Dear faithful friends/readers.

Some of you know that I am a co-facilitator of Sunday School class this semester at my church: UBC (university baptist church). I help lead "The Other Side" - which is essentially a gathering of 20-40 year old men and women - we say that we are "post-college age, without being too old." There are a bunch of grad students, but also a number of working professionals and a professor or two.

Recently, we have been studying and discussing the Core Values of UBC with the class. Each week we take one of the core values posted on our website (www.ubcwaco.org), read the description, read the supporting scriptures and then break it down together to see what that means for our lives, for our church and for the world.

After Sunday we post a continuing discussion on our message board and try to keep dialouging about it through the week. While I can't give you the password to chat about it there, I can post my comments here and invite you to participate with me in the discussion. (I may not do this every week, but this seemed like a good discussion to start this week).

I think the sermons are available on line, but I'm not sure when yesterday's (9/23) will be posted... well, BAM! I just looked online and its there already. So click here and listen to Don's sermon so you have more context for the note below.... and then lets talk.

I have to go do homework now.... :( Boo. Make it a great day!
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Hi Friends,
Its Monday morning at 7:30. I'm drinking coffee and putting off finishing my reading for class. So I decided to go ahead and post some continuing thoughts about this week's class.

Was it just me or (first of all) was class really good on Sunday? You all are so smart and
thoughtful and I'm so glad to hear your thoughts every week as we break down UBC's core values and how they integrate into our lives. Secondly, was it just me or did Don's message seem to dovetail perfectly to our discussion?

As a reminder, the scripture we looked at this week in Sunday school were: John 14:6, John 8:31-32 and 2 Tim 2:15.

As Don was talking about the American zeitgeist that those things he mentioned (consumerism, fast food, money, hummers, celebs, google, etc) all are thing our culture is trying to tell us are TRUE values; that those are the values we should not only aspire to, but also advocate for. And I can admit that I frequently get caught up in it. I love being able to communicate quickly with my family and friends who are scattered literally to all the corners of the nation, I love being able to look up the phone number and address to a restaurant by text messaging google or even getting driving directions to that location - at any time. (Recently, we texted google during a BU football game, to get the number of Pizza Hut, so we could find out if they still do that percent off deal after the game... they don't)

Its this weird dichotomy, I think, that we can be more fully present with our friends in town because we have a blog that updates people without us having to call them... and yet we can be totally not present because we are text messaging, listening to i-pods, watching TV, sending emails, all while people are trying to talk to us face to face. Its not just a weird dichotomy, I guess, its a painful one for me to think about - because I know I don't always give my full attention to either the people that are in front of me, or to those who are far away.
As we continue this discussion, how does Jesus enter into it? Don says that Jesus comes in and presents an alternative to the zeitgeist (not a similar but "christian perspective" but a real alternative) - that He turns the culture upside down.

I love that Don said (my paraphrase): "The goal of the church {universal} should not be to be relevant but to empty herself and be an alternative, presenting new ways of being, new ways of living and new ways of seeking God" He added that we should be LEADING art and culture - because we have TRUTH as our banner and at our center, if we have Jesus as those things.
How does that look for us this week? What are your thoughts about how we as individuals, and how the Christian church at large, can empty and simply represent Jesus? Should we shun modern technology? Should we literally sell everything and give it to the people around us? Lets discuss! What are your thoughts?

Weekly Update (9/23/07)

Its the middle of two long (full) weeks for me. Last week, I presented Adlerian Theory with my friends Matt and Candice and then went to Freshman Retreat for Friday night and Saturday. This week I am attending the Crowder Band album release party on Monday, meeting with Chaplains on Tuesday, attending the Student Organization Summit on Wednesday.

All of this while I'm going to class and trying to get homework done... not to mention transcribe an interview that took me two hours to perform (and thus will take two hours to type...). I have to have a 2-3 page summary done on Wednesday morning.... yikes.

So, in order...
Adlerian Theory - Matt agreed to the "an interview with Alfred" plan - which seemed like amazing grace by the Lord, because we didn't think that there was any chance he would agree. But it was awesome! We made a fake TV show called, "Rise and Shine! with Candice and Tiffani" and Matt dressed up in a corduroy jacket, pipe and hat. We took a few days to script out the info, worked on a powerpoint presentation and some group discussion questions and were ready to go. The final perfect part was to add an "encouragement" piece - since the central piece of Dr. Adler's theory is encouragement. The professor gave us great feedback and I think the class really enjoyed learning. I know that we enjoyed teaching it a ton!

Freshman Retreat - for the first year (it hasn't been offered in a number of years), it went really well, and I think the students enjoyed their time, and hopefully they learned a lot, too. My favorite part was the "worship experience" on Friday night. Taylor Dodgen played music for an hour, and we had a few men and women read scriptures periodically. There were 10 prayer stations ranging from intercessory prayer to pray for the earth to drawing picture of yourself in Christ, etc. We grabbed the lamps from our hotel-style rooms (the staff all slept in the camp's motel) and put them out around the stations so that we could have the overhead lights off. It was perfect and I loved being able to pray for students as I worshiped around the room. I taught a breakout session on Saturday about Going Greek and I think it went OK. There were a lot of crickets in the room, if you know what I mean... (and what I mean is that I would ask questions of the group and there were no answers.........). Hopefully it was really OK. I'm excited to assess this year's experience so that next year's can be great.

That's probably it for now, except that a friend of mine (sarah gail) wanted my book list for my spiritual and moral development course, so I'm posting it here because there are some great books we're reading this Fall!

* Chickering, et. al.: Encouraging Authenticity and Spirituality in Higher Education
* Colby, et. al.: Educating Citizens: Preparing America's Undergraduates for Lives of Moral and Civic Responsibility
* Fowler, J.W.: Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development...
* Fowler, J.W.: Faith Changes: The Personal and Public Challenges of Postmodern Life
* Hoppe, S.L.: Spirituality in Higher Education, New Directions in Teaching
* Jablonski, M.A.: The Implications of Student Spirituality for Student Affairs Practice
* Lewis, C.S.: Mere Christianity
* Newman, L.L.: College Student Affairs Journal
* Parks, S.D.: Big Questions, Worthy Dreams
* Riley, N.S.: God on the Quad: How Religious Colleges.....

Enjoy... and happy reading!

You thought....

... I would go back to my old habit of not writing, didn't you?

Well, you weren't far off. I kept wanting to write and then I've just been swamped at work and in school. But I have a few minutes right now before class to post a brief update. :)

First of all, congratulations to my friends Anne and Shawn Brown who welcomed their first daughter into the world last Tuesday, Sept. 11. Sophie Magdalene ("Pearl of Wisdom") weighed in at almost 8 lbs and is just a little precious bundle of girl!

In other news, Freshman Retreat is this weekend. As of right now we have about 110 students signed up and are expecting 10-20 more. I am really excited to be a part of this project, which I think will really be impactful for the students. My role has been to select and train student leaders, and to present a breakout session on Greek Life and faith. Its called, "Its all Greek to me!" - because that is a pun I use a lot around here. :) I'm going to lead a discussion on the common fears of sorority and fraternity involvement, and also address how to stay faithful to your Christian beliefs while participating. I came to faith in large part due to my involvement in ADPi, so its nice to have the opportunity to share that with students.

Also this week, Matt and Candice and I are presenting an 80-minute long teaching session on Arthur Adler, and his counseling (psychology) theories. I really like Adler's stuff - he's all about empowerment and encouragement and confronting the "myths" that we've believed during our life based on our early experiences. Very interesting.

This week on my mind is the decision to pursue at PhD or EdD. Before I came to Baylor I didn't think that was where I was headed, but I am more and more convinced of it. That being said, I am currently debating about, asking about, and praying for wisdom and direction about, whether or not I should pursue doctoral work right after finishing here at Baylor. At this point, while I'm doing those things I am going to start getting my application materials together, so that I'll be ready by the deadline - just in case.

I don't know what this means for my future. I'm still planning to move to CA, so I'm looking at programs in that state - UCLA, Pepperdine, Azusa Pacific, USC, are my main options right now. I'll update you more on this later.

That's it for now. I'm headed to class.

Blessings!!!!!

one more thing (again)

Sometimes I like to read the blogs of my friends, and pretend like they are a letter from that person to me especially. I like that. It makes me feel like I'm home.

Cultural Issues class - reading response

I am in a class which looks at cultural issues (essentially in higher ed, but it ends up about being in the world). This class is a GREAT class. We are going to be forced to look at ourselves and our world with new eyes and I love that.

Each week we have to write a reading response. I may not post my response regularly, but this week seemed like it would cause us all to think about what messaging we are producing and seeing.

My entry is intentionally "unfinished" - we don't have space in our reflection writing to really finish any of this work, but its just to get us thinking and help our prof know where our head is. I hope to continue thinking about this issue this week.

Blessings, Tiffani


Here follows an edited version of my response:

I came to my desk to write about stereotypes and prejudices. When I was reading yesterday, I thought I would be writing about ethics. I may still try to write about both those things… but my first order of business is the new Baylor homepage (www.baylor.edu). I don’t remember ever looking in depth at the photos on the old BU homepage (and I haven’t even done this work yet on my own department’s page). However, as I was reading about assumptions and stereotypes (i.e. “Whites are smarter than African-Americans.”), I happened to load up the internet. This wasn’t the first time I saw the new BU homepage, but I guess my reading just happened to make me look at it with more critical eyes.
I first saw a white male, with the words, “Be Strong and Courageous.” I decided to see what other messages we were sending. There was a white woman graduating (with “be transformed…”), white people in a computer lab (“give me wisdom and knowledge”), an African American male in his Baylor Line jersey – clearly running onto the football field with “live by the spirit” – he is surrounded by white women, and this is followed by a picture of the rock wall with two white males on it. The next photo is of an African American woman (with “give me in your truth…”), and the last photo is of white males and says, “nothing will be impossible.”
I have thought about this issue before. I have tried to imagine that I was a student seeking to find a college where I would fit and I look at websites to see if I’m represented there. What Baylor’s new site tells me is that BU is primarily a place for white people, and maybe some African Americans would feel Ok about attending, too. But if I were an Asian or a Pacific Islander, or a Latina woman (just to name a few), I appear to not be represented here.
Today, I was struck by the subliminal content of the messages next to the pictures. I feel like our new homepage reinforces the stereotypes that African American males are only interested in sports, not school. I see stereotypes that the worship we have here is only for white people (the first picture is one of students worshipping and only includes white students). I know that this is not intentional – in fact, I’m sure that if I mentioned this to the office that controls the webpage they would be surprised by this messaging. They might even disagree.
This makes me think about the ethical concern of “Do no harm.” I appreciated the perspective of Pope when she mentioned that even ethics can contain cultural bias. That the intent to do no harm isn’t good enough, as professionals we have to consider if someone received harm from our actions (even if it was unintended). I don’t know that I had really thought of that before – but thinking about it, especially in light of what I know is white privilege in my case, I wonder how many times I’ve had to apologize because I’ve hurt someone’s feelings or been insensitive to a cultural difference even though it wasn’t my intent. Incidentally… a lot of times.

Photos!

Here you go, friends. Enjoy.

one more thing

And it was labor day weekend...

I spent Friday and Sat in Waco - delightful. We layed out by the pool and read and then Candice, Collin, Kathryn and I went to Red Lobster- what a treat! After, I joined Myles and Sarah at Pirates 3 (at the cheaps).

Sunday after church, Sarah and I loaded up and headed to San Antonio to see the Fergasons.

It was a great visit! We stayed until early Tuesday morning.

Weekly Update (9/6/07)

Ok, there, I said it... "Weekly Update"

Yes, friends, its fall again, and hopefully I will be able to keep this up all semester. I'm excited to feel like I could have time to spend 20 minutes a week updating!

The last couple weeks have been really fun!!!

My friend, Kristen, had a birthday and we dressed up in 80's clothes, surprised her at the Starbucks (and 80'ed her up) and then traveled to "Skate World" where we skated the evening away to the sounds of current music (mostly hip hop) and some 80's requests that they threw in for us. Our last dance was to Thriller which was especially fun, since we had created a dance to Thriller during line camp. We all skated to the center circle and did the dance - so fun!
(p.s. to see the thriller dance at line camp, click this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pmIKw_u0HY)

Pictures of 80's night to follow.

Last week, My pal, John Hickam, was in Dallas for a few days with his work (Boeing). It was great fun to be able to drive up to Dallas mid-week to visit him - especially since I didn't get to see him when I was in Seattle last month. He flew in on Wed and I arrived just before his flight. We got all dressed up and headed to Chamberlain's - which is a fancy steakhouse on the West side of town (I think). It was delicious, but even better was the company and getting to talk and make each other laugh. I always have a great time dining with John. After dinner we went to "Pete's Dueling Piano Bar" because John had thought it would be nice to go to a jazz lounge or something like it. Well, not knowing Dallas, there was no way of knowing that this would be nothing like a jazz lounge... but more like a bar that happened to have live music. That notwithstanding, it was a SUPER time. The pianists were incredible - they also played drums and the harmonica - and it was fun to sit and sing and watch people be ridiculous.

The next morning we had breakfast at La Madeleine (I think I like lunch there better, though it was good) and then we went to see where President Kennedy was shot. That was a fascinating experience. We saw the sixth floor window where they believe Lee Harvey Oswald was standing when he shot the president. We also saw the place on the grassy knoll where some people believe the shooter actually was. We met a man who was there when he was 13. Interesting experience.

Pictures again, to follow.

I drove back to Waco just in time for a baby shower for my friends Ryan and Kristen Richardson - they are having a baby boy named, Syler James and I'm really excited about it for them.

Finally, school has been overwhelming - at least in theory. There seems to be a lot of work ahead, but aside from reading I've mostly been working at work and not doing any of those aforementioned assignments. Hopefully I'll get on track and get ahead this weekend.

Our sunday school class is going well - I'm helping lead "The Other Side" - a class for post-college age indivs and I am enjoying it. I was hoping to join BSF, but it looks like at least for this month that I will not be able to. I'm still praying about how I can use my Monday nights as a ministry to me (aside from Heroes, which I'm excited about starting soon!).

That's all for now. Pics to follow. Thanks for being patient with me!

Love and Peace, Tiff