or is there?

Transportation will be provided for you if you sign up for the November 16-18 MTW Global Missions Conference through Covenant College. Not only that, but you get an incredibly reduced rate for the conference itself.

You should have received a flyer with information and a registration form in your campus mailbox. If you lost it, feel free to swing by my office or Jason Lehn’s office to get a new one and sign up for the conference.

After Rev. Kevin Smith’s chapel message on John 3:22-30, encouraging us to grow in our humility in light of the greatness of our Savior, about 20 students gathered to enjoy a time of discussion over lunch. Thanks to those of you who came. It was a great time of learning about Pastor Smith’s background, how he came to know the Lord in Philadelphia, how he came into the PCA and became a church-planter. We discussed reaching out to those in our own communities, issues of race and the PCA, including at Covenant, welcoming, loving, and respecting those around us. It was a stimulating conversation, to be sure.

Our hope in the Chapel office is to have speakers not just give a sermon and leave, but instead spend time with our students and share their experiences and insights with them. We trust this will provide a richer experience for both students and speakers and allow us to learn from each other in more significant ways.

Rev. Kevin Smith, senior pastor of Pinelands PCA in Miami, Florida, is speaking at Wednesday’s chapel. Two of his sermons are available on Sermonaudio.com. You can find a few more on the Council of Reforming Churches website.

A Covenant alum will be on campus and available to speak with students interested in serving in East Asia. This is a great opportunity to hear how you can be involved in the work of the kingdom in the 10/40 Window. Jeff will be in the Great Hall for lunch from 12-2pm. You can also meet with him individually this afternoon. Contact Jason Lehn at jason.lehn@covenant.edu for more information.

The Wall Street Journal today has an article entitled “Outsourcing Religion” which reports on the growing number of American congregations seeking authority from the African church. Check out their photo slideshow with commentary on the Ugandan Church and Archbishop Orombi.

This article from Christianity Today is one of my favorites in helping those of us in the North American Church better understand ourselves as part of a much larger global church. It’s primarily an interview with Rt. Rev. Dr. David Zac Niringiye, an assistant bishop in Kampala, Uganda.

Here’s a sample:

What could equip us to be more countercultural, living in a nation that is very much at the center of power?

We need to begin to read the Bible differently. Americans have been preoccupied with the end of the Gospel of Matthew, the Great Commission: “Go and make.” I call them go-and-make missionaries. These are the go-and-fix-it people. The go-and-make people are those who act like it’s all in our power, and all we have to do is “finish the task.” They love that passage! But when read from the center of power, that passage simply reinforces the illusion that it’s about us, that we are in charge.

I would like to suggest a new favorite passage, the Great Invitation. It’s what we find if we read from the beginning of the Gospels rather than the end. Jesus says, “Come, follow me. I will make you fishers of men.” Not “Go and make,” but “I will make you.” It’s all about Jesus. And do you know the last words of Jesus to Peter, in John 21? “Follow me.” The last words of Simon Peter’s encounter are the same as the first words.

Thursday and Friday, Dr. Henry Krabbendam will be preaching and preparing the way for the Neal Conference on True Spirituality which begins next Monday. Dr. K’s long commitment to Uganda is well-known at Covenant, and he will provide an excellent backdrop for the Neal conference next week.

The Neal Conference Committee is pleased that the The Very Reverend Henry Luke Orombi, Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Uganda, will speak five times on campus next week during the conference. The conference will kick off with journalist Mindy Belz, who interviewed Archbishop Orombi for a cover article in World Magazine last December. Belz will speak in Chapel on Monday. On Tuesday, musician Phil Wickham will play in Chapel and then at an evening concert at 8 pm. His blog offers a free download from his newest CD (due for release on October 2). Phil will be on a national tour this fall with the David Crowder Band.

The archbishop will speak in Chapel on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, as well as at two evening chapels (7:30pm) on Wednesday and Thursday. He will be on campus through Monday, and will be preaching at First Presbyterian’s 11:00 am service and at Covenant Presbyterian at 6:00pm on Sunday, Sept 23.

All conference events listed above are free and open to the public.