Category: Stanford/Ministry News

Back at SMS I used to head to the campus bowling alley in the student union and help students process questions about God. It was right when the television series Ed (about a bowling alley lawyer) was getting popular, and so I called myself the Bowling Alley Theologian. It was a lot of fun.

I had flashbacks today as I spent 5 hours in a long and rambling conversation with a student. We talked about the existence of God, the nature of truth, epistemology, morality, the nature of Scripture, archaelogy and the Exodus, evolutionary psychology, the mind-body problem, and the relationship between facts, faith, doubt, and skepticism.

It was a lot of fun.

Schools like Stanford are steering wheels for our society: as goes the campus, so goes the culture. Our leaders are shaped in Stanford’s lecture halls–four of America’s nine Supreme Court Justices are Stanford grads!

And it’s not just America that Stanford influences–the president of Peru is a Stanford graduate. In fact, 1/4 of the students are from another country, and the two most represented nations are China and India.

Today they learn, but tomorrow they lead. These future world-changers must be reached with the gospel while they are more open than they will ever be again!

If you want even more amazing reasons, check out my list of famous Stanford alumni.

My friend Andrew Careaga (aka Cleopatra) correctly pointed out that being number one isn’t always a desirable thing, so I thought I’d give him some props. Check out his site.

Anyway, today was extremely productive. Tim Smith (the Chi Alpha @ Sacramento State guy who gamely tried to recruit Glen Cole to our Chi Alpha family) and I met with John Harris and Doug Reid of Capital Christian Center in Sacramento. Doug is the student ministries pastor and John works on his staff to reach college students.

Doug recently came on staff and commissioned a demographic study of all the students in Sacramento. He was floored when he realized that there were more college students than high school students (150,000 collegians) and that he only had 1.5 staff people focusing on them (out of a student ministries staff of 20).

Being a sharp guy, Doug realized that he needs to radically realign his ministry to touch college students.

We had a great meeting and I think that we’ve got some great ideas for synergizing their outreach with what Chi Alpha is doing. Alongside Noble’s model in Springfield, MO (if you don’t know I don’t have time to explain it) this could really be a huge stride forward for Assemblies of God college ministry.

Afterwards, Paula and I got to hang with Tim and Julie at California Pizza Kitchen afterwards. Good food and good friends.

If you’re a Chi Alpha person reading this blog, know that we always have extremely productive days in Northern California / Nevada that culminate in highly fun and relational meals.

Come west, young leader! There are over 80 sizeable colleges to choose from…

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.

I just ran across an interesting article in the LA Times that I deemed worthy of comment: The nation’s leading lawyer [Jay Sekulow] for evangelical Christians was born and raised a Jew in Brooklyn, but decided in college that Christ was the Messiah. (read the whole article: Evangelicals’ Champion to Argue Case at High Court)

Sekulow has argued 11 cases before the Supreme Court and is the chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice.

Jay Sekulow is an excellent example of what I keep telling people–college students are the leaders of tomorrow and they are uniquely open to rethinking their belief systems. Reaching students today changes the world of tomorrow.

One of Stanford’s more unfortunate traditions, Full Moon on the Quad, made news lately. The San Jose Mercury News wrote an article Stanford Students Hospitalized After ‘Full Moon’ Party.

lead paragraph: Four Stanford students were hospitalized with alcohol poisoning and three others were arrested on alcohol-related charges Thursday night during “Full Moon on the Quad” — a popular annual tradition in which seniors kiss consenting freshmen under the moonlight in what is billed as an alcohol-free party, Stanford said today.

Full Moon may be billed as an alcohol-free party, but that just means that many students get soused before showing up to tongue-wrestle.

Also, I noticed the Mercury News didn’t mention the ever-present nudity (the other moon on the quad that night)… sigh.

According the Stanford Daily, the university is growing concerned about Full Moon’s rowdiness: Full Moon’s Future Cloudy: I have serious reservations about this event happening again, said Assistant Dean and Director of Student Activities Nanci Howe. But it is too early to say what the future of Full Moon is.

By the way, while looking for other news stories on Full Moon I ran across Naranja Dorm’s gallery of Full Moon photos.

FYI: US News & World Report recently released its 2003 college rankings, and Stanford came in fifth overall. Pretty neat!

I was more impressed, however, by a brief chat I had with Louie Giglio (founder of Passion Ministries) today. No–I don’t know him personally. Yes, we actually did have a chat. 

Anyway, he told me that Stanford was his favorite campus. He just loves this place! That made me happy.

Finally, Stanford starts school next week. That means it’s like we’re accountants during tax season. BUSY! If we fall behind on our emails or otherwise fail to be responsive please forgive us.

I just learned that there’s a website listing all 35 current pro baseball players who are Stanford grads: see the roster.

Just found it interesting…

I was recently informed by one of our XA students that 2 of the new 15 appointees to the New York Times editorial board are Stanford grads: Philip Taubman (deputy editorial editor) and Andres Martinez (Economics, Foreign Affairs & Federal Regulatory Issues).

You can read the full bios at http://nytimes.com/ref/opinion/editorial-board.html.

Why does this matter? Because everyone in politics reacts to and comments on what’s being said in the NY Times editorials.

I just learned that Bill Bright died yesterday. Even though he and I would have probably differed quite strongly on some points had we talked in person (one of the reasons I minister with Chi Alpha instead of Campus Crusade), I still held him in the highest esteem possible and would like to publicly honor him.

In case you aren’t familiar with him, Bill Bright founded Campus Crusade for Christ, wrote an extremely influential booklet called The Four Spiritual Laws, and was responsible for the creation of The Jesus Film–arguably the most effective evangelistic tool in history.

Campus Crusade for Christ is a tremendous ministry, and the fact that it will continue strong is a testament to Bill Bright and his leadership.

May the peace of God be with his family and friends…