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Anonymous asked: i think you would look smexi with a mexistache ;)
If I could grow one, I totally would…. but I cant…
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Weird, because normal isn’t working.
Abilene Texas, is a “college” town with 3 separate universities of 3 different denominations. Where things start shutting down at 11 pm and students go home to the metroplex every other weekend. A desolate place where everything is flat and barren, everything including the faith of the college population. Somewhere around 75% of college students here are not going to church regularly. Very rarely do students interact with student from another campus unless it is at church. Yet we are all under the same banner of Christ. Why is this? Why do students fall away when most stories here start out with “Well, I was basically born on a church pew…”. It has become a norm and something has to change.
Priorities among students are way out of place. Wednesday night at church has been replaced with going to club and gossiping about other clubs on campus. Sunday mornings have been replaced with visiting the box spring chapel. The need for community among Christ followers has been masked by attending a Christian school. Genuine worship has been replaced with the same old tasteless routine over and over again. Unity in Christ has been replaced with more concern with making sure we put in our denomination after the church name. Concern for the least of these has been replaced with concern for our own well being.
Here comes my plug for where I am plugged in. I go to UBC right across the street from HSU. This church is WIERD. We don’t have a teaching pastor, or a youth pastor, or a college pastor, or a children’s pastor. We have one worship/administrative pastor and that is it. Everything that goes on at church is because of the work of the body coming together voluntarily, solely to further the kingdom of Christ. We are part of the Lifechurch.tv network where we receive teaching and utilities to use for free. The college ministry doesn’t meet every wednesday for worship but instead focuses on community through lifegroups. We meet once a month for a fellowship night to join the groups together in worship. I didn’t want to come to this church at first because it wasnt the “way church was supposed to be”. The community mindset of this church has made an impact on everyone involved and I think is what needs to happen in our college culture.
Utlimately, this post isn’t about how to do church, because there are plenty of churches doing it the “right” way. In fact, its not even about getting more people to come to UBC because we are soo much better. Its about finding ways to change the culture of college students. Get involved. Do something.
So that was a long preachy, non organized way of saying what has been on my heart. And chances are Im going to offend someone if people actually read this. I know that I am over exaggerating and that not everyone falls into this category but perfection is a goal for me. Wether or not it’s always attainable is a different story. And maybe Im completely wrong and the faith of the college culture here is fine. If it aint broke dont fix it right? But even then, I don’t want to stay complacent. I want to see revolution. I want to see the unity that christ cried out for to be tangible.
Thoughts, concerns, inaccuracies, threats?
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Oh my Christians!
– David Bowden Jeremiah 7
When did Christ become a figurehead instead of a commission
When did my son become flatbread instead of a mission
When did his blood become imbedded in dead prayers instead of spreading you into submission
When did his cross become something printed on thread instead of imprinted on your vision
Your missing the point if
attending, seating, listening, and repeating
is the joint efforts of your
effortless anointing
I don’t want to disappoint
all those who thought
getting baptized and being churched
would comprise the proper work to prove your worth
but I have searched the earth
and when you’re not hiding in your Sunday shirt
or your Wednesday skirt
you look the same as every unconverted
person who flirts with the comforts of selfishness and inverted shame
It does not matter if you claim my name
because the fact of the matter is that you all look the same
The pagans the Christians
The tainted the sinless
The saved and the sinners
The saints and imprisoned -
Found - Aaron Ivey
This song is perfect for everything that is going on right now. As a college student not knowing what exactly is coming next and wanting to get started making plans with my life, I need to stop and remember that everything should be found in HIM. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.” Proverbs 3:5
It is so hard for me to do this, and I know that I am not alone. College students everywhere are hitting spots like this and it is so difficult to just TRUST.
As a little plug, Aaron Ivey is one of the best unknown and underrated worship leaders out there. He leads worship at the Austin Stone and helps lead at a little school called Texas A&M for Breakaway. Good good stuff. Check him out.
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Beautiful Things
I got to go to Camp Zephyr with the BT youth this past week. This was the second time I have gone as a sponsor and I was more than excited but at the same time, nervous because the youth is so different from when I was there 2 years ago.
So I have been trying to find a way to write about what happened at camp and I cant really seem to find a way that will do it justice so I’ll just sum it all up.
Its funny how it never ceases to amaze me that God really does work everything for good. How he can call the unqualified and make them more than able. How he can make beautiful things out of the dust. How he can use the dirtiest and ugliest things and use them for his good. My heart breaks for the things that happens to youth these days but God is calling up a new generation to do big things. LET FAITH ARISE.
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A Prayer
Lord, you call us out of captivity into the freedom of your beloved community. As we pass through the wilderness spaces of our lives, grant us ears to hear you, eyes to see you, and hearts that ache for you, that we might not turn away from the brothers and sisters who help us remember who we are. Amen.
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Religion Kills
Religion says follow this list of rules and parameters and then you can become a Godly person.
Jesus says come and get lost in my grace and let the love that you experience change you to love me over yourself.
Religion looks down on everyone else and is arrogant and cocky in its ways.
Jesus became a carpenter and took the outcasts of society to be his inner circle.
Religion teaches morality as the utmost goal in life.
Jesus says, without Love you have nothing.
Religion Kills
Jesus Saves
I havent blogged in a while but here i go again being a hypocrite and posting something that might normally annoy me if taken in the wrong context. I am no expert on this, but I know that this is exactly why I fell in love with Jesus.
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Worship
Should be studying but I cant focus. Saw these tweeted the other day.
-Not going to give casual worship to a God of extravagant beauty and grace.
Its so easy as a worship leader to take leading lightly and not put forth everything that you have into worship. How can we not give everything that we can possibly put in to worship to a God who is so big and beautiful. I may not be able to be perfect, but I will strive for it.
-If our worship is small, then the grace we see is not that big.
This to me is huge and pretty self explanatory. Our worship is corresponding with love. What does our worship say about our love. Oh how I don’t want to take grace for granted.
-If our worship is restrained, then the grace we see is not that radical.
:) Do your thing. Don’t be restrained, especially when we live in a place where we don’t have to be. Sing loud, dance, and jump. Grace is such a radical concept, show your love for it through your worship.
-If our worship is “neat and tidy”, then the sin that we see Christ bear was not too messy.
I absolutely love this. :) I try soo hard sometimes to make worship perfect when in all reality it doesnt have to be.
All these things are not reserved for worship inside of church. If worship is a lifestyle (how you live) then what does this say about how you live. Its a habit. Our God is way too big to only be worshiped in a certain way, to be confined in a 4 walled building, or to be held together by certain rules. Live in grace because of what grace did.
“We can not keep you in a church, we cannot keep you in a bible, or its just another idol, to box you in.”
I wish i could focus more and keep on track with what Im trying to say. Oh well. Back to studying.
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:)
Death in His Grave - John Mark McMillan
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And one more for the fellas! Get some.
