Tuesday at ConC, students shared testimonies about their Spring Break ministry trips. I've told you about our trip to Panama City Beach. But we also sent a group to Orangefield, TX to do some hurricane recovery work. They traveled with a group from the Prairie Grove Christian Church. The Prairie Grove church got in contact with a church in Orangefield who guided them to a young family (mom, dad, and 2-year-old son) whose home was destroyed by Hurricane Rita. So the Prairie Grove church raised $20,000 and took a group of adults, teens, and ConC staff and students to build a house (or at least start the process) over Spring Break. They poured the foundation, put up the walls (which were framed here in Arkansas), put on the roof, added doors and windows, and put up part of the siding.

Everyone who went has talked of how meaningful the trip was - of the chemistry of the group and the joy of building the house for the family. A local TV station came out and did a story on the group. As they interviewed the wife, she said something along the lines of "the hurricane was really a blessing in disguise. We are getting a better house than we had before. And if you ask my son where the house came from, he will tell you that Jesus gave it to us."

What a great testimony - the house that Jesus gave to them. What a great ministry - to be able to give a family a house in the name of Jesus.

The young family aren't members of the church in Orangefield. They don't go to church anywhere, yet. But they were in church last Sunday. The gift and service given to them in the name of Jesus probably did more to move them toward Christ than ten years worth of sermons.

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The trip to Orangefield was put together by Keith Bostian. Keith is the music minister at the Prairie Grove Christian Church. He is also on the Board of Christ on Campus. And he and his wife, Elise, were in ConC when they were at the UofA.

Spring Break 2006 is now history. For the second year in a row, I took a group of students to Panama City Beach, FL as part of about 200 Christian students who were there for a week of beach evangelism. For the week, we were involved in four main activities:

Street Teams - Small groups of students who walked the "strip", talking to Spring Breakers and telling them about the van rides and pancake breakfast. Street teams worked from 8:30 pm until 2:00 am.

Van Rides - Free van rides for those who called in and requested them. The vans would take students anywhere in PCB they wanted to go - a hotel, a club, etc. On the van were Christian students who would strike up conversations with Spring Breakers and look for open doors to share about Christ. The vans ran from 8:30 pm until 2:00 am (or later). Over five nights, about 3,000 Spring Breakers were given van rides. Often, street and van teams would switch off half way through the night.

Prayer Room - During this 8:30 pm until 2:00 am period, there were always about 50 students assigned to pray for the street teams, vans, the Spring Breakers riding the vans (the prayer room was updated on every van load of students), and for requests phoned in by the vans and street teams. There were usually two shifts a night.

Pancake Breakfast - Every morning, we served a free pancake breakfast on the strip for Spring Breakers. Often, appointments were made on the vans for further discussions at the pancake breakfasts. The breakfasts ran from 10:00 am until 1:00 pm. Over four days, we served about 5,000 people.

It was a long and tiring week. A lot of late nights for an old man! But it is a great experience for our students. I don't know of any better "lab" experience in prayer and personal evangelism.

Students are stretched in prayer - They learn not only about extended prayer (few have attempted to pray for over two and a half hours at one time), but about specific, intercessory prayer.

Students are stretched in evangelism - They begin to learn how to see the doors God opens to spiritual conversations, they begin to learn how to articulate their faith and Christian experience, and they begin to see where they are weak and need to grow.

Students are stretched about the reality of sin - Walking the streets of PCB during Spring Break exposes you to a lot of things: Public drunkenness, drug use, vulgarity, lewdness, and more. Often, young people have an idealized view of spring break trips to such places as PCB.

I'm still catching up on sleep and rest. But the Beach Reach trip is worth the effort and short nights. Below is another short essay I wrote about the experience.

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Last week, a group of us from ConC spent our Spring Break at Panama City Beach, FL. Now, for many, that sounds like an ideal place to spend Spring Break! But I'm not sure about that. I'm always amazed at the things that happen in a place like Panama City Beach. It is like the city suspends most of the laws for a few weeks every March. The public drunkenness, the under-age drinking, the sexual activity, the drug use, the drunken driving, the "flashing" - on and on it goes.

So what were we doing there? Trying to share God's love and God's Word with those who were there to party. We served pancakes (to almost 5,000 people) and gave free van rides until after 2:00 am every morning (to almost 3,000 people). But the service was given to show God's love practically and to point people to him and to talk to them about his love for them. It was exciting and frustrating and tiring.

In the midst of it all, I was reminded of this phrase from Paul's writings. In writing to Timothy about how to deal with Christians who were wealthy, Paul says the purpose is:

"...so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life." I Timothy 6:19

Life that is truly life. The Spring-breakers in Panama City Beach thought they were chasing life, that they were really living. But that way of life is really death, really separation from God. Our goal was to point them back to the life that is truly life.

So are you living the life that is truly life? Are you living the life God designed you to live - in relationship to him, in harmony with him and his will? Are you pursuing those things that the world around us says is "really living" but in the end just leave scars in your life and alienation from God?

In C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters, an older demon tells his younger apprentice to convince mankind that "real life" is the "stream of immediate sense experiences." That is what the folks partying in Panama City Beach were focusing on - immediate sense experiences. They tried to convince themselves that it was "real life."

But it's not.

Real life is one that is lived as the one who created us designed it. One that is lived in relationship with him. One that is lived in obedience to him.

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The NCAA Tournament has been an exciting one. My bracket is shot to pieces. I had Duke, UConn, Nova, and Kansas going to the Final Four. None are there. But you can't help but cheer for George Mason. And the SEC has two teams playing in the Final Four, which always makes the conference look better.

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I'll have two fantasy baseball teams going again this summer. One plays in a league with some former students, some campus minister friends, and a friend from high school. We did a live, online draft on Sunday. I must have been watching too much of the George Mason/Connecticut game! After the draft was over and I took a look at what I had done, I hadn't done too well. My other league had their draft over Spring Break, so Yahoo drafted for me. That teams looks much better. Oh well. It's a long season. I can put a team together.

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The Major League Baseball season is right around the corner. Though there is one game played on Sunday, I still consider Monday (13 games) as Opening Day. I think it should be a national holiday.

Maybe it will be for me.

The Big Dance may start today, but The Tournament started yesterday.

The Tournament is the NAIA National Championship Tournament. Though most of the country will be watching the NCAA Tournament, there are a few of us who will always look on the NAIA with more affection.

What's the difference between the two? Here are a few things:

* The NCAA is the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The NAIA is the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.

* The NCAA Tournament involves 65 teams, lasts for three weeks, and has a major network TV contract. The NAIA Tournament involves 32 teams, lasts five days, and most people have never heard of it.

* The NCAA Tournament takes place at sites all around the country. The NAIA Tournament takes place in Kansas City. Originally it was at Municipal Auditorium. Then it moved to Kemper Arena. For a while, it went to Tulsa. But now it is back home - Municipal Auditorium.

* Most of the schools in the NCAA Tournament are large and at least fairly-well known. The schools in the NAIA are small, often religiously-affiliated, and even more often anonymous: Olivet Nazarene (IL), Vanguard (CA), Lee (TN), Campbellsville (KY), Spring Hill (AL), Voorhees (SC), Trevecca Nazarene (TN), Lambuth (TN), Lindsey Wilson (KY), Southern Polytechnic (GA).

* You have heard of the top four seeds in the NCAA: Duke, Connecticut, Villanova, Memphis. The top four seeds in the NAIA: Mountain State (WV), LSU-Shreveport, Robert Morris (IL), Carroll (MT).

So why the attachment to the NAIA Tournament? Because it is a family tradition. From the time my brother and I were in grade school, Dad would take us out of school to head to KC for a day of the NAIA Tournament. And a day at the NAIA was a long day. Eight games in one day. The first one would tip-off at about 9:00 am and the last one at about 10:00 pm. There was maybe 15 minutes between games. We would pack lunches and settle in for a full day of small college basketball.

As we got older, we would always take friends along. I received two emails in the last two weeks from my two best friends in high school - both mentioning the NAIA and memories from there. Allen's peanut butter and bologna sandwiches. Stepping off the distance around the top of Kemper Arena. Sitting in the stands and speculating what you would do if you were stuck on top of the huge scoreboard that hung from the ceiling in the middle of the arena.

Though most players at the NAIA will never make the NBA, there were always some memorable ones. Hall-of-Famers such as Willis Reed, Earl "The Pearl" Monroe, and Nate "Tiny" Archibald played there. I remember watching Dennis Rodman play when he was still high-scoring and non-tatooed or pierced. I talked with him after his game - a very polite young man. I also remember the guy who was 7'6" - and never played a minute.

It has probably been almost 20 years since I've been to the NAIA. But the memories of the time with Dad and Dave and our friends are still strong.

Maybe I'll go back again sometime.

It's hard to believe that it has been twelve years since my Dad passed away.

He had been diagnosed with a brain tumor in April of 1993. He did pretty well through the rest of that year, through Christmas. But after the first of the year, he became bedfast. We put a hospital bed in the living room there on Wall Street. He gradually became unresponsive, but we sat with him and talked to him. I would spend a few days a week in Ft. Scott, helping Mom and sitting up with Dad - watching college basketball and old TV shows through the night (and eating Cocoa Krispies). On Friday afternoon, March 11, 1994, Mom and I were sitting next to his bed. We were just chatting when we noticed that he had stopped breathing.

Twelve years.
Sometimes it seems like just yesterday.
Sometimes it seems like a lifetime ago.
Erin and Stacy were just ten and seven.

Late last night I watched the video that the funeral home gave us when he died. Six or seven minutes of pictures of Dad and his life. It had been a while since I had watched it.

But I think about him every day.

Sometimes we (read that "I") live in such an insular world - everything revolves us and what we are doing and our joys and our inconveniences and our plans and our "hardships." We act as though God's sole function is to make sure that we - sitting here in the prosperous USA and living a life that 98% of the world can only dream of - are happy and fulfilled and comfortable. Maybe that is just a personal problem of mine, but I don't think so. I've worked around college students and Christian people for a lot of years now. I know that this is a common malady. Even in our faith, we can become so "me" and "we" centered. Now, there are times when we break out of that for a little while. The tsunami in SE Asia a year ago. The hurricanes along the Gulf Coast last fall. But it doesn't take too long for us to fall back into our self-centered, ego-centric routines.

God did that again this week with an article I read about the stuff going on in Uganda and the Sudan. I'm not going to go into all the details here, but it is enough to make you sick to your stomach and your heart hurt. Here are a couple of links for you to check out:

The Invisible Children

Deliver Us From Kony

I also want to let you know - as people who have expressed a commitment to consider important the things that are important to God - to consider these passages:

Who is like you, O LORD? You rescue the poor from those too strong for them, the poor and needy from those who rob them. Psalm 35:10

Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the LORD understand it fully. Proverbs 28:5

The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern. Proverbs 29:7

Why, O LORD, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak, who are caught in the schemes he devises. He boasts of the cravings of his heart; he blesses the greedy and reviles the LORD. In his pride the wicked does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God.... His mouth is full of curses and lies and threats; trouble and evil are under his tongue. He lies in wait near the villages; from ambush he murders the innocent, watching in secret for his victims. He lies in wait like a lion in cover; he lies in wait to catch the helpless; he catches the helpless and drags them off in his net. His victims are crushed, they collapse; they fall under his strength. He says to himself, "God has forgotten; he covers his face and never sees." Arise, LORD! Lift up your hand, O God. Do not forget the helpless. Why does the wicked man revile God? Why does he say to himself, "He won't call me to account"? But you, O God, do see trouble and grief; you consider it to take it in hand. The victim commits himself to you; you are the helper of the fatherless. Break the arm of the wicked and evil man; call him to account for his wickedness that would not be found out. The LORD is King for ever and ever; the nations will perish from his land. You hear, O LORD, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed, in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more. Psalm 10:1-4, 12-18

The King will reply, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.... I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me." Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. Matthew 25:40, 45-46

Why do I share these things with you? Because I want us to see beyond ourselves and our immediate context. I want us to see beyond the UofA and the USA. I want us to care about the things that God cares about. I want our hearts to hurt by the same things that cause God’s heart to hurt.

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Gordon Parks died on Tuesday. He was 93.

I don't know how many reading this blog will actually know who Gordon Parks is. But I would guess that he was the most famous person to be born or raised in my hometown of Ft. Scott, KS.

Here is part of the article from the NY Times:

"Gordon Parks, the photographer, filmmaker, writer and composer who used his prodigious, largely self-taught talents to chronicle the African-American experience and to retell his own personal history, died yesterday at his home in Manhattan. He was 93....

Gordon Parks was the first African-American to work as a staff photographer for Life magazine and the first black artist to produce and direct a major Hollywood film, 'The Learning Tree,' in 1969. He developed a large following as a photographer for Life for more than 20 years, and by the time he was 50 he ranked among the most influential image makers of the postwar years. In the 1960's he began to write memoirs, novels, poems and screenplays, which led him to directing films.... In 1970 he helped found Essence magazine and was its editorial director from 1970 to 1973....

Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks was born on Nov. 30, 1912, in Fort Scott, Kan. He was the youngest of 15 children born to a tenant farmer, Andrew Jackson Parks, and the former Sarah Ross. Although mired in poverty and threatened by segregation and the violence it engendered, the family was bound by Sarah Parks's strong conviction that dignity and hard work could overcome bigotry.

Young Gordon's security ended when his mother died. He was sent to St. Paul, Minn., to live with the family of an older sister. But the arrangement lasted only a few weeks; during a quarrel, Mr. Parks's brother-in-law threw him out of the house. Mr. Parks learned to survive on the streets, using his untutored musical gifts to find work as a piano player in a brothel and later as the singer for a big band. He attended high school in St. Paul but never graduated."

Over the past several years, Parks had been back to Ft. Scott several times and there are things around time that honor him and what he accomplished. My earliest memory of him was when he was in Ft. Scott filming "The Learning Tree" during my elementary school years.

You might want to read his memoir, "The Learning Tree," or see the film.

I wonder if I can rent it somewhere?

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The NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships are here in Fayetteville this weekend. I always love this meet - the nation's best college athletes in an almost "three-ring circus" kind of environment. The Razorbacks are ranked #1 in the country and are looking for their 42nd team championship.

I'll be running the high jump events this weekend (there will be four of them). I'm also in charge of the about 135 certified officials who will be working the meet. A championship meet takes a lot of people! So the rest of this day will be filled with meetings with the NCAA Committee and various officials. I'll be at the track at about 7:00 tomorrow morning and the competition will start.

Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us."

Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it."

John 14:8-14

Some thoughts from British theologian N.T. Wright:

"God longs to express himself fully through Jesus and through Jesus' people. Jesus wants to do fully all that he has been sent to do, working to the glory of God. He wants us to do and be all that we are intended to do and be. The only way we will accomplish that is through constant prayer. We must pray for the work of God in us and through us, pray for the glory of God to be seen in us and through us, pray for the love of God to shine in us and through us.

Reading this whole paragraph - verses 8 to 14 - we arrive at a frightening conclusion. Jesus announces at the beginning of the paragraph that whoever has seen him has seen the Father, and he gives us the evidence of the work that the Father has been doing through him. At the end of the paragraph he says that those who follow him and believe in him will do all these works and greater works still, in answer to prayer, so that the Father may be glorified. Our conclusion must be that the church should be working in such a way that, when challenged, we could point to it as proof of what God is doing. Even writing that feels and sounds almost blasphemous, which only goes to show how far short we are from this ideal."

N.T. Wright, Reflecting the Glory, p. 116-117

"He will do even greater things than these" - those words seem so far from my experience, with what I see in God's people in 21st century USA. What is there about my life, about my ministry, about the community of Jesus-followers across the US, that gives evidence of God at work in us and through us - that gives evidence of the power of God in acts that are greater than those of Jesus (I can't even wrap my mind around that - but the promise is right there on the page - in red letters!) - that results in the glory of God?

This past week Dr. Ralph Winter was in Fayetteville. Dr. Winter is one of the world's leading "strategists" in the area of world missions and evangelization. He is the founder of the US Center for World Missions in Pasadena, CA and the things that have grown out of it - magazines, colleges, training courses, and more.

Several years ago (fifteen or more) several of the Christian ministries at the UofA went together to sponsor a couple of student mission conferences. The first year we had Dr. Winter come and speak. The next year we had Don Richardson (missionary and author of such things as Peace Child, Eternity in Their Hearts, etc.). After that, some of those on our campus moved on and the conference died out. But those two years were good, with 200-300 in attendance the second year.

On Thursday, I attended a Q&A session with Dr. Winter. Below are a few things that he said (as best as I can paraphrase them) that I thought were pretty thought-provoking. You might not agree with him, but he will get you thinking!

"The Great Commission is about obedience to all that Jesus commanded. There is more to the gospel than just how to be saved.... We have made the gospel a 'gospel of salvation', but you don't find that in the Bible. The Bible talks about the 'gospel of the Kingdom' rather than a 'gospel of salvation'."

So is what we are preaching and teaching and sharing really the message Jesus sent us out to share or is it a message that has been shaped more by the religious culture of our day?

"The real question isn't how many missionaries we have, but how many know what they are doing. You could send half of the missionaries home and be better off."

Ouch. That could also be true of preachers, professors - and campus ministers.

"Worship is not how we come to know God; it is a result of knowing God.... The best way to get to know your Father is to go to work with him."

Amen.

What a change from Boston during the first of the week and Fayetteville on Wednesday. Walking around in Boston on Monday, the temperature was below 20 and the north wind was blowing at about 2,000 mph - at least it felt that way! I'm almost thawed out now. In Fayetteville on Wednesday, it was 82. Much better.

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The trip to Boston was great. The best part was spending time with a team that is working on planting campus ministries in that region. There is such potential for influence there. The Boston metro area has about 50 colleges and universities with over 250,000 students. Of those students, probably less than 1% are actively following Jesus. Some of the most prestigious and influential schools in the world are there: Harvard, MIT, Boston College, Boston University, Tufts, Northeastern, Brandeis. Yet most of the schools are private and do not have to let Christian groups have access. And most of them aren't too interested in extending that privilege - especially if you don't have a group already. So you have a Catch-22: it is hard to build a group if you're not on campus and you can't get on campus unless you have a group. So those working there are having to be creative in meeting students and forming an identity. And then there are the financial realities. Though most things cost about the same as they do here in Fayetteville (and gas was actually cheaper), housing is about four times as high.

So what did I do while I was there? Well, I spent some time visiting campuses, seeing some of the historical areas, and eating at Mike's Pastries. But mostly the time with the campus ministry team was spent dreaming and brainstorming and bouncing ideas around. Please continue to pray for Tim and Stephanie Hawkins and their family, as well as those on their team: Bobby, Nathan, and Kim.

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The other part of the trip to Boston was officiating the US Track and Field Indoor Championships. This was the national championship meet for those who are professional. It was also used as the selection meet for the US team to the World Indoor Championships in Moscow. I worked the high jump on Saturday. Both the events went well. The men didn't jump anything too high (7' 4.5"), but it was a good competition with a lot of strategy involved. The guy who won (Adam Shunk, whom I've known for several years now) played that game the best. The women's field was small (only six) and Chaunte Howard won with a personal best of 6' 4.75". On Sunday, I worked at the finish line - moving athletes on and off of the track.

I did realize how spoiled we are here at the UofA. The arena for this national championship meet (kind of the Super Bowl of track and field) was only about half full and the crowd was very subdued. Not at all like the crowds we will have here next week for the NCAA national championship - with over 5,000 noisy folks. It is a great environment.

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Two other items of note - kind of related to one another:

In the last few days, Don Knotts passed away. I'm a big fan of the Andy Griffith show - at least of its early episodes. Don Knotts - Barney Fife - was a major part of that. I never really watched him in much of anything else, but he made that show. In fact, once he left the show - and they moved to color - everything went downhill.

The other related item: Ron Howard ("Opie Cunningham") turned 52 yesterday. Now, who can tell me who called him "Opie Cunningham"?

Yesterday I drove up to Joplin for the Alumni Banquet at Ozark Christian College (my alma mater). Actually, I mostly went up to see people and I got to visit with Dave and Velva (my brother and his wife), Derek and Gabriel Lauer (one of my best friends from college - whom I haven't seen in over 8 years - and his son), and a lot of other old friends. It was a good trip and a very refreshing, but short, time.

The highlight of the banquet each year is the presentation of "Outstanding Alumni" awards. This year Stephen Prophete (a native Haitian missionary), Shan Rutherford (a preacher in the Indianapolis area), and Joe Garman (best known for prison ministry around the world) were honored. All three of these men have seen God do some amazing things through their lives. They are each worthy of our respect and honor.

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Early tomorrow morning I head for Boston. I'll be officiating the USA Indoor Track and Field Championships on the weekend (you can see it on ESPN on Sunday afternoon). I will also be spending a couple of days with Tim Hawkins and his crew who are starting a new campus ministry project in the Boston area - where there are almost 300,000 students on some of our nation's most influential campuses - Harvard, MIT, Boston College, Boston University, etc. I'm looking forward to the trip - except for the flying part.

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Here are a couple of recent items regarding life on the university campus ...

Losing Their Religion: According to a recent Gallup Poll, some 17% of 18-29 year olds claim no religious affiliation, considerably more than the 10% of 30-64 year olds and only 4% of those 65 and over. 13% of men and 8% of women claimed no religion. The UCLA study on freshmen shows that while 52% of incoming freshmen say they attended religious services frequently during their last year of high school, that number drops to just 29% by their junior year in college. (as reported in CPYU #84, December 15, 2005) (abcnews.com December 6, 2005).

Uproar at Dartmouth: According to Christianity Today, the Dartmouth vice president for student life resigned immediately following a welcome address to freshman this fall when the student body president, Noah Riner, made the following remarks to the incoming class: "Character has a lot to do with sacrifice, laying our personal interests down for something bigger. The best example of this is Jesus . . . He knew the right thing to do. He knew the cost would be agonizing torture and death. He did it anyway. That's character." The VP for student life called the religious reference "reprehensible and abuse of power." (Christianity Today December 2005 p. 21)

It's been almost six weeks since I have posted anything. Life just seems to be flying by and I haven't been able to find the time (or, sometimes, energy) to post. But that will change! Just some thoughts and things going on down here ...

Today everything is shut down in NW Arkansas with five inches of snow. This is a good weekend for it, because I really don't have anything scheduled for today. I can lounge around, work on tomorrow's sermon, watch a movie or something. No real need to leave the house. Gina and Erin are still in bed (and I would bet Stacy is, also), but I'm getting too old for that. There reaches a certain point where staying in bed is counter-productive for me. My back starts hurting and I feel worse if I stay in bed more than about 8-9 hours.

If you missed it, last Sunday was "Evolution Sunday" in many churches around the nation. I just can't get my mind around the idea of having a Sunday to honor Darwin and evolution. Here is a story from the NY Times about it.

Are you watching the Winter Olympics? I don't watch much of them. I just can't relate to most of the "sports" - especially anything that has to do with ice skating. I enjoy most of the skiing events, but that's about it. It's so bad that we have even watched Dancing with the Stars and American Idol rather than watch the Olympics! How sad is that???

This semester, my preaching has been covering both the big picture of the Bible and an up-close look at Colossians. On Sundays, I'm trying to give a bird's-eye view of what God is doing in history and an overview of the Bible. Kind of looking at the Bible (and history) as a play in six acts. (The Drama of Scripture by Craig G. Bartholomew and Michael W. Goheen and The Story We Find Ourselves In by Brian McLaren are helpful resources.) It has been interesting and challenging. We have covered the first two acts (creation and the entrance and spread of sin) and will start act three tomorrow (how God initiates his plan to restore his creation). Most of the sermons are available for download at the ConC website (www.christoncampus.org). However, we have had "technical difficulties" on the last three Sunday mornings! But those will be posted before too long.

We have one less dog at our house. Some of you know Zero, our long-haired miniature dachshund - eight pounds of attitude. 99% of the time, he is great. But once in a while, he gets aggressive with Gina and the girls (even biting and drawing blood). It was to the point where we didn't trust him, especially around children. A couple of weeks ago, another family took him home for the weekend to "try things out" but returned him after one night. But another family took him home on Tuesday and he seems to be doing well. Maybe the change of scenery will be good for him. We miss him because most of the time he was fun and loving. But we're going to have a two year old with us for a few days pretty soon and we feel better about that now.

Thank you, Amanda Jean, for getting me back on the blog ...

Catching up with some random thoughts along the way ... There have been several times since Christmas that I have thought that I needed to post on here, but I could never motivate myself to get it done. That's pretty typical at the end of a semester for me. Seems I need a little time to just chill and read and not "talk." But that's over now!

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I can't imagine the roller-coaster of emotions that people have gone through in Sago, WV have gone through in the past few days. The despair, the hope, the despair. They were victims of something that I think is far too common in today's world - people jumping to conclusions, taking small bits of information without knowing all the facts and running with it. Our desire to be the first to know, to have the "inside scoop." It happens nationally and internationally, but also in our homes, schools, churches. The worst part is that once something has been said and reported, you can never really retract it. On, you can say you did. But the damage has been done and the hurt can't be removed. How much better would it have been for them - even in a tragic situation - if people would have been "quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to become angry"?

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The past week or so has been the best "bowl season" that I can remember. There were a lot of incredibly close and exciting games: Alabama-Texas Tech, Georgia-West Virginia, Florida State-Penn State. And then last night's USC-Texas game just capped it off so well! Not that as a self-respecting Razorback fan I could ever cheer for Texas, but it was a fun game to watch. And after USC put 70 on us in September, I didn't mind seeing them get beat.

USC's next game will be against the Razorbacks here in Fayetteville. Revenge time?

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It has been a while since I have read through the Bible, so I'm doing that in 2006. I'm using Today's NIV for that. The translation has drawn both praise and criticism (and if you want me to get into that, I can in a later post), so I thought I would check it out first hand.

If you have never read all of the Bible, I would encourage you to make that one of your "resolutions" for 2006. Discipleship Journal has a couple of different plans for doing that. You can find and download them here. Even better, if you use Microsoft Outlook (as I do), you can download the daily readings directly into you daily task list! Then, when you open your calendar each day, the readings are right there!

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Today is the anniversary of the death of George Washington Carver. He died in Tuskegee, AL in 1943 at the age of 81. One little known (or forgotten fact) is that he lived at one time in Ft. Scott, KS. Now, what is he most famous for studying and where can you find his "museum"?

Maybe I wasn't paying attention the last time Christmas fell on a Sunday (1994), but I don't remember the how churches handled it back then. This year, I know of congregations locally that are handling Christmas in a lot of different ways:

1) Some are having regular services as usual.

2) Some are reducing the number of services they have on Sunday, say from two services down to one.

3) Some churches are having Christmas Eve and Sunday morning services that will be identical. Others are having Christmas Eve and Sunday morning services that will be different.

4) More churches than I would have guessed are dismissing Sunday morning services all together. Some are small churches, but others are some of the largest congregations in America: Willow Creek Community Church, Southland Christian Church, Mars Hill, and Fellowship Bible Church of Little Rock among them. Many, I'm sure, will have a Christmas Eve service of some kind.

5) At least one church I know is dismissing their Sunday service but sending a DVD with a pre-recorded service on it for their families to use at home that morning. It includes time to take communion and instructions on how to go online to make a financial contribution to several different ministries.

6) And Fellowship Bible Church of NW Arkansas (one of the largest in our area with a weekend attendance of about 7,000) is actually adding two services. They will have three Saturday night services (rather than two) and four Sunday morning services (rather than three).

Any thoughts on these options?

I'm kind of glad I'm not having to make that call. In campus ministry, our last service was on Dec. 11 and our next one will be on Jan. 15!

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From David P. Gushee's article, Our Missing Moral Compass, in the November issue of Christianity Today:

"If one labors in the vineyards of most sectors of American evangelical life, it does not take long before one notices that staggering moral sloppiness that frequently characterizes us. It's not just that Christians are sinners, too, and that we mess up like everyone else does. Of course that is true.

The problem goes deeper, to the way in which we have understood the very structure and meaning of the Christian experience. For many of us, Christianity is primarily a faith, that is, a body of beliefs to which we assent. Or it is primarily an experience, that is, a repertoire of inspiring, encouraging, or even ecstatic states entered into through worship and prayer. Or it is an event, that is, a one-time moment of conversion in which we 'walk the aisle,' profess our faith publicly, and join the church, guaranteeing ourselves a heavenly mansion when we die.

But it seems important to see Christianity in all its dimensions.... We are indeed morally sloppy, and I think it is because we have embraced truncated versions of the Christian faith that have trained us to be this way.... Christianity is more than an event, an experience, or a set of beliefs. It is a way of life characterized by moral seriousness and the quest for holiness."

Catching up with a few random thoughts along the way ...

I've never understood people who aren't excited about getting the mail every day. There are those strange individuals who can go days at a time and not check their mail. At our house, Gina and I fight over who gets to see the mail first! If I'm out of town, one of the things I always ask when I call home is, "Was there anything exciting in the mail?" This excitement doubles during this time of year as Christmas cards arrive from around the country. We love to read the Christmas letters and see what is happening in the lives of friends we haven't seen in years. We love to see the pictures of families and kids and feel old as former students build their own homes and raise their own families. I promise you - we "ooo" and "ahh" over every picture.

Of course, we have been doing this so long that some of these families are getting pretty grown up. Some of those involved with ConC years ago now have kids in college. Del and Rebecca have a son at the UofA and a daughter playing basketball at Harber High here in Springdale. Chip and Suzanne have a son at the Air Force Academy. This fall I watched Jim and Jo's son play high school football on the same team as Roger's two sons. Jan and PD's son is a basketball player at Harber and Phil and Leslie's daughter is a multi-sport star in Siloam Springs. We have got to watch Dwayne and Michelle's girls dance at a football game and compete in gymnastics. Even though some of these were in ConC 20 years ago or more, we still feel like we are a part of their lives.

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Venus Flytrap turned 61 yesterday. That's hard for me to believe. Now - how many of you can tell me who Venus Flytrap is???

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I have friends who have strong feelings about "postmodernism". Some feel that it is all hype and all the talk about it is wasted energy. Others feel that it is a very accurate description of the direction our world is heading. But I do know that the US is more and more a "post-Christian" society - a society that, for the most part, has heard the Gospel and largely rejected it.

In the November issue of Christianity Today, Philip Yancey has one of his typically thought-provoking pieces about this post-Christian world in which we live. In it, he writes this:

"Reflecting on our conversation, I remembered a remark by (C.S.) Lewis, who drew a distinction between communicating with a society that hears the gospel for the first time and one that has embraced it and then largely rejected it. A person must court a virgin differently than a divorc'ee, said Lewis. One welcomes the charming words; the other needs a demonstration of love to overcome inbuilt skepticism."

That resonates with how I see our world and, particularly, how I see the university campus. Most students I meet are not strangers to the gospel. They have heard it. They know who Jesus is. Most have spent a good portion of their lives going to church. But they have found Christianity lacking. Whether it be the hypocrisy of Christians or other issues, they have made a choice not to take it seriously.

What a world like this needs to see is authentic Christianity being lived out - the kind of Christianity that Jesus describes in the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats. Not just smooth words or slick presentations, but a demonstration of service, sacrifice, incarnational living, and practical love.

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Along that line, I would encourage you to read an op/ed piece written by Nicholas Kristof in the Dec. 11 issue of the NY Times. It will challenge a lot of what is going on among Christians at this time of year. Some of you probably won't like it at all. Some will love it. But if you can avoid reading politics into it, it is very challenging. Unfortunately, you may have to pay to get to it. If so, let me know and I'll fill you in.

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One thing I remember about the home that I grew up in was that we always received several newspapers. My dad loved them. We took the Ft. Scott Tribune, the Pittsburg Morning-Sun, two Kansas City papers (a morning paper and an evening paper), and the weekly Marmaton Valley paper. In fact, one of my earliest jobs was writing sports for the Ft. Scott Tribune and the Marmaton Valley paper. But that love of newspapers rubbed off on me. We get two papers at the house every day and, at one time, I took the NY Times here at home. But with the internet, I daily read portions of the KC Star, the Washington Post, the Dallas Morning News, USA Today, and the NY Times. Most are free, but I do "subscribe" to the NY Times to get more access to their paper.

It's Dead Day at the UofA. Classes ended for the semester yesterday. Final exams begin tomorrow.

Last night was our annual Candlelight Christmas service. Jake typically puts it together for us and he always does a great job. Last night was no exception: He and Trevor played guitars "unplugged", five students shared from the Christmas story, communion. Afterwards, at least 20 of us made our annual walk up to the square to see the Christmas lights. It was a very special time - a good way to end the semester. Of course, there was the year that our worship minister decided that we needed to do a "stomp" Christmas service, using trash cans, lids, etc. as musical (?) instruments ...

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Dead Day also has its traditions. This morning we delivered Christmas presents to a day care that works with at-risk children from dysfunctional homes. We had 30-40 students combine to buy about $1000 worth of gifts for the 22 kids there. Over the past few years, we have also asked the fraternity next door to us to purchase gifts for the siblings of these kids. So they spend another $2000 for the 50 or so siblings.

This evening was our annual Guys' Dead Day at Monte Ne. Guys from ConC go to the Monte Ne Inn for an all-you-can-eat chicken dinner. Of course, there are the requisite "records" that go with this event. To set a Monte Ne record, one has to first eat a complete meal. The you can go for a record. Some records include:

Thomas Dougan - 14 pieces of chicken
Carl Wiltse - 1 shaker of salt and 1 shaker of pepper
Don Helt - 1 fly, 1 vomit
Lance Hall - 5 1/2 loaves of bread, 86 crackers

Tonight, Lance set his third Monte Ne record with a huge, heaping serving bowl of mashed potatoes.

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Last weekend was the end of the high school football season. I got to spend most of Friday and Saturday in Little Rock with the Springdale team. On Friday, we took some of the seniors to play with kids at the Arkansas Children's Hospital. On Saturday night, they defeated West Memphis 54-20 to win the state title and finish the season 14-0. In between, there was a lot of good time with the team and the coaches - eating meals, watching football, and talking.

Currently, SHS is ranked #2 in the country in the poll Sports Illustrated posts and #5 in USA Today's poll. The teams ahead of them in both poll all have at least one more game to play, so it is possible for SHS to get to #1 in the SI poll and anywhere from #2-4 in USA Today.

And it keeps getting better: the SHS quarterback, Mitch Mustain, was named as the Gatorade National High School Player of the year. Mitch is a great QB, but I'm not even sure he was the best player on the team.

Finally, I came back from the game in LR with a black eye. One of the players has been harassing me about my age all season. So I told him that I didn't want to hurt him during the season, but that after the championship game, he and I would wrestle on the 50 yard line of War Memorial stadium. So we did. I pinned him in about 3 seconds, but his shoulder pads scraped my eye as I threw him to the ground.

Saturday night and I'm resting up from the Thanksgiving holiday - scared to get close to a scale! We went to Ft. Scott for the holiday and had a great time there. We were at my Mom's on Thursday with my brother and his family and my grandmother. On Friday, we were at Gina's folks with her sisters and their families. We are blessed to have families that we enjoy being around (I know those who don't) and to have them close enough that we can get home for holidays (or other needs) without too much hassle. Other things that I'm thankful for ...

* A wonderful wife who makes me a better man

* Two great daughters who are smart, hard-working young women of great character and Christian commitment

* That leaves only fall one time a year (after spending today raking them up)

* A staff that I enjoy working with

* People who believe in ConC and what we do and sacrificially give and pray to make it possible

* The end of the semester is only eight class days away!

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I'm watching a really good movie as I write this. It's called Lightening in a Bottle and it is basically a concert celebrating 100 years of the Blues. It features all the blues artists you may know (BB King, Buddy Guy, Mavis Staples) and many that you probably don't - as well as artists like John Fogarty, Bonnie Raitt, and Steven Tyler. It also talks a little about the history of the blues. The music and musicianship is incredible. If you are a music fan - whether or not you are a blues fan - you really should watch this movie!

Last week Jake, Kristin, Jen, and I went to Dallas for the Ivy Jungle Conference - a conference geared for those doing campus ministry. This was the tenth one and I have attended nine of them. They tend to be up and down quality-wise, and this year's was on the lower end. None of the plenary speakers were outstanding (not even Tony Evans, who seemed almost distracted as he spoke - which, with fire alarms going off was very possible). The workshops I attended were OK, but didn't really break any new ground.

But we had a good time together. We did come back to Arkansas with new nicknames. We ate at a restaurant that featured coasters with lists on them. One coaster had lists of "popular" male and female nicknames (I'm not sure with whom they were popular), so I had everyone choose a nickname for themselves (or we would choose one for them)! Jen chose "Duchess", Kristin chose "Lexi", Jake chose "T-Bone" (though we thought he would be a better "Scooter"), and I chose "Dozer." That will go along with my other nicknames - "Big Dawg" and "Chief". In fact, I have made it an office policy this year that everyone on staff has to call me "Chief." Jake stubbornly refuses to do so!

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Today I went to Little Rock. While there, I had lunch with David McFatrich - a ConC student from years gone by. We had a great visit and he shared with me what God has been placing on his heart. After lunch, we ran by his house so I could see Sonya and their kids - especially the newest, Sammy, whom they brought home from China last month. I performed Dave and Sonya's wedding twelve years ago (the only wedding I have ever done in a mall). It is always such an encouragement to see what God continues to do in the lives of the students that have gone through ConC in the years gone by - to see their walk with the Lord, their families, their ministries.

Tonight was our 24th annual ConC Thanksgiving Banquet. Our first was in 1982 and consisted of a handful of students in the living room of our 900 square foot apartment. Tonight was basically a two hour feeding frenzy with well over 200 students taking part. We no longer try to do a program of any kind. Someone will say an opening prayer and then we have at it. Mostly, it is a great time for our kids and a great open door for new people. Students bring friends from their dorms, from their teams, from other countries for a good, home-cooked Thanksgiving dinner without a lot of "religious" stuff thrown at them. But relationships are begun and people get in the building and get to know who we are - that we aren't scary religious fanatics. Over the years, the Thanksgiving Banquet has been the first step for many, many students who became leaders in our ministry or later gave their lives to Christ. It is a lot of work and we will spend most of the day tomorrow cleaning, but it is also a highlight of the year.

Of course, none of it would be possible without the wonderful and generous and tireless work of the people of Oak Manor Christian Church here in Fayetteville. For the past 24 years, they have supplied and prepared all of the food for our banquet - the turkey and ham and potatoes and gravy and stuffing and corn and green beans and homemade bread and cakes and pies and more. It is quite an undertaking for a congregation of fifty people! But they love ConC and they love our students and they pull out the stops every year for us. Karen Hendrix organized it all, but everyone in the church pitches in to make it work. And thanks, too, to Andrew Lekwa and the folks at Butterball for donating enough turkey breasts to feed 250!

Catching up on some disconnected thoughts along the way...

One of the books I am currently reading is Reflecting The Glory by N.T. Wright. Wright is a very insightful theologian from Great Britain. In a recent chapter, he discussed the worship seen in chapters four and five of Revelation:

"The truth of this vision is that what goes on in the heavenly realm is the counterpart of the worship going on in the earthly realm.... Heaven and earth are not separate in the sense of heaven being solely in the future and earth in the present, or heaven being ten miles up in the air and earth being down here where we live. Heaven and earth are the two dimensions of God's whole reality.... These living creatures represent the world of creation as a whole, and that world of creation is also worshipping God. We are invited, then, to see in this glorious picture not just some human beings choosing to worship God, but the whole creation - the animals, the trees, the rivers, the sea, the sky - also worshipping by being truly themselves. When the penguins are sliding over the ice, when the trees are putting forth their green shoots in the spring, when clouds pass across the sky, they are being themselves to the glory of God.... The church, the people of God, understands that God is the creator, understands that as such he is a glorious God, full of extraordinary ideas and inventive imagination. We just have to think for two minutes about the world of creation and imagine the same God creating a giraffe and creating a strawberry, the same God creating a waterfall and creating the look of delight on a new-born baby's face. God is full of extraordinary riches, and while the rest of creation worships God by simply being as it is, human beings are designed to draw out the praises of creation and, by understanding, to express that praise to God, giving God intelligent worship."

There are a lot of wonderful insights in that passage, but what struck me is that worship of God is going on continually at many different levels. It is continually taking place before His throne in heaven. It is continually going on as creation is "truly being itself." It is going on world-wide by those of us who know what it means to be redeemed and forgiven and freed. And when we, who are able to give God both intelligent and emotional worship - "in spirit and in truth" - enter into worship, we are jumping in to what is continually going on. The worship of God doesn't start at 11:00 on Sunday morning or 7:30 on Tuesday night. And worship doesn't end when our service is over. Worship is going on continually and we can be a part of what creation and the angels - and other believers - are doing at any time and in any place.

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Time for a monthly football update:

The Razorbacks finally won a game this weekend, beating Ole Miss in Oxford, 28-17. So we are not 3-5 over all and 1-5 in conference play. KT told me the other day that we lead the nation in true freshmen who have played this season, while there are only 4 or 5 seniors who see significant action. We have freshmen starting at QB and RB and on the defensive line and at linebacker. There is improvement happening. The main frustration on this fan's part is that the team was allowed to get to a point where it was necessary to play so many freshmen. It seems to me that a college team should always be junior and senior dominated. But maybe I'm unrealistic.

The Big Dawgs (my fantasy team) will be leading the league in scoring after this weekend. But we will still be only fourth in the league. I have too many under-achievers as running backs. I need to find some way to motivate them! Maybe we'll peak for the playoffs.

Finally, the SHS Bulldogs are 11-0 after winning their first playoff game 44-8. The have imposed the "mercy rule" (leading by at least 35 points) on every team they have played this season, including the number one teams from Louisiana and Oklahoma. In most cases they have reached that point before halftime. They are currently ranked number one in Arkansas and anywhere from number three to number nine in the country.

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Last Saturday I traveled down to Conway, AR to be meet referee for an NCAA Div. III regional cross country meet. Refereeing a cross country meet is usually pretty uneventful, and this meet was no exception. The interesting part was doing a Div. III meet when I usually do Div. I meets. Div. I is the "big schools" - Arkansas, Texas, Kansas, Tennessee, etc. Div. III are those schools who don't offer athletic scholarships. Of the 30 teams at the meet, I had actually heard of about 10 of them! We had teams such as Mary Baldwin U. and Mary Washington U. and Eastern Mennonite U. and Christopher Newport College.

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Today is my 47th birthday. It has been a nice, uneventful day. Gina and I and the girls went out to dinner last night. One of the things I have noticed today is the variety of ways that people have to wish you "Happy Birthday" anymore. I have received emails and e-cards and voicemails and verbal greetings and old-fashioned birthday cards. I have also had birthday greetings posted to my Facebook wall! That's a new one for me. If you're not familiar with Facebook, it is the most popular craze on college (and now high school) campuses right now. It is basically a social network that only those with a college email address can access. Ask your college-aged friends about it sometime.

I heard this report as I was scanning radio stations on my way home last night. Since I often "claim this rule" I thought I would share it with you. So this is courtesy of the John Tesh Show!

Do you use the "5-second rule"?
You know, if food falls on the floor and you pick it up within 5 seconds, it's safe to eat. Well, it really depends on the floor.

Here's what researchers at the University of Illinois found out:

The first person to implement the rule was Genghis Khan. But his standards were really low - as far as he was concerned, anything was safe to eat if you picked it up within 12 hours.

They also discovered that women are more likely than men to eat food that falls on the floor.

And cookies and candy are more likely to be picked up and eaten than a piece of broccoli.

So, they tested the "5-second rule" on various university floors. In elevators, libraries, cafeterias, and in front of the vending machines. And the floors were so bacteria-free, they tested them twice. They weren't sure whether the cleanliness was due to dry conditions, or an awesome custodial staff. But food dropped on those floors was safe to eat after 5 seconds. Then they tried the test again.... This time in a lab. They contaminated the floor with bacteria, and dropped cookies and gummy bears on it. In every case, bacteria was transferred to the food within 5 seconds or less.

So, what's the bottom line? Since you can't tell if your floor is bacteria-free, the basic rule of thumb is: If you drop it, toss it.

Credit goes to Mike Cope for pointing me towards this article by Tom Smith in Relevant magazine. Mike is a minister in Abilene, TX whose blog I read on a regular basis. Though I have met his brother and niece, I have never met Mike. But his blog is often insightful and thought-provoking.

Tom Smith's article starts like this:

I love experiments. A few years ago I wore my Jabez T-shirt in Colorado Springs. It said, "I prayed the prayer of Jabez for thirty days and the only thing I got was this lousy shirt." The reactions I got were truly amazing. Some people were furious while others thanked me.

A few weeks ago I embarked on another one of my ventures. The laboratory I chose was the local Christian bookstores in Johannesburg, South Africa. The experiment was really simple; I would browse the store in search of books on helping the poor and fighting AIDS. After I saw a million, "Here's how to use Jesus to make you more successful" titles, I would then ask the sales clerk or manager if they stock books about helping the hurting and helpless.

The first store's clerk looked confused when I asked the question, and the manager intervened and said, "If you find a book on the subject you should immediately buy it."

Two days later I took my science to a bookstore in another mall. I walked in with one of my seventeen year old friends, who happened to be someone who was on the receiving end of apartheid. I asked the clerk if they had books on poverty or AIDS. Nothing could have prepared me for the answer she gave me.

"No sir, this is a religious bookstore. I think you should try the secular bookstore around the corner." In utter shock I asked her if she didn't think that helping the poor or sick had anything to do with religion. I only got a blank stare. Now it's easy to harp on this poor girl but to tell you the truth, if you asked my the same question a few years ago, I probably would have had the same confused look, and I'm a pastor! I often wonder why I never made the link between my relationship with Christ and my responsibility towards the people who suffer and are poor.

To read the rest of the article, go here.