All His Ways Are Justice

"The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice.
A God of faithfulness and without iniquity,
Just and upright is he. "
Deut. 34:2

Note to Self... Rock Your Face Off

This book keeps rocking my face off...

"Dear Self, 

You are familiar with these verses, and you tend to focus on the command to “make disciples,” which is only appropriate. But consider for a moment this assumed idea of “going.” Disciples are made as you are going. If you want to be useful to God, you will need to be the person who moves first. You have to take the initiative to move toward the people God has put into your life and the people God has sent you to. Most will not come to your church’s worship gathering, most will not seek out your advice, and most will not strike up a conversation with you. You will have to go to them. Your reasons for not initiating are legion. You do not want to be that intrusive person who invites himself into someone else’s life. You do not want to be rejected. You want things to happen naturally, and “initiating” sounds like a sales pitch. Yet, the assumption is that as a disciple you are already going—taking the first steps to reach out to those around you. What you are neglecting is the normative behavior of disciples. God has placed you in a unique context and equipped you in a unique way to be the one who reaches out to those in need—this means those who need encouragement as well as those who need correction. And this includes those who do not know Jesus, as well as his disciples, those who are apparently healthy, and those who are obviously hurting. You will have more opportunities to initiate than you can take, but you are likely to take fewer than you should. Look around yourself. God is giving you chances to act... "

Need to remember this every time I'm at the local high school lunches.

Guest Post: A God Who Provides by Ben Murray

Ben's in the red.

I met Ben a few years ago as a high school student. Since then it's been a blessing to see him grow into a passionate follower of Jesus, a deep thinking, an articulate writer, and a great middle school small group leader. After youth group one night Ben and I had a conversation about how God provides in life. I asked him to put in writing some of his thoughts. I hope you enjoy it.

~Dave                    

"I have been particularly challenged the past couple of weeks about my belief in God's character. I say that I believe that God provides for His children because He says that He does (Matthew 6). However, when I look at my life I see that my beliefs don't quite match up with my actions concerning God's provision. I have the intellectual knowledge of who God is but I don't seem to be living according to that knowledge. It seems as if all of my knowledge of God's character begins and ends within the confines of the Bible. This knowledge rarely escapes from within the pages of the Bible into everyday life. I would equate this to reading a book about how to build a house. You can read about building a house all you want but until you go outside and apply that knowledge, you haven't built a house. It works the same way with our faith. Until we get off our butts and live what we say we believe, we do not really believe. Belief in anything leads to action. If I believe that there are sharks in the community pool I am most likely not going to swim in that particular pool. If I say that I believe that God provides for His children, then I should live in such a manner.

  The problem is that is that I have grown up in a wealthy family and I can't remember ever lacking anything that I have ever needed. I don't mean that in lightly. I have spent a good bit of time trying to recall any situation in which my parents have not provided me for. Since I never lacked anything, I never really had to trust God to provide for me. This has left me with an anemic view of God's character. Thankfully we have such a great Father who longs for us to see Him as He really is. He reshapes the paradigms of His children until they reflect His true character. It seems as if I am in the midst of such a paradigm transformation.

However, I am still left with a somewhat substantial question. How can God's provision be experienced in the presence of abundant wealth? How can we trust God when we have fashioned our lives so that trust falls no farther than our own shoulders? I am reminded of the situation when Jesus claims that it is harder for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. This passage always has instilled a subtle conviction in my heart. It does this because I know that I am rich and this passage is directed at me. While salvation is definitely obtained by the rich (myself being an example), I wonder if Jesus was referring to some other side of the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven exists both in the present (earth) and in the future (heaven). Perhaps Jesus is saying that wealth prevents many from obtaining salvation but it also prevents many from experiencing the kingdom of heaven in the present. Since I, and most likely everyone else reading this post are wealthy, how do we avoid missing out on the fullness of the kingdom of heaven?

I think the answer is fairly obvious. We must position ourselves so that we rely only upon God and not ourselves or our money. This causes most people to squirm a little. I know that I don't really like the idea of giving up the comforts of wealth but perhaps we are not experiencing the fullness of the kingdom of heaven because we are not willing to live lifestyles open to such a phenomenon. People wonder why it seems like only missionaries get to experience the true character of God. I wonder if their experience of God is related to their lack of wealth. They don't have the luxury of trusting in money because they don't have much. Therefore, they rely on God to provide for them. What happens when people in my position do the same? What happens when we decide to give up our “right” views of God and decide to experience Him first hand? What happens when the Bible is used beyond the confines of the classroom and begins to be lived out in every day life? I'm pretty sure that when these things are done, there is a whole lot more of God in our lives and a whole lot less of us."

Be sure to check out Ben's blog over at "The War Room"

New Wine Youth 2011 Conference with Simon Guillebaud

New Wine Youth 2011

New Wine is a great 4 day conference held here at St. Andrews Mount Pleasant June 23rd-26th and this year we are pushing the limits of our youth venue with...

• Simon Guillebaud will be our main speaker. Here's a short video he did while living in Burundi...

• This year New Wine Youth will also be rock'n the stage with our own worship band "The Ferrets"  so expect some energy.

            

Cost for New Wine is $25.00 a student for all 4 days. You can sign up by clicking here.

Jesus Wins Again "Doctor can't explain..."

 This appeared as the cover story of the Charleston Post and Courier...

"Their pastor, the Rev. Craige Borrett, described Winder's healing as an exceptional demonstration of the current working of the Holy Spirit.
"I wasn't surprised at all," Borrett said. "God is using it powerfully as a testimony.""

 You can read the rest of the story at the P&C's website.

Facebook and Studying

Came arcross this interesting piece from onlineeducation.net


Via: OnlineEducation.net

Resolve for Monday

 Every Monday I'm going to post one of Jonathan Edwards resolutions. He penned these while still a very young man and used them to guide his life. What am I using to guide me, my family, my ministry??

49. Resolved, That this never shall be, if I can help it. 

• I love this one. It's short, sweet, and concise. What "never shall be" if you could help? Hunger, loneliness, despair in the eyes of our friends? 
• Here's how Jesus handled it...¹⁴When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.  From Matthew 14

Passing the Peace

I've been meaning to write about this for a few months now. However over lent it weighed so heavily on my heart that I knew I still had much to process before I spoke in a public forum about it. (Again my rule... Blog for processed stuff, journal for stuff I'm working through) So here goes...

Several months ago my family and I were attending our normal Sunday service, on a normal Sunday. Nothing special nothing different. In our Anglican denomination there is an order to our worship. We start by singing praises to our creator then as we are reminded of who God is in worship we are aware that we are of a fallen nature. This leads us to a time of confession corporately. This is followed by hearing God's word proclaimed, an exposition of that word, and then we pass the peace before celebrating communion.

Week after week this is the rhythm. As I stood after the sermon that Sunday to shake the hands of fellow worshipers around me and exchange the customary "Peace of the Lord." I noticed Jason.

I first saw Jason floating about 40 yards off the beach at Isle of Palms SC. On his surf board he was sitting next to another guy as the sun creeped up over the horizon. Jason had one hand on the man's shoulder and another stretched to heaven as he prayed.

That morning during the peace Jason stretched out his hand looked me in the eyes and asked God's peace to be with me. As he pulled his hand away I noticed something remained in mine. At first I thought it was a piece of string. As I turned my palm up I noticed it was humble cross with a piece of twine wrapped around it. I looked for a long time at the gift that had been placed in my hands.

The spirit made it evident that this was more then just wood, more then just fiber. It was more then a symbol of persecution or the sign at the front of churches. It was as if this peace cross given me at a specific time as the body gathered for worship reminded me that it was through the bloody shame of the cross that "He who knew no sin became sin so that I might know the righteousness of God." (2 Cor. 5:21) It was the cross that made peace, real peace, possible with God.

Xie Xiaoyu: "But I want to know why Jesus died."

This is from a recent USA Today article. The last paragraph is what really made me happy...

Chinese Christians face tense Easter in Beijing

By Calum MacLeod, USA TODAY

BEIJING — Choir members gathered to rehearse for the Easter service at the Fengtai Christian church in south Beijing on Thursday, while other visitors brought colored eggs decorated with crosses and the Chinese characters for Jesus. “We will have over 2,000 worshipers on Sunday, come and join us,” church worker Duan Xiuping said, smiling.

 On the other side of China’s capital, in the northwest’s university district, Pastor Jin Tianming can’t even leave his home, let alone prepare for Easter. “There have been four policemen outside my door for the past 12 days,” he said by telephone Thursday...

...The People’s Republic, still run by its founding Communist Party, has transformed in recent years into one of the world’s largest Christian countries, with estimates running from 45 million to more than 100 million believers, of which perhaps two-thirds gather in house churches.

...

Housekeeper Xie Xiaoyu, 21, has attended a house church for the past two years.

“In big churches, pastors have little time to explain the Bible, and just say things like ‘be good to others.’ But I want to know why Jesus died,” she said, “and here, there is more time for understanding.”

Read the rest here.

Found In the Aftermath of Good Friday

Aftermath From Hillsong United

"The skies lay low where You are
On the earth You rest Your feet
Yet the hands that cradle the stars
Are the hands that bled for me

In a moment of glorious surrender
You were broken for all the world to see
Lifted out of the ashes
I am found in the aftermath

Freedom found in Your scars
In Your grace my life redeemed
For You chose to take the sinner's crown
As You placed Your crown on me

In that moment of glorious surrender
Was the moment You broke the chains in me
Lifted out of the ashes
I am found in the aftermath

And in that moment You opened up the heavens
To the broken the beggar and the thief
Lifted out of the wreckage
I find hope in the aftermath

And I know that You're with me
Yes I know that You're with me here
And I know Your love will light the way

Now all I have I count it all as loss
But to know You and to carry the cross
Knowing I'm found
In the light of the aftermath"

Where's My D.A.W.G.'s At?

I've been blessed with a lot of great mentors in ministry. One of them Andy Bishop who serves faithfully at East Main Presb. Church in Grove City Pa. taught me the importance of guarding your day off. Being able to rest and reconnect is the best defense against burnout as well as keeps you fueled up and on the right course. (Mark 1:35)

One of the things I've talked to my team about is getting a D.A.W.G. (Day Alone With God). I've given them the opportunity to take one day a month and instead of being in the office or off with students they spend that time which they normally would be "doing active ministry" and get away from people and distractions to reflect, pray, plan, and prepare. Now because we believe in accountability the team emails each other a brief description of their DAWG, How it was spent, and any thing that came out of it. Sometimes the stuff that surfaces when we slow down is intensely personal which is fine and honestly what the DAWG is designed for. 

Yesterday I took my DAWG. It was much needed as we are coming out of a rather busy season and heading towards the end of the semester. Here's a little glimps as to what my DAWG looked like...

• Started off with a weekly accountability and prayer phone call with a long time friend and brother in Christ. 
• Met with the staff to pray for our church and city.
• Headed to Isle of Palms to spend the morning sitting on the beach praying through the needs of the ministry, our leaders, and my family.

• Had an incredible time of prayer.  As I arrived a think fog bank had covered the beach. Visibility was probably 30-40 feet at best. We've lived on the coast since `03 and I haven't seen anything like it. I spent a long time praying and reciting scripture I had committed to memory. When I opened my eyes all the fog had burned off and you could see for miles out over the ocean. It was a neat experience and I do believe it holds something for this season of ministry.
•  After I caught lunch at a local Japanese restaurant. I took the time to read up on some leadership.
• Finally I spent the rest of the afternoon at a coffee shop reading, listening to some youth ministry audio training. While there I outlined several roles and a host of goals for over the next two months. Also I started reading Jesus Centered Youth Ministry which looks like a good read.

Kick Ball Tournament Highlights...

A few weeks ago we held the first ever Impact Kick Ball Classic. I'm already getting excited for next year.

Resource for Families: How Well Do You Know Your Teen?

This is from the blog Currystew

Answer the following questions...

1. What your teen is putting most of his/her energy into right now?

2. What personal issues your teen is trying to resolve?

3. What daily hassles irritate your teen?

4. Who has the most daily influence on your teen’s thoughts and behaviors?

5. The names of your teen’s three closest friends?

6. Who your teen would confide in first if there were a serious problem?

7. What your teen considers to be his/her greatest strengths?

8. What your teen considers to be his/her greatest weakness?

9. Who your teen considers to be his/her biggest enemies?

10. Your teen’s favorite time of day?

11. Your teen’s favorite movies?

12. Your teen’s favorite childhood stories?

13. Your teen’s favorite hobby or pastime?

14. Your teen’s favorite colors?

15. Your teen’s favorite foods or meals?

16. Your teen’s heroes?

17. Your teen’s favorite song, band or singer?

18. Your teen’s favorite books?

19. Your teen’s favorite television shows?

20. Your teen’s attitude about his/her body?

If you could answer “yes” to every question, you apparently have invested considerable time in getting to know your teen. If you could not answer “yes” to every question, there’s a gap between you and your teen.

The more questions that stumped you, the bigger the gap. To mend your relationship and to vastly improve the quality of your lives, you will need to bridge the gap.

From Closing the Gap: A Strategy for Bringing Parents and Teens Together

by Jay McGraw

John Patton

"John Paton (1824–1907) is relatively unknown among Christians today. He served for ten years as the pastor of a growing Scottish church, but God began to burden his heart for the New Hebrides, a group of Pacific islands filled with cannibalistic peoples and no knowledge of the gospel. He set his heart on one island in particular. Twenty years earlier two missionaries had gone to that island. They were killed and cannibalized. So it was no surprise that many dissuaded Paton from even the thought of following in these missionaries’ footsteps. Paton wrote, “Amongst many who sought to deter me, was one dear old Christian gentleman, whose crowning argument always was, ‘The Cannibals! you will be eaten by Cannibals!’” John Paton replied to this man, “Mr. Dickson, you are advanced in years now, and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms; I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving and honouring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by Cannibals or by worms; and in the Great Day my resurrection body will arise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer.” The old man left the room, exclaiming, “After that I have nothing more to say!”19 At the age of thirty-three, John Paton traveled to the New Hebrides with his wife. The journey was not easy. His wife and newborn child died within months after arriving, and he found himself alone, digging their graves with his bare hands. He faced threat after threat upon his life. But in the years to come, countless cannibals across the New Hebrides came to know the peace of Christ, and the church across Australia, Scotland, and the Western world was challenged to rise up and make the gospel known among the peoples who are toughest to reach."

From Radical by Platt

Resolve for Monday

I took a bit of an hiatus while life in the student ministry when a little crazy but I'm hoping to get back on with these every Monday.

Every Monday I'm going to post one of Jonathan Edwards resolutions. He penned these while still a very young man and used them to guide his life. What am I using to guide me, my family, my ministry??

48. Resolved, Constantly, with the utmost niceness and diligence, and the strictest scrutiny, to be looking into the state of my soul, that I may know whether I have truly an interest in Christ or not; that when I come to die, I may not have any negligence respecting this to repent of. May 26, 1723. 

• How's the state of your soul these days? I witness all kinds of people concerned with all kinds of states these days. The state of their physical appearance, the economy, the state of their health, their emotional well being, their marriage, even the state of the union. Who talks about their soul these days? You should. 
• What does it mean to have a true interest in Christ?
• Some might fault young Edwards of navel gazing here however I don't think the ends are his own. His desire is to not have anything to "repent of." at the end. It's God's glory he's concerned. 
• As this week begins do you have anything you need to repent of?

Note to Self...

From Note to Self: The Discipline of Preaching to Yourself
by Joe Thorn

"Neither the law nor the gospel can stand on its own in our preaching. The law is given to show us God’s way and our brokenness, so that we will see our need for redemption. In the gospel we find our redemption, but we are then eager to look afresh at the law. Now we see it as a delight to carry out, because even though we cannot keep the law perfectly, Jesus has kept it perfectly for us. Our imperfect obedience brings pleasure to God because of Christ’s substitution."

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

A Little Shout Out

Here's a little shout out to my brother. This May he completes his graduate work at Indiana Univ. of Penn. He has received the Outstanding Graduate Student Research Award.

Jonathan Libbon

Department of Anthropology — Advisor: Dr. Ben Ford
“We Had Everything but Money: A Study of Buying Strategies at a Civilian Conservation Corps Camp in the Allegheny National Forest”
Jonathan Libbon contributed a new approach to the study of archaeological consumer choice and new data to the study of American history by focusing on the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a group for which the federal government provided the basic needs in addition to a fixed income that could be spent on non-essential items. He excavated and analyzed an archaeological collection, compared his findings to historical documents, and examined previously excavated data. Libbon’s findings include a strong relation between the rural or urban origin of CCC employees and their adaptability to economic stress during the Great Depression.

Way to go bro. 

My Favorite Conversation of the Week

Student walks into our morning small group and puts her head down…..

Dave:  You ok?

Student: yea just tired.


Dave: Ok

Student: While I was up last night studying do you know what I realized?


Dave: No…

Student: You know when you throw up there’s a puddle of vomit?

Dave: Yes…

Student: That comes from your stomach.


Dave: Yes it does…


Student: So right now there is vomit in your stomach… ewwwww do you know how gross that is?

*Classic youth ministry

When You Fail: Call It Then, Call Your Shot

In ministry I'm learning that failure happens. We're prideful sinful humans serving a perfect God in a fallen world with a very real enemy. With that combo sometimes we blow it. Botched opportunities, missed conversations, and the idols we continue to set up continue to let us down. We trust that God is sovereign and can take even our worst failures and make them glorious in his kingdom. He's been doing it for years.

• Peter denies Christ 
• Israel demands an earthly king
• Christ is murdered

And yet somehow God works it out for his perfect plan.

• Peter is forgiven and leads the church. 
• Out of Israels kings comes a king whose reign will never end. 
• Christ is murdered and the world is reconciled to it's creator. (2 Cor 5:21) 

Teacher and pastor John Piper did an excellent series on spectacular sins.   I found it very challenging.
So what do we do when we recognized we have blown it? 

I think there's somethings we can learn from Wal-Mart.

"Wal-Mart Stores is launching a national TV ad campaign Monday highlighting its renewed focus on low prices and its price match policy in a bid to bring back customers who no longer trust it has the lowest prices.

The campaign bears the slogan “Low Prices. Every Day. On Everything.”“We have lost our customer confidence … in having the lowest price,” said Duncan MacNaughton, chief merchandising officer at Wal-Mart...Last year, Wal-Mart had strayed from its “everyday low prices,” the bedrock philosophy of founder and namesake Sam Walton. Late last year it has been again emphasizing low prices across the whole store, instead of heavily promoting selected items.

It has also been adding back thousands of products it had culled in an overzealous bid to clean up stores." You can read the rest of the A.P. Story here. 

Wal-Mart recognized it had a problem so they called it that. They realized they had gotten away from vision and chased some shiny objects off the path. So they said they've screwed up. From their they called their shot. We messed up and here's what we're going to do to fix it. New ad campaign, renewed focus on company vision, and returning to what works.


Where have I strayed from the gospel to chase the latest ministry craze? 
Where do I need to call my shot and get an aspect of the ministry back on track? 

One of the greatest gifts my current rector (sr. pastor) gave me is when I started he sat me down and said that if I'm going to fail I better fail big. No small failures. That freed me to dream big, fail big, and if I did to get back up lean from it and call my next shot.


What's your next shot? 
More importantly what did you learn from the last one?

Some Days You Draw the Short Straw

Think you have a bad job?
props to YS

Platt on Discipleship

"Disciple making is not about a program or an event but about a relationship. As we share the gospel, we impart life and this is the essence of making disciples. Sharing the life of Christ" (Radical pg 96)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The Importance of Rest

This week has been a lot about recovery and prep. Recovery from last weekends discipleship retreat with the confirmation class and prep for our ministry wide kickball tournament. It's forced me to examine how I rest. 

Exodus 16:23

"he said to them, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord...”

Coming off of the retreat I was spent. Not taking that time to recharge, rest, and be with my family meant...

• I risk burning out which is a long term condition 
• I respond out of an emotional deficiency. I was empty and as a result a lot of the ways I responded to problems or situations was from a negative and critical position. 
• I was vulnerably to sin. When I'm tired, and spent it's a golden opportunity for me to trip on temptation. 

The answer is to rest.  Jesus regularly got time away from ministry to spend with his father. As we rest we are then able to be more effective tools for God's kingdom.

Coming back from the retreat I had several meetings and appointments that were impossible to move on Monday and Tuesday.  So out of God's grace I pushed through, saw his sovereign hand in each one and took Wednesday to recharge. Out of Wednesday I got more done on Thursday in regards to the coming weekends activity then Monday and Tues. combined. Thankfully that's not my normal week but it's a great reminder that we were designed a certain way.

Anyone Can Pray

Here's a quick video of my daughter praying for my knee. Faith like a child....

Social Media and Youth Ministry

A friend of mine recently asked me how I use social media. (Facebook, Twitter, foursquare etc...) As I answered him I realized a heightened sense of excitement in my voice. After doing some quick math to figure out the amount of coffee I had consumed that morning I realized this connecting of people gets me excited. So here's a brief primer of how I use social media in youth ministry.

I have three main veins of social media I communicate in. Each one has a designated purpose and all are in some way linked together forming a web. The goal in communicating is that as I make a statement to an open ended group of people I want those to whom I'm speaking to fall into that web. So here are my social media veins..

1. Facebook. We've all heard the stats that if Facebook was a country it would be one of the most populated countries on the face of the planet. It's a behemoth. The people I want to communicate to are most likely communicating on facebook. For example parents, students, coworkers, fellow youth ministers, family who lives in other parts of the country etc. *When I say students I only mean high school students. Facebook has a 13 year old or older policy so any 12 year old would have to lie to have an account. It's that whole thou shall not bear false witness thing.   This is what I consider their ears. It's the most likely way I can communicate to them. So if I post something about our youth ministry I may target that to be posted at 8:00pm when most of our students are avoiding homework and spending time on Facebook. Because communication is not just speaking but it's being heard I want to maximize the likely hood of my message being heard. Think of Facebook as a bucket of messages. So what are you going to put in the bucket? 
2. Twitter. Twitter is 90% of what I put in the bucket. Twitter is a service that lets you post from a variety of platforms short 140 character statements and pictures. So if I want my students to see that I'm reading Romans for my morning devotional I might post something like: "Spent some time in Romans this morning. Wow. What's God teaching you these days?" Now my Facebook and Twitter accounts are linked so what I post on Twitter automatically appears on my facebook and then pops up to all my students. All that from one tweet. A practical example of this is from last weekend. We were out of town with a bus of students and I tweeted a few times from the retreat about how it was going. Parents who are on facebook saw that I felt included in how things were going and reassured that their kids were safe. When you think twitter think short. 
3. Blog. When you think blog think long. DaveLibbon.com is where I put up things I've processed. My personal pen and paper journal is where I put things I'm working through.  My blog is where I write my own thoughts, where I repost interesting things that I feel will encourage others in ministry or their faith, and a good place to communicate pictures and video. If it's longer then a tweet it goes on the blog. 

Honorable mention would be Foursquare. Not only one of my favorite playground games it's also a location based message system. You "check in" at various places and then can leave messages there. If you check in more then anyone else you become the "Mayor" of that place. I use this to talk about where I'm at. For example I'd "check in" at St. Andrews an leave the comment "Ready for Impact High School Youth Group. Are you?"

Now all four of the above are tied together. So my twitter is on my blog and fed to facebook. My blog posts automatically appear on facebook and through my twitter. Foursquare is fed to twitter and onto facebook. Ya see the web? Have I caught you with this message? How?

Confirmation Retreat `11

Confirmation Retreat `11, a set on Flickr.

A little glimps into the retreat we just got back from. Still processing all that happend but needless to say Jesus was glorified in the lives of these young people and leaders.


Here's a little slide show of the rest of the pic's

 

Our Day in Chicago

Confirmation

For the past four months I've been leading an intense discipleship course in our youth ministry. We call it Confirmation. In our Anglican context confirmation acts as an important step in a young persons faith. It is a personal owning of the promise that their parents spoke over them at their baptism. (This post is not about covenant theology or pedo baptism however) What it is about is the next 72 hours of my life.

The class is divided up into four parts.

• Christology: We spend the first few weeks focusing on the gospel, the problem of sin, the person of Christ and glory of the ressurection.
• Ecclesology : Out of our understanding of Christ comes who we are as his church. So we spend a few weeks looking at how our view of scripture shapes us, our view of prayer, our view of worship etc.
• Phenomenology: Today we are heading our on a three day adventure with the class. We'll spend the weekend at Bonnie Doone Plantation south of Charleston, SC focusing on the Biblical work and person of the the Holy Spirit. It's always a lot of fun and is often a milestone in students faith. 
• Missiology : The last leg of the course focuses on what we are called to do as followers of Christ.

This afternoon we set out with a great host of leaders, a bus full of students, and God's grace to spend the weekend away. Time to go pack!

Here's last years class.