Responses to DB - A Blog Series - On Reaching Out: Our Guilty Silence

This class opened up with a comment about the article that was written in The Beacon, our campus newspaper. This article was a Feature on me. One of the comments that I made had to do with the idea that I have noticed a trend of encouraging students to break out of the Bethel Bubble and yet we seem to restrict the ability of some students to do this. What the point of my comment was intended to emulate was the way that we preach to students to reach out to their world, to give to their community, and to provide for the suffering in the world, but we are poor at providing opportunities for this engagement. We don't assist students enough in getting into the world around them and engaging their culture and the context to which this campus is placed.

I continued the quotation with the idea of abandoning the importance of homework to increase the depth of the relationships that we have on this campus because this is the last time that we will see them; whether for four years or two more weeks. I am not backing down from this comment because it resembles the importance of networking the Body of Christ to accomplish His mission in this community. I wonder what would happen if the people on this campus participated in some form of community building activities that they were taking part in that engaged the community. If we were able to have student bonds be such that they are unbreakable and it is noticeable to the community that this is a tight knit group of individuals that were going to take Mishawaka/South Bend by storm, what kind of impact would that have?

What I find so interesting and troubling is that we have hundreds that come to the altar and profess that they will serve the Lord, but are not willing to serve the community around them. I am as guilty as the next one. I say that I will serve the Lord, but only the students that wish to be true disciples of Christ, whatever that means. My point still remains that we need to be committed to the true callings of Christ. We need to get out and serve! Not when we Graduate, but when feel the promptings of the LORD! (I am probably implying that this means now) I AM!

By going to the altar and saying what I "will do if God presents it to me" and walking by the homeless who is begging for a dime for his son is hypocritical and explains much about the character of who we are. I want to be someone that abandons unimportant things to go where God wants to take me. Wherever that means! What a difficult commitment!

Where are you willing to go?
Are you willing to go? Anywhere?