Large Group #7: Senior Send-Off

On June 3, we had our final large group where multiple CCF seniors were invited to talk about what CCF meant to them, what they learned, and so forth. There was also a Q&A session afterwards. (By the way, I've kept the names anonymous, so that people would hopefully be more comfortable sharing honest opinions.) If you'd like to see what they had to say, read on!

Anonymous Ghost 1

She realized at some point that she doesn’t have many reasons to come back and visit Caltech after she graduates, but one of those few reasons is CCF and the community here. She hasn’t spent much time around her House, she doesn’t really feel that’s part of who she is, but CCF and the CCF community definitely has been a part of that and a part of her social well-being, reminder her that she does belong here at Caltech.

Another thing she realized was that even though Caltech is a very focused place with all math and science people, they still all believe many different things. It’s been the first time she’s been in close contact with many people who didn’t believe in the same type of Christianity she does. And that has been able to help her think about what she believes in and why.

But even despite all this variety in the people in the fellowship, it still manages to stay a united fellowship, and that’s pretty remarkable. It’s a challenge that, say…a church doesn’t really have that trouble because a lot of churches have denominations and they don’t have much differentiation.

Q: What are your plans?

A: I’m going to UC Berkeley for grad school. I’m not doing anything over the summer. Well, there’s a conference here, bridge tournament in Atlanta, going to Arizona for family, spend some time at home, and catch up on sleep.

Anonymous Ghost 1 refuses the Secretary’s chocolate.

Anonymous Ghost 2

As I ponder what to say at my final large group, I realize there’s a few foundational things I wish I had said at the very beginning. But back then, I didn’t quite understand them well enough yet. I’ve grown a lot while I’ve been here, but especially in the last year.

When I arrived at Caltech, I thought I had a fairly solid understanding of the Bible. I could explain the five points of Calvinism, or how reading John Piper had made me a Christian Hedonist, or what were the main viewpoints on eschatology, for as long as anyone would listen.

I haven’t lost my passion for theology, and I’m still just as much a Calvinist as ever. But through being part of CCF, I’ve discovered that getting my life right is more important than getting my doctrine right. Despite how much I thought I knew, I was lacking something important.

1 Cor 8:1 - Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

Before I came to Caltech, I thought I was a mature Christian because I could understand the Bible better than any of my peers. But I was greatly lacking in my understanding of how to love others, especially those who were different from me.

Through being part of CCF, my understanding grew. I quickly found that there were Christians with very different beliefs from one another. But despite that, I could clearly see that there was a strong bond of Christian love that united us. I didn’t really understand quite what I was getting myself into, but I couldn’t help but be attracted to the fellowship that I found here.

At the same time, I found that CCF had a core set of principles that we operate under, which I needed to follow to remain part of the group. It wasn’t that I ever felt threatened by a set of rules. I just gradually learned that this was how we do things here. We might be able to do a better job than we do presently of communicating some of these principles, but at that time Skippy had begun writing a series of articles titled “First Things.”

The main emphasis of these is what it means for us to truly be the Body of Christ. I remember in one of the first conversations I had with Skippy, I referred to CCF as a club. He rebuked me, and told me that we were a fellowship, not a club. A club is a place where people who are like one another meet. It excludes people who are different. We are meant to be different. Just as a body is made of different parts, a fellowship unites people who are different. Each of us is necessary for the health of the group, not because of our similarities, but because of our differences.

Because of this, we must not judge each other by appearances, as the world does. Before becoming part of CCF, I had tailored my standards to my strengths, and I judged my peers harshly when I thought that they were not being as serious about their faith as I was. But because we are different parts with different roles, as we grow into what God wants us to be, we will become more different from one another.

After leading large groups this year, I believe I can safely say that teaching is one of my spiritual gifts. That doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m an amazing teacher yet, but it is something that I can see myself growing into. My mistake had been to expect everyone else to grow into exactly the same role that I was growing into, and to judge them harshly when they didn’t.

Skippy summed up well what our attitude should be instead. He wrote, “We affirm the old ethic of the Caltech Christian Fellowship – to look for and praise the fruit of the Spirit in each others’ lives, regardless of whether or not we agree or understand the other person.” This, I believe, has been the most important lesson I’ve learned here. Until I learned this lesson, I couldn’t be of any real use to God in the role he had prepared for me. This year, I’ve finally grown up and become ready.

Q: In grad school, how do you think you can use your gift?

A: Through being part of the grad Christian fellowship there.

Anonymous Ghost 3

[Said he doesn’t feel he necessarily has wise things to say, so he’ll just answer what people are interested in]

Question and Answer Session

Q: What is your biggest regret? (Not necessarily related to CCF)

2: I wish I signed up to be a UCC. One of the gifts I hope to build up is the gift of encouragement.

1: At one point I thought about leading a large group, and that never happened. At one point I thought about leading a small group, and that never happened.

3: I wish I participated more in the activities people do here, eg. ballroom dance, and such. There are a lot of different things you can do that I think can be neat to try out, even if you’re not going to be totally into it.

R: yeah, I’m trying to do the ballroom dancing thing. It just hasn’t happened yet.

3: Other things like Tai Chi…there are a lot of things I wasn’t aware of/ wasn’t focused on. You also get to interact more with grad students as well.

Along the lines of what #2 said, I also wish I tried to be a UCC. But even if you’re not, you can still listen/encourage to those who need it. If people were more aware of what they’re capable of in helping others, I think…we’d need UCCs less (Secretary agrees!). Anyway, I don’t quite know how to word it.

Q: What has your strategy been to balance between school work and all the other things that are important to you, and would you do it differently?

2: I think the wrong answer is to not have a strategy, which is what a lot of people do, including myself until this year.

3: Time management is a big thing. A lot of times you have to limit on the time you spend on certain things that aren’t as important. Prioritization is important. For example, there might be a fun thing people are doing in the courtyard, and you end up doing that until 2 or 3 am in the morning, and not have enough time to sleep or get your work done.

D: I try to plan for an hour or two between important things that I’m planning to do, so I plan for wiggle-room in case things go wrong. That has helped me a lot with being less stressful.

1: I don’t consider myself particularly good at time management, but the times I end up with lots of work to do and it’s in the wee hours of the night, I just remind myself that a regular night’s sleep is not the most important thing in the world, and that I still did something that was worth doing. I didn’t necessarily waste my time. It’s important not to feel guilty when you’re enjoying yourself.

Q: [continued from before]

2: A lot of things take time and effort, sometimes money, too, but there’s no need to be scared of doing…ditch day, or applying to grad school. All these things you can do, when you put your mind to it. Often times I hesitated to do a project like that, or put it off until the last moment, because I’m worried it wouldn’t turn out well. But I think…planning is good, but it’s good to just start doing things and have them not go perfectly rather than not doing them at all.

Also, regarding large group, it wasn’t like I was super eager to lead it. I took it largely because there was no one else to do it, and party because S told me that I should do it. I was scared and nervous, but I’ve found that it was not as scary and difficult as I thought it would be.

Even if things don’t go so well, you can still learn by trying.

3: Adding on to that, it’s important to take initiative. When there’s an opportunity to make something happen, you should just go do it. Often it turns out that there’s no one who’s going to do it. And the experience you can have doing all these things…taking the initiative to taking these leadership roles can lead you to contribute a lot…and just learning to speak up, that’s also [important to do].

Q: What are you going to miss most (from Caltech) after you graduate?

2: The ability to just wander around outside my room and see all my friends around.

V: What about you, S?

S: Same thing for me. Also, just missing the people themselves.

3: I’m definitely going to miss the close friends that I made. My experience here at Tech was that I didn’t necessarily make a lot of friends, but I made some very close friends.

1: CCF and Bridge Club. And the turtles.

Q: How can we pray for you?

1: As I expressed to R on the retreat, there will be a lot changing in my life, and I want to make sure that I don’t lose sight of God in all of that.

3: Same things as 1. (also going to grad school)

2: I think what scares me the most next year is living in an apartment on my own and cooking my own meals.

R: Like 2 said earlier, some things might be scary, but they might just take time and effort to get done.

2: Also, it’ll be hard to make as close friends in grad school as I’ve made here. And I’d like to get to know a grad fellowship where [I can get something like that].