The need for compelling community

Georgia Tech specializes in training students to enhance human flourishing with technological solutions. Perhaps the tougher issue is clarity about what human flourishing really looks like.

Our senior staff woman, Becca Gartrell, recently explored the issue of community in a short article. Becca works with women both at Tech and Agnes Scott. While both of these campuses have some of the sharpest student women in the south, many of them struggle with isolation, stress, and discouragement.

Part of bringing Christ to students here is bringing students together in real community. Relationships and community are the context for all human flourishing. So, we need to develop compelling community among our staff students so we can all better know and experience the love of Christ.

Here is an excerpt from Becca's article:

   Community. It’s quite the buzz-word these days. Everyone wants it, yet no one seems to feel like they have it. Especially in a city the size and pace of Atlanta, it can be easy to feel lost in the crowd. But I hear this complaint most frequently from people who are part of wonderful communitites. So I think the question begs to be asked: What exactly is community, anyway? And how do we attain it?



Becca Gartrell and Cole Price, a volunteer with our ministry through ChristChurch, PCA.



I’m no guru on this topic, but I’ve learned a few things along the way on my life journey so far. So here’s what I think, for whatever it’s worth.

I think community has multiple levels. We all need:

  

 a) intimate relationship with God,

  

b) intimate relationship with a few close friends (which includes family and a spouse for many people), and

  

 c) relationship with a broader community of people, with varying levels of aquaintanceship. (Is that a word?)

So, when you feel like you need “community,” I think it helps address the problem if you ask youself which aspect of community you mean. Are you missing a thriving relationship with God? Do you have any people in your life with whom you share your junk? Do you have a broader community of people to whom you belong?

For the rest of Becca's thoughts on community or to read some of her other personal posts visit her blog at http://www.beccagartrell.com/.

Thanks for your interest in Crossroads at Georgia Tech.



Pictures of Grace at Georgia Tech taken on Fall Getaway

Georgia Tech students are busy. I usually chuckle to myself when a college student complains about being busy. "Just wait until you get a real job or a family, then tell me how busy you were in college!"

But Tech students might have a real case for their busyness. As a result, time is one of the greatest challenges we face in helping students come to know Christ and grow in their faith. Since God normally works through exposure to His word and Spirit-filled believers to draw people to himself, we try to create a few getaways and conferences each year to get a concentrated block of time in which we can expose students to effective teaching and lifechanging fellowship.

Emily set me up for this post with post on our family ministry blog - but here are the facts behind the photos, each one a result of God's grace at work at Georgia Tech!

Justin Craig, our guest speaker. One of the main appeals of campus ministry is the idea that the people you reach today will be influential tomorrow. This weekend we witnessed this idea in fruition. Justin, a student who came to know the Lord through our ministry as a student back in 1997 today is planting a dynamic church in Atlanta. At our getaway Justin gave 4 excellent Biblical messages that impacted everyone at the retreat. So, today when I walk on campus I pray, "Lord, lead me to the guy who will become the next Justin!" 

Anna "I love Bosnia" Oneal in concert. Anna is an influential GT senior. Her involvment in the movement led her to spend two summers at our partnership campus in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Her heart for Bosnia is famous, atleast among her peers. She is planning to to to Bosnia as a missionary with our minsitry when she graduates.

Not your avg Christian students - two of these smiling students spoke with me about how the Lord was speaking to them at the retreat. When I asked Andy how the retreat was going he answered, "Good, this morning I realized major confirmation in my calling to fulltime ministry." Based on his gifts and experience, we agree! One of the other guys at the table is Daniel, a student with a special burden for people from a non-Muslim Middle Eastern nation. This weekend he shared with me how he is leading an investigative study on the Old Testament and how it points to Jesus as the Messiah.

The guy who had break-through - It seems like their is someone at every retreat who has a major breakthrough. Last year it was Matt. After the retreat he kept growing, ended up going to Bosnia for the Summer, and is now engaged to marry a strong Christian girl he met in our movement. This year I think it was Jim. He was an outsider to Crossroads until very recently. He opened up and shared with the group that he feels like his life is now changing. I can't wait to see what is next with Jim.

The hug photo - Devi and Amber, both fantastic girls who are immeging as fruitful leaders in our ministry. Devi was one of only a few women who got invovled from the freshmen class last year, but she is amazingly motivated to grow and to reach out at Tech. She and another students are starting an investigative Bible discussion group for pre-med students on campus.

The guy with the purses - meet Taylor, one of the sharpest and most fun Freshmen students we have met this year. He came to Tech all the way from California. He came with a strong desire to grow in his faith and a willingness to reach out to his friends. He was also game to deploy some silly props in an entertaining game during the retreat.

GT Crossroads director presents reflection at Student honors luncheon

I believe one of the keys of effective campus ministry is being part of campus life. One way Crossroads can participate in the academic life of our campus is to give reflection speaches for events like graduation. In the past, these reflections were called invocations. It was customary to have a minister open these events with a prayer. It is understandable that most universities have replaced opening prayers with secular reflections.

Here is the text of my most recent reflection at the Georgia Tech Student honors luncheon:

Greetings, students, faculty, alumni, and friends of Georgia Tech. On behalf of the Georgia Tech campus ministries I offer this brief refection:


We live in a world where men and women strive for many different awards. What determines the kind of legacy that they leave?


I recently reflected on the story of Alfred Noble who made great success and fortune for himself with his scientific mind. His proudest invention he first called “safety powder” but later derived a new name for his powder after the Greek word for strength, “dynamite.”


Alfred’s success continued. Later, Alfred’s older brother Ludvig died, a French newspaper printed a scathing obituary, not of Ludvig, but of Alfred Nobel, who was in fact alive and well. The writer was allegedly confused about who had died, and he used the obituary to write a condemnation of Alfred's life and work. “The merchant of death is dead" the newspaper proclaimed.


Alfred Nobel read the obituary about himself and was so upset that this was to be his legacy that he rewrote his will to establish a set of prizes celebrating humankind's greatest achievements. He left 94 percent of his assets to create and endow five Nobel Prizes.


There's also now an annual ceremony at Harvard to award the IgNobel Prizes. These prizes parody the Nobel awards and are for achievements that "first make people laugh, and then make them think."


Recent Ignoble science and technology awards have gone to veterinarians in France "for discovering that the fleas that live on a dog can jump higher than the fleas that live on a cat" The Ignoble awards ceremony always concludes with the proclamation: "If you didn't win a prize — and especially if you did — better luck next year!"


You are here today because you have won a prize for your hard work and achievement. The Georgia Tech community is thankful for you and the example you have set. We are hopeful for the potential, noble legacy you will leave in the world.


We have great hope for you, the recipients of hard earned awards, because, if you can succeed here at Georgia Tech, some may say you can succeed anywhere.


Still, I encourage you to receive these rewards and set your sights on new ones with humility, courage and wisdom.


Today, we will gratefully offer you our encouragement and applause. As you celebrate today, consider how your success can be a blessing others and bring wonderful solutions to many challenges in our world.

(Pictured below - three students involved in Crossroads that were receiving awards at the luncheon.)