In Christian community development circles, there is a story about a ministry working in an underserved community. Suburban churches were interested doing weekend service projects with this ministry. Unfortunately, with limited experience and training, there was little that these well-intentioned congregations could actually contribute. Ministry staff decided to tell the visitors they had a wall that needed painting. The visitors would spend an afternoon cheerfully painting the wall, and go away pleased with the notion that they had done something to benefit the neighborhood. The following week, another church group would come in—and repaint the same wall. [Read more…] about Repaint! For the Kingdom of God is at Hand: Balancing Hope and Critical Analysis in Community Service
short term missions
Summer Snapshot: Research, Teaching, Missions
Assistant Professor Meagan Medley shares the mix of things in her summer with readers in this Summer Snapshot [1]. Also check out Meagan’s Scholar’s Compass pieces here. Photo: New Orleans at Night, from NASA.
While many picture summer as a time of beaches, pools and binge watching the latest drama, God’s plans for me this summer involve a juggle of research, teaching, and coordinating mission teams coming to New Orleans. It’s such a blessing to have a full plate and to see impact in a tangible way as the typical semester seems much more mundane.Â
On the research front, a great team of friends have assembled to work on a theoretical model in the field of education and are planning to test the theory in due time. It’s pushing me in the academic area to think about my practice and what I teach in a new way and it’s giving me a great opportunity to hang out with my research friends.
Teaching in the summer is a blessing as the bills still need to get paid. The courses I teach are all taught once a year and are much more fun for me and the students. I’m making a lot of assumptions about the students though. In the area of school psychology, crisis preparedness is always exciting for me to teach as students are innately captivated by the content. Perhaps it’s the traditional nightmare of being unprepared for a course that translates so well to the lack of preparedness for a crisis, but the students don’t need the normal polite shove into the content.
Coordinating with P2 Missions and World Changers, both of Lifeway, is one of the greatest pleasures I have. It provides a means to serve the New Orleans area and share the gospel in a much greater way than I could on my own. In meeting tangible needs in the city with construction and ministry projects and helping local church plants to serve their communities, the message of Christ’s love and grace is exponentially shared. Youth groups from all over the country come to serve selflessly and share the message of Christ in a community I love. It’s a beautiful thing to witness. The coordinating challenge is different every year but the result is exciting, even if it’s not seen.Â
The coordinating team and 4 college students that serve all summer traveling city to city with P2 and World Changers, become a temporary family with a common purpose: to serve Christ by serving churches and each other well and to share the gospel wherever we go. My extreme nostalgia is made known to my new mission family in reminiscing of my years as a participant and a summer college student many years ago. As my role changes year to year, the mission is the same and I’m thrilled to meet new people every year who are embracing that mission or discovering Christ for the first time.
Each year with P2 Missions and World Changers, a theme and verse are presented for meditation and study. This year’s theme is “LIVE + LOVE + SPEAK BOLDLY†as in 1st Thessalonians 2:8 “We cared so much for you that we were pleased to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us.†It’s my prayer that I live, love and speak boldly and with ease in my professional and personal life. That I encourage others to do the same. And that I recognize opportunities in academia to do so.
Prayer Request: That Christ’s name is known through humble and bold lives, love and action on campus and in the personal lives of the Christian community of academia. That this summer is a time of learning, discipleship, and boldness according to the will of God. Specifically, that the partner agencies working with us would be able see Christ in our actions and that the people of New Orleans are open to Christ and we recognize opportunities. That the groups coming to serve will take what they learned, living, loving and speaking with boldness, to their home communities and families.
[1] In 2016, ESN shared “snapshots” from members of our network, brief reflections on one way the author was making the most of summer or learning something from God in this season. That could be a mode of rest/recreation, a way someone was growing in research, a new conference or collaboration opportunity, a challenge someone was growing through, a new event to celebrate, a way God was working in someone’s family, or something else. History graduate student Josh Shiver kicked off the series, which included The Discipline of Simplicity (Elsie Lee), Finding God When It’s Tough (Anonymous), Plan Long and Prosper (Tamarie Macon), and more. In 2018 we’d love to once again hear from the members of our network. If you have interest, please drop us a line. Thank-you. ~ Tom Grosh IV, Assoc. Dir., Emerging Scholars Network
Scholar’s Compass: Building Thanksgiving
World Changers New Orleans, 2014. Lower Ninth Ward Crew of Students working on a house. Summer Staffers Sarah Horton and Megan Tilman (Navy WC Tees on left).
And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. – Colossians 3:17 (ESV)
Reflection
Oh how I give thanks throughout the year: Thank you Lord for the new school year! Thank you Lord for Fall/Spring Break! Thank you Lord for a light hurricane season! Consider yourself blessed if hurricanes are not your concern. Thank you Lord for Mardi Gras Break! Feel free to join us for those festivities down on the coast. Thank you Lord for exams being over! Thank you Lord for Commencement! [Read more…] about Scholar’s Compass: Building Thanksgiving
Issues in College Christian Humanitarianism: Part 3
“Join Wall Street. Save the world.” This article went viral in my Facebook feed:
[Jason] Trigg makes money just to give it away. His logic is simple: The more he makes, the more good he can do.
He’s figured out just how to take measure of his contribution. His outlet of choice is the Against Malaria Foundation, considered one of the world’s most effective charities. It estimates that a $2,500 donation can save one life. A quantitative analyst at Trigg’s hedge fund can earn well more than $100,000 a year. By giving away half of a high finance salary, Trigg says, he can save many more lives than he could on an academic’s salary.
In another generation, giving something back might have more commonly led to a missionary stint digging wells in Kenya. This generation, perhaps more comfortable with data than labor, is leveraging its wealth for a better end. Instead of digging wells, it’s paying so that more wells are dug. . . .
“Many people talk about saving a life as one of the greatest things you can do,†says Robbie Schade, a roboticist at Google who says he gives 25 percent of his earnings to charity, “but seem unaware that it is within their power to save multiple lives every year, with little personal sacrifice. . . .
MacAskill, like Trigg, realized that percentages don’t matter. Absolutes do. Ord may be able to give $1.5 million over the course of his life, but Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein made more than $15 million in 2012 alone. Before the crisis, Blankfein was clearing $50 million annually. And investment bankers don’t even get the biggest cut. Hedge fund manager John Paulson made $5 billion in 2010. Suppose Paulson were to keep his job, move to a studio in Hoboken, reduce his living expenses to $30,000 a year, and give the rest of the $5 billion away. He could save 3,000 times as many lives in a year as Ord could save in 80 years. So why not enter finance with the express goal of using earnings to save lives?â€
The article goes on to describe what sounds like an emerging subculture of “smart” do-gooders: people who have realized that it is both possible and advantageous to quantify philanthropy because it appears that simply giving the financial equivalent is both more convenient and perhaps even ethically superior. Gone are the romantic notions of digging wells by hand in third-world countries, replaced instead by the realization that the same $2,000 that would have gone into flight & travel arrangements can instead be used more efficiently, effectively, and sustainably to pay local workers and organizations to do the same. By the numbers, it is a utilitarian strategy that results in a higher yield for the same sort of goal. [Read more…] about Issues in College Christian Humanitarianism: Part 3