Tomorrow at 8:00am marks academic year #2. Please fasten your seatbelts.

Here is an interesting story about a trend that has been growing over the last several years:

Cell phones taking over as timepieces

This is true. Ninety percent of all college students use cell phones now, almost all of which prominently display the time on their screens. My own watch broke many months ago, and I have not had the desire to buy another simply because I carry my own "pocket watch" of sorts around with me all of the time. It is very interesting to watch the unintended ripple effects of devices and technologies as they become ubiquitous. Who knew that the rise of cell phones would mark the decline of the watchmaking industry?

Two symbolic events, one that I loved even before coming to ACU and one that has become interesting to me since I've been a student here, are now past. The first one is Freshman move-in. I have always loved this day (except for when I was one of those freshmen) because it represents everything there is about college - parents bringing students to a new place, letting them go, students wanting their family to just-hurry-up-and-leave-so-I-can-start-my-own-life, the students who arrive without knowing anyone, the awkward strain between students and parents, the awkwardness of new students who just don't really know what to do, and watching the first encounters between people that you know are going to form friendships that will be important for years. I like meeting the students and I have come to enjoy meeting their parents. Oddly enough I actually met a set of parents that graduated from OU and met at the Outreach Center. This was always an important day for me at OU and at Alabama because of the tremendous ministry potential. I know people who found their faith community in college because of encountering someone who helped them move in.


The second - the one that I have participated in since being at ACU - is the annual welcome week candlelight devo. This is a tradition where upperclassmen line the sidewalk between the Moody coliseum and the ampitheater and sing while the freshmen file through to the ampitheater. Everyone has candles and soon the whole ampitheater is lit with new students and their candles and the hundreds of upperclassmen who spill out onto the lawn. The worship is great and it's a nice ceremony to bring the students together. I'm impressed by the number of upperclassmen who show up. It's an ACU tradition that I have come to respect.

So, once again we embark on the beginning of a new cycle of life-changing and life-defining experiences for a set of people who have no idea what they are in for. Welcome to the ride. Welcome to college.

Well all my whining can stop because we've been allowed to do the online stuff. (On a "trial" basis.) Yay.

I like to read the history of churches when they have them posted on their websites, etc. One thing that I've noticed is that most written church histories are really a history of their building and location. (The building was built at such and such streets, and in 19?? moved to another location and built a new building, then in 19?? added a children's wing and fellowship hall, etc.) There often is very little to nothing about the evolving character of a congregation or an overview of its people and its work. Almost nothing is typically said about what has influenced the community over the years or how its mission has determined its makeup. It seems that a church's building would only be a side note to what has really gone on over the years. I wonder if we have put so much stock into our facilities that we let that be our "spiritual work" and "comfort food."

I'm thinking we'll see quite a different history from this church.

I am a member of a megachurch (about 3,000 members) in Abilene, Texas. And I am a postmodern (as much as I hate to use that term). Sometimes I see why the two often do not have much to do with each other.

Megachurches necessarily must operate by big-business models. This makes them, as much as they claim not to be, very similar to big corporations. This in itself is not necessarily a bad thing, but it can have frustrating consequences on those who try to get things done within the confines of a corporate bureaucratic system. One of the downfalls of power-handling within the corporate business model (whether it is a church or a business) is the propensity for those in power to imagine problems where there are none, and thus seize control of grass-roots processes that have sprung up within the system and destroy them.

What does that mean, you say? Let me give you an example. I help lead a campus ministry within this church that deals with at least 400-500 students. This means that when we do things that require some level of administration, we have to try to do it as efficiently as possible or it becomes a big mess. Take Fall Retreat for example. We are attempting to have at least 100 students attend this weekend getaway which will help draw them closer to God and to each other. What this involves behind the scenes is promoting the event, getting people registered, tracking information, accepting payments, handling money, and you get the picture. We are trying to make the registration and payment part of this as easy as possible on everyone, so we have set up our website (www.southernhillscampus.com) to handle this process. Students visit the site whenever they want, fill out the form, hit submit, then enter their debit or credit card information on a special PayPal page to make their $39 payment. They get a receipt, we get their payment, badda bing, it's all taken care of.

Easy, eh! That's what we thought. Until the elders got involved.

The accountant in the office was hesitant to provide the bank account information for the final transfer of payments. She referred to the elders. Now the campus ministry cluster elders are circling, wondering what this whole thing is and if it fits the "financial message" that is promoted through the Financial Peace ministry. Basically the two words that are scaring everyone who doesn't know about these things is "credit card." Nevermind that all we are doing is using a secure process to accept a payment that we are already asking the students to make. Nevermind that it is a method that most students prefer because they don't even carry checkbooks or cash anymore. Nevermind that dozens of other campus ministries have used this system for years. All they are recognizing is that the Financial Peace ministry recommends that people not have credit cards and this is something that lets someone use a credit card if they so choose. Therefore, the whole process, which was already in place and functioning, is now on ice until the elders consult with the Financial Peace ministry and write an official policy. Which could take weeks. By then the retreat is over.

Postmoderns are abandoning megachurches and institutions by the droves. It doesn't make sense to them to combine the intimate and organic community we are called to by Christ with monolithic business structures and hierarchical power positions. Thus, churches and ministries such as mine face the real danger of institutionally shooting themselves in the foot in the face a social era that is already skeptical of them.

I have communicated off and on with the China Now! ministry for a couple of years, both because I have several good friends who have worked and are working in China because of them and because I have had an interest in some special opportunities that they have had in the past. This past weekend at NCMS I talked with one of the CN! guys for a while about things they are doing and about mutual friends. Today I received a form-letter followup email from them, which is nothing special except for the quote they appended at the end:

"It will not do to say that you have no special call to go to China. With these facts before you and with the command of the Lord Jesus to go and preach the gospel to every creature, you need rather to ascertain whether you have a special call to stay at home." -- J. Hudson Taylor

This is interesting to me because in a way it actually reaffirms the special call that I do believe I have to stay at home. Home, at least, being America. And staying at home meaning doing my long-term work here. I fully intend to spend significant amounts of more time in short-term works overseas, and certainly in China. But instead of being unseated by such a quote into the desire to hop a plane to Asia, it was strangely comforting to feel an assurance of what God wants to do with me here, for the university students of America.

It's felt like anti-social week for me. I've been pretty content to sit at home most of the time, not doing much of anything. This has also has meant lots of time mulling over the events of last weekend at NCMS and asking God what it all means.

Today I spent part of the day in the Special Collections section of the ACU library. I haven't told the story yet on this blog as to why I am doing this, but I spent a few hours reading through a large collection of letters written back and forth between Jim Bevis and associates regarding the work of the Campus Evangelism movement of the 1960s. I also read through several old issues of the Campus Crosswalk newspaper when it was published out of Arlington in the early 90s (when it was REALLY GOOD), plus started sifting through really old issues of the Campus Journal going back to 1969. There is a massive story that has unfolded in America regarding campus ministry in Churches of Christ and I'm pretty sure that almost none of us really know it. It is amazing to see the connections fall into place. To read the handwritten, passionate joy and anguish of the leaders of national movement seeking to reach campuses. To see how so many people really did have a grip on the power and spirit that God was pouring out, even in the 60s. The disappointment of realizing that even though there has been a twinge of renewal in recent years, campus ministry as a mission has faded from view in Churches of Christ. Some of the biggest names in the history of our heritage have had their hand in some stream of campus ministry. This really can't be said anymore.

More to come. Plus, I'll get to part two of the State School series. Stay tuned.

Jim Bevis was there. He said there are no coincidences. He also said that night would go down in history.