hey all,
sorry if i'm posting out of order but i feel like i need some clarity on ACF. i've been wrestling with these thoughts for a couple of days and i was wondering what your thoughts on these issues were. maybe i'm slow or not attentive because these issues seem to be very basic, at least at first glance. or maybe i've been too distracted MCATing. regardless, i'd like to hear some of your thoughts and possibly help me gain more knowledge and reshape my understanding on these issues. i'll try to make it as concise as possible because the more i write, the more complex and disorganized my writing gets (i basically ramble). here are some of the issues:
1) what exactly is ACF? yes, it's a fellowship group but what specifically does that entail? how close are we to the "line/boundary" (if there is one) between a college church and an on-campus Christian organization? based on our preliminary mission statement, we should be doing similar things a church ought to be doing-- building a "family" within acf and [hopefully] lead other students to Christ. i guess most importantly, does it matter what acf draws so close to being a college church on campus?
2) how involved do we want to get with fellow acfers' lives? this question might seem a little odd but are we looking to be almost a "frat/sorority" style of an organization or something on the opposite side of the spectrum, say...an anime club or something. i realize it's not black and white and we're probably aiming for the middle somewhere but if we want to encourage our acfers to grow in Christ, i think there needs to be a level of intimacy in acf, more specifically in small groups. does acf call for that level of intimacy or is that "going too far" for "just" a college Christian organization?
3) what's up with jca and acf? the majority of the time i bring up acf to other emoroids (emory students), more likely than not, they bring up jca and the whole ordeal. then they ask me if i'm mad at jca or something ridiculous like that. personally, i think it's great that jca is doing the work they're doing. yeah, they "took" members away from acf but is that necessarily a bad thing? they're doing the work of God and a lot of students are attracted to it so what's the big problem? is there a level of resentment between jca and acf? maybe we could do some sort of reconciliation thing on this and possibly do a joint event sometime with them.
my apologies if these things are supposed to be quietly assumed but some of these things are ambiguous to me at the moment. alright! well, hope you guys had a great sunday. i'm off to take another mcat diag.
p.s - are we assigned a certain day of the week to post for the entire summer? because i noticed we didn't have a Festive Friday entry and i was wondering if that's because it was me who didn't post...
4 comments:
these are good questions and it's better to ask rather than assume. they'll require some thought so i'll be thinking about them for a bit before i post up a comment (warning: it'll prob be a long one). i feel a little uncomfortable addressing #3 about jca and acf's relationship via our blog (just personal preference), i'd much rather discuss this together in person but i think it's an issue of enough significance that should be discussed. that way we can also be praying over it in preparation for next year, because it needs a lot of prayer.
:] that's completely fine with me.
also, i pose these questions partly because i think having the whole leadership team on the same page is an essential part of...leading.
less ambiguity, less assumptions, less misunderstanding, less "mistakes". that goes for all of us!
these are good questions tim-- i think i've always struggled with your first question. that's something we might want to explore intervarsity's ministry philosophy. maybe pastor young can fill in more here.
if ACF does exist, i'd think that developing genuine friendships remains a high (if not highest) priority.
as for the blog, you weren't assigned friday or anything. i'm emailing people to post mon/tues/thurs/fri. diane couldn't sign in for some reason, and since friday is free topic, she wanted to share what she posted.
of course, anyone can post at anytime.
Hello. Yeah, definitely I have been wanting to know the first question. Hm.. well, we should definitely pray about it and I will ask someone about this too...he was really involved in campus ministry.
Well, the last question about JCA, I think of it like JCA could be one of the different groups that would bring Christians together and ACF could reach out to other asians......?
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