Ethereal Thought Train

Ever wondered what The Austin Stone is doing with Freshmen this fall?  Check out what my friend Logan Gentry and the College Team have cooked up for Freshmen below:

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We’ll be dealing with 6 issues that focus on Gospel, Community, & Mission and answering the essential questions of what it means to believe in Christ and how we are supposed to live as Christians.

Week 1: The Gospel: What is the Gospel?

The very thing that make someone a Christian is often the most difficult for Christians to really understand. Often it is assumed that people know and understand the gospel, but this week will lay a foundation and establish a biblical understanding of the gospel as the power of God for salvation of all men.

Week 2: Gospel Repentance: What is sin & how do I deal with it?

The 1^st of Martin Luther’s 95 thesis is “all of life is repentance” which comes from an understanding that the root of all sin is idolatry. This week will focus on identifying the roots of sin in our life and appropriately understanding the idea of repentance through the gospel.

Week 3: Gospel Living v. Religion: Parable of the Prodigal Son

The most famous parable, the parable of the prodigal son, actually reveals that you can be far from God both while living solely for the pleasures of this world and by living a religious life focused solely on morality.

Week 4: Gospel-Led Community: What is true Gospel-Centered Christian Community?

The gospel calls people individually, but calls them to be a part of a community of believers. This collection of individuals is then transformed to live sacrificially for each other and the context they have been placed. This week will examine what a true gospel-centered Christian community looks like.

Week 5: Gospel-Led Mission: What do you mean by mission?

Often the term mission can be accomplished out of a sense of duty or responsibility as opposed to it being a result of valuing the gospel above all else. This results in treating people at projects to be improved upon instead of simply caring for all people that they might know joy, peace, and truth. This week we’ll evaluate our motivations for social justice & evangelism & we will discuss how this is most effectively accomplished when do this together as a community.

Week 6: Gospel-Led Commissioning

Really it’s just a commissioning (Christianese for sending them out), but I wanted to see if I could put “Gospel-Led” in front of each week. It will be a night of prayer, worship, and sending them out as groups.

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I’m really excited for how they will train freshmen at the outset with our DNA of gospel-centered missional community, and can’t wait to see the impact it has on campus!

My new friend Steve Lutz has done some good work on articulating the relative breakdowns of students at Penn State on their “spiritual openness continuum”.  I’d suspect it looks fairly similar on most state university campuses (±5%):

+2 Actively looking, open people (churched, professing Christian, or on the verge). 3% of the student population

+1 Have spiritual questions in the back of their mind; but open-minded, not closed. Willing to give it a shot. Nominal Christians, friendly non-Christians. 10%

0 Apathetic. Couldn’t care less, either way. Find both extremes to be shrill, obnoxious, and irrelevant. If you bring up Jesus, they shrug their shoulders and say “Meh.” 62%

-1 Suspicious, somewhat hostile, but might be willing to give you an audience. 20%

-2 Active, angry, antagonistic. For example, militant atheist. 5%

via The “Spiritual Openness Continuum” on Campus, and What to Do About It « the SENTinel.

I’d highly recommend reading his whole post, especially the implications for ministry structure and design (This is one of the several reasons we have moved toward a missional community structure in our ministry).

I love doing College Ministry, but more importantly, I love it when men whom you have invested your life into apply what they have learned to their lives.  Below is a post from a student whom I discipled as he is entering into the world of day trading:

I’m 100% sure that trusting God will make me a better trader.

Before you get up in arms about that statement, please hear explicitly what I am not saying: namely that trusting in God will make me a profitable trader. I don’t believe that at all. But being a better trader… that’s something that will happen. Here’s why:

Fear is eliminated. Pride is eliminated. Greed is eliminated. End of story.

If I’m founded in Christ, I have nothing to gain… I’ve gained it all. I have nothing to lose… earthly possessions are but a pittance to the love I’ve received. I have nothing to prove… Christ is my only focus and the only one worth serving.

I have much maturing to do.

via Obedience Is Key « Learning to Trade.