FALL CONFERENCE

November 7-9 was our yearly Fall Conference, held at Aldersgate Conference Center near Salem. Students from the UO, OSU, Willamette, Lewis and Clark, Portland State and Reed attended, making over 140 total. This is always a crucial time, especially for students new to InterVarsity, as they get to spend three days deciding whether following Jesus is really worth it.

Eric Knox, a pastor from Portland, spoke about the Gospel. He brought us back to the fundamentals of grace, and shined light on the lie that we have to work for it. "Grace has nothing to do with what we bring to the table-- we were dead in our transgressions when Jesus saved us." Leading a Bible study, going to church every Sunday, following the "rules"-- none of these can make God love us any more than he already does. These do not bring salvation, faith in Jesus does. But these disciplines do allow us to experience God more fully. They should be done out of delight in God, not out of duty.

This message was good for me, and other long-time Christians to hear, as I feel many of us can fall into operating out of duty. It was also a great environment for non-Christians to be in, because it debunked many of the myths of Christianity that they have. Often non-believers think that they have fallen too far away for God to love them, and that they could never make themselves "good enough" for him. They also envision Christians living a dull life of ritual and routine. Instead, Pastor Knox was calling us away from that.

Several students committed their lives to Christ for the first time that weekend. I had the opportunity to help a few of them process what they were learning during a non-Christian session I helped to lead. A few other staff members and I allowed students to ask questions and we answered as best we could, and were able to pray for some of them. It was exciting to see Jesus challenging them, and in the end to see lives eternally changed.

For the students at the UO, the time in God's word gave new passion to their lives. The evening after we got back from the conference we had our weekly meeting to prep the Bible study passage the leaders would lead the following week. There was a visible change in how they approached Scripture, finding new lessons and seeing the passage more clearly through the lens of grace. It was fun to see God work in our collective body.

REGIONALS

December 7-11 was our staff regional retreat. All of the staff from Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Alaska met near Tillamook for a time of training and visioning. We started each day with a 3-hour Scripture study, focusing primarily on passages about the early church in Acts, and about Paul's ministry and suffering. We looked closely at the role of the Holy Spirit and the power it has in ministry. We also studied aspects of Biblical community and what our fellowship could be like if we more closely followed the model given in Acts.

We had times of worship and meditation on the Advent season. We had training on leadership development and how to help our student leaders take risks and grow in the trust of Jesus. And we discussed the details of our upcoming conference in February and missions projects in the summer.

It was a great time for the interns to be with all of the staff from our region, and get a feel for the mission and culture of InterVarsity. We were given our staff applications to fill out if we decide to go on staff full-time next year. It was also a clear beginning to our break while the students are out of class for the holidays. We had a lot of fun playing games and doing Christmas crafts during our free times.

I am now beginning to really ask the question of what I will be doing next year. I am in the final stages of applying to law schools, but most of those applications will not go out in the mail until after the Urbana conference coming up. I have many appealing options for what to do next year, but what I really want to know is what God wants for me. I learned at Fall Conference that God's grace covers me regardless of what my decision is, but I also know that his plans for my life are better than my own. So please pray with me that I would be able to hear his guidance.