The BEMA House

The BEMA House is officially open.
Let the crazy experiment begin.

The journey to this place has been a crazy one.  If the reader is unfamiliar with the BEMA program and what we're attempting to accomplish, they should definitely check our BEMA's website first and couch this conversation within a larger context first.

The house wasn't even a part of our plan for this school year.  It was sitting on my long-term goals list somewhere around the 5-10 year mark.  Yet, when God blew the doors open (no pun intended) on the opportunity to rent out the next door house to my family's residence, after much prayer and some waiting, we jumped on the opportunity.

We arrived in Moscow and were set to move into the BEMA House in the second week of August.  On the first week of August, however, the owner decided to do a complete and total remodel on the home.  This was great news and concerning news at the same time.  The great news is that we'd get to enjoy a brand new and clean home with all-new appliances for our great experiment.  The concerning news is that we had three female residents signed up to move in in less than a week.  We all crossed our fingers and proceeded as planned.

The house wasn't ready on time.  The girls were incredibly gracious and were able to change their plans and give the workers another week to work.

The house still wasn't ready.  We were able to get the girls' moving trucks unloaded into the bedrooms and the management company put up the girls in hotel rooms for a few nights.  To make a long story short, we got the girls into the house on the night before the first day of classes.  The last two weeks has been a combination of getting the rest of the house in order and waiting for the work to be finished up.  We finally have gotten settled in the home and there is only a few small items we are waiting for.  We feel like life in the house has finally started and we are anxious about seeing what God is going to do.  We have had our first meeting and have even planned our Grand Opening party.

Here is a short video giving you a tour of the premises:




The house is designed around three guiding principles:
COMMUNITY -- We will seek to share life together.  We want to live in such a way that our paths intentionally cross every day, multiple times a time.  We will share laundry facilities and kitchens.  We will eat together and watch TV together.  We will have common places to study, to relax and to converse.

DISCIPLESHIP -- The study groups we have talked about before really aren't the essence of the discipleship process at all.  They are simply the preparation.  The biblical concept of discipleship started when a rabbi invited the student to follow him.  Acceptance of this call was not only the greatest honor of first-century biblical culture, it was also a complete change of plans and abandon to follow that teacher for the next few years.  You followed in his steps all day, every day, every week, every month, all year; you were in a never-ending atmosphere of "learning by doing; learning by following".  A bible study is not discipleship.  A small group is not discipleship.  Even a daily gathering each day isn't discipleship.  At least not in the biblical sense of the term.  Even the life of the BEMA House isn't discipleship; but it is an experiment in that direction.  Maybe God doesn't require that we make disciples the way He made disciples.  But I'm wondering why more people having asked that question or tried to pursue that call.  This is the discipleship experiment for BEMA.

PURSUING GOD -- We hope that the BEMA House creates some very intentional and unique spaces to pursue God.  In a world that busies itself with so many "other" things, we want to create spaces where we rest in the things of God.  How do we learn how to pray and listen?  How can we create an atmosphere where the "God conversation" is the right conversation to be on anybody's lips at any time?  These are the questions we want to ask about what we're trying to accomplish at the house.   The students are asked to take part in intentional spiritual discipline during their time at the house.  They will study the Text, they will memorize the Text, they will write out large portions of the Text.  They will try to find rhythms of rest and Sabbath.  They will try to find how to dwell with, converse with, and listen to God.


All in all, I'm incredibly excited to see what's going to happen in this great experiment and I can't wait to see all the things that God's going to do that will be outside of our design and plan.  I can only hope that we will be disciplined and attentive enough to catch it.

BEMA Study Groups Resume

The groups are back in full swing and the students are back with a vengeance.  As somebody who finds himself serving in his wheelhouse when he's teaching, I couldn't me more thrilled at having been given the opportunity to return to these encouraging gatherings every day, every week.

(For anybody who may not know much about the BEMA experiment, I invite you to check out the BEMA website and read more about what we're trying to accomplish.)

There were questions I had about how things would go when the classes resumed:

Would the students come back?  They did!  We lost quite a considerable number of students to graduation last year and another chunk of students who didn't return to school, but of all the students who DID return, we seem to have had a 100% return involvement.  This was very encouraging, as a campus minister holds his breath to see who will make it over the "summer hump".  Not only did they come back, but we also have seen a number of new students jump into the study midstream.  So far, the newbies have said it's a little overwhelming, but they feel like they're getting the hang of it.

If they did come back, would they be excited or would this whole study be 'old news' to many?  It appears to be that the studies maintain all their old energy -- with even the addition of a summer's worth of questions, thoughts and experiences.  One of the greatest joys in the first few weeks of study has been the insurgence of new voices in the conversations.  There are some students who were always somewhat reserved and quiet last year.  This year, they have come out of the woodwork, in the absence of last year's seniors to take charge of the discussion and dive into the tough stuff.  This is a great joy to see the treasure that was buried last year (also a great challenge to try and unearth more of that treasure that still might be hiding).

How much would they remember?  Last year, we did a book-by-book study of the Old Testament and started every class with a 15 minute review of EVERYTHING we had studied previously.  The goal was to make this information stick in long-term memory banks.  That is a lot of material that isn't easy to digest at times.  On the first day of class this year, with minimal assistance, the students recited back thousands of years worth of biblical history.  Awesome.

Of course, having said all of that, I will be the first to admit that such a feat is certainly not discipleship.  Nor is it even transformational in and of itself.  We can learn mountains of information each and every day and still far short of experiencing freedom, renewal or partnering with God to redeem all of creation.  But as cliche as it is to point that out, I do believe that part of the problem with evangelical faith is that we have lost the passion for the story -- for the Text.  We need to recapture the wonder of what God has done through His word that never returns void and always accomplishes its purpose.  Could it be that one of the first steps of recapturing this wonder is making God's story -- correctly told -- a priority in our walks?

This is what the LORD says: "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls."  ~Jeremiah 6:16

How will we walk in the good way, if we don't know where it is?  When somebody asks for the ancient path, who will have the answer?  Who will know what the good way looks like if we don't know his story?  We have a lot of experts these days in doctrine.  We need some experts in the good way.

One last challenge I'm sensing as I listen to these students recite back tons of information and spend summers wrestling with the implications of the theology we've deconstructed and reconstructed, I'm sensing the need for them to be able to wrestle with and own their own conclusions about their own faith.  In my passionate pursuit of framing the story correctly, I've noticed how dangerously close I am to just creating people that know how to repeat the catch phrases.  I'm wanting to see the students EXPERIENCE the catch phrases, even if they can't recite them.  This is one of my largest goals this year.  Can we have multiple moments where the lights come on and students experience the Sabbath rest of God?  Will we have anybody lay their life down in service to another because they trust that they have everything they need and don't need to worry about security, love, or acceptance?

These will be the true tests of our studies.  We've proven our ability to teach large quantities of information.  But now the test of whether or not there is LIFE in our words lies in front of us.  May God use the work we've done to do much bigger, much more important things in the hearts of these students.

The Next Great Frontier: Internship

When Nate and Megan came to me last year and asked what the possibilities would be of working with Impact Campus Ministries as interns on the Moscow/Pullman team, I didn't realize how unprepared I was for that question.

Of course, at meetings amongst the team, we had discussed the possibilities of interns and how great it would be.  We had even mentioned Nate and Megan's name as potential recruits for such a task, but had determined to wait on God and His leading before we pursued those conversations.  What an answer to prayer as they came and approached us about the very thing we had discussed behind closed doors.

And yet, we didn't have any idea what God would do with what He had laid before us.

As leaders, we had talked about internships purely from an idealistic standpoint (not that we were naive, but we were being pragmatic).  We talked about the things it would add to the team and the things that God would do throughout the organization as each team grew, expanded and recruited interns -- and how that would blossom into future laborers in the world of campus ministry.  We chatted about how good it would be for those interns to have an experience in vocational ministry and the opportunity to get their "feet wet".  We acknowledged how great it would be to get them a jump start on support raising.  We imagined all the ways that God would move in their lives and the things that they would learn and the way that they would grow.

In so many ways, campus ministry internships would be the next great frontier in their lives.

Why didn't I realize that it would be the next great frontier of our own lives and ministries?

I won't presume to speak for Eric, but I know that I have been profoundly challenged as a minister and a leader by the presence of these two young adults.  They being life -- real life -- into the picture every day.  They have big questions; they have questions I wasn't prepared for.  I was ready to field the questions about ministry and how I do my job.  I was prepared for the questions about theology and spiritual formation.

But I wasn't prepared for how those questions would shape a couple of individuals that are designed and crafted by the great Storyteller for roles in His great story.  I wasn't prepared to watch the emotions, the thrills, the ideas, the creativity and the doubts all come together into this glorious mess of growth and how it intertwines with all of the questions I WAS expecting.

The questions about theology that come wrapped in emotion.
The questions about how to do vocational campus ministry that are drenched in doubt.
The questions about the possibilities that are draped in creativity.

I wasn't prepared for the complexity and weight of what we would do every day that we showed up to work.
And I wasn't prepared for the sudden realization that I what did every day had intense implications for the life of a new colleague in the field of ministry -- this heavy awareness of the gravity of what we do.


And you know... I'm glad I wasn't prepared.

This first month on the job for these interns has challenged me in ways I haven't been challenged in a long, long time.  I'll be a much better leader in 12 months than I am today.  And I'm grateful for that.  I'm grateful to God for leading us into this opportunity and I'm grateful for these two interns that had the audacity to want to leap into the unknown -- with us. 

And I'm incredibly grateful for the grace that they both give me every day as I struggle to figure out how to lead them well.  I don't think I'm hiding my insecurity well anymore; I'm pretty sure they're on to me.  There are some places that I have no idea what I'm doing.  They are incredibly gracious in those areas, which makes me glad to march into the unknown with them. 

And I think I wouldn't be too presumptuous to suggest that all the things we expected to happen are true as well.  I think this will be an incredible year for Nate and Megan.  I think that they too will be better because of the time they spend on our team.  I think it will be a great training ground for vocational ministry and support raising.  And I know for a fact that our team is better because of their presence.  Their perspective as recent graduates is priceless.  They're relational spunk and giftedness is an asset to each event they are involved in.  They bring skills and talents to the table that our team just did not possess before.


So, all in all, I would highly recommend internships.  I would recommend them for your ministry and your team.  I would recommend them for anybody wondering if they might be called into the world of vocational ministry.  But I would also invite everyone in the process to be ready for the things that God will do through the experience.

May we continue to be open to the things that God wants to teach us; may we be humble enough to realize how much potential there is to be unearthed.