Update from Summer Link

I haven't been very faithful with my blog this summer!  It has been difficult to update with everything that has been going on.  The past 10 days were extremely busy.  Dr. Schemm from Southeastern came to Hilton Head to teach a one week course on "Theology for the Christian Life."  The course focused on Biblical spirituality and the importance of the disciplines.  I was greatly encouraged and convicted by this class.  I could write pages upon pages of what I learned but for now I'll just live you with a few questions I generated from class discussions.

• Is my spiritual/physical/emotional life balanced?  What will I reproduce in ministry if I, myself, am not balanced?
• Am I the kind of person that embodies a gladness of soul that is attractive to people (Psalm 86 & 94)? 
• Are people more attracted to my personality, or to Christ in me?
• Am I using Scripture to authenticate my own experiences?
• To what degree does my experience need to be immediate?  Is it removing or undermining my faith?
• Am I practicing solitude and preparing my heart and soul for ministry?
• How has my progress been in the disciplines?  Specifically in the disciplines of abstinence (solitude, silence/listening, fasting, frugality, chastity, secrecy, and sacrifice) and engagement (study, worship, celebration, service, prayer, fellowship, confession, and submission)?
• Am I viewing spiritual formation as a corporate exercise or only as an individual exercise?
• Am I speaking the Gospel into others’ lives?
• Am I speaking the Gospel into my own life?
• Am I turning others away because of my own selfish need for independence/”alone time”?
• Am I accommodating others over myself while still taking care of my own soul?
• How often am I counseling others from my own experience rather than the Word?
• How am I presenting the Scriptures to people?  As a whole narrative or as disjointed nuggets?
• Am I over-personalizing Scripture?
• Do I love with human love (little regard for truth, selfish, etc.) or spiritual love (love for Christ’s sake, serves, bound to the Word)?
• Am I speaking “to Christ about a brother more than to a brother about Christ” (Bonhoeffer 36)?
• Am I receiving criticism from others and confessing sin freely?

Along with Seminary, we have kept up our normal daily schedule with the summer link students.  God has definitely been working in Hilton Head and it is exciting to see how He is impacting these students lives!  

My bible study girls all dressed up to go tacky bowling!

April, Tara, and I...I have so enjoyed living with these amazing ladies!

Women's night- We had a talk about beauty & modesty and then a "spa night"

Leslie and I scraping at a Saturday outreach (we worked with a church plant in Beaufort on a building that will soon be a shelter for the homeless)

The staff ladies (minus April)- we went jetskiing for Tara's birthday!

Tara and I

After dinner--we had so much fun!

A saturday outreach- we had a free carwash in Bluffton

Please continue to pray for Crosspoint Bluffton, for the 25 students in Hilton Head this summer, and for our staff team.  Pray that as a staff we would finish strong with only a little over a week until we leave!  Please also pray that I would raise the rest of my support as I go home to Annapolis in July so that I can be full time Generation Link staff in August!