Large Group #6: Women in the Bible

Hey everyone,

Today Madeleine led large group (her first time--good job, Madeleine!) about the role of women in the bible. Due to limited time, we discussed several women (mostly from the old testament), what their role was, what this meant for society, what this meant for us, etc.

Please read on to check out what we talked about :)

God bless you all!

Large Group #5: Christian Dating

Hi Everyone!

I hope midterms have gone well for you (or that at least they're gone). Classes are most likely going to get tougher in these final weeks of the quarter, but don't worry! God is with you :) Furthermore, each day has enough worry of its own, so don't worry about tomorrow, just do your best for the Lord!

This large group we watched a Mark Driscoll sermon about Christian Dating. Tim selected certain clips from it and we discussed the material for the remainder of the meeting. 

Unfortunately, I did not take notes on the discussion.

Fortunately, Tim has notes about the Driscoll sermon (which was quite entertaining and insightful!)

Large Group #4: Calvinism and Rag Retreat commentary

Hey there fellow siblings in Christ,

DISCLAIMER: Even though today's large group spoke about Calvinism, CCF does not in any way promote or belittle any particular view. We welcome all, and we're all up for discussion to challenge our views and help one another grow in our understanding and faith in God :)

That being said, today Tim gave an overview of what Calvinism is and what it means to him, as it's something he has thought about a lot in the past. Afterwards, we talked a bit about the rag retreat happening next week (if you're interested, you should sign up! Contact Madeleine)

Read on for the full description (I found that Tim's own notes were much more detailed than mine, but I've recorded some questions people asked during the meeting, so here's a mixture of the two):

Large Group #3: Do not Judge by Appearances

Monday, October 22, 2012

Today we had a very discussion-based large group, focusing on pitfalls that we ourselves struggle with in regards to making judgments about others, how do we honor an "unseemly" sibling in Christ (also what it means to be unseemly and what it means to honor), and a few other points people were particularly interested in (which includes a discussion about homosexuality).

Lots of things were said, and it's hard to give a big overview of it as this was a rather free-flowing 1.5 hour-long discussion. So feel free to click on the post and read the rest of it! :)

Oct 8th Large Group Notes

These are my notes for what I said at large group. They are addressed to the frosh, but I they will be valuable for the upperclassmen as well.

I’ve decided that the best way to introduce you to CCF is to share some of my testimony, what I’ve learned and how I’ve grown here. Now that I’m a senior, some of you might think of me as being old and wise. I don't think I can claim that yet. But I have learned a few things that I hope will be helpful to you.
I grew up in a Christian home, so I started to learn about Christianity from a very early age. By the time I was about 12, I had outgrown Sunday school, and started to participate in my parents’ Bible study groups. I learned all of the right doctrines, memorized all of the right verses. I knew I was the smartest and most mature person everywhere I went, and I was always eager to show off. Most of the adults that I knew praised me for being a role model Christian kid, and I ate it up.
But despite my outward appearances, I realize now that I was very immature in my understanding. Like the Pharisees, I was doing all the right things to be approved by other people rather than by God. Instead of really loving others, I put on a front of being nice, but I looked down on people who didn’t measure up to the standard that I set for myself.
I had started to realize this and to grow before I came to Caltech. But it wasn’t until I joined CCF that I started to see what fellowship is really about, in three ways. Before I came to Caltech, I had grown up in a conservative church that was fairly diverse ethnically, but theologically was very homogeneous. But here I encountered very different perspectives on all sorts of controversial issues. I first realized this about halfway through my first term at Caltech. I forget exactly how it happened, but at some point I started discussing the creation vs. evolution debate with Sam Elder, and I was surprised to find that he was on the evolution side. Most of the people I knew at my home church who had strong opinions on the topic were six-day creationists, and I had naturally inherited that perspective.
Since then, I’ve encountered different perspectives on all sorts of other controversial issues. On just about any of these issues, you’ll be able to find people in CCF on both sides. My own ideas haven’t really changed, but I have started to realize the value of being more open-minded, and of challenging the things I have been taught. In CCF we hold firmly to the essentials of the Christian faith, but in everything else we allow for questions and debate. For those of you who are not yet Christians, you are also welcome to join us and explore what Christianity is about.
The second way I’ve grown is that I’ve started to let myself have fun once in a while. For some of you, that’s not hard. But I used to think that being mature meant taking everything very seriously. But being in a community where we know that we won’t be judged frees us to be silly sometimes, and even irreverent. I think I first learned this from Maura, so I’m going to quote from a conversation I once had with her. She told me that “doing life right involves both being childish in joyfulness and being old in wisdom.” I’ve learned to embrace my inner five-year-old on occasion. For example, as most of you are probably aware, I’ve become very much attached to my pillow pet, Aslan. I named him based on the Narnia books, obviously, which despite being written for children are still my favorite books ever. I re-read them on occasion when I need to restore my sense of childlike joy.
The third way I’ve grown is that I’ve learned what it means to have a discipleship partner. Before coming to Caltech, I kept my thoughts very much to myself, and I didn’t even have any close friends. But last year Sam Elder offered to disciple me. At first his goal was mostly to train me to take over from him as large group coordinator. But when I started going through a very confusing time in my life, I knew that I could rely on him for advice and support. Since then, I’ve made a number of other close friends as well. I would definitely recommend for each of you, but especially for the frosh, that you find someone to disciple you. It could be a pastor, or it could be one of the upperclassmen, but you should have someone older and wiser that you can depend on.
You should have a good understanding now of what CCF is like, and I hope that we can help you grow as much as I have in the past few years.

Council Meeting Minutes - June 5

CCF Council Meeting

[06-05-12 / 4:30-5:45pm]

[Tables by Red Door/ Chandler]

Present: Robb, Elizabeth, Grace, Becca, Richard, Madeleine, Tim, Vivian, Maura (skype), Peter

Agenda

1.       Summer activities

2.       Large Group

3.       Small Groups

4.       Retreat

5.       Praise and Worship Night

6.       Discipleship

7.       [anything else people want to discuss]

Email one of the council members if you'd like a copy of the minutes :) And we'd love to discuss any questions/suggestions you may have!
Alternatively, you can leave a comment.

Large Group#9: When the Church Was a Family

The title comes from a book Tim read that talks about the Church in the New Testament.


We talked mostly about: what it meant to be a family two thousand years ago, and therefore what are the implications of calling the church a family (These views turn out to be quite different from how we perceive family in our modern American culture!). And how do we apply these principles in our lives, in CCF, etc.


I was going to post my own notes, but Tim's are more coherent, so I'm posting his (with some edits). Read on for more! (also, if you scroll all the way down, I got some more notes on our discussion afterwards.

Large Group#8: Spiritual Warfare, part two

Monday, 2012, May 21

Last Monday we wrapped up our discussion on spiritual warfare. Jonathan and Peter B shared about the armor of God (super important and helpful!), some of their personal experiences with matters of the spiritual kind, and some practical advice on discernment and supporting those who are more sensitive to spiritual things. We had an hour of Q&A after learning about armor of God.

In the last half-hour, we talked about the death that occurred last Friday.

Read the whole post for the details!

Meeting Minutes FBM III

May 26^th, 2012 Meeting Minutes

Present:

                Maura, Megan, Madeleine, Richard, Sam, Jeff, Rebecca, Grace, Vivian, Tracey, Peter, Jonathan, John, Timothy, Sharon, Elizabeth, Ellen, Charles

meeting minutes may 25

May 18th, 2012 Meeting Minutes
Present:
Richard G, Sam E, Peter B, Robb M

Meeting Minutes May 18

May 18th, 2012 Meeting Minutes
Present:
Richard G, Tim J, Sam E, Peter B

Large Group #7: Spiritual Warfare, Part One

Last night, we watched a series of clips from a lengthy lecture that Pastor Mark Driscoll gave to leaders in his church, Mars Hill Church. Next time, we'll hear from two of our own, a current and former CCF President (Peter Buhler and Jonathan Gardner) about their experiences and understanding, but I used these clips to prime the crowd and contextualize the discussion. Read more for links to the clips.

FBM Two 2012 minutes

May 13th, 2012 Meeting Minutes
Present:
Dimetria, Robb M, Peter B, John, Luke B, Tom H, Sam E, Yan Choi, Tim J, Jonathan, Stephen W, Abraham, Ed, Cathy D, Grace, Eliza T, Madeleine Y, Rebecca W, Richard G, Brandon

Council Meeting Minutes May 11 2012

May 11th, 2012 Meeting Minutes
Present:
Peter B, Richard G, Sam E, Tim J

Large Group #6: Understanding (but not Comprehending) the Trinity

Hey everyone! Sorry for being behind on large group posts (not sure who reads them, but hopefully they're helpful for those of you who do). We'll be getting #s 4 and 5 up soon hopefully. I hope midterms were good for you all :)

Monday night, our grad student brother Yan Choi led a theological discussion about the Trinity, providing scriptural passages and the Athanasian Creed for us to study (see full post for more info).

Why is it important to study hard-to-grasp doctrine like the Trinity? It's because we want to know how to properly respond to God (like how to worship, pray, etc.), and being able to do that requires us to know the important aspects about God. (A way to help us distinguish which aspects are the "important" ones is to think of the distinctive qualities of our God. For instance, we have a monotheistic belief, but we also have three parts in one God.)

When we worship, pray, hear the word, read the word--basically when we are relating to God--we are relating to the Trinity. Eg. when we pray, the the commonly accepted way is to pray to the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit. And we have knowledge, too, that the Holy Spirit is with us and teaches us how to pray.

So we know that understanding the Trinity is important, despite being hard to grasp. So read onward to get material on the Trinity and how we tried to wrestle with these concepts. (props to Yan Choi for the notes)

Book Review: The Four Loves by CS Lewis

Hello beloved readers of the CCF blog! I read this book and really wanted to share about it with all of you.

Let me begin by introducing one of my personal heroes, CS Lewis. There are few authors that are really awesome. CS Lewis is one of them. I am frequently saddened by the fact that he is no longer on this earth because I can’t meet him and he isn’t writing any more books.  He was born in England, somewhere. He was born in a Christian? home, but became an atheist through his school years. Then, he went to Oxford and realized that Jesus is awesome. For more on this, read another book of his entitled “Surprised by Joy.” (Fun fact! CS Lewis was buddies with JR Tolkien at Oxford)

His book The Four Loves introduces different kinds of love one at a time and contrasts them with other loves, and then explores both the ideal states of these loves and the ways they can be twisted. He mentions how each kind could become a sort of false god, and thus a demon, in our lives. I really encourage you all to read the book as it will be much more thorough and awesome than my attempt to summarize.

Meeting Minutes May 5 2012

May 5th, 2012 Meeting Minutes
Present:
Richard G, Sam E, Peter N, Robb M

Meeting Minutes April 27th

April 27th, 2012 Meeting Minutes Present: Tom H, Richard G, Sam E, Peter B, Tom M Notes: - Important Notes o Third term retreat is April 27

Large Group #3

How do I title this? We were planning to discuss contemporary approaches to Atonement in the Crucifixion, Extravagant Welcome, among other things; instead we had quite a lovely discussion on other subjects. 

Read the full post for some take-away points from our discussion. It's not long, I promise.

Nehemiah Dig-in Recap

Hey everyone,

Last Saturday (April 7) we had our last dig-in (aka 24hr bible study) for the school year. We studied the book of Nehemiah, and it was simply awesome! (both hopeful and depressing at the same time) And so I've posted a couple of notes below about some points that we learned. If there's more you'd like to share, feel free to put it in the comments. :)

And if you'd like to ask questions or discuss, put those in the comments as well.

So why did we study Nehemiah? Because currently at Caltech, we are in trying times (and for some, they have a lot of turmoil in their lives). So our focus was to learn how we should deal with trial, how we can help one another, and how we can help the non-Christians with us as well.

Read the full post to find out what we learned!

Edit 4/16/12: Added the historical context and timeline preceding the events in Nehemiah. Scroll all the way down to read. Props to Tim :)

Large Group #2: Doubt

This week's large group, Sam shared with us a little bit about some biblical principles about belief/doubt, and then sent us off into a flurry of discussion. From his email:

"By doubt I mean anything that inclines us not to believe some statement, or at least to be less certain of it. There are a couple different questions I want to explore, both biblically and in discussion with each other. First, when is it appropriate to doubt what facts, particularly those related to our Christian walk? And second, what do we do with doubts that we experience, whether they be internal or external, general or personal, related to faith, hope or love, rational or irrational? I hope to make this discussion very practical and the lessons you bring away like a rope for when you're in a tight spot."

Read the full post to see some notes I've taken. (Unfortunately I could only be in one discussion group so I don't have everything written down) And any feedback is appreciated :)

And remember to scroll over the bible passages to read them.

Council Meeting Minutes April 6

April 6th, 2012 Meeting Minutes
Present:
Peter B, Richard G, Sam E, Tim J, Robb M

Large Group #1: Christian Priorities in Academia

Hey everyone. So on Monday April 2, 2012, we had our first CCF large group meeting of the term. Our very own professor John Dabiri spoke to us about how, as a Christian, we ought to prioritize what we do (in terms of choosing b/w academics and Christian-related activities--it's a topic a lot (I dare say all) of us have struggled with at some point in our lives or are currently struggling with right now. 

In the first hour we read some passages and he elaborated on some of the spiritual principles from those passages, and then in the second hour we went into a Q&A/Discussion format where everyone got to talk a bit and ask questions. Read the full post to get the full picture :) 

(This is my first time posting, so please forgive me if the notes I took are not so well written. Feel free to ask me any questions or give any feedback/criticism. God bless!)

Meeting Minutes March 2

March 2nd, 2012 Meeting Minutes
Present:
Cathy D, Sam E, Richard G

Large Group #4 Debrief: The Problem of Evil

Hello again! On January 30, Pastor Rich Katekawa, an itinerant pastor from the area who Timothy put me in contact, came to talk about suffering and the problem of evil. He also joined us for dinner beforehand, and was very engaging throughout both dinner and the talk. Here are my notes from his talk.

Large Group #3 Debrief: The New Perspective on Paul

Back on January 23, Pastor Nathan Lundgren of Oasis Church came to Large Group again to talk about the New Perspective on Paul, a new topic in modern theology that many of us hadn't heard of before. Rather than trying to give a dry lecture on who the major figures are, Nathan tried to present the material pastorally, relating it to our world and drawing plenty of analogies. Below I've copied his notes (with a few edits of my own) that he presented from, and I hope you enjoy them!

Meeting Minutes Feb 3

February 3rd, 2012 Meeting Minutes
Present:
Peter B, Robb M, Tim J, Sam E, Richard G

Meeting Minutes January 27

January 27th, 2012 Meeting Minutes
Present:
Richard G, Peter B, Amy P, Sam E

Large Group #2 Debrief: The Divine-Human Nature of Jesus

Last Sunday, I talked at large group about the divinity and humanity of Jesus. We had moved the talk from Monday to Sunday because of the 3-day weekend, and so that a visiting CCFer, Maura Mayock, could make it. We still had a large crowd for the second large group of the term. Keep reading for the notes I wrote out. Make sure to scroll over the Bible verses.

January 20, 2012

January 20th, 2012 Meeting Minutes
Present:
Richard G, Amy P, Peter B, Sam E

Meeting Minutes January 12

January 13th, 2012 Meeting Minutes
Present:
Richard G, Sam E, Peter B, Robb M, Amy P

Large Group #1 Debrief: Predestination

Welcome all! Tonight, Pastor James Lee came to large group and spoke to us about the difficult doctrine of predestination. This is the first in a series of talks on theology, the study of God, particularly the parts that are confusing to us. Keep reading for a synopsis and highlights of the ensuing discussion.