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!
Monday, November 19, 2012
Monday, November 12, 2012
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!)
Monday, October 29, 2012
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):
Monday, October 22, 2012
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! :)
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
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.
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.
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
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.
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.
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