Saturday, April 27, 2013

Evangelism Team

This afternoon I finished working on the next school year's plans for Cru. I've also been officially made part of the evangelism team. It is both an exciting experiences - and also a little scary.

"Shawn the Evangelist"

For almost as long as I've been a Christian, I've had a desire to spread the Gospel to the unsaved. Strike up spiritual conversations, see where others stand. I was fairly outspoken for the first couple of years, then I got some hostile resistance. I suppose you could say I became rather timid about it. If someone brings up the topic first I have no issue discussing it. But being the one who instigates talk about it, that is difficult for me. There are so many things I would feel more comfortable discussing rather than my faith.

My fear is being treated harshly by the people I'm attempting to reach out to. Getting yelled at, being at the receiving end of coarse language and hatred. I see it all the time on the Internet. Christians are utterly loathed online and I don't doubt some of these strong emotions extend into real life as well. Most of my evangelism has been on the Internet, but now I have an impetus to take part of it in real life. Face to face conversation is more likely to cause change in others than text on a screen.

Nonetheless, evangelism has always been part of my calling. Despite the fear, it's something I want to do. I find it exciting to engage someone in talk about Jesus and where they stand spiritually. Cru has instilled a curiosity in me to find what others believe about God, Jesus, religion, and so on. Being part of the evangelism team, and having an evangelistic lifestyle personally, will let me act upon this desire.

"Culture of Evangelism"

As a member of the evangelism team, my only role isn't just to reach out to the lost. There are students in Cru who want to learn the art of evangelism. One of the roles of myself and my teammates is to train others to be effective evangelist. Teaching is another thing I enjoy doing. There is a lot I know and I want to share it with others. What good is knowledge if it isn't passed on to others?

It excites me that I now have a role in the ministry. I think it's a good organization and the Holy Spirit is using it powerfully. Cru has helped me a lot personally, so it's only natural for me to want to be part of it and benefit others. Giving back to a ministry that has given so much to me. We are mainly going to do this by offering training events a few times for the school year, and also one-on-one training. I look forward to it.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Working for God

"Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men" (Colossians 3:23)

"Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might; for there is no activity or planning or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol where you are going." (Ecclesiastes 9:10)

At the meeting for the campus ministry I attend (Cru), we talked about work. You know, having a job. The message was about how... wait for it... work is something given to us by God. In a way, it is our calling on a practical level. Some people have callings as ministers or evangelists. We all have another calling - as a programmer or builder or dish washer or nanny. This puts what I would otherwise consider quite tedious in a more divine perspective.

"Web Devs 4 Jesus"

I know that God gives us gifts in order to do certain things. I am gifted with a knack for computer programming, writing, and ministry. So I've long thought "alright, I will be a Web developer for my day job and a Bible teacher secondarily, with writing as a hobby." In order to spread the Gospel one of the things I ought to do is display a Christ-like character, and try to open venues to discussion about the faith. What didn't occur to me is that, like being called to ministry, one could also be called to a certain vocation!

In Genesis 1:28, God gives Adam and Eve the command to subdue the Earth. Theologians call this the cultural mandate. We are called to cultivate (hence the word "cultural") the raw resources of the world and make something great out of it. Keep in mind, this is before sin entered the world. That means work is not the result of sin. Perhaps it was made more difficult due to sin, but it existed before Satan tempted Adam and Eve. "Work" - the act of devoting one's time to a particular activity - is divinely instituted.

This is new to me. My understanding of work and religion has always been this: my primary goal on this Earth is to reach out to the unsaved and make disciples. Work was just one of the venues created by a money-based society for me to do that. In his foreknowledge, God gave me certain skills so I could provide for myself and whatever family I might eventually have, while somehow evangelizing to my co-workers. I considered it a "necessary evil."

"Called to Work"

But work is more than just something done to provide money to do actual "important" stuff for Jesus. This is what is currently blowing my mind: if I am understanding this right, work is every bit a calling as being called to ministry is. Work's not just a side-effect of society, it's part of God's plan for humanity. Its origin and reason for existence is literally divine. In my mind this makes work, whatever it may be, much more important and respectable than I originally thought.

God could have chosen to routinely make food miraculously appear in front of us at the dinner table. He could have made it so that, at the first prayer, relief shelters would appear in impoverished African nations. But he doesn't do that. Instead he works "behind a mask," as some would say. Through the work of people God provides the needs of the world.

I'm intending to be a Web developer for my career. With what I've said above in mind, I've realized how, even though it is work, it is also part of God's calling for my life. On the Internet there's an often-stated phrase, "You're doing God's work, son." As a computer programmer, my calling, I'm doing God's work. That is intensely profound and motivating.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Intelligence, Academia, and Idolatry

Recently in my community group, we talked about idolatry. Even though I don't bow down to wooden figurines, it made me think about something that may have been an idol of sorts in my own life: my smarts.

"Brainiac"

One question that was brought up was, how do we know when school has become an idol? I'm pretty sure we've all worried and been anxious about taking tests and seeing what kinds of grades you get. When you're in college, these things are rather important. They, in some way, influence how you advance in the future. Nobody wants to fail a test. It looks bad on the GPA and might deter possible employers. Failing a course is costly in terms of time and money.

I think school might be an idol if we worry too much about it. An idol is something that we give over control of our lives to. We look to our idol for security and fulfillment. The problem is, grades aren't very good at that. God has already established himself to be faithful in giving us security and hope, but grades can't offer that same hope. They're fickle. We might go into a course expecting bad grades, and come out well. Or we could go into the exam room thinking we have it all figured out, only to discover ourselves woefully lacking in the needed knowledge.

When we give control to grades and academia, making it our idol, we give ourselves to an unfaithful master. So we worry whether we will do well. It really feels like a roll of the dice. If it seems like the outcome is pure chance, where can we get hope from that? The proper response, from a Christian perspective, is to realize that our hope should not come from getting good grades, but rather from God. If we are faithful to him, God will see to it that things work out for our best, and his will be done. Even if it means - gasp - getting a few bad grades. It's one thing to be anxious before seeing the numbers. It's another thing to hinge our entire lives on them.

"I am so Smart, S-M-R-T"

From about fifth grade through high school, I was the star student. In high school I was usually near the top of the class, was in the honor society, took college-level courses in junior year, and so on. Even in community college I was rocking the 4.0 GPA four out of five semesters.

As you might imagine, something I've always valued is my intelligence. I was praised for being smart for my age, being ahead of the curve. And I wonder if that's not been an idol in my life at some point. If something is an idol, you put great value into it, especially emotional value. It means a lot to me that I am smart. In fact, it was quite a humbling experience to find out that I really wasn't so smart after all. Oh sure I could handle high school, but what about the real life stuff? Filing taxes, driving a car, those things. Let's not even mention college, where my average test score is simply "passing" - not above average, not stellar, just passing.

I feel like I could handle physical disease better than I could mental ones. I could probably handle going bald or losing motor skills. But things like dementia, amnesia and Alzheimer's - those are the things that really bother me. I've build up a warehouse of knowledge in my brain that is continually being improved upon. The notion of it wasting away, becoming inaccessible to me is the worst kind of punishment. In a way, I would be losing who I am.

Maybe I'm putting my intelligence on an undeserved pedestal. I think maybe it's time I acknowledge it for what is is - a gift from God. Because that's really what it is. I'm smart because God needed someone smart to carry out his plans, and he just happened to decide upon me. Yeah I'm the one who studied and built up that intelligence, but it's God who gave me the ability to learn so readily and keep knowledge for so long. Instead of valuing the intellect, I should value the giver of the intellect. If I am to boast about my smarts, I can only boast about God giving me the smarts. It's his workmanship, after all. Instead of being haughty that I know so much, I could remember that I am just a servant of God's, and the intellect is just one of the tools I've been given to act as that servant. The credit doesn't go to me, it goes to Someone higher than me.