Min 357 Spr 16: Class 1/12

It was great to meet you! Here are the pics of me studying for JCC:

Of course you'll remember that any of the videos and exercises we do in class can be used in your final.

Remember Ignatius the youth pastor (video below)? What leadership lessons did we learn from him?(:

Great job doing "background check" on me.I wrote down what you found. The stories I didn't cover today we will cover soon.

Here are links to the stories I told from the board (click title)

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Here are the "field trip" stories I told today:
Until recently, the story students teased me about most was the time when Sonya uttered those words that no lovesmitten college student wants to hear:

"I think we should just be friends."

Gulp.

click to read all about this artwork

Where does a guy go after hearing that? As a new Christian, how dis I respond/grieve/rebel/"backslide?"

I tell students this particular story at a particular place, so I can literally point, so they get the point and picture.

What do I do? (Historical present tense)? Devastated, I go across the street from campus to the grocery store (I point to the store) and buy a pack of cigarettes (50 cents?), and walk back to campus to climb to the roof of the seminary house.... and lie there and smoke!

And while students laugh with (at!) me as they envison this; , looking up what is now w the "patio" of Tim Neufeld's office), I can quickly append another story.

Years later, near same spot..

I point at the street where a girl jumped in my car and.... let's just say, made me an offer I could refuse.

Suffice to say this story affords a great chance/segue to talk about Jesus' temptations!

But now the story everyone wants to hear about is the following.
This story has just entered a second life, as recently the university finished a wonderful new m sign..

The official FPU Facebook page published this photo of it, comparing it (right) to the old sign from my day (left).

The only problem with the caption on the left is that, unlike it assumes, the sign did not look like this from 1962-1989/

That's my fault.

The sign was indeed there all that time.

But the cross you see on it was only on it for a few hours, and very few ever saw it.
Many heard all about it, though...

There's quite a story here.

In 1984, the college decided the school sign needed to be replaced.. An exploratory committee was put together to make proposals about what it should be made of, what it should include, etc

One of the early decisions that was released (leaked?) was that nowhere on any eventual new sign should there be anything "conspicuously Christian."

Now, one can understand reasons for that (particularly understanding the Mennonite Brethren tradition which sponsored the school has long been more concerned about quiet, humble, practical and radical discipleship and Christian action, rather than just words...and well, signs.

But that phrase tripped up some of us students.. especially new Christian like me.

We were a Christian school, why not let it be known?
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So we came up with a plan.

A subversive one.

And right or wrong, we carried it out.

We would subvert the dominant paradigm...or at least convert the current sign.

I enjoy taking my current students to the scene of the crime, and telling the story.

Without telling anyone, we commissioned two of our number (not to mention any names: Mark Hill and Randy Richmond) to use their carpenter gifts and craftily craft a nice wooden cross.

One night we snuck out (in fatigues and camouflage, no less), eluded security ,,,and attached the cross to the sign.

In the morning, we posted signs in the cafeteria (Alumni Hall) saying "Have you seen the new sign? It's the work of the "Cross Committee'. We wanted to stir up conversation, and hopefully impetus to reverse the "nothing conspicuously Christian" decision.

We soon found ourselves mildly disciplined . and then brought into/dialogue with the administration. They seemed open to our concerns, and promised to consider them...

...as long as we didn't pull another prank, no matter how prophetic it was.

Several years later, as the college became a university, a new sign was added (including a Christian motto)

And then this year, an even newer and larger ...and conspicuous>..sign was constructed.

Note that at not one, but two places, a pretty conspicuous "founded in Christ" appears.

I have no idea if that had anything with the Cross Committee. of nearly three decades ago.
I's like to think so, but I doubt it.

Yes, I love the new sign!

So I I posted a photo of the new sign on my Facebook, and soon current and former students of mine..., as well as friends I went to college with, even members of the renegade Cross Committee....began teasing me afresh in the comments.

Graham Dyck, a member of the committee, even dug up and posted some photos (see them here) of our middle of the night adventure.. I had never seen them before, and they had never posted anywhere.

Graham posted:
Graham Dyck Lest anyone think the underground cross committee is a hoax, here is the photographic evidence.http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=404393849594509&set=a.404393769594517.97241.100000716935177&type=3&theater

FPC Underground Cross Committee

By: Graham

Facebook friends got a holy kick out of that!

But then a few says ago I see on the official FPU Facebook page, the double photo I posted above.
The photo on the left was Graham's photo (someone official had obviously seen it in their feed but not gotten that it was part of a rebellion. They assumed that's how the sign always looked ...when actually it only looked like that for a few historic hours..

Graham commented:

That is way too funny. I love that the caption provides the time frame as 1962 to 1989, a whopping 27 years. The cross was on the sign for one day from about 3:00 am until maintenance showed up at 7:00 am and took it down as their first order of business. Anyway, we "remember the past with gratitude" even though few can actually remember that part of the past.

:https://www.facebook.com/davewainscott/posts/226666364115581

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Be sure to do your Strengths test. You will need the results (your Top 5 results)for the quiz Thursday. Remember if you have your results from a previous class, you do not need to take it again. If you need to take it, there is a code to take it for free in the insert in your Strengths Based Leadership book (unless it is a used copy). Otherwise, take it online for a small fee ($15)
here.
If you have already taken it, you can take the newer Leadership version free. Highly recommended, it's here

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SETS: We didn't cover these in class yet, but I had pics of the three sets on the board. We will cover this Thurs or next week.