Greyhouse Coffee & Supply Co.

Big news! Campus House has bought a coffee shop. Now your initial reactions be to ask, "Why?" So let me tell you a little back story.

Rob, our main preaching pastor, has a had this dream for 15+ years. About a year ago one of the coffee shops in the major shopping area of campus was made available for purchase. So over some long months Campus House was able to purchase it. We'll officially take possession at the beginning of June and after a month of renovations will open the business in July.

Now you may thinking, "Oh great, another Christian coffee shop." (sarcasm intended) Please allow me to ease your concerns. This is not the typical model.

What it is not: We won't play exclusively Christian music, we won't have bible tracks as coasters, we won't have overtly Christian art, it is not meant to be just a place for all the churches to have bible studies, there won't be church services taking place there and it's not just the eastern subsidiary of Campus House.

What it is: A neutral place for Christians and Non-believers to share space. A place where patrons of faith and those searching can have conversations, relationships and dialogs. A place for Christians to "Live such good lives among the [Non-believers] that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us (1Peter 2:12)." A place that serves great coffee and not just Folger's in a Styrofoam cup. A place where people genuinely feel served because the employees buy into the vision of serving others (we need to give them a reason to care about what we say).

I could never do the vision and mission justice so I suggest you listen to Sunday's sermon from 2-24-08 here (click Video Podcast link).

Or read these blogs about it: Brad's or Garrett's two entries about it ONE & TWO.

Be good...

Uuhhh?

I'm sitting here with an empty brain. I cannot for the life of me think of a lesson for my Community Group. Originally I intended to do a lesson on identity from Genesis 3 and Donald Miller's Searching For God Knows What. It's a great topic from an outstanding book but I'm just not feeling it. I don't want to just throw something together but I can't think of anything. Pray that I seek Godly inspiration and don't settle for less.

While sitting here trying to think of what to type next, I think something came to me. God is pretty awesome. There is a sin that I struggle with and I bet you do too. It's a sin that is a norm. It's not only culturally accepted but it is culturally expected. It's something that the Bible speaks against frequently but is seldom viewed as a sin. What is this sin you keep neglecting to label, Sam? The sin I'm referring to is WORRY.

Here are a two verses that speak to the subject: Matthew 6:25-34, Philippians 4:6-7.

I have been worrying a lot lately. I have over a year before my internship ends but I've been anxious about what I'll do afterward. More school, a job? Will I have to raise my own support for the rest of my life? All scary questions but not legitimate concerns. It's elementary theology but I can't seemed to lay my burdens on Jesus. Pray that I find peace, give concerns to Jesus and give my future an appropriate amount of attention and no more.

Praise God for healing and inspiring.

Poll

As you probably noticed I added a poll to the blog. I'm doing this just to see how many people actually visit my blog. If you would pick anyone of its arbitrary answers I'd appreciate it. Thanks Y'all!

Remember me?

Ok ok ok, it's been a really long time. Forgive me. So quite a bit has happened and I have neglected you keep this up to date. I'm not going to attempt cover everything that has happened but here are a couple big things.

I had a chance to preach again. I had a great time with the whole process. I spoke on 2 Samuel 9. This is a passage where David shows grace to Mephibosheth. It is truly a foreshadowing of the Great One who was yet to come (obviously I'm referring to Jesus). Click HERE to go to our web page, then click on Video Podcast to listen to it.

Another big thing is my preparation for my Mission Trip to Jamaica. It's way more administrative work that I expect or I'm usually gift with. Nevertheless, it's a cool process to see come together. We have a team of 17 students, one of our pastors Rob and myself. I can tell it's going to be an awesome trip. Plus we'll be working with orphans; some of which are infants and toddlers. I love babies.

Finally, I went to an Indiana Campus Ministries retreat this weekend. Joel Hammernick from Sunshine Gospel Ministries spoke. He is an amazing man who runs a ministry in the south side of Chicago. He taught on working in the inner-city/with the poor yet was not at all self-righteous or condemning. He made serving the poor seem doable, practical and attainable even in your current position. You should check out his BLOG.

I'll try to be more diligent at keep up with this from now on.
-SAM