Andrew Chesebro warned us of the dangerous dichotomy of “sacred vs secular”. Three reasons the dichotomy is false:
He begged the question, “are you mastered by things in your life or are you free to enjoy them rightly?” He said that we should allow all things in our lives to point us back to Christ.
Jason Meyer and his family paid a special visit to us during project. While he was here, Jason gave a talk about the great value of being part of a local church. He quoted Jim Elliot saying, “Wherever you’re at, be all in.” He shared about the common sins of both older leaders in the church and young college students. He said the older leaders can get stuck in tradition whereas college students can get caught up in thinking they have right theology and are further along in their faith than they are when they really need to learn to walk faithfully and humbly. He emphasized that we’re really not who we think we are until we are a part of a local church, for it is there that our love for the church is truly tested. He also reminded us that God didn’t just save us as individuals but as the “household of God” (I Tim. 3), an entire people, and as such, we are a family in God’s house.
Jared gave his last talk about Bible study this time emphasizing the importance of meditation. He defined meditation as “continued or extended thought, reflection or contemplation.” The fuel of our meditation ought to be scripture.
Charlie Schumacher starts by sharing the story of how one of his brothers came to Christ and how one of them is still not interested in the Gospel. Charlie then looked at Jesus’ family and how Jesus said that He came not to bring peace between family members but that the Gospel would cause divides between natural families. He explained too that Jesus was the perfect witness to God in His earthly family and yet many of His family members did not believe Him until He was resurrected. He closed by redefining family according to the Bible and Jesus words in Matt 12:46-50.
In this Theme Training talk, Cecka talks to us about God’s name, Yahweh Shalom which means, “I am your peace”. He defines peace as = Shalom: to make whole/complete. A deficiency restored. He then shared about how God says to us, “Peace be with you” and how He sent Christ as the mediator of that peace. He then launched into the importance of discipleship and how through discipleship we are sharing God’s peace with others.
Jared Wass, Campus Outreach Minneapolis Mobilization Director, came and spent a few days with us last week. During that time, he gave this talk. He shared with us how work is from God and it is not a “necessary evil” but a good thing that even God Himself did.
Charlie Schumacher spoke to us this week about how Christianity is a TOTAL truth, not compartmentalized truth for our lives. He reminded us that we are called to honor and worship God in all that we do. And we are called to not only share the Gospel but MUCH MORE. The overarching purpose of our lives is our sanctification, part of that is to enjoy each other in marriage, to work, to glorify Christ in school and every other arena. Charlie called us to no longer compartmentalize but to glorify Christ in all that we do.
He showed a video from youtube called “Beautiful Earth HD” if you would like to look it up yourself.
In this theme training Lucas Cecka told us about how God says He is our banner. A banner is an important symbol in warfare. It represents the nation and what the nation stands for. It is placed on a pole for all to see and it is a symbol that the soldiers followed. Israel’s banner was God and the reason they ever experienced victory was because of the Lord Himself fighting for them. Cecka then challenged us to pray more. He addressed the reasons we do not pray and then covered 7 reasons that we SHOULD pray.
Charlie Schumacher speaks to us this week about the connection between evangelism and works/service. His basic outline was that good works are important to others because they prove you care, give evidence of faith, and God commands us to do it, He also emphasized that verbal proclamation of the Gospel is necessary, not just good. Lastly, he said that good works should always be done with eternal purposes in mind.
In his life training talk, Shawn Vradenburg goes over the reasons both we and our culture push back against the idea of church, then he establishes the biblical basis for church. After explaining the reasons we go to church, Shawn then outlines what we should look for in a church and then specifies what church IS and is NOT.
Mike Polley expounds on the reasons why Christians GO therefore into all nations and challenges listeners saying that, “you know too much to live an ordinary life!”
Shawn starts this talk by giving five snapshots of ways that fear of man manifests in our lives. He then talks through the problem of this struggle saying that it is a serious sin, it is unbelief, that we have misplaced fear and misplaced hope.
Matt talks about reasons we don’t study the bible; It’s mental, emotional, and home work. He then explains why studying the Bible is worth it. He says that it is fun to find answers, disciplinary reading gives way to leisure reading, and it makes you feel wonderful. He closes by encouraging listeners to engage their senses to help make the truths of the Gospel more real to them by listening to music, watching good movies, reading supplemental fiction and engaging their imaginations.
Paul Poteat talks about how to live joyfully in the midst of a broken world. He relates trials of his own life and how he has seen God’s grace to him in the midst of sorrow.
Luke spoke to us this week about the reality of hell and how it pertains to evangelism. Because this is a weighty topic, we seldom like to think about this eternal reality, but Luke pushes the audience to have right thinking, right feeling and right application in regards to the topic. Listen to find out more!
Dan explains to us what theology is. He describes it as scripture applied to life which helps us love people better. Dan then explained the purpose of our words and their power. The final portion of his talk was looking at three specific applications of theology in relationships: encouragement, restoration, and sarcasm.
The theme of STP this summer is “Known.” Basically, we are spending the summer learning about the different names of God, what they reveal about Him and us, and seeing how the whole Bible is ultimately about the story of redemption through Jesus Christ.
The theme training talk on Monday night was about “Yahweh Meqaddishekem,” the name of God that means “I Am Your Sanctifier.” Elliot Stokes spoke about how sanctification is both a one-time defeat of sin and a progressive growth over the course of a lifetime. As Christians, we have been sanctified once and for all in God’s eyes through Christ’s death and resurrection and also are experiencing the progressive kind of sanctification right now.
