Polarized

I went to church on Sunday excited to celebrate Jesus' power over death and simply amazed that the God who created everything went to such great lengths to save rebels like us. I can barely get my mind around a group of Christians who don't make mention of the historical reality of His resurrection from the dead after Passover, but that is what happened. This illustrates the tendency to polarize that is part of Chilean culture. Some say the tendency to polarize into one group or another among Chilean's comes from the colonial times and the polarization between indigenous and Spanish people. That makes sense. Not celebrating Jesus' resurrection on the other hand... This effort to not identify with the Catholic church seems to have gone too far.

There are extreme circumstances where the search for and giving of identity happens in society. However I think this search for identity is just as real but more subtle in our ordinary lives. The first question we ask a stranger is often, "What do you do?" Why? Because we think that their line of work will help us identify them. It would be highly irregular to ask, "Who do you love?" But that question would probably help us know the person better. Maybe that question asked as frequently as "What do you do?" would begin to change how a society understands and creates identity. That would be an interesting experiment!

The shocking thing about a church not celebrating the resurrection is that it is the church that should be most given to finding identity in relationships and not work. Our relationship with Jesus should cause us to celebrate Him, and our salvation in Him. Having been reconciled to God by grace not works, this relationship with God is the center of this community, the church. There is plenty of room to celebrate in different ways. But to polarize so much as to not even mention the resurrection on Easter Sunday seems to fail to apply the gospel to life. Being Catholic, Baptist, Pentecostal or Evangelical does not give a CHRISTian their true identity. Those titles define the form of religious practice and point to important doctrinal beliefs. And while I love God with my mind by pursuing sound doctrine, I don't think I can love God at all until I am reconciled to Him/identified with Him in love. We love God because He first loved us. The good news is we can know the most wonderful King as our King. Our identity, first and foremost, is in relationship to Him, not in what we know about Him or what task He gives us.
How do we create a movement on campus where the gospel does not isolate us from a culture that is already prone to polarize? By understanding and applying the gospel to our lives! Our good works and our speaking in love are what students will see.

Freshmen

The freshman class is getting the hang of things. Last week was 'semana cachorro' or 'freshman week'. There were lots of activities for the first year students. Thursday between 4000 and 5000 students piled onto 100+ buses for a huge beach party. You can imagine what a all day beach party of freshman and sophomore college students is like. The trip is financed in part by the donations that the freshman gathered as people pitied their mechoneo experience during the first week of classes.
This week we have been tracking down the classrooms of freshmen so they can get to know us. Just before the professor starts class or as he is leaving we take a few minutes to present Vida Estudiantil to students. We invite them to our meeting and English clubs. We also give them a pen and a contact card so they can let us know if they are interested. We are trusting that the follow up of hundreds of interested students will provide opportunity for spiritual conversations and an open door for the gospel.

I'm a pluralist

I sat down to speak with the secretary of the Federacion Estudiantil at USACH. After explaining a few of the things we do and the purpose of Vida Estudiantil he summarized what we are doing with the word 'pluralism'. My first thought was, "That is not a word I would use to describe our work." My second thought, "Fantastic!" Paul said, "I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some." As we explain who we aim to serve and what we do it seems that this administrator understood that we want to appeal to everyone. We want to remove all excuses that are keeping people from the truth about Jesus. We are carefully engaging a culture that has embraced pluralism so that they can see the gospel, hear it and believe.
Later that day, Christian, my good friend and teammate met with the president of the federacion. After a month of bureaucratic maneuvers to get a room for our meeting with other administration, this guy offered us the Salon de Honor (the name speaks for itself) for our first meeting. These kinds of experiences are encouraging because we are becoming known as a group that serves students and is a blessing to the campus.