The Term, She Starts!

To radically pursue being a disciple of Jesus and making disciples for Christ's Kingdom!

Our vision for the year.

I helped to put this together with the staff and our new intern on campus. I think the word radical is probably my biggest contribution to this vision. I had been listening to a poem called "The Vision" by Peter Greig and going over the core values of the Navigators, and needless to say, I got a little inspired.



The start of term has come and gone here at the University of Calgary, and it has been a very busy, and blessed three weeks for us. This is the start of a new era. Maybe that is a bit much, but it certainly feels that way. A lot of our students from last year have graduated and have moved on, and as a result, we are in need of filling in those missing places. And so a giant push to get some new first year students began, and a three week campaign has left us being blessed with another full contact list as well as several students who have the desire to go deeper with God and to learn to engage Him in His word.

On Friday the 17th we had our opening BBQ, a chance to share our new vision for the year with the students on the campus, as well as the direction we are taking the ministry in. We had well over 40 students show up, people inviting their friends, all eager to hear what we had to offer. I can honestly tell you, I was shocked! It was an excellent evening and we drew a lot of interest to our new small group bible studies!

Daniel



Daniel is our newest addition to the ministry team here on campus. He is a really good friend of mine as well as one of my roommates. He had decided last year that LeaderQuest was something that he wanted to do, and I could not be happier. Daniel is an excellent addition to our ministry team on campus and his unique vision and heart have been wonderful! Daniel has a real heart for prayer and for people and is currently working at trying to set up a resident bible study on the university campus. He is brand new to the team and has probably undertaken one of the hardest tasks in the ministry! So please keep him in your prayers and ask that God would send him the students to get that resident bible study on its way!

Transform



Transform is one of our newest campus ministries. It is run by Simon Mairs and Dustin Pearson, with assistance from Darren Malin and myself. The design of Transform is meant to foster a community around service. On the one end of Transform the hope is to create a community of people who may come together and serve; this is open to people of all faith backgrounds and is meant to be a place where anybody can come, serve, feel welcome, and belong. On the other end of Transform, we hope to create a nucleus of people passionate for following Christ. This will be accomplished through the pursuit of Jesus Christ through the scriptures and living them out. It is meant to be a place of discipleship, accountability and for people to grow in their faith and passion for Christ. What we aim and pray for is that the students involved in the discipleship community will live out their passions within the service community, bringing a sense of worth, value and purpose to it.

In order to bridge the gap between these two extremes of the club, there will be a discussion group with topics ranging from truth, what is good, what is evil, to what is God in a very non preachy environment. There will also be a first time bible readers group for those interested in exploring the faith. The idea of this club came from a lack of community within the campus; a social justice oriented student body; and most importantly, the involvement layers of the disciples of Christ (the twelve, the seventy, the crowds). There is no obligation for students to be involved in all of the aspects of the club, each aspect is open to the students interested; allowing them the ability to choose their level of involvement.




Small Groups



This year on campus we have decided to place the majority of our focus on our small group bible studies allowing for a chance to build strong relational communities that can then feed into our much larger Navigators community on campus. We have four bible studies that will be taking place this year, two of which take place at the university, and two that will be taking place at the East Side Guys House, a Navigators home just off the campus.

Who is Jesus?- A look into the Gospel of Mark

In the gospel of Matthew chapter 11 verse 11, Jesus makes this claim, "I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." What an amazingly claim! Jesus was of course, contrasting the old system of 'following the law' to the new Kingdom that God would reign over. John had lived a near perfect life under the law but even the most insignificant in Jesus' Kingdom would be greater than John. Jesus made many more amazing claims that are worth or attention and focus.

For this year, we will looking at the life and teachings of Jesus by studying the gospel of Mark.

Leader: Darren Malin

Top Ten Chapters of the Bible

This exciting study will focus on the top 10 chapters of the Bible as chosen by past Nav students. Personal prep is required and makes this study choice one that will both challenge and encourage you in your faith.

Leader: Rick McCallum

Topix Bible Study
Faith, money, marriage, the fear of God, drinking, music, sacrifice, sex,the Holy Spirit, Solomon, miracles, meaning of life... these are just some of the topics that could be studied. We will be deciding as a group 10 topics to study using the Bible. Start brainstorming and come ready with those topics that you are questioning in your life or desiring to know more about.

Leader: Daniel Faszer

Living Intentionally: A study on serving others

In John 15 we learn about how one can identify the evidence of Christ in the life of a person. That as Christians, we are an extension of Christ, who is our center. Much like the branches stemming from a vine; that we can bear fruit and that fruit is what will point to Jesus. A part of that is loving other people and being willing to give up our lives for them. What does it mean to give over our lives for the sake of others? Does this mean that we need to take a step back from ourselves and let those people know how much we love them and be willing to serve them? Just as Jesus loved us, and served us and went to the cross for us, so to must we be able to love others, serve others; to give over our lives to others.

This study will be a chance to see just what kind of service Jesus called us to when He said for us to be willing to give over our lives for the sake of others. We will be looking at different scriptures over the course of the semester and discussing with one another just what it really means to serve other people. There will also be a practical application part of this study in which we will have a chance to take what we are learning and apply that to our campus community!

Leader: Josh Albers




That is about all there is left to say for now! I will be sure to keep you all updated further as things move along this year on campus. In the mean time, thanks so much for reading and for your prayers. I ask that you continue to keep me in your prayers, pray that God will keep me humble and available to serve Him and others. Also if you know of anyone who would be interested in hearing more about the work on campus and would like to help support it, please send them my way! Thanks so much and may God bless and keep you!