And whatever you do…
And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
I’m glad I went to Campus Challenge. I wasn’t going to go because it was $165 and I’d already been spending a lot of money on things this year because it was Grade 12. Eventually, I was persuaded enough by my friends to go, to see what’s going on in university.
After TC there’s CC
The simplest way to describe CC is that it’s like TC for university students. Of course, that’s oversimplifying it. TC and CC have very different focuses. TC is about outreach and committing to Christ. CC is about ministry on campus.
Small Group
The first thing after the first session after getting there was meeting in our small groups. Small groups are probably my favourite thing about CC. Small groups are not like TC teams, where we compete against other groups and go running around Otonabee College screaming. Small groups are cell groups.
I loved how the small group could get to know each other so well. At TC, there isn’t really time to just sit around and talk. You’re always doing something at TC. At CC, we just stayed up until 2 in the morning just talking. We started off really deep and heavy and ended off with mundane crap like Kristen Kreuk’s SIN number and seven day LAN parties.
Social Justice and the Good News
This was a really good workshop. How does the Gospel change our world? This workshop was about working towards the Kingdom of God, where there is no sickness or sorrow. What’s interesting is that one of the presenters is working towards social justice by making free software for hospitals. That was really amazing and totally unexpected for me. I’m planning to e-mail him later on some time.
Colossians
CC this year was about Colossians. Colossians isn’t that big. I realized that when I first read through it last week. There are some pretty interesting points that Alison Siewart made. First is that when we follow Christ, our lives are hidden in Him. That is, we are invisible to the world. No one knows who we are.
Another thing that she mentioned was about Jesus. Arthur mentions this a lot, that the Jesus that we recognize today is a very sterilized one. The way we portray Him, he’s a very one-dimensional character.
Of course, this is contrary to what we see in the Bible. Jesus was dangerous and dynamic. He went to parties, hung out with gangsters and hos, started messing up vendors’ stalls, and told stories that made no sense. Look what happened, he was so dangerous, they had to go and crucify him.
Those aren’t the only things, just what I can recall so far.
Community
The most important thing I took away from CC was the importance of community.
A few weeks ago, I’ve come to the conclusion that focs this year was a bit of a mess. Before the school year started, we had this eagerness and energy. After a few meetings, I think we became a bit discouraged and as the year went on, we got busy and even more discouraged. It’s really been tough.
Part of the reason is because of our lack of direction. We had nothing to shoot for. We were putting together programs with no real purpose to them. I think it’s a kind of spiral we’re seeing. We don’t plan programs well and people end up frustrated and don’t come anymore.
Lately, I’ve been feeling that there’s this emphasis on community. In Aletheia, we’re doing the community thing. They’re doing it at softball. And now, CC is speaking to me about it. I think that the thing about our fellowship is that the community wasn’t there. I’ve been trying to push that lately, but I really don’t have enough time left in the year to really make much of a change.
Unfortunately, it’s going to be up to next year’s leaders to try and fix up what I’ve managed to mess up. I’m going to be sitting down with them sometime next week, because this week is completely messed up and crazy. I have about one and a half days of school this week.
Waterloo
I’ve met a handful of Waterloo people around CC. I think everything I’ve seen about CCF has made me even more excited about next year. I’m going to be looking forward to Frosh Conexxions this summer.
It feels like I’m missing something so there may be a part two to this post.
Tags: cc2006, Christianity, worship