Fiberglass Adventure

This afternoon I ventured into the unfamiliar waters of the Juniata River. I’ve passed many times by automobile over concrete bridges but never by a light-weight, me-powered kayak. Adventure seized my afternoon.

I met today’s instructor through my partnership with Standing Stone Coffee Company (shameless plug) and his regular visits, often reading a new novel and drinking tea at our bar. After several weeks of busy schedules we finally found a time slot to swift and stride across the cool waters of the river before they become chilly and frozen waters.

The Kayak Expert

Since my kayak experience could be defined as “novice”, it was helpful to have an “instructor” (maybe I should have referred to him as “Mr. so-and-so).My inital reaction was “Wow! I am so level with the water!” It reminds me of the clip from Superman Returns when the flying man in tights was gliding along the water with Lois Lane (only mine is a lot slower and spandex isn’t the look I go for in most settings). While you physically move across the water it seems like you mentally try to soak up everything around you.

After paddling down stream and figuring out how to move, how to paddle, and how not to tip too much, I felt better about the whole floating in a banana practice. Now came the challenge – upstream!

I managed well enough to get stuck on a giant rock (or as I suspected a mysterious dead body) which resulted in my instructor “unlodging” me off the sucker. Despite other rammings and vigorous paddle prodding into the water, I finally was relieved of this rocky situation (pun intended) and drifted back downstream – a piece of cake in comparison to the latter.

What keeps striking me about the outdoors is the bigness of creation. I make the world into my own little domain where it seems easy to think I am the master. This is an easy trap in our culture. “Why need someone else when you can do it yourself? Self sufficiency!” some may say.

But really, I am a small puzzle piece in the grand scheme of things. Even further, I’ve spent time in the outdoors alone and with other people and to be honest, it’s always more fun with a friend. Whether it’s a hike, a walk, or a spell in a kayak, living life with others makes a whole lot more sense in the long run.

Community is like Wheaties for the soul – it’s fuel for life. And Wheaties is good for the body, especially those upper body muscles receiving an aquatic workout.

Uno Hoodie Poster

Couches and Community

I believe our minds function as time machines at various times. Whether it’s a reflection, a familiar scent, or a funny phrase, we can instantly zap into a world of the past, a page from our own story, a place we once knew.

Tonight I wanted to lay horizontal across a couch in a teal colored room, a room I once knew as a meeting space, game spot, bible study location, and soothing livingroom. This room is the living room of my former intentional community house as a college student. After a long day of work after many long days of work, I wanted to retreat to this place, curl up with community of the past, and embrace old friends with hugs and recollections of pranks and muses about the Kingdom.

After my time at Standing Stone Coffee Co. came to a close I entered into phrase two of the Sunday- the first meeting of  Vision of Community Project.  This small group of community members, pastors, campus ministers, business people, and college students will ask tough questions about community, how we understand the concept, where our fit is, and how we respond to our community. In this study of community, community development, and the Christian faith we will reading articles and discussing our findings and thoughts on understanding, digging into, restoring, and forming a vision for community. Incredible depth. Incredible potential.

One portion of our conversation tonight was centered around the definition and understanding of community. Around the small, round tables at the coffee shop, words and ideas were jotted down. Here are a few shared words:

human longing - story - transformation – seasons – family – beyond aesthetic – shared work – sacrifice – piece of shalom – glimpse of meaning – identity – history – group – places of love

For me, personally, this idea of shalom and love is what comes to mind when I think of that couch in a teal room with books, shoes, and scarves laying about. It’s what comes to mind when I hop down the steps of the coffee shop with a grin on my face after a humorous conversation or exchange of dry humor. It’s the laughter around a table with friends sharing a meal or playing a card game. These are sometimes pictures of shalom-  snapshots, more like it. Small snippets of time where a feeling of wholeness is embraced.

In society we join country clubs, fire departments, orchestras, follow sports teams, engage the outdoors, become board members, give to a non-profit, and more as ways of embracing community, thus establishing part of our own identity. In those communities it is possible to experience transformation, and sometimes it isn’t. Depending on the community, it can either walk through seasons of life with you and fulfill this human longing or it can banish you to the side and spawn a sense of cynical perspective about community in general (or super individualism).

Community is beyond any definition but not outside of our grasp. I believe we were created for community by our Creator and we find meaning through our communities. This is one of the many reasons why college life is so transformational – a 4+ year time span of community, life engagement, search for meaning, self-discovery, celebration of life, and vision for the future. It can also be a place for rebellion, confusion, frustration, and cynicism. You could say that college is one giant melting pot of life, serving in a bowl of 4 years, fueling the rest of your life, and possibly taking a lifetime to digest.

Community changed my life and it’s one of the things I love about campus ministry. It’s a passion of mine to bring people into a community where they find a piece of their own shalom, a vision for community, a vision for life, a vision for the Kingdom.As much as I would love to lay horizontal on the couch after a long day, I rather have people sitting on the couch with me. A couch was made for more than one.

I pray we all find our couches.

And you can paint the room whatever color you want.

We are called to do the world of ministry. Unless we understand the nature of that challenge, – the “occupational hazards” of ministry – we in the church will inevitably retrench, scaling back our mission to serve ourselves, not the world. When we do so, we become just like every other human institution and the church’s unique calling fades away.”
Philip Yancy   Church, Why Bother

Thursday Nights

It took place every Thursday night. I would shuffle down a block and managed to cross the busy street to a warm, lit house and rang the old, chime doorbell. Inside I would head upstairs to Apartment B (just another section of the house) to the second kitchen/studyroom where 2 or 3 other ladies and my CCO campus minister would come together for an hour and a half. We would chit chat and laugh hysterically about all sorts of random and trivial things as we sat on the floor or on vintage furniture. But in those several month I experienced more than a friendly gathering time – I discovered the beauty, the depth, and the power of the Bible for quite possibly the first time in my life.

The college season of my life was both educational but also transforming where everything changed. I left college asking questions about the Church, discipleship, service, being environmentally friendly, doing justice in an unjust world, and building community. But before I could ask any of these questions, I had to begin with the Word. The Gospel had to be the foundation of my heart because from that point I would stand from that foundation to develop a vision and missional life.

It wasn’t the talking my campus minister did that most transformed my life – it was how she lived. I had the privilege of living with two different campus ministers in the same house where that freshman study took place. I saw how they cared for creation, how they listened not because they had to but because they cared about others more than themselves, how they spent time alone with Christ, how they spent time with others in Christ, how they carried lumber on Habitat for Humanity sites, how they cared for the hurting in the community, how they counseled, consoled, and were a shoulder to cry on. Their shoulders were never one of cheap advice or statements of “Everything happens for a reason”. They were shoulders of silent and prayerful comfort when hurtful and sad things wreck our hearts.

For their love, I thank Jesus Christ.

At Juniata College as a campus minister, I feel like I’m just getting started. I’m just getting warmed up. I have finally transitioned to this new place with a new job and new community. Where do I go from here? This passage is part of the vision I see across campus:

“Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them,  “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:16-20

Jesus, who had invested in these 11, had appeared to them after the Resurrection. Struck by disbelief (despite the signs and words of Christ before the Crucifixion), they worshipped but some doubted as well. In this time Jesus commands them to go, baptize, and teach, to make disciples of all nations in His name. Interestingly enough, when we say “in His name” we are saying “in His character“. We are to teach others the character of Jesus, to teach them who he is.

In these small group studies taking place over meals I hope to share life with students. What does that mean? It means asking about classes, their roommates, family, holidays, exams, stresses, and simply spending time together. It means going outside the context of weekly study and taking a hike together, seeing the changing leaves of autumn, baking bread, going to a film festival, seeing a performance on campus, and taking trips to conferences.

As I head into the second year of ministry of reaching out to students on campus, I am passionate about creating a space where community flourishes, the Scripture is revealed, and Christ is glorified. It’s a humbling vision because all of those elements are completed by Christ. I do not transform lives – Christ does. In this process of investing in a few I am creating a space and pouring into others as I have been poured into. By investing in a few students in bible studies over meals I pray for students to then lead other studies where they invite their  hall mates, their fellow club members, their roommates and teammates into times of authentic community where the Word is studied, real life-on-life is shared, and a snippet of  Kingdom of God is displayed. It’s a place where we see Scripture impacting our lives and changing us. If this man named Jesus is real and we believe He is resurrected, it should change everything. And so Scripture is opened to be that active and double-edged sword, convicting, and life-changing, just as it was every Thursday night at 316 Meadville Street.

As I listened to an online sermon from McLane Church titled ” Things I’ve Learned Along The Way: From Eleven To A Million And Beyond”, the teaching pastor, Daryl Myer, reminded and encouraged me of this vision for discipleship.He shared this statement from an educator of his:

“How much does your life count? Who’s going to remember you 3 or 4 generations from now? Who will be in the history books?

Why not do something that can last for all eternity? The world might not notice, you may not get into the history textbook, the ramifications can last forever.

It lasts for an entire lifetime. And the world just might be changed. Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded. May that be our charge today.

Amen.

Ellis on Campus

Tran-si-tion /trænˈzɪʃən, -ˈsɪʃ-/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [tran-zish-uhn, -sish-] noun : movement, passage, or change from one position, state, stage, subject, concept, etc., to another; change: the transition from adolescence to adulthood.

College teaches you heaps about yourself and about the world you live in. One of those lessons for me was transitions. Whether it was leaving home, leaving campus, getting in a car to live in New Jersey for 10 weeks with strangers, or getting on a plane to California to intern with 30 domestic and international strangers, each passage of change and challenge came with it’s own transition lessons.

In year two of campus ministry with the CCO at Juniata College, I can’t tell you what a blessing it is to not transition as such a high degree. Of course things change each year with new students, new staff and faculty, and new ideas, but at least this season isn’t bringing total life change. Last year my life was a transition – community, church, work, calling, co-workers, friends, housing, finances, and the list goes on. Brian McLaren wrote a book titled “Everything Must Change”. That was my first year at Juniata. Everything did change.

So heading into this new semester where stability is much appreciated due to it’s increased presence, there are many soothing benefits:

• Meeting new students
  It’s not all new folks – there are returning folks as well! So I can bounce back between new and returning students as I socialize with students.
• Knowing my job
  I can wake up in the morning and tell you why I get out of bed. There is a stronger sense of calling and a better feel for how I might fit into ministry at Juniata College and who my co-workers are, what campus is like, where to spend time, and how to make a mean latte.
  
• My brain has more virtual memory
  Because I’m not constantly processing many other applications of life in my brain, I can move from the stage of transition to the stage of vision and mission. How can I serve here better? Where do I serve? How can I be stretched? How can I stretch others? How do I better reflect Christ as an image bearer?

Much beauty comes out of those times of transition but in this moment of returning to something familiar I must respond with thankfulness and celebration for an exciting semester ahead.