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This past Thursday was the final Nav Night of the spring 2008 semester. We spent the first half of the evening honoring the graduating seniors. This year we had twelve students graduating. We had one person get up to speak on behalf of each of them. I had the honor of speaking for Aaron Gavila, my old roommate and good friend. We concluded our senior send-off by praying over them.
Each spring since I’ve been at Florida State the Navigators have gone on a prayer retreat to spend time seeking God. Each one of these has been different. I don’t mean that the activity has been different. In fact, of all the things we do year after year, this is the one event that follows the same structure each and every time we go. We arrive on Friday night and start praying. We spend all day Saturday praying. Then we spend Sunday morning in prayer. When I say each one is different what I mean is that God says and does something unique each time. This time was no exception.
Last Thursday I gave the message at our weekly Nav Night meeting. Since most of our Bible studies are on Ephesians this semester Dave asked me to give a message on Ephesians, something that would be an overview of the entire book. I wanted to bring something to the table that the students probably weren’t getting in their study.
I decided to use Watchman Nee’s Ephesians commentary Sit, Walk, Stand as the model of what I would share. Nee’s take on Ephesians is that the book can be broken down into three parts: our position in Christ, our life in the world and our attitude toward the enemy. We sit with Christ in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 2:6), we walk in a manner worthy of the calling we have received (Ephesians 4:1), and we put on the full armor of God so that we can stand against the devil’s schemes (Ephesians 6:11).
The message was recorded and today was added to the ministry podcast. Listen to it and let me know what you think. I also encourage you to subscribe to the podcast (via iTunes or RSS).
Last week I was in Chicago for the FSU Navigators’ spring break trip. This trip has been a major part of my life since this past November when we first started cooking up the idea. I was put in charge of the trip, mostly because I had made a couple of key connections with Chicago Nav staff this past summer. Today I’d like to talk about the trip and a little about the planning process that led up to it.
This past November at the Navigators National Staff Conference we were treated to the first three parts of a four-part animated series called “The D-Team.” The series is about fund raising and the Nav Development Team. Part three ended saying that the conclusion would be posted online. After waiting patiently all these months they have finally posted all four chapters here. They even made a Facebook profile for Zach and Kate (pictured).
There are a lot of jokes in these videos that, if you’re not on Nav Staff, you might not get. The first three episodes were met with uproarious laughter at each of the plenary sessions. I’d like to hear what you think of these videos, so leave a comment.
Saturday night was the second annual Valentine’s Day Banquet planned and hosted by the men in the Navigators ministry here at FSU. I have to admit that when the students first started planning this thing I thought it would be awfully difficult to top last year’s event. But I have to say that they did a great job making this year unique. I’m really proud of all of our guys. Let me take you through the evening.
The first weekend of this month I drove down to Hudson, Florida with a car full of students to the Navigators state-wide spring conference. Students from UF, USF and UCF joined us at Word of Life Camp, bringing the total number of people close to 130. Each year we only have one of these so it’s a pretty big deal. As you can see from the photo above FSU brought a pretty large group. Our guest speaker was Drew Frazer, Nav staff at the University of Colorado-Boulder. He spent the weekend asking us the question, “How big is your God?” He challenged our students to consider the God talked about in the Bible, the phenomenal power He has and what He has been able to do through people who trusted Him, verses our view of who He is and what He is capable of doing. Do we box God in, believing that He’s not capable of doing whatever He wants?
Last November the FSU Navigators staff team went to the National Staff Conference out in St Louis. Each day I was there I got to hear amazing speakers as well as meet a lot of very cool people from all over the country. During some of the talks I really wished that the students I work with and my supporters could hear what I was hearing, learn what I was learning.
Sunday night I stumbled upon an unexpected delight on iTunes. Turns out the Navigators turned each of the plenary sessions at the National Staff Conference into a video podcast. The podcast includes talks from Bill Tell, Eddie Broussard, Alan Andrews and Mike Treneer. There are also some audio-only episodes of interviews with different people, including an interview with Ben and Melissa Nugent who are staff at the University of Florida.
This is worth checking out. If you click here iTunes will open (you’ll need to have that installed on your computer) and you’ll be taken straight to the download page.
I’m pleased to announce that the FSU Navigators have a brand new website thanks to yours truly. It was a lot of work but I have to admit I had a lot of fun designing it. It uses WordPress and K2 just like my personal site. The best part of all is that all the hosting is free! The Navigators Internet Ministries hooked us up with some free server space from Gospelcom.net. Big props to Randy Susman, Director of the Navigators Internet Ministries, for working with me for the past two months trying to get this thing up and running. We’re using the same address: fsunavigators.org. Go check it out and let me know what you think.
Every month the FSU Navigators ministry plans one big event. Our ministry isn’t driven by events but we do consider them to be important for our students to have a sense of community. This month we were planning to bring in Jim Downing, one of the original six Navigators. Unfortunately he had a death in the family just before he planned to come to town and had to cancel. So the staff decided to make the most of the opportunity and indulge a request of the Student Leadership Team (SLT). Many of its members have been asking for more responsibility, particularly in the area of planning and steering what the ministry does. We decided this would be a great chance to let them spread their wings.
