disciple, husband, father, college minister
I’ve been getting the Stanford Chi Alpha website ready for launch, and now it’s ready! You can visit it at http://www.xastanford.org/.
I’ve been getting the Stanford Chi Alpha website ready for launch, and now it’s ready! You can visit it at http://www.xastanford.org/.
Here’s what I’ve posted so far:
*What Is Chi Alpha?
*What’s Important To Chi Alpha?
*What Does Chi Alpha Believe?
*What Does The Name Chi Alpha Mean?
One thing I’m very excited about is that the students will be able to make posts as well, so this will be a true representation of our community!
A link to Don Knuth’s calligraphy of John 3:16
Donald Knuth, a retired computer science professor at Stanford, undertook a project many years ago to analyze every chapter 3 verse 16 in the Bible. It’s supposed to be quite fascinating, although I’ve not read it yet.
In any event, I just ran across the coolest thing on his website: John 3:16 in beautiful PDF calligraphy. The translation is pretty neat as well.
Stanford rocks in every area!
On a triumphalist note, I should mention that Stanford has won the Sears cup AGAIN
! That makes 8 in a row. And not only did we win–we won by a lot. Here are the point totals:
1. Stanford 1499.0
2. Texas 1110.5
3. Florida 1078.0
4. North Carolina 1065.5
5. UCLA 1026.0
See how each individual sports teams did.
In case you’re wondering, the Sears Cup is awarded each year to the best overall collegiate athletics progam in the nation. In other words, we rock!
A big thank-you to the women’s ministries of the Northern-California/Nevada district of the Assemblies of God for their wonderful missions boutique.
In case you didn’t know, the Assemblies of God is divided into districts, and in moving from Missouri to California we changed districts. We’re now members of the Northern California/Nevada District.
Each district is pretty autonomous when it comes to interacting with missionaries, and so we’ve been delighted at how warm our reception has been here. Today we were able to visit the District Missions Boutique, which is a collection of very cool stuff (towels, sheets, kitchen items, etc) that the women’s ministries of churches throughout the district accumulate to give to missionaries. Wow! Thanks to all the women who participated in this program–you are such a blessing.
Our new roommate–Andrew Wright!
Wow–we’ve been living here seven days and we’ve already got a Stanford student moving in with us!
His name is Andrew Wright, and he’s a sophomore here at Stanford. His major is technically undeclared, but he’s planning on International Relations.
Among other things, he writes for The Stanford Review.
God is really opening up doors for us on campus–and we haven’t even started yet! (We’re not allowed to begin formally ministering on campus until we’ve secured 100% of our funding as mandated by Assemblies of God Home Missions. We’re currently near 70% of our assigned budget–pray that God would provide the rest by our September 23rd deadline.)
We’ve got our first California church service this Sunday! Paula and I are driving up to Dobbins, CA at Dobbins Christian Assembly, where Jack Overbey is the pastor. We’re pretty excited to begin sharing our vision with the churches of the Northern California/Nevada District of the Assemblies of God. Pray that God would grant us favor!
Why Stanford is one of the most strategic mission fields on the planet: today they learn, tomorrow they lead!
Today They Learn, Tomorrow They Lead
In a very real sense, schools like Stanford function as a steering wheel
for our society. Whichever way they turn now determine how our society
will turn out a few decades down the road.
Alumni include
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 Stanford famous alumni list!
Cover these first two Chi Alpha students in prayer!
There
are a few students currently involved with the Chi Alpha group at Stanford.
The three most involved are a junior named Luis Trujillo [last name
pronounced “true heal”, he’s the guy on the right], a freshman named
Andrew Wright (he’s the guy on the left), and another junior named Wilbur Montana (he’s the invisible guy in the middle).
Please pray that God would grant them favor with their peers as
they seek to reach out and favor in their studies so that they may get
good grades! Also pray for encouragement–it’s challenging to maintain
your faith at Stanford.
Many people seem puzzled by what it is that we do. This is a very brief introduction to the wonderful world of campus ministry.
Paula and I work with Chi Alpha Campus Ministries at Stanford University (check out our group website). Chi Alpha is a missions program of the Assemblies of God targeting colleges and universities across America.
You might be wondering why the Assemblies of God sends missionaries to college campuses–read our explanation of campuses as mission fields.
So what do you do?
We strive to build an on-campus community of students who are earnestly following Jesus. We do that by leading midweek worship services in the middle of campus, by sponsoring Bible studies in the dorms, and by conducting various outreaches.
Why campus ministry is so necessary.
College can be a dangerous place for a Christian’s faith!
To begin with, 2 out of every 3 teenagers involved with a youth group already plan to leave the church once theyre on their own (i.e., in college). One out of every 8 bails on the church before they even set foot on the college campus (Leonard Sweet, SoulTsunami page 47).
Even leaving that disturbing fact aside, college isn’t too kind to the faith of students.
Quotes from Pascarella and Terenzini: How College Affects
Students: Findings and Insights From Twenty Years of Research
“the literature published since 1967 fairly consistently reports significant declines in religious attitudes, values, and behaviors during the college years.” p 280–281
“The likelihood of changing to no religious
preference was also highest at so-called elite institutions.” p 303
“In probably the strongest studies on this point, Astin (1972b, 1977a) found (net of other personal and background factors) significantly greater than expected decreases in conventional religious affiliation and in religiousness (that is, praying and reading the Bible) among students attending selective or prestigious schools.”
But there is hope: in the same volume, the authors state:
“Only a handful of studies examine
the long-term effects of college on religious attitudes and values,
but with one exception, they indicate that changes in this area occur
during but apparently not after the college years.” p 323
In other words, college is our last chance to reach a generation! That’s why there must be campus ministry at secular colleges and universities!