Monthly Archives: August 2006

TIME To Change The World

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I’m confused by some of Time’s picks for the top 100 most influential people in the world. I mean, I don’t listen to Daddy Yankee’s music so I couldn’t tell you if it was influential or not. It’s sad, but I actually hadn’t heard of Daddy Yankee before I saw his name on the TIME website. Others make a lot more sense. I mean JJ Abrams after all brought us “Alias” and “Lost” and the third (and the best) “Mission Impossible”.

Then there are people like Bono, Condoleezza, Ralph Lauren, and Elie Wiesel…people who influence and inspire and pioneer and reform. What does it take to be one of the top 100 people who shape the world? Is that something to aspire to? What are the common elements in each persons life?

Yesterday I was talking with a couple of friends about what Cuba might be like if Raul ends up taking over for his older brother Fidel. Some people say that he will change things for the better, others think that the power will corrupt him even worse than it did for Fidel. My thought was, what if Raul had studied at a place like Boston University and had found a community of faith like The Church at the Gate that cared about him and shared Jesus with him? What would things be like in Cuba now? What if Osama had come to the US to study?

Obviously, when Raul went to school, The Church at the Gate wasn’t around and he studied in Cuba anyway, but the reality is that the nations of the world are sending their best and most potentially influential students to the US for their education. We MUST invest in them. With 145 nations represented at Boston University, that MUST be our goal. Students are coming to the US from countries that we cannot send missionaries. Many muslim countries are closed to the gospel, but we have their future leaders in our country for 4-7 years. What will they be exposed to when the come to America? Hostility? Rejection? Selfishness? Greed? Corruption? Depravity? Debauchery? Or will they be welcomed by a young follower of Christ who shares their life with them and teaches them what it means to love God and love people? Will their lives be changed by what they find here in Boston to the point that they go back and influence their culture for Christ?

It’s amazing to think what the possibilities might be for a church that makes disciples of college students. It could be the hardest church to start. Most people in the church may think it to be a ridiculous idea. The church has largely neglected students because they hear things like students are least likely to come to know Jesus, they don’t have money, they won’t commit, they can’t be counted on, they are irresponsible, but while everyone else is thinking of college students as a weakness to their church I will be laying down my life for them because I know their strengths. They are mobile, networked, flexible, responsible, committed, energetic, influential, intelligent, and they are active in following Christ and sharing Christ with others. I get to invest in them for a few years and then see them go to the ends of the earth to share about what they’ve learned and to use what they’ve learned to be the best at what God calls them to do. They may not have money, but how much money does it take to build relationships.

I may never make the TIME top 100, and that will never be my goal in life, but I want to give my life making disciples of the nations by investing in college students. I have the opportunity and privilege to do that right here in Boston near the largest university in New England which has the eighth largest international student population in the U.S. What a great place to make a difference. It’s time to change the world and I want to be a part of the revolution.

The Irresistible Revolution

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I just finished reading a book entitled The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne. Shane has really challenged me in a lot of ways with his book. He has a strict non-violence view that I can’t totally jump on board with (which sounds bad, but I would need 5 minutes of your time to explain what I mean). He has some crazy thoughts on community and on social justice that I love and I hate all at one time. I disagree with him some, but mostly, I think he’s got a lot of stuff figured out about the way we should be living our lives as followers of Christ. It’s nothing new, it’s just a call to living a simple life of a disciple.

There was one paragraph that my friend Josh and I discussed earlier today. Shane writes,

As we practice hospitality, there comes a point where the suffering around us drives us to ask what it would take to reimagine the world. We’ve all heard the saying “Give someone a fish and they’ll eat for a day, but teach them to fish and they’ll eat for the rest of their life.” But our friend John Perkins challenges us to go farther. He says, “The problem is that nobody is asking who owns the pond.” As we consider economics, some of us will give people fish. Others will teach people to fish. But still others must be looking at who owns the pond and who polluted it, for these are also essential questions for our survival. We must storm the fence that has been built around the pond and make sure everyone can get to it, for there are enough fish for all of us.

As Josh and I talked about this paragraph, we decided that our church should be involved in every aspect of this to some extent. Giving away clothing or a meal to a homeless person or a bottle of water to someone in need is something we can do to give. Teaching ESL to an international student or partnering with a group like SIFAT is the second part. Finally, doing something about the fences around the pond is the long term goal of what we are doing as a church targeting the university campus.

This pond part is what excites me most. I do everything I can to invest in college students because these are the men and women who are going to be the decision makers and policy makers. They will be in education, in government, in business. In some countries, the corruption and greed of the government are keeping people from getting to the pond of health and the pond of essential needs. There are plenty of resources to go around, but it will be men and women of faith who can influence these governments and can teach social awareness that will make a difference in the needs of our different cultures. I get to play a small part, for a short amount of time, in shaping the thought of a small amount of young believers as they study here in Boston. My prayer is that God would be able to use me to influence people who will also be influential wherever they end up in life.