So part two of my beastly weekend event was a Faculty Gathering. Why not connect the Carver Conversation with a morning together with faculty talking about mission and ministry? Across my four-state area, faculty are engaging their colleagues and departments in a variety of formats. Some models are aimed at spiritual formation others at missional engagement (see the list below). Our conversation was very simple – have a staff or faculty member with first-hand experience talk about it. Offer these narratives then to faculty members who might catch a vision for something new in their context. Let faculty chew on it around their tables.
I was really encouraged with my team! We COULD have simply met in St. Louis, feasted on the Carver Conversation and transitioned into our team retreat. A great weekend would have been had by all. But we wanted to create an opportunity for story telling and vision casting with faculty members. We wished we had more faculty members in the room – mid-April was not an ideal time of the year for most faculty members.
Ministry Models we talked about:
Faculty sponsored Student Reading Groups on integration themes related to academic discipline. John Inazu, Wash-U Law. Monthly gatherings in a faculty member’s home reading a book or article that connects faith with academic discipline. The Carver Fellows host a variety of groups in Law, Arts, Humanities, Medicine. See the TCP website at this link: https://www.carverstl.org/reading-groups
Faculty and Students weekly prayer on campus. The Iowa State University Christian Faculty and Staff Fellowship is led by GFM staff members Tom Ingebritsen (Professor Emeritus, Biology) and Chad Britten. Connect with chad.britten@intervarsity.org
What Matters to Me and Why lectureship series. Innovated at UC Irvine years ago, GFM staff member Mark Hansard, has grown this ministry model at Kansas State University. Not a Christian lecture series. Co-sponsored with the university WMMW has a leadership team that a GFM staff member is a part of. Monthly lectures selected by the leadership team include Christian and non-Christian presenters from the faculty body at K-State. See mark.hansard@intervarsity.org
Veritas Forum, a Christian lectureship series of speakers (generally teaching and researching PhDs from around the country). Recent two day series was done at Iowa State University with Wash-U professor Joshua Swamidass. Topics included Artificial Intelligence and Human Origins. See https://www.veritas.org/ as well as Veritas channel on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/VeritasForum See also Joshua Swamidass at his website: https://peacefulscience.org/
Faculty Bible Study with emphasis on Spiritual Formation and Rule of Life application. Team approach to manuscript bible study with faculty groups. The further enrichment of formation and application is a helpful balance to what can be a strict focus on biblical and theological content. Reach out to george.stulac@intervarstiy.org and benw@wustl.edu See Ben also for his work with Post-Docs on Communal Spiritual formation and rhythms.
Faculty Prayer Fellowships can be very simple and spur a thriving network of faculty praying with each other and for their departments. See InterVarsity’s 3X3 Missional Prayer strategy brochure for engaging Christian faculty members. Reach out to tim.perry@intervarsity.org
Syntrek – This spiritual friendship model is being developed with professional students (PT/OT/Pharmacy) at Creighton University. Students are paired up after connecting with GFM during New Student Outreach. Students meet on their own weekly to explore Spiritual Friendship. A resource and story blog is under construction at https://syntrek.blog/ Monthly, whole-group brunch allows Syntrek pairs to gather and connect with GFM staff and a different guest Faculty Mentor each time. Reach out to tim.perry@intervarsity.org
If you know of Christian faculty members either teaching or transitioning to one of our schools, PLEASE email me and help me connect with them. Our work is especially strategic at R-1 institutes in my four-state area – University of Nebraska, Lincoln, University of Kansas, Kansas State University, Mizzou, Wash-U, University of Iowa and Iowa State.
Post-script on the sternum. I did get a follow-up with my primary care physician. We’re doing well. LOTS of pain, still. Prayers for pain management and sleep. Best night’s sleep so far – LAST NIGHT. Slept from 11pm to 6am. Thanks so much for your prayers!
So, what was I doing in St. Louis when I lost my ’04 Accord and broke my sternum? Fighting a 3-headed monster, of course! For some weeks my team and I had been concocting a three-phase weekend event for the purposes of collaborating with The Carver Project, hosting a GFM Faculty Gathering and enjoying a 24 hour staff team retreat! I’ll take these in opposite order in the next couple of blog posts. The overall monstrosity involved teaming up with the undergrad Central Region to invite all the Christian faculty members connected to our ministries to St. Louis for The Spring Carver Conversation.
Tim, George, Mark, Josh, Ben, Chad, Kevin, Jake, George, Linda (missing Tom and Sarah).
If you’re going to get your whole team together, over half of which travel from 2 – 7 hours away, it would be great to make it worth while! If we’re going to tackle a challenge, better make it a beast! Thus, the triple whammy of a community event, a faculty gathering and a staff retreat! We enjoyed staying in historic Soulard in St. Louis in the 9th Street Abbey Rectory (now an Air B&B). After hosting our Faculty Gathering on Saturday morning, we settled into a full 24 hours of personal and team retreating around the theme of Wisdom. My staff were initially wary of a retreat on the heals of two other events! But we had a very enriching time (on top of some wonderful time with faculty).
Retreat began after lunch on Saturday. Everyone was given about 4 hours in personal, guided retreat time off on their own. My barometer for how that time went came when we gathered at the Rectory and Kevin led us in a reflection on our time in Proverbs chapter 8. “Tim, this was a total bomb, if no one talks.” “Tim, what do you do if your entire team says this was a bad use of time and resources?” “Tim, what else could you see yourself doing vocationally if this goes badly and gets back to your supervisor?”
You know, I’m not sure I actually had any of those thoughts. My retreat time was actually an extended nap nursing my cracked sternum. I’d spent soooo much time in Proverbs 8 all Spring. I knew there was a trove of rich ministry and formational insight packed in that famous chapter. Would the staff find it? Found it, they certainly did (think Yoda accent)! The conversation was wonderfully engaging. I intentionally listened for every staff voice on my team. The sharing was a chorus of stimulating insight from every last person. I have a truly earnest team of individuals who are passionate about knowing God and full of discernment between mere knowledge and experiential wisdom.
If you need a new theological theme in your devotional world, I’d recommend the book of Proverbs. Start by reading chapter 8 and introducing yourself to Sophia – the personification of wisdom. Once you’ve traced that great theme (read a chapter of Proverbs each day for a month – 31 chapters) then look at what Paul says about wisdom in the opening chapters of 1 Corinthians.
So that was ONE of our monster’s heads! We’ll lop off the other two in future posts – there’s just too much to take in here. Thank you so much for your prayers for my ongoing recovery. I’m making good progress, but admittedly living life, 6 hour Tylenol dosages at a time. It’s coming up on 8pm as I compose this. My last blast was 3pm and I’m starting to feel it!
As I write you this Friday afternoon, I have sad news for you. In past posts, you’ve heard me rant about my 2004 Honda Accord. Staff members who travel a lot forge a bond with their favorite vehicles. I’ve put about a billion highway miles on a wide variety of cars in my 24 years of ministry with IV. A few of my OG’s over the years?
84 Ford Tempo ( driven 11 years, died of old age)
91 Chevy Lumina (driven 11 years, retired at Cedar Campus)
97 Honda Accord (driven 4 years, Bambi the suicide Honda-Bomber)
04 Honda Accord (driven 11 years, collision on I-70)
Make what you will of the 11 year life-span trend! Two weeks ago yesterday I was traveling to St. Louis and caused a serious rear-end collision on I-70 just outside the city. Another great ride has come to an end! The weekend event I headed there to lead is what my next couple of posts will be about. I just thought it was a moment I should hover over and thank the Lord for. Thankful for thousands of safe highway miles over the many years of interstate travel my job has involved. Thankful for good cars. Thankful for safe cars even in collisions!
I would love it if you’d pray for that little cracked spot you can see in my chest in the image above – my cat Aspen knows right where it’s at! I broke my sternum! Broken sternums really hurt! I’m so grateful for Cheryl’s family who came to my aid in St. Louis. The accident happened at about 5;15pm. My nephew Will was able to come help me empty out my Accord and take me to the urgent care. Urgent care sent me on to a trauma center at St. Louis U Hospital. Thankful for lots of attentive doctors and medical staff who checked me over.
Please pray for my recovery. I’m back home getting things done. Still “no rust and running great” just a little slower and no bike-rides for a while. Tying to keep my 24 hour total dosage of Acetaminophen to 4,000 mg or less. Pray for my sleep. Pray for my humiliation and learning – that I would be safer more attentive driver in the future.
Donated the Lumina to Cedar Campus ca 2004They eventually turned it into a trash can!I-70 at 270 interchange – rush-hour!
I’ll be in touch with you soon on recent ministry happenings. It’s been a very full month of April! There’s lots to catch you up on. Have a terrific weekend!
Josh Swamidass is a professor and researcher at Washington University in St. Louis. He’s a warm and welcoming follower of Christ and an engaging communicator. If you’ve not had a chance meet Josh, read his book or hear him speak, I’d encourage you to check out his web-stie Peaceful Science and look up a few of his talks and dialogues on YouTube. A couple of years ago I had the chance to introduce Josh to one of my GFM staff at Iowa State. Tom Ingebritsen is a Professor Emeritus in biological sciences. Tom is on our Central Area Team – he and his teammate Chad Britten would love your prayers for two days of in-person events with Josh on ISU’s campus coming up next Monday and Tuesday.
Tom leads a faculty ministry at Iowa State called the ISU Christian Faculty and Staff Association. On his leadership team, Tom has amassed a wealth of talented and experienced Christian faculty passionate about reaching the University. They’ve been praying and planning for this event for about a year now.
The two main events are highlighted here in these publicity pieces. Josh’s first dialogue on Monday night is with a non-Christian ISU faculty member. The aim of What does it Mean to be Human is not to have a debate. But instead have a conversation seeking truth, clarity and the practical implications of a new and perhaps intimidating discipline – Artificial Intelligence. I’d recommend hanging out a bit at Peaceful Science and reading up on it if you’re new to the conversation yourself.
Pray for the kind of conversations the event will spark on campus. Tom mentioned earlier this week that a colleague in the Math department said to him “I didn’t think there were any other Christians in the Math Department but this event has helped me see there are several, in fact.” Ask God to use the event to catalyze more and more conversations and help Christian faculty take initiative with their faith in relevant issues. Pray especially for opportunities in the biological sciences, philosophy, math, medical sciences. In addition to the evening events, Josh will be speaking at a co-sponsored colloquium with the Math and TADS departments (Theoretical and Applied Data Science) on Tuesday afternoon.
Pray for me as I saddle my trusty stead next Monday morning (get in my 04 Accord that is) and head to Ames, Iowa for two days. I’m there to support Tom and Chad, observe how they and their leadership team guide this event, and say hello and thank you to Josh Swamidass. Watch for a PBR post or two early next week!
A brief reminder here about the National Collegiate Day of Prayer event. Here’s the link to the event on their website. This year’s event hosted on the campus of Asbury University. I plan to watch and participate tonight. If you didn’t catch my previous post it might be good to glance at it. The event starts at 7:00pm Central time.
This isn’t the first time God as worked a similar awakening among students through prayer. Here’s a good read available from IVP in electronic format. An interesting quote from Chapter 8 (recalling the Asbury awakening of 1970).
“Unlike the uprising at Columbia, which was mainly marked by accusation, the movement at Asbury was especially marked by confession. In fact, the awakening was later described as a “spiritual phenomenon of integrity,” as person after person humbly confessed specific areas of sin and failure in their lives, things that held them back from following Jesus and caring for others. During those unusual days at Asbury, it seemed as if sin was simply out of place. For 185 hours, the chapel service in Hughes Auditorium kept going. When a reporter finally approached the president of Asbury, Dennis Kinlaw, and asked him to explain what was happening, Kinlaw simply replied, “Well, you may not understand … but the only way I know how to account for this is that last Tuesday morning … Jesus walked into Hughes Auditorium, and He’s been there ever since.”
I thought I would get a post out to you as I’m sure you’ve been hearing about “happenings” at Asbury University in Wilmore, KY. A helpful email came through my InterVarsity inbox this week that I’ll pass on to you. Steve’s encouragements and resources capture well the direction I’d take you if I were to curate InterVarsity’s view of campus revival. The most timely thing I want you to see in this post is the Collegiate Day of Prayer event coming up later this week (down at the bottom of this post). Click through to details about that after reading Steve’s summary. I hope you can join the prayer event later this week via live-stream.
Here are excerpts from my friend Steve’s thoughtful email:
“On February 8th a chapel service at Asbury University in Wilmore, KY spilled over into a time of extended prayer, worship, repentance, reconciliation, and renewal. Thousands of people — including students from campuses around the country — have flocked to campus in search of an encounter with God
Could this be a revival?
Revival: “A season of breakthroughs in word, deed, and power that ushers in a new normal of kingdom experience and fruitfulness” — James Choung and Ryan Pfeiffer, Longing for Revival (p. 17).
Two postures: I’ve observed a variety of different responses to the happenings in Asbury. For my convenience and nefarious rhetorical purposes, I’ll lump them into two buckets.
Grumpy Skepticism: I’ve heard criticisms about the emotionalism, song selection, ethnic makeup of the gathered students, content focus, venue, and even the pizza served to people waiting in line for entry (#HotNReady). What’s happening in Asbury might not look like the revival you hoped to see.
Enthusiastic Endorsement: I’ve heard giddy comparisons to Azusa, Wales, and Asbury from the 70s; guarantees that this will transform a generation; smug credit-taking; and attempts to cozy up to the moment for personal gain. You might be tempted to chase revival for reasons other than the pursuit of God.
A Third Way: I’m going to use the second oldest trick in rhetoric and encourage you to avoid the excesses of these other approaches. Don’t let the pull of grumpy skepticism blind you to the good God’s doing in Kentucky. Don’t rush to name, label, and pump your thing on the back of this moment.
My encouragement — watch hopefully. Revivals take time to reveal themselves. Watch and pray. Be actively patient. Fan into flame the spark of hope that we might all be on the cusp of a special spiritual moment. Don’t rush to judgement. You can be present without sitting in judgement.
3 Application Ideas
When God is doing something in a life or community, watch hopefully. Pray rather than judge.
Paul (the Apostle, not the Beatle) once said that love hopes all things. What can you hope for the crowds gathered in Kentucky?
Choung and Pfeiffer wrote: “No revival has happened in history without revived people” (Longing for Revival, p. 9). Perhaps Jesus is inviting you today to repentance and consecration. Ask Jesus to revive you — to bring in your life a season of breakthroughs word, deed, and power that ushers in a new normal of kingdom experience and fruitfulness.
The revival — when it comes — will not be live-streamed. Instead, we will be swept up with Christ as participants rather than spectators. Our expectations will shatter and we’ll stand in awe as he does more than we can ask or imagine. We will be beset by critics and credit-takers. But beyond them will be a great cloud of witnesses — watching hopefully, longing for revival.”
Some resources Steve shared:
Here are four great things I’ve read about what’s happening in Asbury (plus a bonus book resource for the overachievers).
Facebook Post from Madison Pierce. Pierce is a seminarian at Asbury Seminary and has been present on campus. The linked piece beautiful captures five generation-distinctive marks of the moment at Asbury and the new wineskins Jesus is offering.
Instagram Post by Pete Greig. Greig, the leader of the 24-7 Prayer Movement, offered a mature pastoral word: “When it comes to reports of revival, I’d rather be gullible than cynical.”
Facebook Post from Jason Gaboury. Gaboury (of all the posts and commentary I’ve read) best pulls back the curtain for what the moment at Asbury might reveal for us about campus ministry in for this generation. His observations glow with insight.
BONUS: Longing for Revival by James Choung and Ryan Pfeiffer. This has become my go-to book on revival. The authors deal honestly with tensions many of us feel when talking about revival. They offer practical guidance to help us seek revival in healthy ways. And they provide a framework to consider revivals at the personal, communal, regional, national and global scale. Highly recommend!
Collegiate Day of Prayer For two hundred years, churches across the United States have been gathering on the last Thursday in February to ask the Lord to pour out revival and awakening on college campuses. This year, the big gathering for the Collegiate Day of Prayer and host site for the simulcast that will be shared around the country is — I KID YOU NOT — Asbury College — I SAID “I KID YOU NOT.”
Use a Prayer Guide: Consider using one of the linked prayer guides to not only, well, guide your prayer (that’s like the minimum a prayer guide’s supposed to do) but also to join the focus of your prayer with other believers from around the nation.
Well, that’s about it from Steve! Thank you Steve!
And that’s it from me! Let me know if you participate in the Simulcast! If my week doesn’t swallow me up, I’ll try to send another reminder before Thursday night!
Upon returning from Urbana and rebooting everything, look what happened! Another new year is upon us. I thought to kick-start 2023 at the Perry Boiler Room, I’d give you a run down on my team mates and some of what each is facing this year. There are 12 of us. You’re kidding me, Tim. Yup, just like the disciples. But they’re not all men. Maybe you can skim this for now and come back to pray for each of us later. We’d love your prayers. Here goes:
Sarah – Wash U, Grad students,
Is a mom of three kids, currently lives in Pittsburg, PA and is on staff at Washington University in St. Louis! Sarah’s husband Kaleb is wrapping up a year-long law clerkship with a federal judge in Pittsburg and is searching for a job with a firm in the St. Louis area. Pray for God to provide for their family as they return “home” to St. Louis in August. Sarah is also working on reaching full budget for her first ministry assignment (Grad Student Fellowship at Wash-U). This year has been a whirl-wind of displacement, but Sarah has made the best of it as she builds her young family and follows her call to ministry in the university. Pray for the endless list of details – job hunting for Kaleb, house hunting back in St. Louis and caring for their kids through all the transition.
Carrie – Assoc Regional Director,
Was joining our team retreat here in the photo. She’s one of our Regional leaders, but not a regular part of our team. You’re welcome to pray for her, but since she’s not on my team I’m gonna skip her! Sorry Carrie. We love you, though!
Josh – Wash U, Grad Students,
Works for Bayer in St. Louis, is a volunteer staff member for the grad chapter, recently married to Bethany. Josh and Linda (below) are the current local staff for Wash-U and are leading the chapter into an exciting phase of it’s history. They have been helping students get official recognition as a Registered Student Organization on Wash-U’s campus (no small feat). The group is regaining momentum in the wake of the pandemic. A leadership team is re-forming. Roles are getting clarified. And the group is working its way back to in-person gatherings. Pray for momentum and guidance for the student leaders. Pray for God to bless Josh’s investment in and care for students. Pray for Josh and Bethany as they journey through their first year of married life!
Kevin – Univ of Iowa, Grad Students,
Is approaching his 43rd year of student ministry, lives with his wife Maria in Iowa City and leads a very international Graduate Student Fellowship on campus. In addition to the grad group, Kevin leads a weekly zoom prayer gathering focusing on the war in Ukraine and its impact on IFES student ministry in the region. He is also serves with the Association of Campus Ministers at Univ of Iowa. One significant goal I’ll be working with Kevin on in 2023 is planning a sabbatical to happen in 2024. Kevin would like to build a sabbatical experience that involves international travel and connection with IFES student movements. Pray for us in the months ahead as we wade into the details and discern specific directions.
Tom – Iowa State, Faculty Fellowship,
As a retired faculty member at Iowa State, Tom has given himself to InterVarsity as a part-time GFM staff member. He leads the Iowa State Christian Faculty and Staff Fellowship – a group that meets twice monthly. This spring the group will be hosting a Veritas Forum featuring Wash-U professor Joshua Swamidass. Pray for Tom, his teammate Chad and his leadership team as they work on finding funding for the event and promote it on campus. Two addition challenges for Tom. Each year for the past 23 years Tom has taught a class at ISU called Faith and Science. It’s a half-semester honor’s seminar exploring the relationship between Christianity and Science. His class begins next week! Second challenge, pray for Tom’s wife Denise who has major health needs and spent about 9 weeks in the hospital in November and December.
Linda – Wash-U, Grad Students,
Joined our team a number of years ago now as a volunteer staff. The wife of a Wash-U law professor and as an alum of GFM ministry in Boston during her PhD years, she brings incredible coaching and leadership to the student fellowship. Everything I mentioned about Josh is also on Linda’s list. Student leadership development, coaching the chapter, serving and caring for students. Please also pray for Linda this year as she is caring for a close friend who is journeying through major health issues as well as supporting her husband’s family in their experience with similar medical needs. In both cases those in medical care are many hours away via air travel. Pray for Linda’s travel and her interaction with students which is often via zoom.
Mark – Kansas State, Faculty Fellowship,
This year will be Mark’s 30th year in campus ministry – about 14 of that with InterVarsity and 16 of that with Cru. Like Kevin, we’ll be working this year on framing up a sabbatical for Mark to begin as early as this summer. Mark works with several faculty groups in Manhattan and stays connected with faculty at Emporia State and a little bit at University of Nebraska, Lincoln. The biggest reason Mark could use a sabbatical leave is to work on a book he’s authoring. Pray for us as we work on his sabbatical in the coming months, connections we need to make to sustain his ministry while he detaches, and for the longest period of time we can manage so he can complete his book!
Jake – University of Kansas, Grad students.
Jake and Chad are bi-vocational, part-time staff. Jake works as a chaplain in hospice care as his other job. Working two jobs always sounds “doable” on paper, but it more than doubles some aspects of time management and a divided focus. It always adds up to way more than a full-time experience. Pray for Jake and Chad both as they are constantly switching back and forth between work environments. Jake is rebuilding his grad student work at KU. Pray for fruitful results as he is connecting with new students – he is especially focusing on involving International Students.
Chad – Iowa State University, Faculty and Grad students,
Chad is the guy whose back-yard I camped in back in October! Chad’s other-job is organic farming. If I had a prize for the most number of moving parts in a staff worker’s family, Church and work world, I’d have to give it Chad. His kids are like a nest of bees coming and going in warp-drive. Farming is not the kind of work that stays in its margins, let’s say. And a trip to campus or church from his farm takes 38 minutes (one-way). Pray for Chad and Tom as they ramp up this spring for the Veritas Forum. This will be potentially a huge, very well attended event. Chad and Tom are working on funding, promotion and follow-up. Pray for all the networking that needs to happen. Pray for Chad as he sinks further into GFM work at ISU – Chad just joined our team this past year!
George Stulac – St. Louis Faculty Ministry,
This George leads several faculty groups at Wash-U, Wash-U Medical, Forrest Park Community College and Lindenwood University. George does a full and fruitful work and is at a stage in his ministry career where leadership succession is of vital importance. Pray for faculty ministry leadership in the St. Louis area. Pray for God to raise up more staff to run along side George in this season of ministry. Pray also for George’s role at Wash-U in particular as it relates to the Carver Project, a strategic faculty ministry InterVarsity partners closely with. God has been providing several significant volunteer leaders and workers in George’s orbit. Pray for more. Pray for discernment about how to best use who he is providing.
George Gardner – Kansas State, International Students,
This George leads GFM’s student ministry in Manhattan, KS. Volunteer Teams and partnerships with churches and other ministries are a big part of George’s strategy. Students are weekly engaged in bible study. Several of George’s students are Christian, but the majority are not. Pray for George and his teams to effectively befriend and witness to the vast potential represented by thousands of K-State internationals from all over the world. George has also been taking groups of students to Bear Trap Ranch for a week of fun in the Colorado Rockies as they also encounter Jesus in scripture and friendship with Christians.
Ben – Wash-U, Faculty Ministry Advisor.
Ben is one of many answers to prayer for God to raise up leadership for faculty ministry in St. Louis. As a new faculty member in Mathematics, Ben is a strategic volunteer in George Stulac’s ministry. He’s an informal member of our area team (ha! but not in the photo above) which frees him up to serve with George on Wash-U’s campus. Ben’s life as a Christ follower has a constant undercurrent of spiritual formation that shows itself in Rule of Life thinking and practice. George will be leading a couple of the Wash-U groups with Ben this spring. It will be a unique opportunity for Ben to learn ministry from George while bringing his gifts and passions for discipleship.
Moi – GFM Area Team Leader
I have just decided this post is quite long enough. Now and then it’s ok to not say much about yourself! More on me in other posts. I’d love your prayers this week as I get my Creighton/UNO Grad Student brunches started up again.
Wake up. Shower. Breakfast with other IV staff in the hotel next door. Morning plenary – lots of worship songs that I wish I could sing better, but glad there’s a playlist. Incredible stories of God bringing hope to human trafficking victims. Students testimonies about rekindled hope for the broken-hearted and depressed. Prayer. Lunch. Workshops on Loneliness, Men and Women in Ministry, LGBTQ+, and reaching the intensely secular and skeptical. Wei Ramen for dinner. Evening plenary – more worship, Bishop Claude Alexander. Catch details on the schedule, speakers and when you can find plenary sessions being streamed (Eastern Time Zone).
We have one more full day of events extending into the night tomorrow. We’ll ring in the new year with a communion celebration! Pray for God to connect with students! My job at Urbana has been hosting afternoon workshops. It’s been a fun place to serve as I’ve watched so many different ministry leaders interact with students, hungry to learn. Here’s a small sample of Better Together: Women and Men Partnering to Advance God’s Mission.
Feel free to catch a live stream of one of the sessions at the above link. If you’re curious about the worship being shared, here’s a Spotify Play-list where you’ll find the songs we’ve been learning this week. It’s really cool to experience the way the circular stage is set so that the crowd is surrounding the speakers, and musicians. It’s been festive and upbeat!
You’ve probably notice we’ve been having horrendous weather here at the close of 2022. Did all that vicious snow wind and cold kill your conference, Tim? NO. We are off to a terrific start. YES, weather was a huge challenge. A faculty member from one of my campuses could not attend because he couldn’t get back to his hometown before leaving to come here to Indy. We also have heard story after story of upended travel plans. A group of three of my GFM colleagues were trying to leave Raleigh-Durham two days ago. At the airport at 5 in the morning they discovered their flights had been cancelled. Solution: they rented a car and safely drove 9 hours to Indianapolis! Another staff member I talked to yesterday left FROM BUFFALO, NEW YORK (again, driving instead of flying – no car rentals were even open). His wife and three children got in their own vehicle and DROVE to Urbana 22!
At last night’s first session there was heavy atmosphere of “God got you here and has something good to give you!” How many students are attending? There are about 5,700 here. Actually the smallest Urbana I have ever attended (my first Urbana was 1984). Would you pray for us this week – that God would meet students powerfully and give them good things? I’ll check in with you several times during the week. Use the link above to learn more about the speakers and link to a live-stream of the plenary events! Hope you can sample some of Urbana this week!
As the year comes to the end, I’d still love to hear from you about your ministry partnership plans for 2022. The following links are here to help you with any year end giving you may be waiting to do. Thank you so much for your partnership!
Last weekend, InterVarsity in Omaha hosted its annual progressive Christmas dinner party. After a two year break due to Covid it was wonderful to be together again and especially great to bring grad students! Our group has been growing this fall as we’ve focused on developing Spiritual Friendships. You’ve heard lots of reports about Syntrek coming together as a spiritual formation strategy. Check out the latest Syntrek article here from the front page of the fledgling website. In addition to building spiritual friendship pairs, we’ve enjoyed monthly brunch with local faculty guest mentors. It was also a nice surprise to discover another small group of Creighton Pharmacy students at the event we were completely unaware of on campus! We got a chance to meet them and extend an invitation to our events next spring!
Thanks for helping pray this group into existence! The students in the picture with me above represent about half the group. As we head into next semester, we’d love your prayers for involving more students as well as mapping out more brunch conversations. Students are just now finishing up exams and many are heading home for the holidays. I’ll be spending the next couple of weeks with our family here in Omaha, then heading out to Urbana the day after Christmas!
Urbana 22 – Rise Up!
We’d appreciate your prayers as thousands of students get registered to attend. Most Urbana delegates are undergraduate students, but the triennial missions convention is hosted by the entire InterVarsity staff team nationwide. This year we’ll be in the book of Acts exploring the theme: You shall be my Witnesses. I’ll be coming to you with live updates from the gathering, but if you’d like to see the entire convention program including featured speakers here’s a great place to explore:
Thanks so much for your prayers and support of the Perry family. Thank you for your prayers for my students, faculty and staff team. It’s been a full and rewarding Fall semester with a lot to look back on and celebrate. I hope you are enjoying a terrific Advent Season!
PBR 