Of course we're only half way through November, but next week is Thanksgiving break and we have an entire week off! Though most of mine will be spent travelling.
This past week has again been quite busy, but I actually got to have a day off for the first time in weeks which was really awesome.
Well this past Monday we had a leadership meeting with our president, vice president and treasurer. We spent the time going through some of the different things I've been working on including CSF's mission, vision, values, and goals and the responsibilities of leadership. The goal with sitting down with our leadership was for me to explain my thoughts and reasons for all that I had in there. Unfortunately I had a lot so we were unable to go through the entire responsibilities sheet. We did get through the Code of Conduct for Leadership, the responsibilities of leadership as a whole, and the Campus Minister's responsibilities.
Looking at this ministry I recognize that it is a student organization and I'm only here to advise, which is a lot different than what I'm used to with Youth Ministry. The blessing which is also a curse here is that our leadership is not developed so I get to be more hands on for now until our leadership is developed and it'll be easier for me to just pass it off and advise. But our leadership isn't developed which means I got work to do. But I'm willing to accept it!
Tuesday we had CSF as usual. This week attendance was low. From my understanding it's another time of major exams, plus it was 2 weeks before Thanksgiving week and that always adds a lot of stress and work. But the conversation was still really good on Tuesday for the ones that did come, and I really think they got some good stuff out of it.
This past weekend we had a Lock In at the church for CSF and some of our other campus ministries. It was a packed night with a lot of different things going on. The President from University Park (UP) planned it all, which was cool to see, though it did seem as if he over planned it. During the night we had a worship service with worship done by students from UP. Every week during our meeting we do communion, and I decided that we should do that Friday night as well to help the students remember why we were there, not just for fun, but in all things for Christ. After that I got up to deliver a short sermon, focusing on what here we're studying here in Altoona. Mostly I was explaining our understanding of Religion in the form of a verb and the definition that I gave it. I talked a good deal about our relationship with God, and the actions that should stem from that. I closed out with some practical uses and touched on the subject of the atrocious attacks in Paris that were still going on as I spoke.
The rest of the night continued on as expected, and nothing horrible happened, no damage to the church, no injuries, I was pleased with those outcomes! We had a total of 31 by my count which was a good number I think.
Saturday morning, after we cleaned the entire church and with me being up for just shy of 24 hours straight, I attended the Elders Meeting for the church to introduce myself, and tell of the plans that we have for CSF. Then I slept all day.
Yesterday was a pretty normal day, though one difference was that I officially transferred my membership to the church.
Then finally today, though almost over, has been pretty busy as well. Outside of my normal Monday routine, I met with the head of the Office of Student Life and had some really good discussion about campus and some of the problems we see here. The problem is, how can CSF help with these problems in a way that the campus will allow us, being a religious organization, yet we still have our faith background there? Really what it comes down to is we need to find a way to be a bridge between Christianity and the World, so we may have to secularize our teachings in a way to be a benefit for campus an to not alienate those with a negative view of religion. This will become a major discussion among our leadership in the near future I hope!
But other than that, I have another packed week, though like I said we're beginning to come down the home stretch!
Thanks for your time!
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