Well it's the middle of the fall semester! Woohoo! We're almost done! Thanksgiving is around the corner, winter break and the other holiday's that go with it. I'll be honest, I'm tired! The students here for the last 3 weeks have been too. It was interesting watching them all and how distracted or tired they all seemed because of all the midterm exams and projects. Now, I suppose it's my turn :)
Thinking about my schedule right now and the approach that I've been taking in working with students makes me really question right now the validity of how I use my time, and if the time that I am spending is time spent well. Most days about 1:30-2pm I reach this mind critical overload. I am meeting with 8 students doing one on one discipleship. And its a really neat position to be in because each of the students I meet with is a position of influence over several other people. Sometimes its difficult though to try and remember or keep up with each of the individual skills, projects or whatever I'm helping the student walk through. That part is actually the easy part most of the time, and the most natural. The part is taxing is helping them grow into their roles as leaders. Coaching them and mentoring them through their roles as leaders and helping them manage and lead other people.
Honestly, this semester at Christian Challenge we are so blessed to have grown and continue growing with new people coming every week, but the larger you get the more people issues you have to work through within the organization. They aren't black and white task lists that need to get done. Relationships are so much more complicated. And trying to also stay back far enough to allow students to learn how to work things out on their own and between themselves takes a lot of time and energy. Sometimes I question if its an appropriate use of time, or if I'm doing it wrong. I know that other people might just step in and solve problems or answer questions for the students instead of giving them the time to work on it themselves. Teaching people how to think is hard. A lot harder than teaching them what to think. There is still some of that involved, but when the students can come to their own conclusion of what to think by having someone walk through the process of how it goes so much further. There's buy in to the idea and they learn so much more from it. But the temptation is always to just do the work for them and short cut that in depth learning process.
I'm also leading 4 small groups this semester and that is really taxing because each group is studying something different. Keeping in the idea of how instead of what, that is precisely what I'm trying to do and why it kind of works. I'm teaching them how to study and walking them through that process of how to faithfully, accurately, and humbly study, interpret, and apply scripture to their lives. It just takes a lot of brain power on the front end because at first students need to have their entire framework of how to think altered. But now it seems to be paying dividends and I'm really grateful.
I'm really seeing God work and move not just in my life but in the lives of the people around me. That is always a blessing, and on days when I really don't know what's going on it gives me confidence because I'm just showing up to a place where God is already doing the work and if He can use me, and if I pay attention to the big picture things will go well and the Spirit won't be quenched. But that's the temptation. To move things forward or to give up so I can do what I want. Learning to stay and respond to how the Spirit leads is a lesson I'm finding hard to really live out.
In all of this stuff, I'm learning a dynamic in collegiate ministry that I think works well. Invest like crazy, sow like crazy in the fall. Persevere in toiling and then just be patient in persevering. When Spring rolls around, the things that you planted take root and really start to blossom.
Really I'm trying to hold fast to Galatians 6. On days when things are really tough I have to fight to remind myself of the truth of verses 7-10:
"Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8 Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers."
Please pray that what I am sowing and teaching is how to sow to please the Spirit so that all the "stuff" I'm doing actually has an impact. Not just an ah ha moment, but an impact that shows in eternity.
Thinking about my schedule right now and the approach that I've been taking in working with students makes me really question right now the validity of how I use my time, and if the time that I am spending is time spent well. Most days about 1:30-2pm I reach this mind critical overload. I am meeting with 8 students doing one on one discipleship. And its a really neat position to be in because each of the students I meet with is a position of influence over several other people. Sometimes its difficult though to try and remember or keep up with each of the individual skills, projects or whatever I'm helping the student walk through. That part is actually the easy part most of the time, and the most natural. The part is taxing is helping them grow into their roles as leaders. Coaching them and mentoring them through their roles as leaders and helping them manage and lead other people.
Honestly, this semester at Christian Challenge we are so blessed to have grown and continue growing with new people coming every week, but the larger you get the more people issues you have to work through within the organization. They aren't black and white task lists that need to get done. Relationships are so much more complicated. And trying to also stay back far enough to allow students to learn how to work things out on their own and between themselves takes a lot of time and energy. Sometimes I question if its an appropriate use of time, or if I'm doing it wrong. I know that other people might just step in and solve problems or answer questions for the students instead of giving them the time to work on it themselves. Teaching people how to think is hard. A lot harder than teaching them what to think. There is still some of that involved, but when the students can come to their own conclusion of what to think by having someone walk through the process of how it goes so much further. There's buy in to the idea and they learn so much more from it. But the temptation is always to just do the work for them and short cut that in depth learning process.
I'm also leading 4 small groups this semester and that is really taxing because each group is studying something different. Keeping in the idea of how instead of what, that is precisely what I'm trying to do and why it kind of works. I'm teaching them how to study and walking them through that process of how to faithfully, accurately, and humbly study, interpret, and apply scripture to their lives. It just takes a lot of brain power on the front end because at first students need to have their entire framework of how to think altered. But now it seems to be paying dividends and I'm really grateful.
I'm really seeing God work and move not just in my life but in the lives of the people around me. That is always a blessing, and on days when I really don't know what's going on it gives me confidence because I'm just showing up to a place where God is already doing the work and if He can use me, and if I pay attention to the big picture things will go well and the Spirit won't be quenched. But that's the temptation. To move things forward or to give up so I can do what I want. Learning to stay and respond to how the Spirit leads is a lesson I'm finding hard to really live out.
In all of this stuff, I'm learning a dynamic in collegiate ministry that I think works well. Invest like crazy, sow like crazy in the fall. Persevere in toiling and then just be patient in persevering. When Spring rolls around, the things that you planted take root and really start to blossom.
Really I'm trying to hold fast to Galatians 6. On days when things are really tough I have to fight to remind myself of the truth of verses 7-10:
"Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8 Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers."
Please pray that what I am sowing and teaching is how to sow to please the Spirit so that all the "stuff" I'm doing actually has an impact. Not just an ah ha moment, but an impact that shows in eternity.
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