God's Politics

The lecture "God's Politics" by Jim Wallace that I mentioned in my last post is online. Check it out here.

~Andrew

Why the right gets it wrong and the left doesent get it...

A couple quick thoughts and prayer requests.

First off, I want to mention an event, being hosted by the college that has just started here at CC: “Religion in Public Life: why be afraid. It promises to be a rich discussion of religion, including Christianity, and how that should influence our societies. One of our first speakers was Jim Wallis, author of Gods Politics: why the right is wrong and the left doesn't get it. It was an incredible discussion of how the gospel should affect political thought that was both encouraging and challenging to me and I believe very stereotype breaking for many other students. Please pray that the Christian community would take advantage of the opportunity for discussion created by these lectures.

The second thing is a reminder about Jesus unplugged. Please keep praying that people would be drawn to this place where they will have the opportunity to sit at Jesus' feet. We have scattered seed widely in invitation, and hope to see a significant harvest.

Finally, a story. Last week our scripture application experiment was based on a discussion of Jesus' love for lost things. The natural application experiment was to go looking for some lost things. We used an Evangelistic survey developed by CRU and went into the dorms to talk with people. There were many very good, real, conversations that came from this effort. A particular blessing was a very long conversation I got to have with one freshman guy. He came into another conversation that had been spawned by one of the surveys, abruptly stating, “Christianity is the single wost thing that has happened to people in history.” But he stayed in the conversation even after everybody else had left... after listening to him describe his problems with, thoughts about, and lots of other stuff regarding religion, I asked him, “would you like to hear what I think is really important in Christianity. He said yes, and I was able to outline the 'meta narrative' of the good news for him over about the next hour and a half. Please pray that this friend would dwell on the Gospell and keep asking quesitons about faith. This interaction really gave me a chance to practically learn a lot of what I had been taught regarding “postmodern evangelism” in the training for this internship over the summer. Key aspects that I would like to share with you include:

~Listening to, knowing, and caring about the person you are talking with. This provides the necessary relational connection on which “post moderns” will build trust. People will listen to us if we honestly will listen to them first.

~Asking people if they are interesting in hearing what we think is so important about Christianity, Jesus, or whatever the conversation is talking about. This opens the door for people to actually listen as we speak, rather then engaging in a debate of sorts. Then, of course, it is important for us to understand the gospel and communicate it clearly.

As always, thank you for your prayers!

Shalom,

Andrew

A long overdue update.

Its long past time for another 'blog update! A lot has happened in the past month and a lot of really cool stuff is happening currently. I shall start off with past news, then share current happenings, and finally discuss current prayer requests.

Past News

Though still significantly in “New Student Outreach” mode, the main force of our work has defiantly transitioned a little more into discipleship, maintenance, and service to those around us. The two bible studies are both going really well. They are not extraordinarily well-attended, but there are several committed students in each. It has been interesting to experience the temptation to be satisfied with this “apparent success” and be satisfied with building the kingdom of Andrew's success, rather then challenged to continue the task of building the Kingdom of God. After reading Don Richardson's book Peace Child over block break, I was struck with a new understanding of how powerful the gospel actually is, and how limited my expectations for watching God work had been. I am challenged to keep begging God to pour out his spirit on this campus, begging for revival, begging that we as a community would be transformed by the powerful message of good news brought through Jesus.

Another cool development is the fact that we have been able to form relationships with a whole bunch of freshman international students who are curious about Christianity. At one point last week I gave a guy from China a couple of books about Christianity that he had asked to borrow. He was with a friend, from Nepal, who then took one of the books to read! It was pretty amazing.

Our first event following up on the “In Christ Colloquium,” a pre-block prayer meeting for the leaders of different Christian ministries went really well. I hope the other participants were as encouraged by it as I was. We have also been in conversation with the people who are re-pioneering Campus Crusade for Christ (CRU) here at CC and are exploring what it looks like for us to be partners as missionaries on this campus.

Current Happenings

This block our theme for the Bible experiments is invitation. We have studied the parable of the shrewd manager and the parable of the lost coin and lost sheep. The applications to these passages are pretty clear-- we should be doing evangelism, using our resources shrewdly to find lost people, win friends, and show people Jesus. Last night we went into the dorms and did surveys about students perceptions of Christianity in-order to open up the door for spiritual conversation. We had some awesome conversations and were encouraged to be bold in proclaiming the gospel.

Right now we are in the midst of inviting people to Jesus Unplugged the regional InterVarsity fall conference. Our goal is to bring 20 Christians and for each of them to bring 2 non Christians. Pray that God would move in such a big way, and that we would be equipped with the necessary resources to deal with such an overwhelming crowd!

Our contemplative prayer service is as beautiful as ever. We are using a liturgy from the Anglican Church in Kenya this block. It has been weird though, how few people actually make it to the service. People will constantly say they are planning on being there, and then never show up (even to the point of walking there and somehow disappearing on the way).

Prayer Needs

Please praise Jesus for the ways he has blessed us with life while we are doing his work. It has been awesome for me to watch him work around and through me.

Pray for our scripture application experiments. Pray that we would not be satisfied with some measure of “success” but would constantly see the challenge of bringing the gospel to this community in a disciplined, powerful, and loving way. Pray also that we would be able to find those Christians who have not yet found Christian community on the campus and bring them into our fellowship.

Pray for Compline; that the apparent spiritual block keeping people away would be broken down so that more people can participate in glorifying Jesus on the campus.

Finally, pray for our current evangelistic outreach. Many people are hearing about Jesus, and many people are considering coming to Jesus Unplugged, where they will interact with him much more. Pray that we would understand the gospel and communicate it clearly. Also, in about a month (November 1) Ravi Zacharias will be speaking on campus. Pray that our advertisement will be effective, and that people would be able to hear the gospel through him. Also pray for wisdom as we consider follow-up methods for that and Jesus Unplugged. Finally, please pray for my apartment-mate Ariel. She is considering choosing to follow Jesus. Pray that my witness would reveal him in truth, and that her heart would continue to be receptive.

~Andrew Nelson