Happy Single's Awareness Day

Yeah I know. It's actually Valentine's day, but I like that nick-name better. Single's awareness day. :-) At a college that promotes matrimony and re-populating the world with conservative Southern Baptist Children like there's no tomorrow, Valentine's day is a rather interesting day. I'm a little scared to venture out of my dorm. ;-) Just kidding.
The girls on my floor have nick-named me "Lottie Moon". We've nick-named another girl Martha Stewart as she's so craft-talented and always making fun little thingy's to make people feel better. We nicknamed another girl Florence Nightengale, (sp?) as if there's any ailment - physical, emotional, mental, or otherwise - she knows what to do. Or at least she presents herself as cool calm and collected and as if she knows what to do, which a lot of times is all that's needed. Funny thing is that she complained that her character was too 'feminist' and 'out there'. We asked her what she would describe Martha and Lottie as.
Lottie is probably the most conservative out of the three, although in her time and church setting she was seen as very feminist, liberal, post-modern, and slightly heretical on a few issues. She was courting a fine gentleman who felt called to the mission field (during the 1800's I believe) but he became very interested in Evolution. She felt she could not submit herself or work on the mission field with a man who believed such 'an unbiblical doctorine.'
She ended up going to China as a single woman working as a missionary, but as she was a single woman, the man in charge of Southern Baptist missions in China restricted her ministry to simply teaching children in an already well-reached area. Frustrated, she sent a rather opinionated letter to the officials of the SBC Missions and moved herself into a more unreached interior area of China that was far more dangerous and began teaching and training others to teach.
I can't remember if she eventually resigned from the SBC or if they threatened to 'fire' her if she didn't move back to where they stationed her - orders which she refused and sent long replies of apologetics on her viewpoint to. She did not understand why if the men did not 'step up to the plate' in missions -which was often the case - why women who were willing and able to fill those needs couldn't do it. Of course the women couldn't always do it as well as the men could, and Biblically shouldn't have to of filled those needs. However the men were not responding to the call to missions and the women were.
Lottie was also passionate in her work towards raising money for missions. She spent many hours writing letters and traveling back and forth between the States asking for more workers and more money.
The Southern Baptists now have a Lottie Moon missions offering every Christmas in memory of her, and all the proceeds go towards supporting missions.
I don't know if I got all the details of Mz. Moon correct, but anyway there's my reader's digest version of Lottie Moon history.
I personally would prefer to be an Ann Judson instead of Lottie Moon, but Ann Judson isn't nearly as well known as Lottie Moon apparently, hence their first thought was to nickname me 'lottie' instead of "ann." Now if Ann spelt her name with an 'e', then we could kill two birds with one stone and I could be nick-named after BOTH Ann(e) Judson AND Anne Shirley. :-)

Anyway. Yesterday was kind of wierd. I overslept and didn't get hardly any studying done. Maitenence came unexpectedly to mess with the bunk-beds in my room-mate's and my room. She ordered lofting kits so we could experiment with rearranging our room, but apparently by "lofting kits'' they meant "Three burly men with tools and a tight schedual who had no intention spending the day playing around with different room scenario's to see where stuff would fit for the pleasure of college girls". So... that was adventuresome. Then I had to work. That was uneventful but long, although we were able to get all the closing stuff done a half-hour earlier than we usually do. (10:30 instead of 11 pm. Wootwoot!) Before we closed Florence Nightengale stopped by with her fiance and then when his back was turned, Flo asked if I could help her with assembling her fiance's valentine present. As I wasn't doing anything fun for Valentine's day I figured if I helped her my holiday spirit would feel repleat and I could then go to bed.
Well, when I got back to the dorms, she was in the middle of one of those CSI-type murder-science-psychological tv shows. I needed some down-time of just not going 90 miles per hour so watched it with her. It was interesting although I don't think I'll watch it on a regular basis.
So we then went to go assemble her valentine's present. Apparently she just really needed me to sit there and tell her the chocolate-dipped strawberries she made tasted good and looked nice the way she was arranging them. Then I helped her cut out pink hearts to put on the top of the plastic bucket. Well, the next step was to drive over to her fiance's apartment, have his one room-mate let us in quickly before their other Japanese room-mate discovered us (he doesn't like girls visiting the apartment, fiance and platonic friend or otherwise) sneak downstairs, and stick dark chocolate squares all over his bed and tape Ninja-turtle's all over the walls next to his bed - which is a bunk-bed stuck in a closet. Cool set up but you have to do gymnastics to get up into it, under the ceiling-duct, and around the fan, textbooks, and pictures of his fiance all over the place. I also watched and oohed and ahhhed as she dry-earased all over his bathroom mirror gushy valentines messages. We then heard the Japanese guy upstairs and booked it out of there, and by that time it was 12:45 am.
So I figured I had got my "college life spree'' of the month in, and can go back to being responsible and trying to get to bed by 11:30 on days I work and 10:30 on days I don't work. Not that I ever MAKE those bed-times, but I try to anyway. :-)
Okay now I have to go catch up on reading for my Ancient-Near-Eastern-History, Spiritual-Warfare, Cross-Cultural-Evangelism, and Psychology classes. And make it to a suprise party, and possibly talk to a 'friend' I've had problems with since last semester, but we'll see if all that makes it into the mix with homework.

Happy Singles Awareness/Valentines day!!

~Princess Ouch~

True Pastoral Care

Reading an interesting book for "Introduction to Psychology". Written by a New Yorkian Jewish Psychoanalyst who became a Christian at a L'abri outreach in Austria.  Thought this chapter he wrote was especially good:

"The Healing Power in the Church"

For five years I had the privilege of working with Dr. Jay Adams at the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation (CCEF). Dr. Adam's goal was to train pastors to take congregational care out of the hands of the professional psychological community and put it back into the hands of the church. First, he had to convince church leaders they could do it. His book Competent to Counsel launched a revolution in Christian circles. While not everyone agreed with Dr. Adams, at least the church began to rethink the passive, submissive role it had assumed in these vital areas.

In my counseling ministry at the CCEF, I typically saw a counselee for one hour a week and only in a counseling setting. I did not see him at church or at home or work. Often these people attended unbiblical churches that effectively minimized, if not outright negated, the help they received. Although I worked diligently to extricate people from liberal churches, the pressures of time and unfamiliarity with their affiliations made this aspect very difficult. 

I began to see the way I could best help people would be to counsel from within a church. I knew that the regular expository preaching of God's Word is the most therapeutic confrontation the people of God receive. But the thought of pastoral ministry terrified me, and I fought it! I would have preferred to do anything else, but God had other plans. It was only a matter of time before He had me serving in a pastoral capacity. 

In 1980 I accepted a call to plant a church in Ottawa, Ontario, the capital city of Canada. During the course of that work my view of the pastorate began to change. Previously, I had seen it as the position from which healing and restoration was to come. But I began to understand that as Jesus Christ blesses His Church, the body (not a solitary pastor) is the source of blessing to countless hurting individuals.

This understanding came when the Holy Spirit impressed upon me some verses from Ephesians: "He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping fo the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ" (Eph: 4:11-12). In short, these verses teach that the job of the pastor is not to do the work of the ministry, but to equip the flock to do this work. Christ assigns His ministry to the Church, not to one person in a church, no matter how gifted that individual may be. This understanding is not something new or radical. The work of the ministry is, and always has been, the work of the Church. Pastors are guides or trainers to help people identify and implement their gifts for the Lord.

When we fully understand this principle, however, the entire life and direction of a church changes. Members are not simply individuals drawn into the church to receive something, but are a body drawn together to strengthen one another and the church. Through this process lives are restored, and the Kingdom of God is advanced.

Everyone who comes to Christ and into the Church has real needs, concerns, fears, hurts, scars, and sins which must be faced. Counseling is part of this process. It involves dealing with the batterings of a former life and bringing the healing balm of the new life in Christ. But counseling is not the whole picture. The work of healing and restoration requires a more inclusive view of the local church. 

Building up an entire congregation is a challenge, especially for someone like me who has always thrived on my own resourcefulness. The difficulty is not in backing off to let others work, but in setting up procedures necessary to adequately disciple, not just a few individuals, but a whole congregation. I have to build a team, not a group of super heroes. We see in Ephesians that the way to accomplish this goal is through church officers. As the leaders are equipped, they are able to equip others; lives are restored and the kingdom advanced. This is one of the cardinal principles of nouthetic counseling. "Nouthetic activity is the work in which all of God's people may participate." (Jay E. Adams, Competent to Counsel (Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1970), p. 4-5)

Most pastors view their work as the doing of the ministry. Yet Paul says in Ephesians that the primary work of the pastor (within the context of consistent Biblical preaching) is for the equipping of the saints, that they may do the work of ministry. Generally, Christians expect the pastor to do pastoral things to them. The pastor, for his part, agrees. He then wonders why he cannot get help, especially for the things he is unable to do. The reason - often he has failed to communicate to his congregation that they have, not only the ability, but also the responsibility to minister to one another.

Matthew Henry, the great Puritan preacher and commentator, wrote, "[The pastor] is to bring into an orderly spiritual state and frame, those who had been as it were dislocated and disjointed by sin, and then to strengthen, confirm, and advance them therein so each in his proper place and function contributes to the good of the whole." (Matthew Henry, Commentary on Ephesians, Vol. 6 (Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming Revell, n.d.), pp. 704, 974) 

In other words, the church is the place where broken people are put back together again, to the good of the church. 

Let me illustrate. One time my wife took our youngest child to the physician's office, for a simple immunization shot. We had spent much time reading about immunization. When she arrived, she asked the doctor several questions. He responded tersely, "I'll do the doctoring around here." 

My wife did not return to that doctor. You see, she believed she had a responsibility at least to know what was going on in the care of our children. Christians have even more responsibility for the living of their Christian lives. No one, not even the best pastor, is responsible for your behavior and work. Unfortunately, many pastors act like that pediatrician. They convey the attitude: "I'll do the ministry around here." Instead they need to prepare, expect, and encourage the saints to be responsible for the work of ministry.

Many people view the church as they would view the secular service industry. You pay your money and get your service. They do not realize that for the church to function well, each member must function to the limits of his/her capabilities. The church can not accomplish the ministry entrusted to it if only pastors do the work. We must rid ourselves of our inherent and radical individualism. 

In addition to pastoring a church, I own a sheep farm. Watching the behavior of sheep has taught me some lessons that apply to people as well. Sheep are rather defenseless. When they are attacked by wolves, there is only one way they can protect themselves. They draw together into a gigantic white mound during an attack. The wolf won't attack this white mound, but will go after other prey - often the sheep on its own outside the flock. For my sheep to be safe they must stay together as one and work together as one. Similarly, in the church safety and strength come when the congregation works together as one body. Such unity does not come naturally to any of us. Perhaps that is why Paul repeats his concern for oneness seven times in the fourth chapter in Ephesians. The saints can't be equipped for works of service if they are bickering among themselves. 

The pastor equips the church, as Paul says in Ephesians 4:12, "For the work of service." THis is further defined as the "Building up of the body of Christ." The phrase "Building up" comes from a term that means "house" or "household." From its earliest usage it had a heavenly sense to it. The apostle says that the one who came from Heaven (Christ) wants the church equipped so that it can make it to Heaven (verse 12). In 2 Corinthians 10:8, Paul speaks of his apostolic authority which he received for "building you up." The same word is used in both Ephesians and 2 Corinthians. Paul wants the church to be the heavenly house of God. He wants the church established so that it makes it to Heaven. It must be willing to receive from the apostle, or it will never possess the obedient nature necessary to fulfill its heavenly mandate. 

The church in Corinth battled authoritative apostolic teaching. We see this in several places in 2 Corinthians. Notice 2 Corinthians 13:10: "For this reason I am writing these things while absent, in order that when present I may not use severity, in accordance with the authority which the Lord gave me, for building up and not for tearing down." Today we continue to fight against authority. When we resist, we miss being established, strengthened, and built up. Congregations that submit to God's instruction will "be of one mind" and will "live in peace" (2 Cor. 13:11). What wonderful blessedness results from being "built up." 

Everyone who is called into union with Christ is also called to minister to the body so that strongholds of sin are torn down and the body of Christ is strengthened. The Church may be strong even when there are weak members in it, but the principal Biblical teaching is to "strengthen the hands that are weak" (Hebrews 12:12). "

~Richard Ganz, PsychoBabble, the failure of modern psychology and the Biblical alternative. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1993) pp 83-89.~

College students don't need sleep

I wrote this the other day after going to four classes, working a five-hour shift, and then somehow staying up until 12:30 with my RL and two other girls from my hall watching Muppet clips on Youtube. Still needs revising, but don't have time for that at the moment. It's not all entirely accurate to me personally, but I think it captures the general gist of my college experience, or what I've observed in others.  Anyway hope you enjoy. 

~Princess Ouch~

College students don't need sleep. 

In College I be

and I don't need sleep.

with studying you'd think

sleep would be my dream.

But no, not me,

I'm a freshman and 18,

and we don't need sleep.

Too busy socializing,

procrastinating studying

caffeine we're drinking, 

karaoke singing

no time for sleeping.

We came to learn

but then we heard

night shift was worth

all the money we'd burnt.

Studying's back burner

and sleeping un-heard-of

no play but work

but tho social life's hurt

my tuition I've earned 

this sophomore's no jerk

tho done nothing but work.

Still sleeping seems futile

good grades up there while

we stay up late and smile

a job is worthwhile

to be a junior with style

finals week is a trial

stress fills mouths with bile

homework's endless miles

has sleep tucked away in a file

for a life more reliable. 

An end finally in sight

with graduation night!

But until it comes by

for us seniors we might

not sleep all right

until classes and life

give us some respite.

Studying pages so white

and straining our eyes

oh such is the life

of seniors all night!

Yes, no sleep for us

it's tragic because

with sleep I'm in love

yet not till I"m done

with college in sum

will sleep ever come

a full night without stop 

I like sleeping a lot.

How unpopular my thoughts!

Yet crazy it's not,

says the book that I bought.

Yet it all comes to naught,

though because I'm caught

with dorm-mates who've thought

cool sleeping is not.

Yes in college we be,

and we don't need sleep.

In class catch some Z's,

when professor gets boring.

Night's filled with reading,

or perhaps gossiping,

rooms filled with laughing

when should be resting.

But in college I be,

where people don't sleep!!!

Copyright 2009 by Rachel Nehring