The Close of Autumn, or Try, Learn, Grow.

I believe that in my last post I began with a little "ode" to the "extraordiarily beautiful November day." Today, though I am sitting in the same chair and listening to similar music, the weather has shifted dramatically.

Rain. Ugh.

But that just comes with the territory. The reason we have such beautiful summers here is because of all the rain the rest of the year.

Today is the first day of the last week of fall term at OSU. Basically this week involves a lot of celebrating what God has done in the few months since school started. Bible Studies usually have some kind of party. Awake will be Christmas themed. And our leaders gathered last night for a delicious meal together. No work, just spending time with each other and enjoying each others' company and fellowship.

One way that I have seen God at work, aside from all the ways I have mentioned previously on this blog, is how he has moved our fellowship back to prayer. About a year and a half ago, we started a daily prayer meeting every morning. This lasted for a while but eventually fizzled out.

We decided that we wanted to pray again and started a weekly prayer meeting on sunday nights. It has been encouraging to see students step up and lead it each week. One freshman in my Bible Study is super excited about prayer and regularly invites his friends from his dorm to come. I think it is a highlight for him each week.

I have also seen prayer grow in our Bible Study. One of the best things to come out of "The God Experiment" was that students learned to pray with and for each other. The first week we did prayer, it was really awkward. By the fourth week, it was normal and something we looked forward to at the end of our study. It is really fun praying with students about how they want to learn to be obedient to God in the normal, day in and day out-ness of their lives. I think that is a prayer God really loves to answer.

Looking Ahead

I think that next term is going to be very challenging for us but also very rewarding. I am planning on doing a lot of training on evangelism and discipleship. The leaders will be encouraged to pick one or two students from their Bible Study and disciple them through evangelism. Imagine an older leader taking a freshman along with him or her and hanging out with non-believers so that they can share Jesus with them. I think that is a recipe for good times and good growth. Pray for us as we try this out.

Also, please pray for Urbana 09, which is less than a month away! We have 11 students going to the conference and I long for God to speak loud and clear to each of them. Four students are enrolled in a special student leadership track focused on how to bring Urbana back to the campus. Two of those students are in my Bible Study and I can't wait to see what they come up with.

I will most certainly be writing a post-Urbana blog with some interviews from students who attended and I might just do some updates from the actual conference. You can watch much of the conference from the website above.

Reflection

We often think that we have to have our lives together before we can be used by God in any sort of meaningful way. How many times have we disqualified ourselves from being involved in building and advancing the Kingdom because we didn't know enough or we weren't good enough?

I have long held the belief that we enter in to ministry first and then God uses that to reveal to us the places we need to grow and begins to heal us in the midst of loving others.

I am seeing this play out in my life and the lives of my student leaders. Many are wrestling through the struggles that come with being a leader. They are questioning whether or not they are any good at it.

I happen to think that they are doing a great job and are growing a lot. They are not perfect leaders by any stretch of the imagination, but they are trying and learning and growing. That is all I ask.

I can see that my next step as their leader is to help them process through the things that God is bringing up for them and help them continue to press on in the midst of their own shortcomings. They need to be made aware of God's grace and love for them and his continual invitation to them.

A disciple is simply a learner. The fundamental thing a disciple does is learn. Are they learning? Yep.

How about you? Are you taking yourself out of the game because you don't know enough? Well, ask yourself how much Peter knew about Jesus when he began following him? How much did the woman at the well know when she invited her whole town to come check out Jesus? Not much in either case. But they were willing to try and learn and grow.

Maybe that is what Jesus wants from us.

Try and Learn and Grow.