The importance of campus ministry

Some very interesting findings from the recent report from the Veritas Forum. Another reason why the CCO continues to meet college students where they are. CCO stand in the gap described by the figure below, building relationship with students and walking with them through one of the most formative periods of their lives.

Teaching Leadership in and out of the wilderness

We love all of you who have been praying and supporting us over these last 14 years of ministry with the CCO. We love you all the more because sometimes I know it's not all too clear what it is that we do and yet you have remained faithful. Thank you! 

So imagine how excited I was when I came across an article in last month's Harvard Business Review that may be helpful in articulating one of the many services our department of the CCO offers to our students, staff and partners. 

The CCO's core purpose is Transforming College Students To Transform The World. Joy and I and the folks in our department which is called CCO Experiential Designs (or XD for short) use adventure, service and travel to design and facilitate moments of transformation: moments when students or CCO staff come to know Jesus and as a consequence, themselves and how they lead and love, little more deeply. 

The HBR article describes the kind of leadership that can be learned on wilderness expeditions and its direct application in the work world. The article is about the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) which was founded by the grandfather of American mountaineering, Paul Petzold, who also founded the Wilderness Education Association (WEA). The WEA has just accredited the CCO as an Outdoor Educator Certification program (Remember all that work we did a year ago to complete the organizational self-study for accreditation?). The curriculum used in NOLS and WEA are very similar since both organizations trace their roots to the same man. CCO students who go on XD summer transformative opportunities are receiving the same teaching, character development and preparation to go and lead wherever God calls them as described by the authors.

The brief summary is that on wilderness expeditions participants learn to: practice leadership, lead from everywhere, behave well, keep calm, and disconnect to connect and these are skills and dispositions that are incredibly valuable in today's work world.

If you want to read the whole article with the work world application examples, here's a link to "HBR Wilderness Leadership.pdf" in my Dropbox:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/umco0swm14kmvom/HBR%20Wilderness%20Leadership.pdf

These principles of leadership are also at the heart of a lot of the professional development work we have been offering in the offices of CCO partners and other organizations. If you have any questions about the leadership development programs and consultation XD has been doing or if you are looking for help with your company's leadership training, feel free to contact Joy or I. We'd love to dream about ways we can help you.

Francois

The Passing of Brennan Manning

A few weeks ago, Brennan Manning passed away. Listening to him speak once again as I (Francois) was driving across Pennsylvania, I was brought to tears (again!) by his insight and gentleness. I came to know Manning when I first read his book, The Ragamuffin Gospel,  in the 90's as I was attending graduate school. Shortly thereafter I had the chance to hear him speak at a church. While I had been a Christian for almost 10 years at that point, his message of Grace and God's love was unlike anything I had heard before. During more than 20 years of writing and speaking, Manning used his own life story of success and failures as an example to teach about God's furious love:"Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion." 

For college students who are in the midst of defining their identities, Manning's exhortation often strikes a deep cord. The chapters from his book, Abba's Child, on our belovedness and our attempts to hide from God and others have been staples on CCO trips for many years. The conversations these two chapters open go to the heart of what it means to follow Jesus. The grasp of our belovedness and the power of our impostor (as Manning called our false self) are also central to the assumptions from which we build our leadership. We often assign these readings on CCO trips during a time of solitude for students to really chew on Manning's words and let the Holy Spirit bring to mind the experiences of the trip which speak to when they encountered their belovedness and their shadow self. For many these are powerful moments of reflection and learning.

For those of you who are familiar with his work, you know what a loss this is. And yet we cannot help but celebrate because Manning is now with his Abba whose love he has sought and shared with so many.  For those of you who have not read any of his work, here is 45-minute video from one of his many speaking engagements:

Good Friday

Musical reflection for Good Friday:

S.U.M.O

Bible Center Church staff and students

While CCO staff are out and about the country leading students on Spring Break trips, I wanted to share with you a new project that I have had the privilege to work on this year. SUMO (Summer Urban Mission Opportunity) is joint program of the Bible Center Church in Homewood and the CCO. Professor John Wallace who holds the Phillip Hallen Chair in Community Health and Social Justice at the University of Pittsburgh and pastors the Bible Center Church wanted to offer college students an opportunity to experience first hand the issues facing many urban communities and how one church is seeking to bring about shalom, or flourishing, to its neighborhood. Working with Dr. Rodger Woodworth, the CCO's director for multi-ethnic ministry and Kerri Clauser Landes, the CCO associate staff at Bible Center Church who runs the discipleship house for college students, Dr. Wallace has been planning a week-long life-transforming immersion into the community of Homewood. I was invited to come alongside this group of visionary leaders to help shape and design this learning experience for the college students who will arrive in May. 

The theme of the week is food insecurity or the reality of hunger in a historical yet poor neighborhood of Pittsburgh where no grocery chain will open a supermarket. During the intensive week of SUMO, a group of students will experience the challenges and opportunities that many residents of urban neighborhoods face. They will meet with people for whom following Jesus has meant taking their skills and expertise and serving the church as it seeks to be an agent of God's Kingdom in the restoration of the community. Along with classroom teaching and panels of speakers, the students will serve in the community of Homewood and in the church by working at the food pantry, helping with the after-school program and going on home visits. What an opportunity! 

If you want to find out more about SUMO, check out the following links:   

www.ccojubilee.org/cco-xd/summer-opportunities/sumo/

http://biblecenterpgh.org/#/news-events/sumo

If you want to learn more about the work of Bible Center Church, check out this article in the Post Gazette: www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/my-homewood/my-homewood-429602/

If you want to learn more about food insecurity, check out this brand new documentary: www.magpictures.com/aplaceatthetable/

and if you know a college student who would benefit from attending SUMO, please let me know.

Thank you for your prayers and support which allow us to continue our work with the college students and the CCO. Please pray for all the students returning from Spring Break this week may they be able to apply what God has shown them this week back on campus.

What students are saying...

Why does the CCO exist? The CCO exists to join God in Transforming College Students To Transform The World. Bonnie Liefer and Peter Chase have put together an inspiring series of what students in the CCO ministry are saying about how their faith intersects with their studies and gifts. Here are a few examples:

Jubilee 2013

Here is a fantastic short video from this year's conference. Put together by the talented Peter Chase, it captures some of the highlights of 2,000 college students spending a weekend together to think and pray about how their faith influences their calling to join God in his restoration of his creation. What a weekend, what an opportunity!


Jubilee Conference 2013 Highlights from CCO Campus Ministry on Vimeo.