Mentoring.
I think one could easily build the case for this being one of the most challenging times in history to attempt to mentor—especially young adults.
And at the same time I think one could just as easily build the case for this being one of the direst of times for young adults—where mentors are needed now, more than ever.
Call me crazy, but with the launch of Shaping Their Future just a few days away now, I figured it might be time to get started on my next book.
CAMPUS gODS: Exposing the Idols That Can Derail Your Present and Destroy Your Future
How’s that sound for a working title?
“It seems that more than ever the compulsion today is to identify, to reduce someone to what is on the label. To identify is to control, to limit. To love is to call by name and so open the wide gates of creativity. But we forget names and turn to labels.” –Madeline L’Engle
LGBTQ is the latest in a long list of labels used to identify people with sexual orientations that differ from the heterosexual norm.
For the past 10 years, I have been privileged to be the pastor, counselor, mentor, “Dad,” spiritual guide, and friend to hundreds upon hundreds of students at Florida State University.
We’ve discussed everything from theology to dating to vocations and callings. We’ve laughed together, and we’ve cried. Some talks have brightened my days, and some have broken my heart.
Among the heartbreakers, a persistent, nagging theme has recently emerged via three different, but related, issues…
“If God was looking down on you, would it look any different to Him?”
I was in college and struggling with setting physical boundaries with my current boyfriend. I knew that God intended sex for within the confines of marriage and believed there were consequences if I disobeyed, but I wasn’t sure where the line was. How far is too far? I knew I felt shame and guilt for some of the behavior I had engaged in, but was it really wrong or was I over re-acting?
I shared these thoughts with my friend and mentor, Jenn.
I’m not sure I’m in the best position to make a contribution to this blogathon, given its topic, Sex and the Soul. I have grown long in the tooth and I find myself sounding like my parents.
But, I must be honest: I think the topic looms huge, the veritable 500-pound gorilla always there in the corner of the room.
Maybe a story from my own college experience will help to frame my concern.
Sacrifice is not something we talk about much in our society.
It seems to fly in the face of everything our North American culture tells us we should be about.
Lookout out for #1.
Indulge yourself.
Take what you want.
Don’t hold back.
The world is yours.
You deserve it.
I’m excited to share with you a great resource that addresses one of the most significant issues facing the Church today — biblical illiteracy.
The Bible is the best-selling book of all time. Most of us have multiple copies on our bookshelf. We have audio Bibles on our iPods, and we can even read and listen to the Bible on our mobile phones for free.
Still, according to the Center for Bible Engagement, 66 percent of U.S. Christians rarely or never read their Bible.
Campus Minister, and author of Question Everything: A Fresh Way to Read the Best-Selling Book of All Time, Tyler Ellis has crafted this resource with intention of helping people — young and old — to explore the Bible, better understand the Bible, and more fully live out the truths of the Bible in their everyday living.
I recently ran across this quote while re-reading Parker Palmer’s, Let Your Life Speak:
We will become better teachers not by trying to fill the potholes in our souls but by knowing them so well that we can avoid falling into them. (Parker Palmer, Let Your Life Speak, p. 52)
As I read and re-read those words, something resonated deep within me, and I was able to see how these wise words apply for beyond the scope of teaching — to touch most of life really.
Given the work that we do with students, my first thought was to replace the word teachers in the aforementioned quote, with the word leaders (or pastors or equippers:
It’s a new year, which means that a new season of ministry with students is upon us.
And as we’ve launched into 2013, I’ve generated a new reading list, and decided to start the year by re-reading a couple of classics.
One of my first re-reads of the year is Richard Foster’s, Celebration of Discipline.
I couldn’t venture a guess as to the number of times that I’ve worked through this book. The first time I read it I was in grad. school — and it changed my life! Since then I’ve re-read it several times on my own, and led numerous groups through it as a way of learning to work on the interior life.