For more information: City Vision College

Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Learning To Do Good
Being counter cultural is nothing new. Romans tell us not to conform to the patterns of the world, but be transformed by the renewal of our minds (Romans 12:2). Jesus says that the greatest commandment is to love God and to love our neighbor (Matt 22:37-38). So it makes sense to learn how to love our neighbors by worshiping Jesus.
One of my (Austin) favorite verses is “…learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.” Isaiah 1:17. So, educating myself to serve the community that Jesus has called me to is a HUGE priority.
Jesus, being our example, had to study under a teacher to receive the title of Rabbi. For over a year now I have been taking online class at City Vision College to get my Bachelors in Urban Missions, with a minor in Nonprofit Administration.
City Vision is a fully accredited, Christ focused, online college that tailors their classes to Christians who are working in the inner-city. The courses ranging from the history of Rescue Missions, counseling in an urban context, to managing a residential recovery program, each class has information that I can implement the day I take it in.
An example would be from this past spring; I was in the middle of the Life Skills Training coarse, when the opportunity to teach with the Metro Christian Job Corp opened up. The tendency to walk into class as the expert because I grew up with means was not a issue because I had just learned about the importance, and brilliance, of shared learning. When teaching an adult class, the “students “ have just as much, if not more life experience than the “instructor”. With that in mind, the coarse I was able to instruct was just as informative for me because we, as a class of adults, learned together about each other and the coarse material.
Even with the objectives of the coarse aside, the relationships I was able to build with a handful of community members is priceless because I was no longer seen as an outsider, but as a friend, and fellow community member working to improve the Southside.
Working together with people within the community to build a gospel community for Jesus is what excites me about Stowe Mission. I get to see
Christianity as a way of life, not just a thing people do on Sunday. Loving Jesus by loving others.
Advent as a Family
One of the most exciting things I have been able to do as a dad is baptize our oldest daughter, Mabry. I am so pumped to see my little girl talk about loving others, and loving Jesus. Mae is one of the reasons I started to work on my faith like it mattered. I realized that if I wanted her and her sisters to be strong Christians, Chelsey and I had to be strong Christians. The best thing I get to do with the girls is try to read them a Bible story every night. And point out that they are more than just nice stories, but a larger love letter to us from God. A love letter about our Rescuer, Jesus, and how every story in the Bible is really all about Him. A great kids Bible that we love is the Jesus Storybook Bible. It relates every bible story to Jesus. The best part about this Bible is that the girls ask me to read it for them, I don’t have to force it…all the time. This Advent season is the first one where we are making a conscience effort with our girls to read each night. We are by no means perfect, and we have already missed a night, but we will just have to double up another night. We are using an Advent reading chart that uses the Jesus Storybook Bible, each day has an ornament that the girls can cut out and decorate. I would love to say that it is always well received and our girls sit quietly and listen to the Word, and ask great theological questions each time I read to them. But it doesn’t; usually its crazy and someone cries, then an argument breaks out, or someone laughs at the dress (tunic) a dude is wearing. I used to think that if I read the Bible to my kids every night they would all magically turn into perfect Odyssey children (this is a reference to the Christian audio drama where everything is “rainbows and sunshine”), but now its just nice that the girls are hearing the Story of Christ. Link to the Advent Book our family is using!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)