Crosswalk

Today in our Sunday morning College group at Broadman we talked through life-giving practices and the spiritual practice of doing devotions.

It’s pretty simple. We desperately need to sit at the feet of the Lord daily to grow in relationship with him and to seek his guidance. The tough part is figuring out how the Bible applies to your life.

If you don’t take a shower each day, you get dirtier and dirtier. In the same way, if you don’t seek the Lord day by day, your life gets dirtier and dirtier.

What you need to do is use S.O.A.P.

In 30-40 minutes per day (seriously, that’s all it takes – more is good, but start here) you’ll begin to grow closer and closer to God. You need to gather 5 things:

1. Bible
2. Journal
3. Pen
4. Bible reading plan
5. To-do list/daily planner

Pick your reading plan (I’m using the Discipleship Journal Book-by-Book plan from YouVersion) and start on whatever the current reading is. As you start, ask the holy spirit to show you ONE thing. Write that verse/passage down in your journal (be sure to date it).

That’s the S.

Next, write down any observations you make about the passage. These are basic details about what is going on in the text. Who wrote it? When was it written? What’s the point?

That’s the O.

Now, make the application. How does this apply to your life? What should you do with this truth? How will you live differently having read this?

That’s the A.

Then finish up by writing out a prayer to God in response. It doesn’t have to be long and it definitely doesn’t need to be theologically heavy. Just write what you’re feeling.

That’s the P.

S.O.A.P.

If you’re not sure where to start, try the gospel of John and read 3 chapters a day for a week (4 on the last day) and you’ll have read the entire book in only one week!

If you hang out with us long enough in any of our LifeGroups or other gatherings, you’ll quickly realize that we are always trying to trying to follow Jesus more closely, even if that means adjusting what we do and how we do it.

Over the past few semesters our LifeGroup meetings have been fairly standard. Each week was very similar to the previous week. We would gather, talk a little about life, share prayer concerns, and turn to a passage of scripture to process what God might have for us that week. Often we would hang out afterwards for a while, enjoying one another’s company. But as we continued to follow this plan, we realized that while we were getting in a lot of Bible study time, we were very seldom able to break away and serve the campus or even simply gather together to have some fun and fellowship. We also found that our Bible study time was interesting and not altogether impossible to invite a non-Christian to, but it wasn’t the most inviting atmosphere to connect non-Christian friends with our LifeGroups.

We began to talk more about the rhythms of our groups and how we seemed to be repeating the same thing (Bible study) at the expense of other just-as-important things (like fellowship, service, and outreach). So rather than just talk about what we could do, we are doing something.

Previous LifeGroup Rhythm:
Week 1: Bible study
Week 2: Bible study
Week 3: Bible study
Week 4: Bible study

Current LifeGroup Rhythm:
Week 1: Bible study
Week 2: Fellowship gathering
Week 3: Service project
Week 4: Outreach gathering

We are in the beginning stages of giving this new rhythm structure a try, so we don’t have it all figured out. This may very well mean that we only meet once per month for our traditional LifeGroup Bible study meeting, but we still meet at least once per week. Most of us get more Bible study than we are willing to obey, so this gives us a great opportunity to live out much of what we are learning in our times of communal and individual Bible study.

We have been seeing some pretty cool things happening in Crosswalk. We have seen salvations and baptisms. Our community life is growing stronger and stronger. But one thing we could work on is outreach. One questions we must ask ourselves is,

“How well are living the gospel out on our campuses?”

This semester has sparked the start of a new ministry emphasis called Epoch. Epoch is a missionary/church planting strategy that is all about living like missionaries on campus. It is for any ordinary person, and if you feel like you’re not prepared for it, then you’re probably ready to get started!

It is for ordinary people, but it isn’t to be taken lightly. If you would like to learn more about Epoch, read this and this and click on one of the social media buttons while you’re there.

We meet every other Sunday evening at 5pm at Mike & Kelly’s house in Akron for Epoch training. If you want to join, ask someone for the next training date!

Who can believe that exams are already here (or almost here, depending on which school you go to)? Christmas music is being played on every radio station, decorations are everywhere and I think most of us survived Black Friday. You don’t have much longer to hold out before you survive this semester too. You can do it!

But what happens when school lets out? Many students let their spiritual lives deflate and they set them on a shelf somewhere, only to dust them off when school starts again. I’ve got a challenge for you! Below is a list of ideas for you to take on over the break whether you live 5 minutes from your campus or 5 states away. Be bold; dig into your faith when you have more discretionary time on your hands. Plan to come back to school with stronger faith, not weaker faith.

Let me know what you choose to do. I would love to pray for you and help you succeed in growing in your faith over the holiday when you don’t have school to worry about for a while.

Pick one or more of these challenges over break. You’ll be better off for it!

• Discuss how you’ve grown spiritually this semester with at least one family member.
• Take one whole day alone with Jesus.
• Hang out with one person from high school that you need to reconnect with.
• Read one book of the Bible you’ve never read before.
• Plug in fully to your church – volunteering, attending, going to the college ministry – even if it’s not as “cool” as your church at college.
• Tell your parents how much you appreciate them.
• Pray regularly that God would make you the kind of student that glorifies Him best.
• Pray through your course schedule for next semester and discern whether God would have you change anything.
• Read one Christian book. (Ask your college minister if you need ideas!)
• Take at least three days in a row to fully rest.
• Contact me (Mike) at least once to let me know how things are going and how I can pray for you.
• Help your parents in some way that surprises them.
• Prayer walk a college campus in or near your town, even if it’s not the school you go to.
• Pray for our college ministry every day (and write down anything God shows you).
• Pray for your upcoming professors. By name.
• Think up ways to serve your upcoming professors.
• Pray through your areas of campus involvement. What needs to change?
• Pray through your college ministry involvement. What needs to change?
• Go through your closets at home and donate things you know you don’t need anymore.
• Keep doing the spiritual habits you’ve developed at college – don’t skip once, or it’ll be hard to keep the habit all Break.
• Call your closest friends regularly, and keep each other on track spiritually.
• Connect with Christian youth in your town (or even their parents), and help them think about preparing for college.

This week in our LifeGroups we took a break from our normal investigation of Luke’s gospel and went on a detour through an introductory discussion of discipleship. We determined that a good disciple growing in their discipleship journey should be consistently progressing in 4 main areas. Those 4 main areas are:

• Reading scripture (learning about and hearing from God)
• Praying (talking to God)
• Sharing Jesus (witnessing)
• Living an obedient life (fellowship)

As I am currently training to run a marathon, I have a fairly strict training schedule that I follow in hopes of being prepared when the big day comes. Until then, I have a week-to-week schedule built around attainable goals and if you can believe it, I see results (growth)! How crazy is that?

It goes the same way with our spiritual growth and our relationships with the Lord. We can choose to simply float along and let it happen, or we can be intentional and plan for spiritual growth. How could we let something so important as our relationships with Christ “just happen?” My suggestion is to take charge and make some goals. One of the best ways to start is by choosing a Bible reading plan. You could just tell yourself to read the Bible every day, but you will be less likely to actually follow through if you don’t have a plan. Listed below are some Bible reading plans that you might like. Give one or more of them a try and plan to stick with one of them.

Take a look specifically at (for full info click here):

• The One-Year Bible
• The Life Journal Plan
• Chronological
• New Thru 30
• Bible in 90 Days
• First Steps Reading Plan
• Professor Horner’s Bible Reading System

It feels so good to say this…

WELCOME BACK TO KENT STATE!!

I hope that makes you as happy as it makes me. And it makes me happy simply because there are so many of you all that have been gone over the summer and we will finally get to reconnect. I hope this summer has been a blessing to you and I hope you are excited about getting back to school, or for those of you who are freshmen, getting started. I am convinced that God is going to do some awesome things this semester and I want you to be a part of it!

I will be getting back to posting here regularly now that school is back in session and I wanted to start by letting you know what our schedule is going to look like this semester.

Last semester we met every Tuesday night at 7:30pm, but this semester we had to change that. We will now be meeting in 2 small groups instead of one each week. They will be doing the same things, so pick one and stick with it if you can! They will meet at these times:

Thursday nights 8:00pm

and

Fridays at 2:00pm.

Let me know if you have any trouble with that and we will work with you. We should be getting room reservations this week so we’ll keep you posted on that.

Otherwise, welcome back and we can’t wait to see you!

Hey gang,

By now you may have heard, we will not be having LifeGroup this week as Vacation Bible School is in FULL SWING at Broadman Baptist Church. I am teaching the youth all week, so that keeps me out of the picture, but all of the other people who are willing and able to host and lead off the map for the day – so we will pick back up next week!

Can’t wait to get back to GroupLife with you people!

The week has flown by but I want to recount the events to share what God did throughout the week.

On Day 2, the Invigorate team made a second appearance at Kent State University. While Day 1 was pretty slow in terms of campus life, Day 2 made for a more exciting day. We did a significant amount of prayer walking on Sunday to prepare for Monday, and I certainly believe that God answered our prayers.

We spent the day, split into pairs, engaging students with Soularium for the purpose of building relationships and sharing Christ with them.

On Day 3, we landed in North Canton, OH on the campuses of Kent State University: Stark and Stark State College of Technology. It proved to be a big change in context from the main campus of Kent. We found much openness to spiritual conversation at Stark State, but few people at Kent Stark. Life moved a little slower at Stark.

On Day 4, we stopped in downtown Akron to continue our Soularium project at the University of Akron. Once again, we found ourselves in a totally different context than any of the other campuses. We found enough students on campus throughout the day to keep us busy with spiritual conversations for the whole day. The day seemed to be going pretty slow in terms of solid conversations. We planned to gather to leave by 3pm, but at 3:15 one pair of students were engaging a Muslim student from Saudi Arabia with the gospel for the first time in his life. While this was happening,  a couple of students and I walked over to the Student Union Starbucks for some coffee, and while we were waiting for our coffee, one of the students waiting with me began talking to the next guy in line. Their small talk turned into conversation about serious spiritual matters and this student, Mike, was able to share the gospel at length.

It was beautiful to see how God worked outside of our own plans. Had we left at the specified time, both students would have never heard the gospel – but God had something different in mind. He taught us in that afternoon the importance of letting Him work and the relative unimportance of our schedules.

This morning, the Invigorate team transitioned back to Columbus. It was sad to see them go, as we had a great time growing together and sharing Christ together. The Lord has truly worked through them and I am excited to see what comes of the work that they started.

Please continue to pray for them as they spend the next 2 weeks in Ohio working at Christian summer camps and then the following 4 weeks sharing Christ, promoting collegiate ministry, and serving churches in SC.

Today was Day 1 for the team, though they actually arrived on-site yesterday. This week they will be doing collegiate ministry on 4 different college campuses.

The week looks something like this:

Sunday – Kent State University

Monday – Kent State University

Tuesday – Stark State College & Kent State: Stark campus

Wednesday – University of Akron

This morning we met at Broadman Baptist Church to worship together, shared lunch together and “set sail” for Kent State. We planned to prayer walk and engage students with Soularium. As it turns out, there is more life in most cemeteries than there is on a Sunday afternoon on campus in the summer. Very little engaging went on today, but a lot of prayer walking happened.

We prayed over the dorms, the academic buildings, the students, and for conversations that we will have on Monday. We hoped for a little more “action” but extra time to pray shouldn’t be under-valued or underestimated.

I look forward to seeing God answer today’s prayers tomorrow.

A word about the Invigorate team:

The Invigorate team is a relatively new summer mission project piloted here in Ohio through Ohio Collegiate Ministries and the State Convention of Baptists in Ohio (SCBO). Invigorate started as a 4 week summer mission project for college students. The team would be small and would accommodate a maximum of 6-7 students. The team has a three-fold purpose:

1. Share Christ

2. Promote collegiate ministry

3. Serve local churches

Invigorate ministry sites are chosen all around the state of Ohio with site directors but the students are in charge of planning the ministry and leading on particular days. Throughout the summer, each student on the team ends up leading in a variety of ministry opportunities.

Another component of this mission experience is the morning devotion time. Every day, each student is expected to spend time working through the Lifeway study Experiencing God. Having each student, campus director and state collegiate leader working through the same study at the same time focuses everyone on a similar topic, and the study works quite well in tandem with the ministry objectives of the team.

The goal for the students on any given Invigorate team goes beyond the three-fold purpose. At the end of the project, each student should be able to train others in evangelism, live a lifestyle of evangelism, promote collegiate ministry regularly and have a greater understanding of what ministry is like.

This year, the Invigorate team has been expanded from 4 weeks to 8 weeks and takes place in Ohio and South Carolina. The team is with us for their second week.

God is going to do some really great things through these 6 students, I can already feel it!