Randy Gariss and Some Fantastic Relationship Wisdom

For those of you who had the chance to join us last weekend for our Winter Retreat, you know the awesome-ness that is Randy Gariss. He spoke to us over the course of the weekend on building healthy, godly relationships…starting with first understanding our identity.

Well, Randy has some of his great relationship stuff available to you for free. There are 6 sessions and 1 bonus session. There is also a downloadable booklet.

Randy’s stuff points us to marriage…but he speaks to all kinds of relationships. You would be wise to spend some time with him and soak up his great and biblical wisdom.

Find all the good stuff here.

Tags: Bible, Relationships, Retreat, Teaching

This Week at CCH and On Campus

Here’s a run-down of this week’s happenings at CCH.

Tuesday, January 31 — COMMUNION MEAL & TNT: At 6pm we will have our weekly, free Communion Meal. Then, at 7pm, Tuesday Nite Thing (TNT) will kick-off with some worship and a message from Ephesians by our very own Garrett Hawk.

After TNT, we will head over to Carson’s Sports Grille for our new favorite tradition of half-priced wings!

Wednesday, February 1st — FACEBOOK FREE FEBRUARY: This month, we are challenging folks to live Facebook free! You can read a series of blog posts I’ve done on F3 and see our motivation behind it.

Sunday, February 5th — SUPER BOWL PARTY: It’s time once again for our annual Super Bowl Party at CCH. Kick-off is at 5:30pm, and the doors will be open at 5pm. We’ll watch the game on the big screen with the big sound. Please bring your favorite football-y snack to share with everyone.

Not into football? That’s OK! There are always the commercials. And we will have cards and board games and such out as well.

Upcoming: MISSION TRIP DEADLINES: We have two mission trips coming in the next months…and with them, some important deadlines.

Our first trip is to Nashville, TN over spring break. We will be gathering as many of our international student friends as possible and going with them on a sight-seeing/service trip. Click here for an informational sheet. Then, complete an application and submit a $50 deposit by February 12th.

Our second trip is to Haiti from May 9th to May 16th. We will be partnering once again with our friends at the House of Hope Haiti. If you would like information about this trip, contact me as soon as possible. We need to know who is going on this trip by February 12th.

Tags: Bible, Communion, Ephesians, Football, International Students, Mission, Mission Trip, Spring Break, Super Bowl, Teaching, TNT

This Week at CCH and On Campus

There are, as always, a plethora of opportunities to engage this week. Here they are:

Tuesday, January 24 — COMMUNION MEAL & TNT: At 6pm on Tuesday at the campus house, we will get together for our weekly family meal. As always, there is a yummy home-cooked meal as well as an opportunity to remember Jesus in a time of communion.

Then, at 7pm, our Tuesday Nite Thing (TNT) will begin. We will stay in-house again and continue our study in the book of Ephesians. Please bring your Bibles!

After TNT, we will have a short informational meeting about our Spring Break Mission Trip to Nashville, TN for those of you who couldn’t make it last week. And then, after that, we will head over to Carson’s Sports Grille for our new favorite tradition: 1/2 wings!

Friday, January 27th through Sunday, January 29th — WINTER RETREAT 2012: It’s finally here and it’s not too late to sign-up! We will gather this weekend with students from campus ministries like ours from all over the midwest for a few days of worship, great teaching, and other forms of general awesome-ness.

Randy Gariss, the Preaching Minister at College Heights Christian Church in Joplin, MO is our speaker for the weekend. He is a relationships genius and will be sharing with us on that topic. Pete, a friend of mine and the Campus Minister at Illinois State University said that Randy’s stuff is “the best I’ve ever heard” and “get everyone you know there!”

The cost is $40 and you can sign-up by clicking here. Please then get your money to me no later than Thursday.

To see the Facebook event page, click here.

Coming Up! Sunday, February 5th — SUPER BOWL PARTY: Let’s get together to watch the Big Game at CCH. Kick-off is at 5:30pm. Bring your favorite football snacky-food!

Tags: Bible, Communion, Ephesians, Football, Mission Trip, Retreat, Super Bowl, Teaching, TNT

Reaching International Students Dinner

On Sunday evening, we have the opportunity to have a meaningful conversation about how we can better reach and build relationships with the international students on our campus.

Greg Swinney is the Director of Crossroads International Student Ministry and a friend of mine. He will be sharing ideas, resources, and encouragement with us as we strive to fulfill our mission of making disciples on this campus.

We will gather at 6pm at CCH for some free pizza and the chance to dialogue with Greg.

Stick around afterwards to get some information about our Spring Break Mission Trip to Nashville, TN — a trip designed around building and growing relationships with our international student friends.

Tags: International Students, Mission, Mission Trip, Spring Break

TNT Podcast // Ephesians 1:3-14 // THE SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS

In the latest installment of our teaching series in the book of Ephesians, talked about the difference between physical/material blessings and spiritual blessings. Which cause you to raise your hands and raise your voice, saying “Praise the Lord”? Your answer to that question is a good gauge for your spiritual health.

Paul, in Ephesians 1:3-14 outlines 7 spiritual blessings given to those in Christ. These blessings should incite within us a response of praise, as it does for Paul (who, incidentally, writes Ephesians while in prison and clearly is not the recipient of many physical/material blessings).

To listen to this message, please click below:

EPHESIANS 1:3-14 // THE SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS 

You can subscribe to our podcast on iTunes by clicking here.

Tags: Bible, Blessings, Ephesians, Teaching, TNT

On Tap at TNT [1.17.2012]

Here is what we have in store tonight at CCH.

6pm — COMMUNION MEAL: On the menu tonight is an enchilada casserole with chips and salsa. We will have a short devotion and share in a time of communion. The meal is free, but we do take up an offering to cover the cost of the meal and to send to our mission work in Haiti.

7pm — TUESDAY NITE THING (TNT): We will continue our study of the book of Ephesians tonight, looking at 1:3-14. We will also have a time of praise and worship.

Our goal tonight is to see God. And to realize how incredibly blessed we are…but not because of our physical or material blessings. I am very excited about this message. Please remember to bring your Bible.

POST-TNT: After TNT, we will head over to Carson’s Sports Grille for some half-price wings!

See you tonight!

Tags: Bible, Communion, Ephesians, Teaching, TNT

This Week at CCH and On Campus

There are lots of opportunities to engage this week. Here’s the run-down:

Tuesday, January 17 — COMMUNION MEAL & TNT: We will gather for our weekly family meal at 6pm at CCH. We will have a chance to share communion and an offering.

At 7pm, Tuesday Nite Thing (TNT) will happen in-house. This week we will continue our new teaching series in the book of Ephesians.

Immediately following TNT, we will head over to Carson’s Sports Grille for wing night! All wings are 1/2 off!

Wednesday, January 18 — PORN AGAIN EVENT: At 9pm, we will gather at CCH to watch a live-stream of Pastor Mark Driscoll and former porn star Crissy Moran as they share about the destructive effects of pornography. The Porn Again Event is open to guys and girls and is vital for us to attend. You may want to arrive just a bit before 9pm.

Click here to view the Facebook event page.

Sunday, January 22 — REACHING INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS DINNER: Greg Swinney, a friend of mine and the Director of Crossroads International Student Ministry will be here to encourage and challenge us as we reach out to international students. This will be a conversational dinner. He will share with us starting at 6pm at CCH. Come, be fed, and be challenged!

Coming up:

January 27 through 29 — WINTER RETREAT 2012: Our annual Winter Retreat is coming up quickly. It takes place January 27-29 and will be a weekend chock full of worship, teaching, and other forms of awesomeness. We will be gathering with campus ministries (just like CCH) from all over Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, and Nebraska.

Randy Gariss, the Preaching Minister at College Heights Christian Church in Joplin, MO will be our speaker for the weekend. Randy is a relationships expert and he is going to drop some knowledge, so be ready.

The cost is $40. You can sign-up to go by clicking here and filling out the form. And then get the money to me no later than January 26th.

Here’s the Facebook event.

Sex & Sexuality Survey: Last week, I encouraged you to fill out Part 1 of our anonymous Sex & Sexuality Survey. This week, I want to encourage you to fill out Part 2.

We ask you to fill this out in order for us as a campus ministry to better understand where you are and where we need to go. It’s completely anonymous. There are only 8 questions and it should take you less than 3 minutes. By filling this out, you are helping CCH help you.

Click here to take Part 1 of the survey.

Click here to take Part 2 of the survey.

 

Tags: Communion, Ephesians, Mission, Retreat, Sex, Sexuality, TNT

Porn Again Event at CCH

Sex and sexuality are undoubtedly some of the biggest issues facing college students today.

And pornography is a massive part of the culture today. In fact, statistics say that if you are looking at this post, there is a 25% chance you stumbled on to it because you were searching for porn. And there is a 40% chance you have looked at porn this week. According to our own survey at CCH, over 51% of you have looked at porn, with 18% of you saying you do it all the time.

Porn is a $10-14 billion industry. Porn is a bigger business than professional football, basketball, and baseball — combined.

Approximately 11% of all internet visits to a pornographic website.

We need to talk about this.

We need to understand the effects that porn has on our relationship with God and our relationship with others, including our significant others and future spouses. We need to hear, again, that we don’t have to be enslaved to porn or sex. We need to understand that Jesus sets us free.

On Wednesday, January 18th, we have an opportunity to begin this discussion. We will be hosting a Porn Again Event. Mars Hill Church in Seattle, and Pastor Mark Driscoll, will be live-streaming the event which will feature a sermon and an interview with Crissy Moran. Crissy is a former pastor’s daughter who grew up and became a porn star. She has recently returned to an incredible relationship with Jesus and now helps others in porn and the porn industry find freedom in Christ.

This event is geared towards the college crowd. I promise it will be eye-opening and relevant.

Wednesday, January 18th.
The event starts at 9pm. Plan on getting there at 8:45pm.
At CCH.
Please, invite your friends to this important event.
Click here for the Facebook event page.

TNT Podcast // Ephesians 1:1-2 // JESUS IS THE VISION

Tonight, at TNT, we kicked off a new teaching series in Ephesians.

We took a quick look at the first two verses of Ephesians…and discovered that God’s vision and mission for us can be found in these two short sentances.

First off, Paul calls himself an “apostle.” Apostles were followers of Christ who were sent to carry the message of Christ. We are sent as missionaries with the same task.

Paul goes on to greet the saints who are “in Ephesus” and the faithful who are “in Christ.” We often think that we are either “in the world” or “in Christ,” but I am not convinced this is an either/or proposition. I believe we are called to be “in the world” and “in Christ” at the same time. It’s both/and. To effectively fulfill our mission, we must embrace both/and.

Finally, Paul extends to the Ephesians the blessing of “grace and peace.” The truth is, we find peace through grace. And this peace through grace is the message we have been sent to share.

And last, but certainly not least, all of this is wrapped up in Christ Jesus. He is the vision.

To listen to this message, please click below:

EPHESIANS 1:1-2 // JESUS IS THE VISION

You can subscribe to our podcast on iTunes by clicking here.

Tags: Bible, Ephesians, Mission, Podcast, Teaching, TNT, Vision

On Tap at TNT [1.10.2012]

Welcome back to the Christian Campus House and to Tuesday Nite Thing (TNT)! Here is what we have on tap for tonight:

6pm — Communion Meal. We will gather for a free, home-cooked meal at 6pm in the campus house. On the menu tonight is spaghetti, bread, salad, and a dessert. We will also share communion together and take up an offering (50% of which goes to the cost of the meal and 50% of which goes to our mission work in Haiti).

7pm — TNT. Starting at 7pm, we will have our first TNT of the semester. We are kicking off a new teaching series where we will be studying through the book of Ephesians. Tonight is all about the mission Jesus has for each of us and how He is the One who holds our mission together. Please bring your Bible and come ready to dig in.

Post-TNT: It’s been awhile since we have seen each other, so it is most appropriate to have some fun tonight and re-connect with one another. And so, we will attempt to have CCH’s largest-ever game of BUNCO! It’s the simplest dice game known to man, and is great because it gives us all a chance to hang out and catch up with each other. And, there will be prizes for the winners (and losers!).

We will have some information tonight about our Winter Retreat and our Communitas Group sign-ups. This would be a great night to invite a friend and help them get connected to the family.

See you tonight!

Tags: Bible, Communion, TNT