Don’t forget, there’s an all church welcome back picnic this coming Sunday at 5:30. We got the burgers and dogs covered, and drinks. I think we might even be able to rustle up some cornhole, frisbee’s, footballs and more. It’ll be a great time to get to know other students as well as others in the ECC church family.

What can you bring? Yourself. A friend. If you’ve got a kitchen, a side dish would be nice (I like baked beans a lot), or a dessert (chocolate anyone?).  Come, eat, hang, stick around for Connexion and still make it back for the Colts game! What more could you ask for?

On Sunday night I read a quote but didn’t mention who it came from. It is from pastor/author Tim Keller (The Reason for God).  Here it is again:

“…the Christian life is a process of renewing every dimension of our life - spiritual, psychological, corporate, social - by thinking, hoping, and living out the ‘lines’ or ramifications of the gospel. The gospel is to be applied to every area of thinking, feeling, relating, working and behaving.”

Here’s another quote from the same article:

“…we never ‘get beyond the gospel’ in our Christian life to something more advanced. The gospel is not the ‘first step’ in a ’stairway’ of truths, rather, it is more like the ‘hub’ in a ‘wheel’ of truth. The gospel is not just the A-B-C’s but the A to Z of Christianity.”

Here’s a link to the whole article (pdf file), The Centrality of the Gospel. I highly recommend it.

Lord, our God, you know who we are: People with good and bad consciences; satisfied and dissatisfied, sure and unsure people; Christians out of conviction and Christians out of habit; believers, half-believers, and unbelievers.

You know where we come from: from our circle of relatives, friends and acquaintances, or from great loneliness; from lives of quiet leisure, or from all manner of embarrassment and distress; from ordered, tense, or destroyed family relationships; from the inner circle, or from the fringes of the Christian community.

But now we all stand before you: in all our inequality equal in this, that we are all in the wrong before you and among each other; that we all must die some day; that we all would be lost without your grace; but also in that your grace is promised to and turned toward all of us through your beloved Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ.

We are here together in order to praise you by allowing you to speak to us. We ask that this might happen in this hour [throughout this semester] in the name of your Son, our Lord. Amen.

- Karl Barth, Fifty Prayers

Got questions? Yeah, so do I, and I think that’s good. Socrates warned humanity of the tragedy of an unexamined life. I think we would do well to beware the dangers and tragedy of an unexamined faith as well. I’m not afraid of questions. I love questions and I’m confident that the Christian faith can stand up to the most rigorous questioning.  In fact, I’m more worried about the faith of those who don’t ask questions.

This semester we’ll be thinking through some big questions regarding our faith, God and the Christian life. I think these are questions we’ve all had, have, or will have at some point in our life. They’re relevant, and not just for those of us who grew up in the church, but also for those who haven’t ever been in a church building. Everyone wrestles with why God allows evil. Most of us have asked, “God, why don’t you just show yourself and end the debate?”  We’ve questioned how a loving God can send people to hell. We desperately want to know how to grow closer to God. We’ll be asking, especially this year, does Christianity mix with politics? We all want to know how to cope with pain/hurt in our lives.

Those are just some of the questions we’ll be asking this semester. Again, this series is designed to strengthen our faith, equip us to have these conversations with our friends, and to engage those friends you bring on a Sunday night. If there are questions you think we just can’t ignore, let us know. Email me at dan@connexiononline.org or leave suggestions in the comments.

See you all on August 31st at 7pm.

We are less than two weeks away from the start of a new year of Connexion on Sunday, August 31st at 7pm. We’ve been looking forward to the start up since the end of the spring semester and have been praying, planning and working hard to make this year a great one at Connexion. Here’s some of what we have in store for you:

1. An exciting teaching series on Sunday nights called “Got Questions?” On Sunday nights we’ll be thinking together about big questions we all have - questions about God, Christianity, faith and life. It’ll be a great series to invite your friends too! And as always, Sunday nights will continue to be great times of worship and fellowship as well.

2. An incredibly practical cgroup study. This fall, CGroups will be studying through the book of James - a book that is all about putting faith to work in daily living. We have worked very hard to provide this opportunity for community and study this year and trust God will use these groups, as he always has, to change lives.

3. Service opportunities. We are still committed to the idea of connecting students to various opportunities to serve. You’ll be hearing about a monthly outreach ministry to kids in the Crestmot area of Bloomington (the name for this ministry is still tbd). Renovo will continue ministering to the homeless population in Blooomington, offering a Sunday lunch to those who would be hard pressed to find a meal that day. I’m sure more opportunities will present themselves throughout the semester in addition to these.

4. Opportunities to enjoy being together. Events immediately preceding and following Connexion on Sunday nights will be a fairly regularly thing. Of course we’ll keep doing the open mic thing for those of you will talents, but we’ll offer a greater variety of social activities.

Enough said. Now a simple invitation: come and be a part of it all!

We’ve had a week off. It was great. Now we’re ready to go for another three months! Summer Connexion gets started this Sunday, May 11th, at 8pm here at ECC. If you haven’t been in Bloomington before for a summer, or haven’t made it so Summer Connexion before, it’s awesome. The setting is more intimate. We really focus a lot more on community and fellowship. The teaching is more interactive (and shorter) - with discussion groups that really dive deeper into the topic for the night. The worship is still God centered but a little more acoustic over the summer.

Sound good? Still not sure? Come check it out and you’ll see (and be sure to bring a friend too). Also, keep your eyes peeled for small groups, picnics, baseball games, canoe trips, movies on the lawn and more…

On Sunday night I explained my understanding that the millennium is a current spiritual reality and that Satan is currently bound so that he can no longer deceive the nations. I want to be real clear here because if you misunderstand me, it would have real and nasty consequences. I am not saying that Satan has been bound to such a degree that he is no longer active. That would be contrary to the clear teaching of Peter who says that the devil is still on the prowl, seeking to destroy (devour).

The question that came to me on Sunday night was based on Matthew 13:19 which reads, “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path.” (ESV). The question was, “how can Satan snatch the word if he’s been bound?” (more…)

This Sunday night, after a message where I finally came out and explained my understanding of the book of Revelation and the how the future of history will unfold, we had a time of q&a. Sunday night produced a flurry of great questions about the book of Revelation. I’ll try to answer as many as my time and competency allow for!

Question #1: “if you believe in amillennialism, do you think people can have visions of the end times and that it’s near?” (more…)

This was too sweet to pass up. Someone, please, come up with a great caption for this picture. We’ll share some of them at Connexion on Sunday night.