Sorry for not updating in a while! These past few weeks have been very busy but also very rewarding. It's wonderful to be in the presence of so many people who are dedicated to Christ and to be able to encourage others to seek after Him. We wrapped up our freshman campaign with a weekend at the Jersey Shore. We took about 20 freshmen on the trip with us along with a few upperclassmen and staff to help facilitate. We had a great time building relationships as we played games, built sandcastles, swam, watched movies, and shared meals together. Although we only had 20 freshmen on the trip, we have a total of 88 freshmen participating in our Bible Courses. That's roughly 8 percent of the freshmen class!
Speaking of Bible Courses, I'm blessed with the responsibility of co-leading three of our freshmen men's courses. We're doing an in-depth study of 2 Timothy over the course of the Fall semester. The guys are loving the course and beginning to comprehend the gravity of Paul and Timothy's dedication to the gospel as they encountered severe suffering and persecution for their faith. The letter serves as a great challenge to all of us to seriously consider the truths of the faith, who Jesus really was and is, and whether or not he is truly worth living for, suffering for, and dying for.
I'm also getting to meet one-on-one with all of the freshmen guys in these courses to encourage them and help them pursue God. It's been a blessing to get to know them all and see them start to grow rapidly in their faith even though they've only been here a couple of months!
Our large group weekly meetings for the students are called "802" mainly because that's when it starts. We had to bounce around a few locations this year because they seem to enjoy double booking us with other events. We're not sure if this is intentional or not but we're still having trouble finding a consistent place to meet. One of the places we met all of last year and a few times this year has been Frist 302, the lecture hall that Albert Einstein used to teach in! I suppose it's a blessing that we're simply getting too big for that room now! We're consistently hosting well over a hundred students every week. This past week we got to hear from Dave Harvey, a pastor, author, speaker, and church planter who's recent book Rescuing Ambition has created a lot of buzz. He gave a great message this past Friday to our students about how best to use our ambition. His central point was that while worldly ambition leads us to glorify ourselves and become prideful, we can channel that ambition to our faith which will lead us to seek God's glory and become great for Him. His main text was John 12:42-43. "Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God." It was a great message to preach to so many ambitious young men and women, especially for those Christians who want to be able to use their ambitions but want to stay humble.
One of the most exciting things we've started this year is our 24-hour prayer room, located right across the street from campus. It's open to all students and we have a Google calendar where students can log in and sign up for shifts. The room itself looks amazing. Some of the students painted and decorated it with curtains, pillows, chairs, lamps, Bibles, art supplies, a stereo for worship music, and a large red cross on the wall (I'll post pictures soon!). There are six different stations inside to guide people through prayer. Some people might not be used to praying for a half hour or hour time slot so they can spend 5 minutes at each station for a half hour or 10 for an hour. The stations are Worship, Read/Pray the Word, Confession/Repentance, Personal Prayer Requests, Prayer for Princeton, Prayer for the World. I've been able to meet with a number of my freshman guys in there and pray for them and encourage them to seek the Lord. Our goal is to get people to sign up for enough shifts so that we'll have people in there praying 24/7! It started a couple of weeks ago so we're not quite there yet but it's amazing to see the die-hard prayer warriors completely fill up the calendar from 2am to 9am every day! (If you're a student reading this, email me about how you can sign up for a shift!).
This week is midterms and the students are bogged down with exams which means it's a fairly light work week for me. Next week is Fall break! This weekend I'll be attending an Ivy Student Leaders Conference for upperclass students interested in pursuing ministry. It'll be a blessing to encourage students just a couple of years younger than me and tell them about how much I've enjoyed doing ministry at Princeton. After that, from November 3-7, I'll be in the Chicago, IL area attending a ministry/prayer conference with a couple of students and many of our staff members. The featured speaker is John Mulinde! He's a pastor from Uganda who played a key role in the revival that took place in that country in the late 90's. I've gotten to hear him speak before on DVD's but it'll be a great blessing to hear him speak in person. Stay tuned for updates about that! Overall it's been such a blessing to work here and I'm incredibly excited to see how God is moving in the lives of Princeton students this year!
Speaking of Bible Courses, I'm blessed with the responsibility of co-leading three of our freshmen men's courses. We're doing an in-depth study of 2 Timothy over the course of the Fall semester. The guys are loving the course and beginning to comprehend the gravity of Paul and Timothy's dedication to the gospel as they encountered severe suffering and persecution for their faith. The letter serves as a great challenge to all of us to seriously consider the truths of the faith, who Jesus really was and is, and whether or not he is truly worth living for, suffering for, and dying for.
I'm also getting to meet one-on-one with all of the freshmen guys in these courses to encourage them and help them pursue God. It's been a blessing to get to know them all and see them start to grow rapidly in their faith even though they've only been here a couple of months!
Our large group weekly meetings for the students are called "802" mainly because that's when it starts. We had to bounce around a few locations this year because they seem to enjoy double booking us with other events. We're not sure if this is intentional or not but we're still having trouble finding a consistent place to meet. One of the places we met all of last year and a few times this year has been Frist 302, the lecture hall that Albert Einstein used to teach in! I suppose it's a blessing that we're simply getting too big for that room now! We're consistently hosting well over a hundred students every week. This past week we got to hear from Dave Harvey, a pastor, author, speaker, and church planter who's recent book Rescuing Ambition has created a lot of buzz. He gave a great message this past Friday to our students about how best to use our ambition. His central point was that while worldly ambition leads us to glorify ourselves and become prideful, we can channel that ambition to our faith which will lead us to seek God's glory and become great for Him. His main text was John 12:42-43. "Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God." It was a great message to preach to so many ambitious young men and women, especially for those Christians who want to be able to use their ambitions but want to stay humble.
One of the most exciting things we've started this year is our 24-hour prayer room, located right across the street from campus. It's open to all students and we have a Google calendar where students can log in and sign up for shifts. The room itself looks amazing. Some of the students painted and decorated it with curtains, pillows, chairs, lamps, Bibles, art supplies, a stereo for worship music, and a large red cross on the wall (I'll post pictures soon!). There are six different stations inside to guide people through prayer. Some people might not be used to praying for a half hour or hour time slot so they can spend 5 minutes at each station for a half hour or 10 for an hour. The stations are Worship, Read/Pray the Word, Confession/Repentance, Personal Prayer Requests, Prayer for Princeton, Prayer for the World. I've been able to meet with a number of my freshman guys in there and pray for them and encourage them to seek the Lord. Our goal is to get people to sign up for enough shifts so that we'll have people in there praying 24/7! It started a couple of weeks ago so we're not quite there yet but it's amazing to see the die-hard prayer warriors completely fill up the calendar from 2am to 9am every day! (If you're a student reading this, email me about how you can sign up for a shift!).
This week is midterms and the students are bogged down with exams which means it's a fairly light work week for me. Next week is Fall break! This weekend I'll be attending an Ivy Student Leaders Conference for upperclass students interested in pursuing ministry. It'll be a blessing to encourage students just a couple of years younger than me and tell them about how much I've enjoyed doing ministry at Princeton. After that, from November 3-7, I'll be in the Chicago, IL area attending a ministry/prayer conference with a couple of students and many of our staff members. The featured speaker is John Mulinde! He's a pastor from Uganda who played a key role in the revival that took place in that country in the late 90's. I've gotten to hear him speak before on DVD's but it'll be a great blessing to hear him speak in person. Stay tuned for updates about that! Overall it's been such a blessing to work here and I'm incredibly excited to see how God is moving in the lives of Princeton students this year!
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