Category: Of Random Interest

Earth Day, Jesus, and Christian Environmentalism

I’m in Springfield, MO at a Chi Alpha conference where I’ve taught approximately 12 hours in the last two days.

Yes, that’s as grueling as it sounds. It’s been fun, though.

Anyway, while here I got to hang with Darrin Rodgers

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, an old seminary buddy who is now a historian. He told me something that blew my mind: the founder of Earth Day (the first Earth Day, I should say — there are two) is a Pentecostal Christian. His name is John McConnell. If you are a pacifist you will find his story especially interesting — read some reviews of his biography.

I’m encouraged that a follower of Jesus was at the forefront of the early environmental movement. It is easy to grow disappointed in Christianity if you focus on the inactivity of the institutional church and forget that the faith, ultimately, is expressed in individual lives. But when you remember that the church’s business is to not to engage in activism itself but rather to release Christians to serve God’s purposes in the world, you can actually become quite giddy. We still have a long way to go, but we’re doing far better than the world or the church seems to think. When I peek deep into a positive situation I often discover a Jesus-follower (or even a few) at the heart of it.

So if you’re a fan of Earth Day (the original), then remember to thank God for it. And keep your eyes open — God is at work in unexpected places.

Unexpected Perspective on Worship

I’ve been preparing to teach some sessions at Reach The U (a conference for new campus ministers) and I just read one of the most unexpected little paragraphs while digging through some research:

Across the United States, Asian American groups are pioneering a revival of a cappella singing. On West Coast college campuses, Korean American evangelicals are known for their cutting-edge praise music. Students of other ethnicities commonly note, “Oh, the Koreans have a great worship team.” Indeed they do. Although Asian American evangelicals’ praise is largely similar to other evangelicals, it is often more cutting edge. They use the latest praise music coming out of the United Kingdom as well as the United States—before the other campus ministries do the same. They tend to use more modern musical instruments like electric pianos, bass, and guitar than some of the other traditionally white-dominant campus ministries.

Source: Rebecca Kim, “Asian Americans for Jesus: Changing the Face of Campus Evangelicalism download dragonheart divx

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This isn’t a thought I’ve had before. Interesting.west side story online

Fifteen Minutes and Counting

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”. 🙂trading places movie download

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Seminary Meme

Brian just tagged me with this seminary questionnaire. As I’ve mentioned before, seminary is great preparation for ministry. In fact, I think the ideal ministry trajectory is for someone to go a secular university for their undergrad and then to get seminary training. This is more common than many suppose — roughly half the students at my seminary came from secular universities.

Anyway, here’s the meme:

This Seminary Meme is part of a competition sponsored by Going to Seminary and Eisenbrauns. If you’d like to be entered, simply answer the 7 questions below and tag 5 other people. You’ll also need to post this paragraph (links included) with your answers as the links will be tracked back to your blog and will count as your “entry” into the competition. On April 30th, 2008, one blogger will be selected at random to win a $100 gift certificate to the Eisenbrauns online bookstore.

  1. Where did you attend seminary?

    The Assemblies of God Theological Seminary

  2. What class do you think has most impacted your spiritual life?

    Effective Leadership with Mel Ming.

  3. What seminary professor was most influential while in seminary?

    Tough call. Remarkably tough. Every prof I had at AGTS rocked my world one way or another.

  4. What was the greatest challenge you faced in seminary?

    Not coasting.

  5. What was the greatest reward you experienced in seminary?

    Graduating.

  6. What did you do after seminary?

    The same thing I did while I was in seminary — I ministered to students at secular universities.

  7. While in seminary, how many times were asked what you’d do after graduating?

    Almost never — I telegraphed my intentions pretty clearly.

I’m supposed to tag five people. The amazing Mr. Zickafoose has not participated, and I don’t think Earl Creps

has either. Nor have Lane Douglas download monkey shines online nor George P. Wood nor Mark Batterson. Prediction: probability of any of them participating is less than 5%.trade download

This Just In: George Wood is on Facebook

It’s truly a new day in the Assemblies of God. George Wood is on Facebook. For those of you from another world, he’s the General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God. So he’s kind of like our Pope. Just with a lot less authority. And without the cool wardrobe. Or a Popemobile. He’s basically in charge, though.

I noticed it by accident earlier today and I thought it had to be a mistake. Once I realized it really was him and not some Bible college kid playing a joke, I emailed him to ask if it was okay to share this publicly — I thought perhaps he had accidentally left his privacy settings too open.

It turns out he’s available on purpose. He accepts friend requests from peons like me (and presumably you).

And on top of that, Dr. Wood has been podcasting like crazy with two separate podcasts: interviews with leaders and studies in the book of Mark

.

And he’s not the only one savvy to the digital age. The General Secretary, John Palmer, has a blog

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. Not only that, his blog is hosted on an official Assemblies of God installation of WordPress MU supergirl online download : who knew we had come so far?

Not to be outdone, the new (as in beginning his term of office today) General Treasurer, Doug Clay, has been blogging on Blogger for quite a while.

My head is spinning. I don’t know if I can handle all this digitization of our leadership at once.download legionnaire dvdrip it s pat dvd

When We Live Like Jesus Told Us To…

A pretty amazing story from NPR: A Victim Treats His Mugger Right

He was walking toward the stairs when a teenage boy approached and pulled out a knife.

“He wants my money, so I just gave him my wallet and told him, ‘Here you go,’ ” Diaz says.

As the teen began to walk away, Diaz told him, “Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something. If you’re going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm.”

Remind you of anything? I don’t know if Julio Diaz is a follower of Jesus or not, but the Lord approved of his actions. See Matthew 5:38–40

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ ” But I tell you, “Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.”

The story has a great ending I won’t spoil for you: read the whole thing

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Notable Pentecostal Leaders from Secular Universities

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

  1. Bret Allen (pastor, Bethel Church of San Jose) – Eastern Washington University
  2. John Ashcroft

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    (politician and author) – Yale for undergrad, University of Chicago for law school

  3. Rocky Barra — (pastor of Connection Church in Canton, MI) — Eastern Michigan University (for both undergrad and master’s)
  4. Glen Berteau (pastor of Calvary Temple in Modesto, CA) – Louisiana Tech
  5. John Bevere (author and conference speaker) – Purdue
  6. Brady Boyd (pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs) — Louisiana Tech
  7. James Bradford (pastor of Central Assembly in Springfield, MO) — University of Minnesota (all the way through Ph.D.)
  8. Frank Cargill (district superintendent of Oklahoma) — Oklahoma State University (undergrad), University of Oklahoma (master’s),and the University of Central Oklahoma (another master’s).
  9. 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.
  10. Alicia Chole (author and conference speaker) – UT Austin (through her master’s)
  11. Earl Creps (church planter, author, educator) – University of Pittsburg for undergrad, Northwestern for Ph.D.
  12. Mark Driscoll (pastor of Mars Hill in Seattle) — Washington State University
  13. Denny Duron (pastor of Shreveport Community Church in LA) – Louisiana Tech
  14. Jonathan Gainsbrugh (evangelist and author) — University of Virginia
  15. Randy Garcia (pastor of Fortress Church in San Antonio, TX) — University of Texas at San Antonio
  16. Paul Goulet (pastor of International Church of Las Vegas) — University of Ottowa
  17. Wayne Grudem (theologian) — Harvard
  18. Stanley Horton

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    (theologian and author) — B.S., University of California, S.T.M. from Harvard

  19. Roger Houtsma (founder of World Outreach Ministries) — UC Berkeley
  20. Tim Johnson (Congressman) – University of Illinois – Champaign/Urbana
  21. Steve Lim taming of the shrew the download (Academic Dean at AGTS), UC Berkeley
  22. Mike McClaflin (Africa Regional Director for Assemblies of God World Missions) — University of Wyoming
  23. Lee McFarland (pastor of Radiant Church in Surprise, AZ) — University of Colorado
  24. Marvin Miller (director of Rayne Project Ministries) — Whitter College
  25. Donnie Moore (evangelist) – University of the Pacific
  26. J. P. Moreland (apologist and scholar) — University of Missouri
  27. Marilyn Musgrave (Congresswoman) — Colorado State University
  28. Rich Nathan – (pastor of Vineyard Community Church of Colombus, OH) – Case Western Reserve University
  29. Sarah Palin — (politician) — University of Idaho
  30. Ray Rachels – (Southern California District Superintendent) – Troy State University
  31. Cecil Robeck (scholar) — San Jose City College (for his AA)
  32. Mark Rutland – (president of Southeastern College) – University of Maryland
  33. Anthony Scoma (pastor of Southwest Family Fellowship) — University of Texas (Austin)
  34. Charlie Self — undergrad and Ph.D. from UC Santa Cruz (break for Graduate Theological Union in the middle)
  35. Sean Smith (evangelist) – University of the Pacific
  36. Zollie Smith

    (Executive Director AG US Missions) – Florida State University

  37. Sam Storms — University of Oklahoma
  38. James Watt (politician) – University of Wyoming

For Grad Work Only

  1. Chris Carter (scholar — APTS) — PhD from Aberdeen University
  2. John Carter (scholar — APTS) — PhD from University of Illinois in educational psychology
  3. Roli dela Cruz (scholar, APTS) — PhD in textual criticism from Birmingham University
  4. Gordon Fee (scholar and author) — Ph.D. from USC
  5. Richard Hammar (AG legal counsel) – Harvard Law
  6. Rich Israel (scholar) — Ph.D. from Claremont
  7. Todd Labute (scholar — APTS) — PhD from Marquette University
  8. Everett Wilson (scholar) — Ph.D. from Stanford University
  9. George O. Wood (General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God) — Law degree from Western State University College of Law in Fullerton, California
  10. 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 send 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?
edit 7/9/2008: added Rocky Barra — thanks to David Moore for the pointer
edit 7/24/2008: removed Doug Peterson and added Roli dela Cruz, Chris Carter, Todd Labute, and John Carter per Ekaputra Tupamahu’s suggestions in the comments below. I haven’t tracked down a bio on each person, so their undergrad degrees might also be from secular schools.
edit 8/29/2008: added Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska and VP nominee.

The Year of the Rat

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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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Chi Alpha Coast to Coast

I just read a great article about Chi Alpha nationwide

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. It’s full of encouraging testimonies — including stories from several of my friends.

There’s one story I remember from my undergrad days:

Ministry real estate can be scarce on a secular campus. When Treuil came to Lafayette, Chi Alpha had no facilities.

“I inherited a two-drawer file cabinet,” he says.

Today, the Lafayette chapter owns property estimated at $1 million and completely paid for.

A local businessman paid the rent on a house for about 5 years. A non-Christian group was poised to buy the house in 1993 when the landlord offered to sell the property to Chi Alpha. The catch — Treuil had to raise $90,000 in 90 days.

“We didn’t have the money, but we took a step of faith,” he says.

In 90 days God provided more than $90,000 in cash from individual offerings. Pastors opened their pulpits to Treuil. One man donated a Rolex watch. A woman gave Treuil eel-skin purses to sell. About 600 people contributed.

It was pretty amazing to watch God provide like that — and now the ministry there owns not only the original property, but almost an entire block across the street from campus that they use for ministry. God is doing stuff like that through Chi Alpha ministries on 250 campuses! Read the full article.born divx