I remember when I created this blog thinking, I will write a simple little blog every month at the half way point and I'll be very diligent with it. Turns out this is not such a high priority on my to-do list. If you are getting these blog posts but want a more consistent update, please let me know and I will send you my monthly prayer letter, which I actually do send out on time each month.
Anyway, much has happened since my last post, which I think was like April or something. At this point in the year we've seen 19 students come into a personal relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ. Just yesterday we got a new Chinese sister! She had been studying the gospel of Mark with Amanda and Vincy (another Chinese christian) and decided she wanted to put her faith in the Lord.
This semester I have made it a point to spend some more time doing evangelism on campus. I've started doing more worldview questions, just asking the basic 4 questions that a worldview must be able to coherently answer to be a reliable view of reality:
1. Origin - Where did everything come from
2. Purpose - What's the meaning or purpose of life and everything
3. Morality - What determines right from wrong and where did this morality sensor come from
4. Destination - Where is everything headed, specifically you, when you die
And then I include a fifth question:
5. Epistemology - How do you know that your worldview is correct?
(If they say they don't know, I ask them if they care)
Brace yourself, I'm about to rant:
These questions are direct and they go in a direction that I know is pertinent to this culture which typically denies that truth even matters. How can truth NOT matter?!! Often times students tell me that it's not their place to tell someone else if they are right or wrong. I'll ask them if that is ALWAYS true. They'll usually say yes. To which I'll show them an example of a time when it's obviously not true:
Let's say their best friend has a dream one night that they can fly. They wake up believing with absolute certainty that they are able to fly. So they call you up and tell you to get the video camera. They want to go to the Kangaroo Cliffs and test out their theory. What are you to do? Are you going to say, "Well to each his own" or "Well it's not my place to tell them they are wrong." Are you going to let your friend jump off a cliff to their death in the name of "tolerance"? Truth matters! And if you know the truth, and that truth will save those who don't know it, then not only is it OK for you to speak up, it is your DUTY to speak truth and do all that you can to show them that they are wrong.
And I'm not in the business of just showing simple truths like "brushing your teeth will help prevent cavities" or "driving drunk is stupid and dangerous". I'm in the business of saving eternal lives. We are all destined for an eternal separation from Love, from all that is good, to a place of terrible weeping. Is it not my DUTY to show that TRUTH exists, TRUTH is knowable, and TRUTH is free? How can one say it doesn't matter what is true? Why is this culture so apathetic???!!! I pray that America would not move in this direction. We must stand for what is true. We must never let that go.
The direction of "modernity" is to classify certain sorts of knowledge into two categories: one which is knowable and public (aka science and math) and the other is not knowable and is private (aka morality, spirituality, and religion). This means that you can speak the "truth" so long as it fits into an equation. But as soon as you begin to suggest that something can be known outside the science lab, you are called an unenlightened religious bigot. "The only things which are comprehensibly knowable are those things which are proven scientifically." Really? If that is true than you must also be able to prove that very sentiment scientifically. You let me know when you've done that.
We don't operate from day to day excluding all knowledge that isn't scientific. Do you ever operate based on what you 'remember'? Probably every minute of the day right. Well that's history, not science. Do you ever drive through a green light without worrying that someone is going to drive through their red light and smash into your car? Well that's not science. There's no scientific law prohibiting them from doing so. You're actually living by faith in that situation. Ever wanted to do something wrong, and then decided you wouldn't do it...not because you couldn't get away with it, but because you recognized that it wasn't right? That's not science. That's morality. Ever fallen in love? And how did you know you were in love? Did you go to the local scientist to ask him to test your endorphins? Nope you didn't. We don't need science to "prove" something in order to know that it's true. And yet this is how most people I meet think we must approach the question of God's existence.
Or I'll ask them "what would it take for you to believe in God?" And they'll say, "he would need to come to earth and tell me he's real." To which I'll say, "and if he did that, do you think people should believe in him in 2000 years from now? Cuz he already came to earth and said he was God." This is where we turn to history.
Can we trust the Bible? Is the New Testament reliable? Who was Jesus? What did he really say? What did he really do? Did he die on a Roman cross? Are there other accounts of this? And did his body really go missing? Where did it go? Could he have come back to life? And if he did, what implications does that have about WHO HE IS?
Many of you know who Lee Strobel is. He wrote a short book to look into these questions called "The Case for Easter." It's only 95 pages and quite good. I recommend it all the time. I've given out a few copies on campus to those who are willing to take the challenge. If you are interested in looking into this topic that's a good introduction.
Well at this point, my ranting is done. I shall now turn to preparing for the worldviews conference (Oct 16) that I am hosting with Kris and Nate, and at which my dad will be the key note speaker.
Please continue to pray for us here in Brisbane. Sometimes I fluctuate between compassion for these students and other times utter shock and disgust at their attitude toward these questions. It's not so much that they don't believe - that I understand and have seen all my life. But the attitude of apathy toward truth...well it's a little bit like someone coming to help you off a sinking ship, at which point you spit in their face and say "I'm not sinking and even if I was it wouldn't matter". So please keep the prayer coming. Much love, agape love.
BTC
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Thursday, April 15, 2010
1/4th of the Year is Done
Well it's been about 2 months since I last wrote...whoops. Ministry is a high priority than updating my online blog. But I shall give you an update now.
The last major event I wrote about was Impact Camp and the start of the year. We're now half way done with the first semester. Here are the highlights of what we've seen God do:
Launched Student Life at Logan Campus: We have 2 men that are interested in Student Life, one of them I have been meeting with regularly each week and he went on the Men's Camping trip last week. His name is Taaremon. He is from the Kirirbati Islands (approximately where the International Date Line & the Equator meet). There are now close to 15 women involved with the weekly women's bible study at Logan. [The campus is about 90% female, so the women's ministry there will obviously be a bit more effective than the men's.]
Launched Student Life at South Bank Campus: We actually just had our first bible study at South Bank yesterday. Kris and Amanda are leading this study. They were expecting 2 students to show up, but 6 came. Later Kris received an email from someone who heard about the study and wants to come next week. So praise the Lord! He is at work in all 4 campuses at Griffith Uni in Brisbane.
New believers: We have seen 4 people trust in Christ so far this year. Three of them are Aussie women, one is a Chinese guy. The first gal that prayed to receive Christ has now become nearly impossible to contact. She doesn't seem to want to do follow up, so we're not sure what is going on with her. Please pray that if she did truly trust in the Lord, the Spirit would stir in her a desire to learn more and get connected with other believers. Also please pray for the other three as we seek to help them grow as new believers.
ConneXions Conference: We held the Queensland Regional Conference at Mt. Tambourine at the end of March. I was asked to give the first message, which was on living a Spirit-filled life. The students really seemed to enjoy this. One student, with tears in her eyes, called me her sign-post to the Lord. What a compliment, and proof that God works even through sinners, like me. Another student said that the Lord revealed to him a whole new understanding of what Christian living means. He said he now realizes how to stop living as a Pharisee, and to start living by the Spirit. Also at the conference, my team organized the conference game, which was meant to help students get to know each other from across campuses, as well as to convey the theme for the weekend, which was SENT.
The game is pretty complex to explain, but the underlining jist was that students were broken down into groups that represented states in Australia or other countries. In those locations they would get to meet other students while playing some sort of game (like Telephone Pictionary, cards, or Giant Jenga). However, there was another group called LOTW (Light of the World), whose job was not to play games, but to go out into the various states/countries and ask people if they would like to play another game, a game of dice. (Dice represented the Truth). If the student played and won, the LOTW student would tell them, "You win. You've just entered the real game, the game of life. Follow me and i'll explain more." Then their job was to take that student to "follow up" where they would learn that winning dice meant they had just trusted in Christ, and then would learn how to share the Real Game with others who didn't know. The game went really well. Afterward we had a debrief and students shared how they saw parallels between the game and real life. It was easy to see the parallel between the game and real life, that most people don't even know there is a real purpose to life; instead they are just so caught up in their own worldly things (like playing cards in the game) that they may not even care that something greater exists.
We also had training for students at the conference and everyone seemed to have positive feedback. My training was actually for students who came as "seekers". Meaning that they had some questions about Christianity and weren't necessarily convinced yet. So we talked about the gospel and what Christianity is all about. The next day we talked about worldviews/apologetics/total truth. I also received great feedback from the students who attended this time as well.
Last week the students had a week break from classes, so we too had our vacation time. It was a great week to relax in the midst of a very busy ministry. And I've just been reminded that of all the STINT teams across the world, we STINTers in Australia do about twice as much ministry as everyone else because we don't have language classes filling up the first half of each weekday. So often times the missionaries elsewhere feel like they can't get enough ministry done, and down here we often seem to be drowning in it.
But God is good & his love endures forever. Praise Him for all He is doing here. Thanks for your prayers & support. It has not gone unnoticed. Not by me, and not by the Lord. May his praise be on my lips forever and ever.
The last major event I wrote about was Impact Camp and the start of the year. We're now half way done with the first semester. Here are the highlights of what we've seen God do:
Launched Student Life at Logan Campus: We have 2 men that are interested in Student Life, one of them I have been meeting with regularly each week and he went on the Men's Camping trip last week. His name is Taaremon. He is from the Kirirbati Islands (approximately where the International Date Line & the Equator meet). There are now close to 15 women involved with the weekly women's bible study at Logan. [The campus is about 90% female, so the women's ministry there will obviously be a bit more effective than the men's.]
Launched Student Life at South Bank Campus: We actually just had our first bible study at South Bank yesterday. Kris and Amanda are leading this study. They were expecting 2 students to show up, but 6 came. Later Kris received an email from someone who heard about the study and wants to come next week. So praise the Lord! He is at work in all 4 campuses at Griffith Uni in Brisbane.
New believers: We have seen 4 people trust in Christ so far this year. Three of them are Aussie women, one is a Chinese guy. The first gal that prayed to receive Christ has now become nearly impossible to contact. She doesn't seem to want to do follow up, so we're not sure what is going on with her. Please pray that if she did truly trust in the Lord, the Spirit would stir in her a desire to learn more and get connected with other believers. Also please pray for the other three as we seek to help them grow as new believers.
ConneXions Conference: We held the Queensland Regional Conference at Mt. Tambourine at the end of March. I was asked to give the first message, which was on living a Spirit-filled life. The students really seemed to enjoy this. One student, with tears in her eyes, called me her sign-post to the Lord. What a compliment, and proof that God works even through sinners, like me. Another student said that the Lord revealed to him a whole new understanding of what Christian living means. He said he now realizes how to stop living as a Pharisee, and to start living by the Spirit. Also at the conference, my team organized the conference game, which was meant to help students get to know each other from across campuses, as well as to convey the theme for the weekend, which was SENT.
The game is pretty complex to explain, but the underlining jist was that students were broken down into groups that represented states in Australia or other countries. In those locations they would get to meet other students while playing some sort of game (like Telephone Pictionary, cards, or Giant Jenga). However, there was another group called LOTW (Light of the World), whose job was not to play games, but to go out into the various states/countries and ask people if they would like to play another game, a game of dice. (Dice represented the Truth). If the student played and won, the LOTW student would tell them, "You win. You've just entered the real game, the game of life. Follow me and i'll explain more." Then their job was to take that student to "follow up" where they would learn that winning dice meant they had just trusted in Christ, and then would learn how to share the Real Game with others who didn't know. The game went really well. Afterward we had a debrief and students shared how they saw parallels between the game and real life. It was easy to see the parallel between the game and real life, that most people don't even know there is a real purpose to life; instead they are just so caught up in their own worldly things (like playing cards in the game) that they may not even care that something greater exists.
We also had training for students at the conference and everyone seemed to have positive feedback. My training was actually for students who came as "seekers". Meaning that they had some questions about Christianity and weren't necessarily convinced yet. So we talked about the gospel and what Christianity is all about. The next day we talked about worldviews/apologetics/total truth. I also received great feedback from the students who attended this time as well.
Last week the students had a week break from classes, so we too had our vacation time. It was a great week to relax in the midst of a very busy ministry. And I've just been reminded that of all the STINT teams across the world, we STINTers in Australia do about twice as much ministry as everyone else because we don't have language classes filling up the first half of each weekday. So often times the missionaries elsewhere feel like they can't get enough ministry done, and down here we often seem to be drowning in it.
But God is good & his love endures forever. Praise Him for all He is doing here. Thanks for your prayers & support. It has not gone unnoticed. Not by me, and not by the Lord. May his praise be on my lips forever and ever.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Coming Soon
Update coming soon... the blog isn't the highest priority in my life apparently. Hopefully will update this week.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Impact Camp
Impact Camp Photo
Impact Camp - Last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday we held our key student labourers retreat at a local church in Brissy. There were four primary purposes:
1. Cast Vision for the Direction/Purpose of Student Life (in general) and specifically for this year.
2. Provide training in evangelism and follow-up calls for interested new students.
3. Create a calender of events for the year within each Focus Area [explanation of Focus Areas below]
4. Fellowship & bonding between the students and the new STINT team.
Here's everyone before a meeting.
Trying to do a fun photo.
Leading evangelism training with Kris.
This year we plan on continuing those four and adding more:
*Logan Campus - First of all, I (with the help of Nate) will be pioneering at Logan Campus for a day or two every week to launch a movement there. This has never happened before at Griffith University. Please pray for me as I look for believers at Logan who might be interested in joining Student Life and starting a Focus Area there.
*South Bank Campus - Secondly, this is another Griffith Campus that has never been pursued by a STINT team. But this year Kris & Amanda will be pioneering there to launch the first ever South Bank Focus Area. Please pray for this pursuit as well.
*Multi-Media - Kris has some unique skills in the area of video productions and has been approved to spend one day a week using his abilities to produce quality videos to help promote the UpperMidwest partnerships around the world: Australia, France, Urugauy, Ghana, East Asia, & 4th Journey (middle east location). Please pray for him as he seeks the Lord on how to best use this time. This is a vital way that the Lord uses to call many soon-to-be graduates into missions.
Oh and if you haven't heard yet, Amanda and Nate are both here. Praise the Lord!
If we can reach the first years for Christ each year, ministry will be continuously propelled forward. So please pray that we would find many believing students who are looking to get involved, and that we would find non-believing students who are interested in learning about Christ.
If you are not currently receiving my monthly updates and would like to, please email me at benjamin.t.cornish@gmail.com to request them. Thanks for reading...but mostly for praying. ONE LOVE!
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