ACUOffThePage Goes Mobile

ACUOffThePage is now mobile friendly, and not just for iPhone users.  The blog should automatically detect whether you are coming to us on an iPhone, other mobile device, or on a regular laptop or desktop and then serve you with a format to fit your screen.

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2009 Commonbook Creative Contest Winners

Creative Contest Display

The ACU Library display for the 2009 Commonbook Creative Contest is up!  Freshmen were invited to submit some kind of original creation — an essay, song, video, art, etc. — inspired by the common book.  The ACU First Year Office judged the entries.

The 2009 winners are:

• First Place and $500 to Eric Schumann, Worship Ministry major from Sugar Land, TX for his original song entitled Imposter
• Second Place and $250 to Morgan Addie Hallmark, Art major from Garland, TX for her artwork entitled “Who Needs a Boat”
• Third Place and $250 to Brittany Partridge, Political Science and History (Pre-Law) major from Annandale, MN for her essay The Kaleidoscope Experiment

Download Song

It is interesting to see what part of Searching caught these students’ attentions and inspired them to their own expressions.  I, like Eric, can relate to the Imposters chapter where Donald Miller talks about how we all hide behind a mask and try to present ourselves as something else in order to impress people or to hide our own insecurity.  I can identify with the feelings in Eric’s song, especially the stanza:

I stare at the piano, then back at the crowd,

Hoping something I do will make them proud.

You can download the song to your mobile device using the mobile tag above, or listen over the web.

Morgan picks up that theme, too, but takes it in a different direction.  Inspired by the Life Boat Theory in Searching, Morgan suggests that we don’t need to prove our value to justify our existence, to be able to stay in the figurative Life Boat.  Those who have Christ get our glory from God.  Check out her art “Who Needs a Boat“.  What a great way to show this attitude in one clear picture!

Download essay

Brittany’s essay was remarkable to me because it was not just theoretical musings.  It was about a real event in her life.  Her essay is the story of how she shifted the pattern of her life by letting God change her perspective.  How many of us have the courage to do that?  Use the mobile tag for easy downloading to your mobile, or view on your desktop.

Congratulations to each of these people, and to all those who entered the Creative Contest, for helping us think about ourselves and our relationships in new ways.  Thank you for sharing yourself with others.

Now how about you, the reader?  What do you notice about these entries from your peers?  What do they make you think about?  Share with us in the comments.

Coffee House Reading with Donald Miller

I got to hear Donald Miller’s coffee house reading at Summit.  A coffee house reading is an informal time where a speaker shares with the audience.  Donald Miller was able to spend time talking  casually and then reading from his new book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years:  What I Learned While Editing My Life.  Due to publisher restrictions, we could not record the event, so here are my impressions of the session.

People started trickling in early for an Abilene audience, maybe 20 minutes before the event was scheduled to start.  As soon as the previous conference session let out, however, then the crowds began pouring in.  Most of the people were college age, a testimony to Miller’s ability to resonate with students.  Many had a copy of A Million Miles with them, or other Miller books.  The seats filled up from the front first, another rarity with most lectures.  We were all anticipating an enjoyable hour ahead.

Donald Miller entered the room quietly, standing just off the stage while he was introduced.  When he came to the platform, he was very relaxed and casual, talking just like he was in his own living room and we were invited to supper.

He began by telling a funny yet serious story about he came to write A Million Miles.  He was at a roadblock in his life and at a writer’s block in his career.  He had not written anything in a while, and his publisher was pressuring him to submit something.  He began to write a fictionalized account of his life inspired by his own travels.  As he began to edit the manuscript to make it a better story, he began to edit his own life to make it more worthwhile, too.  The lessons he learned along the way are part of what comprises A Million Miles.

Donald Miller put it something like this:  a good story is a character who overcomes conflict.  The book is about a person who does that, too.  It is about the kind of character we need and the ways that character is shaped by living — by really living — so that at the end when the credits role, we can say life was worth it.

Then he read a section from one of the chapters.  Part of the chapter he read is excerpted here, but he read a bit more beyond this point.  He told about how he and some friends were traveling across the United States to raise money for water wells in Africa.  They hiked, biked, and boated.  At one point, they were kayaking through one of the rivers of Texas.  It was well after midnight, they were exhausted, and their destination was nowhere in sight.  In the darkness, Donald began to wonder why he was even doing such a crazy thing.  Then he realized that this situation was not unlike the point at which many people find themselves.  They graduate from college determined to change the world, they get married and anticipate all life has in store for them; but at some point reality and routine set in.  They find themselves tired and seeming to make no progress.  Their goals are not getting any closer, and they wonder what they had been excited about to begin with.

At this point, the group’s guide and friend, who was a veteran of the river and of life, said, “Push through.”  He told them life will either make you bitter or better, and he chose to make himself better.  “And that has made all the difference.”  Sounds a little like a modern Robert Frost, doesn’t it?  There was more to the story that Donald read, but you’ll have to read it in his words from the book.  Abilene people can check the ACU Library, and other readers can look for the book at library near you.  You can read an excerpt from another chapter at Amazon, just to help you decide if you want to read more.

After that, Miller took questions from the audience.  I always like it when speakers do that.  I’m sure it can be intimidating to them because it makes them vulnerable to whatever someone might ask, but it can establish an immediate transparency and rapport with the audience.  Risking vulnerability is something I admire.

There were several questions about his books, about his views on singleness, and expressions of appreciation for his unconventional forthrightness.  There were also many questions about writing.  The one I remember most was when someone asked how he overcomes writer’s block and times when he didn’t want to make himself write.  Donald affirmed that there would be many of those times.  “You have to push through it.  The glory of writing comes after those times, not when writing is easy, but when you make yourself do what you absolutely don’t want to do.”  He said persistence, not skill, is what separates great writers from wannabees.  If you want to be a great writer, he said, there’s not much competition because almost everybody else drops out early.

Autographed giant book cover in ACU Library

He did do a book signing at the end, and folks lined up for that.  We were glad to get a giant poster of the cover of Searching For God Knows What signed for our library display, and I got my personal copy of Searching signed.

Closeup of Miller's autograph

I wish I had taken pictures of the event.  Because the recording restrictions were so tight, I assumed photographs were discouraged, too, yet an ACU photographer was there working.  I’m sure many people in the audience got some photos on their cell phones and iPhones.  If you have some, but sure to submit them to the wiki.

Fine Wine Reality: An Acquired Taste

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“Reality is like a fine wine,” he said to me. “It will not appeal to children.” — p.11

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about community.  Not just the automatic group affiliation kind, but the authentic and rare occurrence of knowing and being known by others.  I suppose community can happen at various levels:  a sports team, a neighborhood, or sometimes even among people at work.  But the best and most sought after community, it seems to me, is through Christian family like church, or in a close circle of Christian friends.

And sometimes it seems very rare for some individuals.

One of the more touching examples of community I was fortunate to witness happened not so long ago to people I actually know.  One person was undergoing treatment for cancer.  She had to go to another city to have surgery.  I can only imagine how she must have felt, the fear of what might happen, the emotional stress of trying to deal with uncertainty, and the physical strain of travel on top of chemotherapy.  But she didn’t have to go through that without support.  Her supervisor at work and his wife accompanied her and her husband to the medical center and stayed there until the surgery was over.  They didn’t say, “She has physical family to tend to all that” or “I’m busy with work.  I can’t take off.”  He took the days off, they paid for lodging while they were there, and they went to some effort.  They didn’t send a card in their place.  They didn’t use prayer as a way to do something easy while avoiding personal contact or more extensive time commitments.  They dropped everything and went, and it was their pleasure to do so.

I wrote in an earlier post that certain things about a formulaic approach to the gospel are appealing to me.  Formulas are concrete.  They suggest direction.  They offer steps to follow, something specific to do.  Do the steps and the results are supposed follow.  Relationships, on the other hand, are rarely as simple.  Real relationships can be messy.  People don’t always respond as we think they should.  You can’t set them aside and expect to take them up again when you have time.  You have to nurture them.  And they require letting go of self so that you can allow the relationship to touch you deep inside and maybe even change you.  Relationships require risk.   Maybe that is what is behind Donald Miller’s story of how reality is an acquired taste.  Not everyone will choose the complicated, messy way over the simple, quick-fix promise of the formula.   But the reality is that relationships and community are one of the few real things in this life because they are one of the few things that reach  beyond this earth and let us glimpse a piece of God.

Donald Miller goes on to say on page 11, ” … the times in my life when I have been most happy haven’t been the times when I’ve had the most money or the most freedom or the most anything, but rather when I’ve been in love or in community or right with people.”  That’s the reality I want.  That’s the taste I want to acquire, because ultimately it is the only taste that can satisfy.

Freshman Book Discussion Impressions

I got to attend the book discussion held this past Friday August 21.  It was a great discussion with the new freshman.  Dr. Steven Moore and peer leaders Kevin Claypool and Kyle Smith all led us in some really interesting exploration of ideas inspired by the book.

If you missed it, be sure to check out the podcast of the discussion.

The format of the forum was that of a personal debate gradually moved to include the whole group.  Dr. Moore would begin by making a sweeping, sometimes controversial statement.  Peer leader Kevin would interrupt him with a different viewpoint, playing the role of devil’s advocate and challenging some of the statements.  From there, the rest of us would join in.  Kyle would be in the middle, summarizing and often throwing out more food for thought.  This style really prompted frank discussion.  By taking strong, sometimes extreme sides on the issues, the moderators  got us thinking and were able to jump-start the whole conversation.

One of the first topics was the need for affirmation and approval.  Dr. Moore stated that basically everything we show on the outside — our clothes, our houses, our physical appearance — is to impress other people.  It’s a drive for acceptance.

Kevin stated that it might be possible to do these things for other reasons.  For example, if we exercise we might be doing it to impress others and to look good, but it is also possible to exercise for health reasons and to take care of the bodies God gave us.

So how to do you know when you are doing things to impress others for earthly reasons or for selfish purposes?  Does trying to impress people mean we are less focused on what matters most to God?  How do we judge others?  If we change the way we present ourselves or the message of Christ to others, does that mean we are less authentic?  Ultimately, do we spend more time seeking approval from others, or do we, as Donald Miller puts it, seek our glory from God?

This was just one of the debate topics explored during that discussion.  The other major topic was about war and Christians and politics.  It was a passionate yet sensitively handled conversation.

By the way, the moderators suggested that if anyone wants to know what they really think about an issue, we should meet them after class or have coffee together!

The talk could have gone on much longer than the alotted time.  We had to end it before we were through.  If you didn’t get a chance to make your comment, or if you would like to continue the discussion here, go ahead and comment below.  We’d like to hear from you.

Relational Dynamics

Miller spends a lot of this book, especially Chapter 1 and Chapter 10, talking about how the gospel is not about a formulaic approach but about a relational one.  In fact in his reflection on the book, he writes “… I realized the formulaic version of Christianity was irrational, and for that matter, unbiblical. True Christian spirituality mirrors relational dynamics more than the workings of a free-market economy.”  These statements made me wonder if I tended to do the same thing.

I have to admit that certain things about formulas are appealing to me.  I like step-by-step approaches.  I often find myself trying to organize things in procedures and structured outlines, whether it is for a paper I have to write, a lecture I give, something I’m trying to summarize and assimilate, or even this blog post.  I like sermons that have specific points, practical things to follow.  It makes me feel like like I have a way to proceed, a way to make the concepts real.

I do think that Christianity is about relationship, not about a checklist.  The Bible uses story, relationships between people, and relationships between people and God to illustrate what God is like and how he wants to relate to us.  Jesus himself — “God with us” — is the ultimate expression of desire for relationship.  Perhaps one of Miller’s points is that we need to remember to concentrate on who God is and how he wants us to know him before we try to reduce a divine relationship down to a specific set of “things to do”.

2009 Common Book — Welcome!

2009 common book

Welcome to the blog for ACU Off The Page. This blog is a forum for online discussions inspired by the common book reading for the First Year Program at ACU. It is a companion site for the ACU Off The Page wiki.

We are pleased to announce that the 2009 common book is Searching For God Knows What by Donald Miller.  It’s a book with lots of “discussion fodder” and written in a casual yet unconventional style.  It’s a book to make one think.  We’re looking forward to  hearing what YOU have to say about it.

See Using This Blog for specific instructions on how to post. Once you set up your account, it’s easy and actually kind of fun.

You can tag your posts with keywords to group them by subject. Some possible tags (and subjects to talk about) are: book;  reflection;  faith;  community; and so on.

Posting is now open!

A man of few words

I attended the Q & A session.  When Denver answered the first question, I realized that he was a man of few words.  Yet, his words and the way he said them carried a lot of weight.  I was reminded of a comment people made about Jesus’ speech, “He spoke as one with authority, unlike their leaders.”  In my lifetime (I am fifty) I have know only a few people who were people of few words.  When they spoke, everyone was quiet and listened.  You could hear the wisdom that had come from years of experience, a mix of happy and sad, joyful and painful times.   My father was such a man.  I was blessed to hear Denver answer a question about forgiving people who had hurt him by saying “If you do not forgive, you will not be forgiven.”  There was anticipative silence, to which Denver replied, “That is all there is to that answer.”  We live in a world full of inequity,  greed, hunger, sickness, pain and death which produces vexing questions, but the best answers come from people of few words.

Alive?

Rubel Shelly has a weekly web column called the FAX of Life.  I really like his writing style.  It is concise and pithy, with not a single word wasted.  He recently writes about the 10 Commandments of Human Relations.  You can click through the link for the whole list, but what caught my eye was his closing statement:

As the cycle of giving and receiving enlarges, the human community comes alive.

So, how alive are you?

Dry Bones Exhibit at the ACU Library

The ACU Library is pleased to host the Dry Bones traveling art exhibit.  Dry Bones is a ministry centered in Denver, Colorado and focuses on serving inner city homeless youth.  The exhibit features photographs, poems, and artwork by youth on the streets.  I think the words of Matt, one of the Dry Bones coordinators, best describe the purpose of the exhibit:

Our main goal is to continue to give a voice to our often voiceless friends who live on the streets of Denver.  We’re open to whatever will be a blessing and whatever will help tell their story.  We have photographs, matted poetry, writings, a few drawings, paintings, etc.  Most of the photographs were taken by homeless youth and young adults through the Dry Bones photography classes.  A few of the other photos were taken by a photographer friend of the ministry.

The art itself is displayed on hinged partitions of corregated metal or on some really cool walls created out of red yarn.  Much of it is large enough that you can walk through and around the exhibit, immersing yourself in the images.  Some of the art includes large photographs of cityscapes or street scenes.  Some are matted poems.  You will see the faces of those who give and serve on both sides of that ministry.  You will see their fears and their hopes; you will see them as people.

Dry Bones is an incredible example of a ministry of relationship.  It has attracted the attention of the media.  If you wonder what kind of difference it can make, check out JC and Carol’s story or maybe read about Sarah.  These are gritty, harsh stories of reality but they are also stories of connection and even of redeeming love.

The art exhibit is one way to make us aware of others around us, both near and far.  It will be up in the ACU Library only through Wednesday September 24.  I hope you get to check it out.