It was another BIG month at FaithONCampus.com!
In case you missed it, I made a couple of BIG announcements this past month:
- 2 Books, the Month of July, & My Attempts at Keeping Things Sane
- Announcing the Faith ON Campus Summer Institute
The writing will have a significant impact on my month of July — so you can expect some of the “best of” from the Archives, as well as some guest posts that will totally be worth checking out!
The Summer Institute will not take place until NEXT June — but is something you need to find out about NOW, so be sure to check out that link!
And in case you missed any of these — here are the Top 10 posts for the month of June! Be sure to read, reflect, and share your thoughts in the comment section!
10. Morality vs. Holiness Among Young Christians
I ran across this collection of statistics and wanted to make sure I shared with you — in case you hadn’t run across it in your own online reading.
There’s a lot here.
And the good folks at Gallup did a great job of covering a broad range of “moral” topics.
What we don’t know about those who were polled for this data is what religious affiliation (if any) the respondents claim. Likely, it’s a pretty accurate cross-section of the American population, and therefore, it would be safe to say that these are the dominant “beliefs” of American culture. (Keep reading)
9. Do You Know About PicMonkey?
Do you know about PicMonkey.com?
It’s a great, (and I think) relatively new, online photo editing site.
AND IT’S FREE!
I don’t know about you — but as a ministry leader, I regularly find myself in situations where I’m wanting to add text to an image, create poster (that doesn’t look like it was created by a 3rd grader), manipulate photos to enhance a webpage, etc. — but have lacked the expensive software and/or know how.
Well, thanks to PicMonkey.com, that’s all changed! (Keep reading)
8. 7 Things College Students Wish Every Educator Knew
Earlier this summer I had the chance to sit with Dr. Tim Clydesdale, author of The First Year Out: Understanding American Teens After High School.
His current project (which I think will be released sometime this summer or fall) is on college students collectively.
The research he conducted with high school grads (many of whom went to college), that was presented in his first book, was carried on and was the focus of our conversation. (Keep reading)
7. Why the Local Church NEEDS College Students
In a previous post I shared some thoughts on why I think college students need the local church. This post sparked some good comments and conversations…
This leads me to believe that I’m not the only one thinking about this.
And that’s good!
Today I want to explore some thoughts on why I think the local church needscollege students.
There are three primary reasons (although I’m sure we can identify more) why I think every local church NEEDS to have college students involved in their faith community. (Keep reading)
6. Leaders Who Live in the Gray of Life
Do you have standards for your leaders?
You know, those people who mean so much to your ministry efforts — the ones who serve as extensions of you and the ministry you oversee. Those people who multiply your reach and effectiveness exponentially. Those individuals that magnify the effectiveness of your ministry because of the unique gifts, passions, and talents the bring to the table.
You know, those folks…
Do you have standards that might qualify (or disqualify) them for leadership within your ministry? (Keep reading)
5. We Should Hangout More Often
I can’t quite recall when the switch happened, but it was probably 4 or 5 years into my college ministry career when I started to look forward to conference more for the relational connections than for the conference content.
Do you know what I meant?
There’s just something about with people who get what we do that’s so significant, so generative.
People of similar heart and mind, who feel called to reach college students with the Good News of Jesus Christ. (Keep reading)
4. It’s Not Self-Care: Rethinking Sabbath | Steve Rankin
I begin with a mea culpa. Often I have been labeled as one of those Type A personalities and only recently have I ‘fessed up to it. I wake up early each morning and I’m instantly alert, my mind whirring with thoughts and tasks for the day. I don’t have real hobbies, even though I like to do things for fun. But most of those “fun” things must have some purposeful edge to them. I want to get better at playing the guitar. I want to improve my golf game. I read all the time, but I rarely read “just for fun.” I don’t do a very good job of taking a full day off each week. I’m not good at chit-chat conversations. But give me a “serious issue” to discuss and I’m all over it. (Keep reading)
3. [INFOGRAPHIC] Teens and Porn: 10 Stats You Need to Know
As I mentioned in my post yesterday, I’ve got a second book in the works…
The first book is geared towards Mentors — really anyone who might speak into the lives of college students (including, but not limited to: parents, pastors, professors, coaches, directors, et al). I hope it will serve as a guide for having important and timely conversations with students during their formative college years.
The second book will be geared towards college students and will examine some of the things that are literally “killing their souls.” (Keep reading)
2. Is Sex Before Marriage Really a Sin?
Does that sound like a loaded question to you?
Loaded or not, this is a question that more and more young believers are asking — and in all seriousness.
There seems to be a growing belief among some Christians that sex BEFORE marriage is NOT a sin.
They can quote to you all of the biblical passages that talk about adultery, and give their rational for why they believe those passages only apply to married and divorced individuals. (Keep reading)
1. Love > Sex
God IS love.
God is not sex.
But I think that many of us have made an idol out of sex. We’ve made sex a god that we worship. We have made sex out to be the pinnacle expression of love… and while it is great– a special gift from God — it is by no means the be all and end all of love.
The Enemy has sold us a bill of lies.
And he’s been using the powerful influence of pop-culture and the media to do it… for much of our lives. (Keep reading)
