Growing in Christ

Man, what a weekend. I just got back from our annual IV Spring retreat, which we've "newly refurbished" and renamed Cresciendo en Christo (Growing in Christ). Over the course of this weekend, students from our chapters at UNM, NMT, and UTEP gathered at the First Baptist Church in Socorro to learn more about what it means to live Godly lives as we explored the book of Titus. It was a weekend of fun, fellowship, growth, and worship, and I absolutely loved it.

We changed the style of the retreat from previous years due to the changes in our capabilities as a staff team. We used to have separate tracks, usually 4-5, throughout the weekend that students would choose between as the focus of their experience. There would be times of unified worship, but most of the retreat was spent in the track, meaning that there was a huge amount of preparation involved for the staff. Well, our staff team is significantly smaller now: only Hans, Rod, and myself. There was no way we could effectively put on that kind of a conference, so we opted instead to focus on group study of a single passage and devote only a limited amount of our time to what we called "breakout sessions" in which students could get some more specific instruction.

Titus was the focus of the weekend this year. It's a short book, but it says a lot about what it means to live a Godly life. Hans gave an intro to the book Friday night, describing how trying to live a Godly life is important for our credibility as Christians as well as our ability to answer the call that God has given us. Then Saturday morning we dove right in, spending about two and a half hours studying the first half under Rod's leadership and looking at the characteristics of a Godly, upright person versus one who is unsaved. It was the first time that many of the students had experienced a manuscript study, but they really seemed to take to it and got some good insight into the passage. Then that night I got to lead the group through the second half of the book over an additional two hours. It was my first time leading in that kind of context (I'm more used to leading a group of about 2 or 3, not the almost 60 students we had), but in spite of being exhausted from the weekend up to that point, I really enjoyed it. We looked at how Godly character stems from the work of God in us - it is our response to the gift of salvation we have received and is evidence of how God has changed our lives for the better. On Sunday we attended service at First Baptist, and the pastor even focused his message on a section of Titus to bring in some extra insight about how God's salvation works in our lives. Finally, we switched venues over to the NMT campus, and Hans closed off the weekend with a call to action in response to what we learned throughout the weekend.

As I mentioned, though, the study of Titus was only a part of what we did this weekend. We were also blessed to have the Tech chapter worship team lead us in several worship sets during the retreat as well as for the service on Sunday. It was really great to have them leading us through some moving worship, bringing us into fellowship with one another and with God.

Another big part of the weekend was the breakout session time. We knew that we couldn't spend as much time as we used to on specific topics through the retreat, but we also realized the great value of the training for the students. We had 4 topics: Godly Dating Relationships (Rod), Evangelism (Hans), Helping Others Grow (Matt, a volunteer from UTEP), and Putting God First (me). I focused mine on some practical aspects of growing in a relationship with God, going through how I have grown by studying Scripture, praying, attending church, tithing, and participating in missions.

I was honestly really worried about mine going into it. I had no idea if students would be interested in a seminar on basics of living a Christian life; generally those tracks are the lowest in attendance at the retreats I've attended. I led 2 sessions, though, and both were completely full. I got a lot of positive feedback as well, with some students saying it was the highlight of the weekend for them. I'm really glad that God used it the way He did.

Overall, the weekend was simply amazing, but only because of your continued prayers and support. Thank you so much for lifting up Cresciendo to God. He has certainly done great things through it, and I can't wait to see how the lives of our students continue to change as they put into practice the lessons of the retreat. I ask that you would continue to pray for them as they return to the realities of school and homework, that life won't snuff out the lessons they've learned. There are also a number of students who came to us for prayer during the retreat for various reasons. While I can't really go into their specific requests or situations, it would be wonderful if you would pray on their behalf as well. Thank you again so much for the ways you support my ministry and the ministry of InterVarsity as a whole. May you be blessed for the ways you have been a blessing to us.

"For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good."
- Titus 2:11-14