On Tuesday, we held our first worship service of the fall semester. It was also our first service since moving to Tuesday. We were had a great turnout and met a lot of new faces. Our parking lot is still under construction and we couldn’t provide parking, so we were grateful to have so many people come out.

This was also our first service with sound equipment. The band sounded great and Kyle did a great job with the equipment.

Join us next Tuesday at 8p for worship is you are able!

This fall we will be continuing our Faith Flicks program every other Thursday night, starting this coming Thursday, August 19th. Faith Flicks is a chance to get together and watch funny, challenging, and/or heart-wrenching movies that make you think a little deeper about your faith. We always have a great time. Here’s the line-up for our Fall semester:

August 19th                    Saved!
September 2nd               The Blindside
September 16th              Pray the Devil Back to Hell
September 30th             Babette’s Feast
October 14th                   For the Bible Tells Me So
October 28th                  Lars & the Real Girl
November 11th              Why We Fight (Veteran’s Day)
November 25th              No Movie (Thanksgiving Break)
December 2nd                The Nativity Story

Faith Flicks will be shown in the TV Room at the Presbyterian Student Center, and each flick will begin promptly at 8pm. If you have any questions about Faith Flicks, contact Stephen Morgan at sjmorgan@uga.edu. See y’all on the couches.

As many in our worshiping community know, the Campus Ministry Intern has a lot of various responsibilities in and around the Presbyterian Student Center. One of these responsibilities is to design and carry out a ministry project throughout the course of the year, with the intention of enhancing the PSC’s ministry through an avenue that the intern is passionate about. Last year, with the help of God and many of our students, I completed a ministry project focused on ecological stewardship. This year, with the help of God and many of our students, I hope to complete a new ministry project. This time, the focus is on cultivating a more intentional culture of prayerfulness at the Presbyterian Student Center. In formulating the idea for this project, I have looked to scripture as a guide in my thinking, in particular to a couple of verses from Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians: “Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (5:16-18).

I believe that our growing community is blessed in that we come together each week to worship God and pray together, and that we find joy in service and the thoughtful discussion of issues and theology. However, I also believe that we as a community tend to shy away from prayer as a constant spiritual practice outside of our weekly worship and community groups. I think that prayer is a chief avenue through which God helps us to discover our part in manifesting God’s will on earth. I also think that prayer with others can be more intimate, and therefore sometimes more uncomfortable, than even some of our most intimate physical moments with each other. For these reasons, I believe that we have to intentionally work toward being more spiritually vulnerable around each other, and I think that we as a community of faith at the Presbyterian Student Center have a lot of room for growth in this area. I recognize that my own personal prayer life is lacking as well, and I hope to encourage others to work with me to grow in prayer, both individually and in community. It is my hope that in doing so, we may live abundantly, rejoicing always, praying constantly, and giving thanks in all circumstances, since this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for us.

I have set five broad goals for this project in order to help organize myself in working toward these ends. Those goals are as follows:

1. Creation of a dynamic community of prayer within the PSC.
2. Improvement of PSC facilities to facilitate prayerful practice.
3. Increased prayerful connections with local Presbyterians.
4. Increased prayerful connections with other Campus Ministries.
5. Personal spiritual growth in the direction of prayer and meditation.

Toward completing some of these goals, I already have certain things in mind, such as setting aside time every day to pray in the PSC Chapel (goals 1 & 5) and building a permanent prayer labyrinth on our property (goal 2). As we come together this academic year, I hope to involve as many students as are interested in this project to accomplish these goals; God knows I can’t do this on my own. If you have ideas that you would like to share with me, or if you would like to know more, please contact me. Also, make sure to check the ministry project bulletin board in the Dining Hall at the PSC. I will be updating it with new information about my project throughout the school year.

Mitch Roper

Summer classes are over now, and as our students finish up the last of their summer session finals, I’m reflecting on the past couple months. It’s been so nice here in Athens this summer. No matter what the time of day, I can hop in my car and drive down Milledge avenue, trusting that there will be little traffic, if any, between me and my destination. never mind that it’s 101 degrees outside. No, Athens in the summertime really is a unique, enjoyable experience. Orientation sessions were a positive new experience for me, not to mention our Bible Study of those cotton-pickin’ parables, and the relaxed pace of the summer has been a steady source of creative rest.

We’ve finished up our “Cotton Patch” Bible Study as of last week, and I can say with confidence that those who participated did not leave the same as they came in. In one of his sermons from earlier this summer, Clarence Jordan likened Jesus’ spiritual revolution to a changing of seasons, a transition in the nature of things that makes the old ways of working obsolete, down-right lacking. In this transition we find ourselves as caterpillars facing the coming spring. We have the choice to get ready for that change, to prepare for new life as a butterfly, or to remain unchanged as caterpillars, and miss out on what spring has to offer. Repentance, Jordan tells us, is not about hanging your head and acting sorry for getting caught doing things you weren’t supposed to. Repentence, he tells us, is about recognizing that the season is changing, and getting ready for that radically new order. In the past 8 weeks I’ve been privileged to see some of our students gearing up for the coming spring, so to speak.

As I look ahead to that looming change that is the beginning of the school year, I can’t help but think that this in an appropriate motif, even though we’re headed into the fall. We have small groups to organize, service projects to plan, worship music to practice, and brand new students to welcome in as we come into this new season of activity. God willing, we also have a new parking lot to install in the coming couple of weeks.

God has continued working in our hearts and minds here at the Presbyterian Student Center this summer. I’m really excited to see what else is up those Almighty sleeves as we continue forward from the dog days of summer into the Dawg days of fall.

Mitch Roper