Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Trusting God.
"To question the goodness of God is, in essence, to imply that man is more concerned about goodness than is God... To suggest that man is kinder than God is to subvert the very nature of God... It is to deny God; and this is precisely the thrust of the temptation to question the goodness of God." (145)
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Asking.
So the first book on my reading this summer for RUF is this book called Asking by Jerry Panas. And it was AMAZING! If anyone ever finds themselves raising money for either a short-term mission trip or starting a whole new ministry or even doing a small part of a HUGE ministry like RUF, they should have the requirement of reading this encouraging book. Panas outlines not the methodology or tricks to fundraising but the real purpose and attitude we are to have. I was most encouraged by a few tidbits that I will share. One this "fundraising" that I and 41 other interns are currently doing is not "begging". I did have someone tell me I was too good to beg for money. And to them I now know the correct response. I am not to good to beg for money, BUT begging is not what I am doing. I am offering an opportunity to anyone and everyone to be apart of a mnistry that has a purpose for Christ, a goal for Christ, and will change and save real lives. To think about it in this way is extremely encouraging. This is an opportunity for us all to embrace Christ and the gifts he has given us to reach college students with the gospel for the gospel. Secondly there is no failure in this process. Christ does not need me. But he has called me in this moment to persue this ministry. If someone says "No" or "Yes" they are under the sovereignty of God. He says, "In his career Michael Jordon said he missed nearly 10,000 shots, lost over 3,000 games, and missed making the decisive shot dozens of times."-pg.13 He failed many times but that was also apart of his success. How encouraging! You're never a loser until you quit trying and you don't have to be great to start BUT you have to start to be GREAT!!!! I could say so much more about this book and how I completely understand why they require us to read it. For now I want to leave my fellow interns with this qoute,
"Get ready for the great adventure. Because of you and the funds you raise, you'll be directly reponsible, through your organization, for changing lives. You're making it happen."-pg.11
Sunday, June 7, 2009
RUF Orientation.
When I got off the plane and into my sister’s car I said “this past week changed my life, I think”. Why, with a laugh is what she said. Its possible to say its changed my life for numerous reasons but I think that mainly it has enhanced every reason I didn’t know before about why I want to work for RUF. Spending a week in Atlanta sounded like this cool vacation that I would get to have, however I could not have imagined the week without spending 10 hours a day in those freezing cold conference rooms.
To start off I got to meet probably 35 of the coolest people my age from around the country. I cannot praise God enough for calling them all to serve with RUF and to have them available to me as friends! They were kind, loving and supportive the moment we exchanged names and which schools we would be working at. I felt like it was summer camp almost with the amount of time we got to spend sitting next to one another, but overall I now have many more close friends to confide in as a result.
We spent time going over the logistics of insurance, how tos of this and that, who to call with a problem and who not to call. While all this was so refreshing because it now made this huge idea of working for RUF a reality, my favorite part of the week was the POM.
No we didn’t sit around and drinking that expensive pomegranate juice called POM, although I wouldn’t had minded. POM stands for philosophy of ministry and this is what I already see God using to work on my heart. We learned that ministering isn’t some big cloud of just sharing the gospel, but has purpose, goals, and principles.
The purpose of RUF is to reach students for Christ, all students not just Christians or non-Christians, but we all are in need of Christ everyday. And then to equip them to serve. RUF is a ministry of purpose not methods. No two campus are exactly alike. We then accomplish our purpose by working toward four goals. Growth in grace where students grow in understanding of the gospel and their need for the grace of Christ. Fellowship and service is where students are involved in genuine relationships to one another and looking for opportunities to be inconvenienced in love. Evangelism and missions is where students are using their gifts for reaching others and growing in their concern for the lost throughout the world. The fourth goal is a biblical world and life view that students will have when seeing everything in relation to God and His word. Those goals alone changed how I was approaching ministry.
The four principles that underlie our goals and purposes are Scripture, Justification, Sanctification, and Glorification. These are the four things that we as interns have to be more and more aware of as we desire to serve. Its not that I haven’t already extensively studied these things, but that I heard new and fresh ideas behind them all this week. How my sin can get in the way of me believing in all of them and that I will be growing in knowing and understanding how God works in them and through them for the next two years. This isn’t even a crumb of the cake we attacked this week. At points it was information overload and I am still trying to sit and process it all.
I am so thankful for God and his goodness to me and the 41 other interns who are in the new class of 2009! Please continue to pray for fundraising and all the things that are on my plate for the month of June.
To start off I got to meet probably 35 of the coolest people my age from around the country. I cannot praise God enough for calling them all to serve with RUF and to have them available to me as friends! They were kind, loving and supportive the moment we exchanged names and which schools we would be working at. I felt like it was summer camp almost with the amount of time we got to spend sitting next to one another, but overall I now have many more close friends to confide in as a result.
We spent time going over the logistics of insurance, how tos of this and that, who to call with a problem and who not to call. While all this was so refreshing because it now made this huge idea of working for RUF a reality, my favorite part of the week was the POM.
No we didn’t sit around and drinking that expensive pomegranate juice called POM, although I wouldn’t had minded. POM stands for philosophy of ministry and this is what I already see God using to work on my heart. We learned that ministering isn’t some big cloud of just sharing the gospel, but has purpose, goals, and principles.
The purpose of RUF is to reach students for Christ, all students not just Christians or non-Christians, but we all are in need of Christ everyday. And then to equip them to serve. RUF is a ministry of purpose not methods. No two campus are exactly alike. We then accomplish our purpose by working toward four goals. Growth in grace where students grow in understanding of the gospel and their need for the grace of Christ. Fellowship and service is where students are involved in genuine relationships to one another and looking for opportunities to be inconvenienced in love. Evangelism and missions is where students are using their gifts for reaching others and growing in their concern for the lost throughout the world. The fourth goal is a biblical world and life view that students will have when seeing everything in relation to God and His word. Those goals alone changed how I was approaching ministry.
The four principles that underlie our goals and purposes are Scripture, Justification, Sanctification, and Glorification. These are the four things that we as interns have to be more and more aware of as we desire to serve. Its not that I haven’t already extensively studied these things, but that I heard new and fresh ideas behind them all this week. How my sin can get in the way of me believing in all of them and that I will be growing in knowing and understanding how God works in them and through them for the next two years. This isn’t even a crumb of the cake we attacked this week. At points it was information overload and I am still trying to sit and process it all.
I am so thankful for God and his goodness to me and the 41 other interns who are in the new class of 2009! Please continue to pray for fundraising and all the things that are on my plate for the month of June.
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