the essay:

“If you live today you breathe in nihilism. In or out of the Church, it’s the gas you breathe. If I hadn’t had the Church to fight it with or to tell me the necessity of fighting it, I would be the stinkingest logical positivist you ever saw right now.”

In her most famous statement about her work, she explained that “to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost-blind you draw large and startling figures.”

“All my stories,” she wrote, “are about the action of grace on a character who is not very willing to support it.”

O’Connor once wrote that “more than ever now it seems that the kingdom of heaven has to be taken by violence, or not at all. You have to push as hard as the age that pushes against you.”

Check out the essay (or at least check out some of O’Connor’s books).