Showing posts with label Augusta State University. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Augusta State University. Show all posts
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Community Outreach
The local partnership between St. Luke UMC, Trinity on the Hill UMC, and Augusta State University Students continues in the Harrisburg community. Check out the faces of those who serve and those who are being served.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Three Days of Lunch Adventures
Too often I end up eating a sandwich at my office desk while I try to catch up on some work.
Funny how the highlights of the week seem to be when I get away from the desk and gather with others for some nourishment.
Every Tuesday I start the day with a staff meeting and then a clergy meeting at the church. Like most organizations, that also involves the hallway discussions which I call "premeetings" and "postmeetings."
I leave the church meetings and walk over to the main campus of Augusta State University just across Arsenal Avenue. I direct the ASU Wesley Foundation, a United Methodist sponsored campus ministry, and our big meeting each week is a Tuesday lunch in the student activity center. When I arrived back in Augusta in summer 2007, and began working with the ASU WF which had gone dormant for 6 months, I found I had no student leaders and no students!
Rather than compete with the existing religious groups on the 7500 member commuter campus who have a track record and students we chose to do something different. The existing groups build their program around a weeknight big worship event. We chose to work the day time crowd and offer food, conversation, and a coffeehouse approach emphasizing music and relationship building.
It has been tremendous fun, and usually the highlight of my week as 75-100 students of different backgrounds, majors, races, & religions gather. I can't adequately convey how wonderfully diverse the group is! The lunch gathering has awakened me to how the church ought to be everyday out in community, with emphasis on relationships, eager to engage people in conversation and life, and not so quick to emphasize the points that can easily separate people. I always enjoy the lunch because of the conversation and encouragement that is shared.
On Wednesday I gathered with my friends at the Salvation Army. We are working together on creating more of a partnership here in Augusta in the Harrisburg community. The church is ready for ministry which is more than band aids on old problems, and more than throwing a little money at someone who is requesting financial assistance for this months bill. So, we talked, and toured, and then sat down for lunch. It turns out they serve 3 meals a day, including 2 which are open to the public. Imagine a small cafeteria with some of the SA workers, 3 church visitors, and then many men and women who currently call the SA home. It totally changes a conversation ABOUT someone when THOSE people you are talking about are sitting next to you.
Then to top of my three days of lunch adventures I stumbled upon lunch.
Since we are starting a Hispanic ministry I figured I'd catch a little fast food somewhere and drive around south Augusta and then toward Grovetown to look and think about the project. As I took a cut through road I noticed some cars at the Korean Methodist Church. That made me think about our Korean Methodist friends in Togo who were such a help to the ministries this summer. It also reminded me that though we are neighbors in the same town, and share the same faith, we really don't know each other.
I turned the car around and went in to see if we couldn't take some first steps in developing a relationship.
As I walked into the building I smelled food, and as I turned the corner found six people eating lunch. I apologized for interrupting their meal, and after making my introduction and handing over my card said I'd come back at a more convenient time. But they'd have none of that and had me sit down to join them! What a delicious treat with different food, tastes, and textures than I'm accustomed to each day. It sure beat a boring old sandwich as I wrapped meat, rice, and vegetables in a leaf. It was a better lunch than I'd imagined I'd have, the best Korean food I've eaten since our guests in Togo fed us, and I think the conversation is the beginning of something new and exciting!!
Life sure is exciting when you venture away from the desk, enjoy some good food, and enjoy living and learning from others.
Funny how the highlights of the week seem to be when I get away from the desk and gather with others for some nourishment.
Every Tuesday I start the day with a staff meeting and then a clergy meeting at the church. Like most organizations, that also involves the hallway discussions which I call "premeetings" and "postmeetings."
I leave the church meetings and walk over to the main campus of Augusta State University just across Arsenal Avenue. I direct the ASU Wesley Foundation, a United Methodist sponsored campus ministry, and our big meeting each week is a Tuesday lunch in the student activity center. When I arrived back in Augusta in summer 2007, and began working with the ASU WF which had gone dormant for 6 months, I found I had no student leaders and no students!
Rather than compete with the existing religious groups on the 7500 member commuter campus who have a track record and students we chose to do something different. The existing groups build their program around a weeknight big worship event. We chose to work the day time crowd and offer food, conversation, and a coffeehouse approach emphasizing music and relationship building.
It has been tremendous fun, and usually the highlight of my week as 75-100 students of different backgrounds, majors, races, & religions gather. I can't adequately convey how wonderfully diverse the group is! The lunch gathering has awakened me to how the church ought to be everyday out in community, with emphasis on relationships, eager to engage people in conversation and life, and not so quick to emphasize the points that can easily separate people. I always enjoy the lunch because of the conversation and encouragement that is shared.
On Wednesday I gathered with my friends at the Salvation Army. We are working together on creating more of a partnership here in Augusta in the Harrisburg community. The church is ready for ministry which is more than band aids on old problems, and more than throwing a little money at someone who is requesting financial assistance for this months bill. So, we talked, and toured, and then sat down for lunch. It turns out they serve 3 meals a day, including 2 which are open to the public. Imagine a small cafeteria with some of the SA workers, 3 church visitors, and then many men and women who currently call the SA home. It totally changes a conversation ABOUT someone when THOSE people you are talking about are sitting next to you.
Then to top of my three days of lunch adventures I stumbled upon lunch.
Since we are starting a Hispanic ministry I figured I'd catch a little fast food somewhere and drive around south Augusta and then toward Grovetown to look and think about the project. As I took a cut through road I noticed some cars at the Korean Methodist Church. That made me think about our Korean Methodist friends in Togo who were such a help to the ministries this summer. It also reminded me that though we are neighbors in the same town, and share the same faith, we really don't know each other.
I turned the car around and went in to see if we couldn't take some first steps in developing a relationship.
As I walked into the building I smelled food, and as I turned the corner found six people eating lunch. I apologized for interrupting their meal, and after making my introduction and handing over my card said I'd come back at a more convenient time. But they'd have none of that and had me sit down to join them! What a delicious treat with different food, tastes, and textures than I'm accustomed to each day. It sure beat a boring old sandwich as I wrapped meat, rice, and vegetables in a leaf. It was a better lunch than I'd imagined I'd have, the best Korean food I've eaten since our guests in Togo fed us, and I think the conversation is the beginning of something new and exciting!!
Life sure is exciting when you venture away from the desk, enjoy some good food, and enjoy living and learning from others.
Monday, September 15, 2008
World View in 2025
I caught an intriguing lecture last Friday at Augusta State University. The Hull College of Business presented global trends strategist Eric Peterson as the first speaker in its Russell A. Blanchard Lecture Series. Mr. Peterson is senior vice president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), where he is the William W. Schreyer Chair in Global Analysis and director of the CSIS Global Strategy Institute. Peterson presented 7 "structural drivers of change."
I'll be most curious about the view my church friends and mission colleagues will have on this material. It's worthy of close examination despite the fact that most church leadership doesn't do this sort of thing too well.
Peterson started the presentation with 2 great quotes and then led the large group on a thrilling adventure including an excellent video presentation.
Darwin wrote, “It's not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change.”
"No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it. " Albert Einstein
While none of it was particularly unexpected, the presentation was well done with LOTS of information, and for me the most powerful thing was the cumulative effect of the 7 revolutions. Peterson's bottom line for leaders is that we will be in a time of hyper promise and hyper peril. I did like his lines at the end warning about "leaders devolving into managers," and shortly after he warned of "strategy succumbing to tactics." Even if, like me, you might want to argue some points this does seem to sharpen a leader's consideration about the not-so-distant future and the steps we are taking today to be prepared for 2025.
I'll be most curious about the view my church friends and mission colleagues will have on this material. It's worthy of close examination despite the fact that most church leadership doesn't do this sort of thing too well.
Peterson started the presentation with 2 great quotes and then led the large group on a thrilling adventure including an excellent video presentation.
Darwin wrote, “It's not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change.”
"No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it. " Albert Einstein
While none of it was particularly unexpected, the presentation was well done with LOTS of information, and for me the most powerful thing was the cumulative effect of the 7 revolutions. Peterson's bottom line for leaders is that we will be in a time of hyper promise and hyper peril. I did like his lines at the end warning about "leaders devolving into managers," and shortly after he warned of "strategy succumbing to tactics." Even if, like me, you might want to argue some points this does seem to sharpen a leader's consideration about the not-so-distant future and the steps we are taking today to be prepared for 2025.
- Population- The world population hit 6 Billion in 2006, & will TRIPLE in the next 60 years. The highest growth will be in the poorest countries while many developed countries will continue to experience marked depopulation. Migration will continue to be an issue. Urbanization will continue with a projected 5 Billion in urban areas by 2030. Challenges- there will soon be a day when there are more slum dwellers in Mumbai than the whole population of Norway. Peterson also discussed the traditional pyramid graph of population which has a large base of the younger and a narrowing tip of the older population. This is changing as people are living longer so the new graphs look like a rectangle for some countries, and for those nations with lower birth rates an inverted pyramid best captures the scenario.
- Resource management- the "carrying capacity" of the word for this large population is an issue related to agricultural land availability, land degradation, water availability, and global warming are key elements. Available energy sources and the environment, plus the long term sustainability of all these factors are worth consideration.
- Technology - deep computing, pervasive computing, robotics, biotechnology, nanotechnology are the issues continuing to change the world in this revolution.
- Information- the gap between the knowledge proficient and knowledge deprived will continue to grow. Now a person anywhere in the world can innovate and not emigrate. The world chooses its truth, e.g. CNN vs. Al Jezeera on middle East news. Reduced decision times. Growth of the BRIC's (Brazil, Russia, India, China) over G6. Changes in center of balance and consumption.
- Conflict- asymmetric warfare- terrorism, bio terrorism, info terrorism, conflict within nations, and greater complexity of these issues, e.g. Iraq & Afghanistan as norms in this category.
- Governance- beyond nation/states, continued growth of world economy and NGO's, interesting comparison of top national GDP's & added Corporation GDP's which fell in top 50, re. Kissinger quote- we "must bridge gap between thinking re. economic model and nation/state model, Kissinger- must find "system of linkages," Peterson- must find "new balance"
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