It’s been almost a year since I first started blogging. During that time I have grown as an observer of life, as a thinker and as a writer. I have also grown in relationships with people that I probably otherwise wouldn’t have, because or the accessibility of a blog or in some cases because of the common bond and experience of blogging itself. I have been able to share parts of my life with those who live far away, whom I can’t see on a regular basis.

All, in all, I think it has been a really good experience. 

At the urging of my tech-savvy friend, social media guru Clayton Bell  (Yes, He IS.) I have decided to take the plunge to a self hosted blog. 

This will allow many more comment features and flexibility within the new blog that will enrich your experience on the blog and make it a more fun experience. Some of the new features include:

• The ability to receive follow up comments via email 
• The ability to subscribe to the Blog via email
• The ability to share the post using integrated “Share This”
• A more memorable Blog URL (DaveHess.com)

Checkout my new blog site, and let me know what you think! I would love to get your feedback. (Be sure to update your RSS feeder and any links too!) I’ve got some good posts in mind that i’ll be posting soon. 

Special Thanks again to Clayton Bell and Chris Tavalare who guided me through some of the technical aspects of making this transition!

I just started reading Humility: True Greatness, by Pastor C.J. Mahaney. I am not even two pages into the foreword, and this book has already struck a chord within me. 

Joshua Harris starts off the foreword in this book with the following, 

Humility is a funny thing. On the one hand it’s an extremely desirable trait. Most of us, as Christians, would say we want to be humble right? Or at least we want to be thought of as humble. At the same time, few of us have given attention to what being humble actually means. Even fewer have considered what it takes to grow in humility. 

In place of true humility we learn certain words or phrases that we believe make us sound humble: “Oh, really, it was nothing” or “Anyone could have done it.” We cast our eyes down and shrug our shoulders or maybe even blush. Of course, we don’t really mean it – inside we’re congratulating ourselves for how humble we look and feel. We want that reputation but don’t know how to get the reality. Like children playing dress-up in their parents clothes, we’re only acting humble; none of it really fits us. 

If the rest of the book is half as good as the first two paragraphs of the foreword, this will make for a very good read. I’ll let you know.

• Steven Furtick on the difference between mere imagination and true creativity. Ouch!
• Adam Mabry on the challenge of receiving encouragement, and guarding your heart against pride.
• Steve Murrell on Accountability
• Josh Harris on what he’s learned since he’s learned since he kissed dating goodbye

I have heard it said that people these days have shorter attention spans than they did 40 or 50 years ago. Mostly this is attributed to our increasingly entertainment oriented American culture. 

Andy Stanley, senior pastor of North Point church in the Atlanta area says this,

‘There is this myth that people say, “Sermons need to be short because people today have short attention spans.” That is totally irrelevant. People’s attention spans are as long as their engagement. If I’m engaged, I will sit and stay engaged until I have to go to the bathroom. The issue is: are people engaged, not how long is the sermon?’

When you communicate in a small group setting or on a Sunday morning, are you more concerned about filling a time quota or “getting through some material” or are you attuned to how you can engage people? 

Information and message content is important – ABSOLUTELY! But the greatest and even the most relevant information will not be well received unless you help stir up desire for the information you are going to give and show your audience how it is applicable to them within their situation. This is what it means to engage people as a communicator.

It’s easy to see when people aren’t engaged and when they are not. People leaving early, staring off into space, yawning or falling asleep – these are all tell tale signs of people who are disengaged. 

If you’re a leader, and the people in your environment of leadership are not engaged, chances are it is because you aren’t effectively engaging people. 

We are messengers of the most engaging story in all of history – the Gospel. Let’s not make an exciting message boring by the way we communicate.

(Andy Stanley quotes via Ed Stetzer)

Every Nation Ministries has really improved it’s short term missions program. Now called Ten Days Missions(which I suppose is the average length of a short term mission trip) the trips bring together students from churches and campus ministries all over but unify the teams and facilitate ease of administration through video training. Ten Days also makes online giving an option for would be trip participants. 

Short term mission trips are powerful experiences. As you step out and commit to go, you are forced to stretch your faith to trust God to provide the finances to get there, experience another culture, see the multitudes that don’t know Jesus and witness God show up in the lives of people you are changed. – (All this in addition to the change that takes place in the people and community you go to serve!)

I am personally helping to mobilize some students for a mission trip to Baja Mexico this June 17-22. The cost of this trip (excluding the cost of airfare to San Diego) is $1,000.  If you are in the Tallahassee area and are interested in going please let me know, as we are starting the application and training processes now. 

If those dates don’t work for you, or if you live in another part of the U.S., but want to get involved, check out the short term missions opportunities on the Ten Days Missions website. 

Recently at a prayer summit I came across this astounding statistic which stated that, “As many as 80% of Christian students say that they have lost their faith after four years in college.”

[It's generally  a good idea to be a bit skeptical of statistics that come from unknown sources and research,  but even if this statistic is inflated to an extent (and maybe it isn't)  it is still MIND BLOWING.]

Parents, vacation bible schools, summer camps and youth pastors invest into student’s life for 18 YEARS only to have it eroded during four years of college. How tragic!

This is one reason why I believe college campus ministry is so hugely important. 

Campus ministry in the U.S. is not only an opportunity to tell those who have never heard the gospel – though it is that. It’s also an opportunity to help bring to fruition, during a key stage of transition and maturation, the deposits of truth and faith that have been made by countless others in a young adult’s upbringing.

When asked where his brother was by God, Cain said, “Am I my brothers keeper”?, implying that it wasn’t his responsibility to keep track of his brother. However, it was his responsibility. Similarly we can dodge the responsibility that we have to the younger generation. 

It is our responsibility to reach out to this hurting generation studying on college campuses.

If we ignore students, they will continue as a generation to slip away. 

I pray this statistic stirs your heart as it did mine, and spurs you to prayerful action.

When we think about “repentance”, I think most of us think of it as a duty, something that is good and necessary, but certainly not as a “privilege”. This year I am reading through the Bible in the New Living Translation. As I was reading Acts 11:18 really struck me.

It is in the context of the Apostles hearing about how Gentiles had come to faith in Jesus from Peter, and says “When the others heard this they stopped objecting and began praising God. “We can see that God has also given the Gentiles the privilege of repenting of their sins and receiving eternal life.”

I try to be careful with the NLT because it is a much more loose translation than others I have used in the past.  So, when I come across something that strikes me as really different I cross check it with other  more literal translations. (This is made really easy by using BibleGateway.com!)

Here are a couple of other translations of this phrase that I bolded above in Acts 11:18- 

New International Version – “God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life”

New American Standard Version – “Well then, God has granted unto the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life”

English Standard Version - “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

In what sense is it a “privilege”, or in what sense has “God granted” repentance, you ask?

Though we are all, as human beings, commanded to repent of our sins, it is not merely a duty to do so, but a great privilege to be able to do so. To persist in stubborn rebellion is to be awaiting the rightful judgement of God. Praise God that he “grants repentance” even to us Gentiles!

In the past some people, have foolishly used this to truth of God’s role in repentance to wrongly teach that since God is the one who grants repentance then we might as well just not preach the gospel to people. This is lazy, foolish and disobedient to the clear charge of Scripture to go and preach the gospel. Beyond that, such an application totally misses the stunningly wonderful point of such a verse.

The point is that God is even more powerful and good than you may have ever imagined. He is the one that restrains evil hearts enough to grant the change of mind that takes place when a person truly repents. He is amazing and good and worthy of our praise, and our service, forever and ever.

I think many people today dream big and have high hopes for what they will do in life. This is especially true of those students I connect with through my role in college campus ministry. To dream big is great, because God hasn’t called us to mediocrity, he has called us to pursue greatness! He has a purpose for our lives that is good, just as He our loving father is altogether good. 

Yet, in that  we must always remember, that God’s version of “greatness” for our lives is frequently very different from the world’s version of “greatness”. 

“Greatness” in the world, is glamorous, famous and most certainly rich. Yet some of those who are truly greatest when assessed by the values of God’s kingdom are none of the above. They are unknown, unfashionable and materially poor. 

Some followers of Christ do end up in the limelight and are materially rich, but their possessions  and fame are merely part of their stewardship as for servants of God with a particular assignment. They are not the ultimate measure of true greatness. 

Be careful lest the values of the world infuse themselves into your Christian concept of “Greatness”.  As you dream big may God’s word and timeless truths inspire and direct your dreams.

Church consultant Chuck Gaines recently posted an article in which he shares 10 observations on growing churches.  

Characteristics of growing churches include:

1. Positive spirit of excitement.

2. Spirit of expectation.

3. Celebrative worship service.

4. Opportunities to build meaningful relationships through small groups

5. Focus on giving away the faith through lifestyle evangelism

6. No sentence ever begins with “I”

7. “What can I do?” and “What can I give?” are expressed not only with meaning but with action.

8. Missions involvement

9. Pastor/staff who lead and congregations who follow

10. Church is a safe place to come to God – Grace rules!

The full article on the Lifeway website includes a brief explanation of each point which may help to clarify what he means by a couple of these. To read it click  here.

I’m currently reading The Church History by Eusebius of Caesarea who lived apprximately 260-339 A.D.  He records some pretty horrific persecution of Christians during his day. For example he writes, 

“…why need I give example after example of the godly martyrs’ contests throughout the world, especially those who were no longer attacked under common law  but as enemies in war? A little town in Phrygia, for instance, all of whose inhabitants were Christian, was surrounded by armed infantrymen who set it on fire and burned to death men, women, and young children as they were calling on almighty God. The reason? All the townspeople, from the mayor himself and the magistrates to the entire populace, confessed their Christianity and refused to commit idolatry.” (Book 8.11)

He continues in Book 8.12 (For some reason they called each chapter a book back then.), 

“Sometimes they were killed with an axe, as was the case in Arabia, or had their legs broken, as those in Cappadocia. At other times they were hung upside down over a slow fire, so that smoke rising from the burning wood suffocated the, as in Mesopotamia. Sometimes noses, ears, and hands were mutilated and the other parts of the body butchered, as was the case in Alexandria.

At Antioch they were roasted on hot gridirons for prolonged torture, not seared to death.”

Sadly, such grotesque atrocities against followers of Jesus are not merely historical. Brutal persecution of Christians still takes place in many parts of the world today.

Those of us who live in relative comfort must be careful not forget our Christian heritage, and still more we must remember to pray for our brothers and sisters who are facing severe persecution in our time.