Category: Stanford/Ministry News

Andrew Wright, the Stanford student who was living with us over the summer just moved out. He’s gone to stay at home the rest of the summer so he can spend some time with his family before school starts.

*sniff*

It was great getting to know him better! We had some wonderful talks about God and the Christian life, and our relationship with him has really confirmed our call to Stanford.

Just last night we had a great time talking about a Christian’s proper relationship to culture, and what it means to be in the world but not of it…

On another note: I’ve been sick all day. I’m feeling better now, but I sure was a whipped puppy earlier.

Last night I was privileged to preach at Glad Tidings Assembly of God in San Francisco. It was a lot of fun!

Pastor Beiser had asked me to come and encourage the people to invite their friends to hear Bubba Paris (of the San Francisco 49ers) come and preach this weekend at their special meetings, and to specifically “speak on the lostness of man.”

I decided to speak from Luke 15, the chapter in which Jesus talks about the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son (prodigal son).

Since Paula’s college roommate, Rachel Spradley, is visiting with us right now I decided to use her in my sermon. I told the congregation that Rachel had just become engaged to be married, and I asked her to stand up and show everyone her ring. Rachel then stood up and flashed her finger sans ring, and convincingly shrieked: “I’ve lost my ring!”

Everyone freaked out and began to scan the floor for her ring. I then read from Luke 15:8: “suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?”

It was fun. Unfortunately, two people bolted right away to search the lobby and the restroom (they even put on rubber gloves and dug through the trash). As a result, they missed most of my message. Still, they beautifully illustrated how we respond when we think something valuable is lost!

My points, incidentally, were as follows:

1) Realize people are lost
2) Value lost people
3) Take risks to reach the lost
4) Use every resource at our disposal to reach the lost
5) Celebrate success

A friend just informed me that Stanford student Vinita Kailasanath won the 2001 Jeopardy Collegiate Championship.

I searched long and hard online for information about the 2002 winner, but I couldn’t find any info. I can only surmise they’ve not conducted the 2002 contest yet. I’m sure the Cardinal will emerge victorious again!

One of the weirder (but probably more strategic) ministry tasks that I’ve had for the last few years is maintaining the Chi Alpha national website and the Reach The U website (the latter being the more significant).

Today I had some time to tackle a feature I’d really been wanting to revise: the chapter directory.

I think it’s a lot slicker now, and the clean codebase means that I can add new functions without a lot of hassle. Huzzah!

Ultimate goal: to create a user login system so that each local campus ministry can own it’s data and update it whenever something changes.

Speaking of site upgrades: I finally managed to quash a very annoying bug on my blog. The page kept getting cut off! If you’re having similar trouble, read this helpful thread.

Today I received from the Stanford Office for Religious Life the names of all three of the Assemblies of God students planning to attend Stanford next year. That’s right–three. Out of around 1,400. There was also a Foursquare student and a few from independent charismatic churches. Let’s say there are about 10–15 Pentecostal/charismatic students in total.

Even given that only 4% of teens attend a Pentecostal or Charismatic church, that’s pretty sad. If even 4% coming to Stanford were Pentecostal/charismatic that would be over 50 incoming freshmen. That’s a discrepancy of 70% (in other words, 70% fewer students are Pentecostal or Charismatic than you would expect)!

That doesn’t bother me for the reason you might think. Chi Alpha @ Stanford is primarily an evangelistic organization. While we do want to take care of incoming Christian students and help them mature in their faith, we’re primarily concerned with reaching the majority who have no religious background at all (much less a Christian one).

It’s not so much that I wish there were more students to plug into our group as I wonder why more coming in aren’t believers. These numbers, while only directly reflecting on Pentecostals are representative of what the other ministries are receiving.

There’s been a massive renaissance in youth ministry over the last decade, and there’s tons of articles on the burgeoning evangelical intellectuals: so why aren’t there more arriving at Stanford? Is it that we strongly discourage our gifted youth from attending secular schools or is merely the sad fact that most “Christian” students can’t wait to escape from their youth group?

In any event, if the other elite schools are seeing similar trends the intellectual future of American Christianity isn’t looking particularly robust…

Here are some Assemblies of God leaders who believe in us
and in our ministry: I would like to particularly direct your attention to the
fact that both our current and our former pastor are on this list. We believe
in the Assemblies of God, we’re committed to the primacy of the local church,
and we’re team players!

I had Glen & Paula do a missions window in my church and they did a fabulous job! God has called them to a truly strategic mission field, and James River is proud to be investing in it. I encourage you to book them for a service or a missions windowyou won’t be disappointed. John Lindell Senior Pastor James River Assembly of God (Springfield, MO)
“Peninsula Christian Center is honored to serve as a covering for Stanford Chi Alpha, and I’m delighted to serve on the advisory board for this ministry. I believe God has raised up Glen and Paula Davis to reach Stanford for Christ, and I encourage your church to support them in this strategic ministry.” Jeff Langskov Senior Pastor (and Glen and Paula’s pastor) Peninsula Christian Center (Redwood City, CA)
Being a graduate of the University of Calif. in Berkeley, I appreciate what it takes to reach secular university students in the Bay Area. Glen and Paula Davis have the spiritual passion, ministry and people skills, intellectual integrity, and proven experience to develop a viable Chi Alpha ministry at Stanford University. They merit your prayer and support! Dr. Steve Lim Former Bay Area Pastor & Sectional Presbyter Chairperson of the Practical Theology faculty at AGTS
“As a 10 year veteran of the campuses in Northern California and a student of effective campus ministry nationwide I endorse Glen and Paula Davis enthusiastically to serve as missionaries to Stanford University. They posses the tools, both intellectually and spiritually, to lead a truly fruitful ministry on this most strategic campus.” Curt Harlow Veteran Northern California Campus Ministry Pioneer Chi Alpha National Leadership Team
“Glen Davis is one of the new generation of leaders God is raising up in the church. He blends a wonderful combination of qualities in that he is both spiritual and strategic, both humble and visionary, a both a team player and a true leader. He is one of the people I consider a true friend and I look to him for cutting edge insights into this generation, contemporary society and technology. He is a great communicator, first class leader and true minister of the Good News.” Dr. J. Melvyn Ming Leadership Coach, Division of Pastoral Care and Development Northwest District Council of the Assemblies of God
“Glen and Paula Davis will make a difference. As a former pastor, these are the kind of people I would want my church to support. They are missionaries in the truest sense, living within an almost completely unreached culture to bring the message of God’s love in Christ. I have known Glen and Paula, and their ministry, for years and find it a joy to recommend them to you.” Dr. Earl Creps Director of the Doctor of Ministry Program, Assemblies of God Theological Seminary
“Glen is one of my favorite communicators. His teachings are thought-provoking because he is a thinker; they are brilliantly illustrated because Glen is both relevant and scholarly. I believe that God will awaken a new generation through servants like Glen and Paula Davis.” Alicia Chole Speaker, Author (shared at 2001 General Council and Celebration 2000)
“I have known Glen and Paula for many years and am pleased to call them friends as well as co-ministers. There is no doubt in my mind that they are going to be mightily used of God on the Stanford campus. Whether in the area of evangelism, teaching, leadership or hospitality, Glen and Paula are equipped to carry the gospel to the students of Stanford University.” Anthony Scoma Discipleship Pastor James River Assembly of God (Springfield, MO)
“As Glen and Paula’s former pastor, I wholeheartedly endorse their ministry. Glen is an great preacher and has filled our pulpit on a number of occasions, Paula has been an outstanding board member, and they are both excellent leaders. Please book them for services and pick them up for monthly support!” Cal Swenson Senior Pastor (and Glen & Paula’s former pastor) New Life Church (Springfield, MO)
“For five years I was blessed to have Glen and Paula on my staff at Chi Alpha — Southwest Missouri State University. Their vision and creativity has played a vital role in making our program cutting edge and effective in genuinely reaching into the nonChristian community of SMS. I can think of no other couple that is more capable to pioneer Chi Alpha at Stanford.” Joe Zickafoose Veteran Campus Pioneer Chi Alpha Director at Southwest Missouri State University

I’ve talked about the incredible Stanford alumni roster before, but I had occasion recently to make a postcard featuring them. I thought uploading the photo montage I created might help you get a handle on exactly who I’m talking about (not all are pictured):

• Government: 3 current Supreme Court Justices (Chief Justice William Rehnquist along with Associate Justices Anthony Kennedy and Stephen Breyer), former U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher, 5 U.S. senators, and Ehud Barak (former Prime Minister of Israel)
• Business: the CEOs of 3Com, Hewlett-Packard,
  Nike, and Sun Microsystems (see a list of companies founded by members of the Stanford community)
• Celebrities: Reese Witherspoon, Chelsea Clinton, Ted Koppel, Sigourney Weaver, Ted Danson, Jack Palance, Jennifer Connelly, and Fred Savage
• Sports: Tiger Woods, John Elway,
  and John McEnroe
• Education: the presidents of Yale,
  the University of Arizona, and Johns Hopkins.
• Science: Vinton Cerf “the Father
  of the Internet”, and 17 astronauts (including Sally Ride), and the founders of Yahoo! (most
  popular site on the Internet) and the founders of Google.

In other words, Stanford is one of the most strategic mission fields in the world! For an even fuller list of alumni, check out the famous alumni list maintained by Stanford itself!

Check this out: look at the bottom right of this screen. Notice anything different?

Of course you do–all the postings from Chi Alpha @ Stanford are now listed in an RSS feed! (Thanks to ScriptyGoddess for making me aware of this great code snippet available at the Trommeter Times).

Woohoo!

Right now we’re blessed to have under our roof one Emil Geiger and one Vipur Sharma. Emil is a Chi Alpha student from Lousiana State University, and is hoping to get his master’s in engineering from Stanford.

It’s a lot of fun having them around (side note: they’re very appreciative of the XBox that the Southwest Missouri State Chi Alpha group blessed up with).