Wow, where even to start? The past summer was so jam packed and insane. I can't believe how fast things moved. Sorry for the randomly mixed in photos >.<

The first class we had was when Heather Strong-Moore came and spoke to us about World View and Academic Faithfulness. One thing she asked us was "what does it look like to be motivated differently?". We can't fully know who we are apart from God's nature. And, God cannot be mirrored by one person, but needs a multitude of people. Even then, we cannot see the fullness and goodness of who God is. One of my favorite quotes of that night was: "God's image is within us. The mirror is shattered, but it is still in the frame". Something else that she said that night that stood out to me was "When we grieve, we are affirming the goodness of God because we realize what the world should be". And, also, realizing that God is not trying to keep us under his thumb, He is trying to protect us. That is a hard one sometimes. It is so easy to think that God is controlling us for some reason. But, He is only trying to protect his children. There was so much more to her talk, but those were a few things that really stood out to me.

The next class I want to talk about is the class based off of Gospel Centered Life that was taught by Pete Ware. First off, if you have not read this book, you should. It is VERY good. One thing I remember talking about was how Jesus died for our successes...He died for our righteous acts. He died for these because these are the things that we rely on. We far too often rely on our righteous acts to make us worthy. Only Christ can make us worthy. It's only through the lens of our sin that we can see God's awesomeness. One thing that he said that has stuck with me and others and that we have said many times to each other is "Cheer up. You're far worse then you think you are. But, you're far more loved then you could ever dare hope". We spend all of our lives by identifying ourselves by what other people think. But, we should be finding it in what God thinks. "The gospel is not just the A,B,Cs of your faith; it is the A-Z of your faith. Two big things we talked about was impartation vs. imputation. Impartation: Taking on the image of the parent-did not happen on the cross. Imputation: We are adopted-Christ was treated as if he was a sinner and we were as if we are righteous-what happened on the cross. And then the concept of Double Imputation was talked about. Double Imputation: Not only are our sins removed and put on Jesus, His righteousness was also put onto me. Now that is insanely, crazy good news. That concept is just incredible to think about. Just stop for a moment and let all that sink in. The thing about being adopted by Christ is that it deals with our identity and shame. Because, to deal with our shame, we need to be given a new identity. This most definitely happens when we are adopted in Christ. Christianity has 3 parts: 1) Justification 2) Adoption 3) Sanctification.  Another concept that Pete presented us with was "If I really believed in the gospel, I wouldn't have any problem with sin". Chew on that. Do you think that is accurate? I honestly don't know what I think about this one. I want to keep on talking about what he talked about. However, there is so much more I need to write about the rest of the project. So, please, ask me about it. Because I would love to talk about it.
So, two weeks ago I led my first ever bible study. I felt as if it went really well. It was also very cool because my campus minister, Isaac Vineyard, was here and got to sit in on the study that I led. It was about Hebrews and the similarities between Melchizedek and Christ. And, what it looks like to have Christ as our great high priest.

The next class subject we talked about was our strengths. We took this like quiz thing that was a bunch of questions that showed us what our top 5 strengths are. Mine were (in order) 1)Restorative 2)Relator 3)Communication 4)Adaptability 5)Belief. We talked about a couple lies that we often believe: "work on your weaknesses" and "a good leader is well rounded". Good leaders should be working and leaning in on their strengths to make them better. And, good leaders aren't well rounded. Good leadership teams are well rounded. They have all the people put together to make a team that has all the components you need. A strength is a pattern of thinking, feeling, or behaving. And strength based leadership is a combination of talent+investment+time=strength. There are also 3 pieces to the biblical theology of leadership: 1)Power 2)Authority 3)Stewardship. If we were good at everything, we wouldn't need each other. We are one in Christ, but not the same. When I am weak and understand that I am God's vessel, then I am strong. Weakness gives us a capacity for the gospel to come through.

The next topic we covered was kingdom diversity. If you ever get the chance to go hear Mike Chen speak, do it. He pointed out to us that there is a reason each of us is born into the body, skin, and personality that we are born into. We discussed why we don't talk about things that we need to talk about. Often times we feel a fear or paralysis of not knowing what to say. There is something powerful about the gospel that goes beyond one cultural group and extends to the whole world. JUSTICE IS NOT OPTIONAL. There are no second class citizens in the kingdom of God. We should be pressing into 3 things:1)The trinity 2)The image of God 3)The kingdom of God. Trinity; unity/diversity/sending/suffering. Image of God: Even with all of the Christians we know put together, we are only getting a small glimpse of the wonder of God. Kingdom of God: Is at hand/ Is growing/Is advancing/Is justice, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. The extent to which you lament is the extent to which you hope. There are all kinds of reconciliation: To truly empathize and be in a relationship with people, you need to be in lamentation with them. There are 6 practices of reconciliation: 1)Lament:crying out to God 2)Incarnation:Dwelling with 3)Hospitality:Welcoming and belonging 4)Solidarity:co-suffering and common narrative 5)Mutuality:Interdependence and union. There was so much more that he talked that I haven't mentioned. Seriously, if you get that chance to hear him speak, go.
The second class we had on kingdom diversity was taught by Natalie Harvey and Geraud Brumfield. Something they pointed out to us is how do you bring change when someone doesn't want change or want to discuss certain subjects? Just because someone doesn't want to have a conversation doesn't mean it should not happen. What does a kingdom mindset look like? We had several answers, but that was one thing that I want you to sit with. The question of what does a kingdom mindset look like? When we begin to appreciate each other, we get a bigger view of who God is. We can only love God as much as you love the person you love the least. An exercise we did in that class was looking at our darkest prejudices that we did not want other people knowing about. All of us have prejudices of some kind. Even though we think we don't, we do. It is ok to admit. Once we have acknowledged these things, we can begin to work on them. You can make change. You don't always have to follow cultural rules.

Two of the last topics we talks about was hospitality and evangelism. Hospitality-The beginning of Christian Life: 1)Surrender your heart to the mercy of God 2)Have your mind renewed-have a Christian worldview 3)Gives you a calling and allows you to put your and to a particular thing 4)Love is the ability to give your life away. Be externally what you are internally. Your public image should reflect your private convictions. What is hospitality? It knows true hospitality-In order to give true hospitality, you need to have received it. True hospitality blurs the line between who is the guest and who is the host. Hospitality is not a condescending thing-we are not doing the other person any big favors. Hospitality is keeping your eye on the guest: taking your eye off of other people is not the way to love them. And true hospitality tends to break the status quo: being hospitable might require you to do something that is uncommon.
Evangelism: We talked about how evangelism was similar to many other things. So then we talked about the process you have to go through to be good at something: 1)You have to learn the fundamentals. 2)Practice the fundamentals over and over again. 3)Your attitude changes towards the subject. Another thing we talked about is how we are often scared to share the gospel because we are afraid it won't be perfect or something along those lines. The reality is that God is the one who changes people's hearts and minds. We are not. No matter how badly we present the gospel, God can still use it. The great commission calls us to make disciples, not believers. How does this change the way that we look and do evangelize. Evangelism shouldn't be about you. There was more that Terry Thomas talked about. But that was the main idea.

So, if you stuck it through and read probably the longest blog post on the face of the earth, you got a small glimpse of what I experienced and learned this summer. Thank you all so much for your prayers this summer. God did some amazing things and I cannot begin to describe how good He is. Thank you for reading through all of my ramblings. I would love to talk to anyone about this summer if any of you would like to know more.
Cheer up. You're far worse then you think you are. But, far more loved then you could ever imagine!

Love You Fam!