This life training was given by Reid Jilek concerning the role that the church plays in the life of a Christian. He starts off the talk by stating “the church will be your primary source of growth for the rest of your life”. For the rest of the talk Reid explains his thoughts on the church and being apart of the church as well as the biblical foundations for being tied into and involved with the church.
Finding Freedom to Trust the Bible
Steve Discher beings this talk by addressing the trustworthiness of the bible. He unpacks this using evidence from archaeology, scripture, and personal thoughts and emphasized the point that scripture is truth and what the bible says is really divinely inspired and can be trusted and studied as the word of God.
Free King Out!
In this talk, Matt addresses some of the fears and thoughts of doing beach evangelism. He starts by talking about some of the fears that students previously have had about going out onto the beach and their thoughts moving forward from that. After which Matt discusses some of the “Whispers and Shouts” that should ring clear in our minds and hearts when thinking about evangelism.
First Project Rally
In this talk Mike Polley unpacks the project theme verse (Gal 5:1) and explains deeper about the theme for this years project. In it he also lays out a vision for the summer and how the theme should impact STP.
*Testimony - Dan Grano
Dan Grano shares a little of his previous project experience and how God has worked in his life through his time at college and his summers at STP.
2013 STP Project Reflection
This was a talk given by Matt Reagan only a couple days after the disciples arrived. In it Matt poses the question “Are you a Christian?”. A simple yet profound question that Matt breaks down into 4 simpler questions that we should ask ourselves. In this he challenges everyone to ask themselves these questions and to journal, talk, and pray about them.
A Worshipping Lifestyle
Andrew Chesebro warned us of the dangerous dichotomy of “sacred vs secular”. Three reasons the dichotomy is false:
- God made all things good before the fall.
- Because we have fallen hearts, all things are secular.
- All of life is worship.
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.
The Local Church
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.
Meditation
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.
*Elijah: Great Courage and Great Fear
In this talk, Dan walked us through the story of Elijah when he challenged the prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18-19. Elijah showed both great courage in the Lord and in trusting the Lord to show Himself when he challenged the prophets of Baal, but he also showed great fear in running from Queen Jezebel when he saw that God's mighty miracle did not cause the whole nation to repent. Dan drew out a number of comforts from the story: 1. God is more committed to His glory than we are. 2. God will break your arm to show you more of Himself. 3. All things work together for your good if you are in Christ and called according to His purposes.
Conclusion: Take "risks"! Our God is Yahweh, so jump into the story.
Family, Friends, and Evangelism
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.
Yahweh Shalom: I am Your Peace
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.
Applying the Gospel to Work
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.
Into the Unknown
Michael Wickenheiser introduces two new practical ways for students to approach studying the Word of God- specifically, the “word study” method and the “chapter/book” study method.
Make Him Known to All Nations
Tim Devane discusses the need for the gospel to go forth among the unreached people groups of the world, laying out some heavy statistics about the state of the gospel in the world and encouraging students to think and pray seriously about dedicating their lives to reaching the unreached.
Evangelism & Everything Else, Total Truth
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.
*Epaphroditus: The Forgotten Leader
Dan shared with us about the servant-hearted, humble leadership of Epaphroditus who worked with Paul. He travelled 800 miles to bring support to Paul while he was in prison. Dan challenged us to be like Epaphroditus, servant-hearted, humble, plodding visionaries.
Yahweh Nissi “I Am Your Banner”
Michael Owczarek walks students through another name of God- Yahweh Nissi “I am your Banner.” We are completely dependent on God to fight for us in the war against sin because we cannot fight on our own- we trust in God’s work of freeing us from the penalty, power, and presence of sin.
Yahweh Nissi: I am Your Banner
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.
Knowing Time Management
Time management a very prevalent issue for college students, and Jay contrasts what man-centered and God-centered time management looks like. How we spend our lives here on earth can and will affect who is worshipping with us in the kingdom of heaven!