dream on

Tonight, at least 700 college students at Ohio State will walk into the doors of Mershon Auditorium for Cru’s first Real Life meeting of the semester. 5 years ago, I walked into the doors of Independence Hall for my first Real Life meeting. The people in Real Life became a community that surrounded and supported me. They continually pointed me towards Christ, and those I count as brothers and sisters today, I met them through that ministry.

At a Real Life retreat freshmen year of winter quarter, I was given this bookmark. It contains what the mission statement of Cru at Ohio State.

It reads:

“As a Colony of Heaven that anticipates the arrival of our King we affirm that:

What is honored among us is faithfulness in worshipping God, building community and proclaiming the Gospel.

                What is cultivated is the kingdom mindset of faith, hope, and love.

What fuels our passion is our mission to transform OSU into a pipeline of Christ-centered laborers to reach every people group in the world

                What rallies our troops is Mershon”

A couple things stand out from this bookmark. One, there is some odd choices in capitalization and a typo in a couple statements. But a more significant aspect of this mission statement is the last point. I’ll get to that in a bit.

The first two affirmations are ones that should be true of any church or ministry that worships the God of the Bible. And while I will readily acknowledge that Cru is far from perfect, I can say confidently that Real Life continually strived to live up to this expectation. I found my closest friends through Cru. It wasn’t because I thought them exceptionally cool, but because they were authentic people. They were honest about their sin, and they openly confessed their short comings to each other. They wanted a real community devoid of fakeness and superficiality. They actively preached the gospel, explicitly with words, or through their lives. They took initiative in sharing their faith, and built relationships to open avenues where the Gospel could be proclaimed.

It was difficult to experience the third affirmation while I was still a student. After graduation however, I have seen it begin to come to fruition. My friends have been transplanted to various parts of the city, the state, and to other countries, all with common goal of reaching people for Christ. A few of them are missionaries in the traditional sense, but most have made their workplace their mission field. Any college of any size will inevitably send their alumni all over the world. Ohio State will send more than most. If those from Ohio State know the Lord, how much of an impact can they make for eternity?

The last affirmation warrants some explaining. Today it is outdated.

When I was a student Real Life met in Independence Hall, a 700 seat lecture hall. It is the largest classroom on campus. That first Thursday of my freshman year when I walked in, there were empty seats. I was a little early, but I doubted whether or not a Christian ministry could fill 700 seats in a secular college. I was wrong and in a few minutes when the lights dimmed, 700 voices were filling the classroom with praises to God.

I don’t remember when I was introduced to our campus director’s “Schott Dream,”  but its impact has been evident on the movement at Ohio State. For those unfamiliar, the “Schott Dream” refers to the Schottenstein Center, an 18,000 seat arena that is filled up for basketball games and various concerts. The dream is to one day see the Schottenstein Center become the meeting place for Real Life. It’s not because they are obsessed with numbers or because sheer size is a good indicator of the health of a community. Real Life wants to see the Schott filled because there is no other place to go on campus. The dream is to have the Gospel truly transform the campus. The Gospel message would become so contagious that everyone on Ohio State would know someone who truly follows Christ.  The campus would be filled with people who wanted to worship Jesus and there would be no room in any classroom or auditorium save for the Schott. To borrow some words from a large Georgian man, “the university wouldn’t dare to schedule a basketball game on a Thursday night again” because the Schott would be full of people worshiping the God of the universe.

It’s a very ambitious dream. 

When my bookmark was created, it hadn’t been thought of quite yet. See, Mershon Auditorium is the largest meeting space on campus save for the Schottenstein Center or the slightly smaller St. John Arena. The idea of seeing Mershon fill with college students worshipping Jesus on a Thursday night is ambitious in its own right. It seats 2,500 people, more than 3 times the size of Independence Hall. Our campus director must have thought that was too small a task for God to accomplish.

Tonight, the Mershon becomes the rallying point for Real Life. Will all 2500 seats be filled up? Probably not tonight. It may not be for several years. But it could be sooner. This is a significant milestone for Real Life. It is just further evidence that God has been moving on campus, to grow the size of the movement.

Tonight a freshman I do not know and will never speak to will encounter God in that room. He will encounter a community that lives to worship. It is my prayer that Real Life would continue to affirm the statements on that bookmark I received five years ago. It is my prayer that this nameless freshman would come to view God as center of his entire existence, that he would place his identity not in his major, his classes, his dot number, but in Christ. It is my prayer that Mershon would be a temporary rallying point, and that the “Schott Dream” would come to fruition. Perhaps the “Schott Dream” would change once more to the “Shoe Dream”? Ambitious, yes I know. And Ohio State would have to triple in size for that to be a possibility.

All I know for sure is that one day every tribe nation and tongue will bow down before Christ. When all of human existence does that, when all the elect from the beginning of time do that, there will need to be a bigger space. That place is heaven (obvi).

Real Life claims to be a colony of heaven. It only makes sense that they can dream big.

BLOOP BLOOP!

This next series of posts will focus on music. Music has been a big part of my life. Like all good Asian parents, my mom and dad enrolled me in piano lessons when I was 4. And I must have enjoyed it because I kept on taking lessons for 14 years. In middle school and high school, I picked up violin as part of the school orchestra. I think I got by on Asian reputation alone because I wasn’t very good at violin, but since I knew how to read music, that put me light years ahead of just about everyone else. A couple summers ago I learned to play guitar. And by “learn” I mean that I figured out the 4 or 5 chords that make up every pop and Christian songs, and bought a capo so now I can play just about any song released on the radio or played by your favorite CCM band in the last 20 years.

I don’t claim to be a music snob, but I do disdain people in Columbus who listen to 97.9 WNCI (the pop music station). I don’t like hipsters, but hipsters usually have a good taste in music, so I listen to 102.5, the only truly alternative music station in Columbus. (LOCALLY OWNED! INDEPENDENTLY OPERATED! NOT A KNOCK OFF! NOT CLEAR CHANNEL! CD 102.5!). Although sometimes, hipster music is just a little too hipster for my liking.

However since I am a Christian, I have an obligation to have the Christian music stations preset on my radio. That means you can find 104.9 The River (BLOOP BLOOP) on my radio. Unfortunately, 104.9 seems to be stuck in 2003 and has an unhealthy obsession with anything Christ Tomlin or Matthew West. The radio station prides themselves on being a “kid safe” station with “positive hits!”.

Which brings me to the subject of this post. Why does a Christian radio station feel the need to promote themselves as family friendly? I mean if you’re not a Christian, you might find the music offensive and you wouldn’t want your kids listening to this nonsense. They are obviously a Christian station, and glimpses of the Gospel or evident through their broadcasting. And they’re not the only Christian station to do this. I know of several other stations that promote themselves as being “Positive” and “uplifting”. Why they don’t drop the thinly veiled disguise and just say that they are a God centered, worshiping station is confusing to me. And ultimately I think it disguises other potential problems for their listeners.

If you’ve made it this far, you’re probably a Christian (if not, more power to you. Stick with me though). Do you have worship music on your iPod? Do you have a Pandora worship music station? Do you own Hillsong Live albums? Do you listen to worship music in the car? Do you listen to worship music when you work out?

I answer yes to most of those questions. But why? The River (BLOOP BLOOP) would have you believe that your choice in music is good for your life. It’s uplifting and makes you feel good about yourself. I admit that it’s more difficult to have road rage when I’m listening to a song singing of God’s love and grace (but it’s definitely still possible). But there is no difference in the quality of my workout when I listen to worship music as opposed to hard rock (99.7 THE BLITZ!!!!) or rap music (POWER 107.5 COLUMBUS’S HOTTEST HIP HOP AND R&B!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). And what does the moniker “Positive” hits imply? Does it assume that all other genres of music are “negative?” Admittedly the subject matter of other songs could be deemed degrading towards women, or celebratory of promiscuity and drugs, but most of the time, they’re not.

The primary goal of worship music is not to make you feel good about yourself. It’s meant for, well this may be obvious but it must be stated, worship. I’m not worshipping God when I’m lifting weights, and I’m for sure not bringing Him glory when I’m showing some unfriendly hand gestures towards that jerk who cut me off on the freeway. I don’t work out to have mini worship sessions in my head. I don’t try to get in mini worship sessions on drive to work. I simply enjoy the music because I like the melodies. I like the familiar steady beats, the repetitive chords. I don’t pay special attention to the words. They mostly say the same things anyway. It’s all about God’s love and mercy, which you know, are good, great things, and things that I agree with. They make me feel good. But I’m not approaching the throne of God singing these words back to him. These words aren’t meant for me, but I act as if they were there for my benefit.

I’m not saying that listening to worship music in the car is a bad thing, but if you listen to them simply because they are uplifting and positive, you could be missing the point. I hope these songs refocus your attention on God. I hope they frame your view on the day, that God is the center of everything. I hope that they prompt you to pray out of genuine worshipful heart. But I fear that I’m not alone in saying that these tunes simply become commonplace in your life. I turn the radio station when a song I don’t enjoy comes on. At that point I know that I’m listening for my personal enjoyment and not for God.  

Besides(and let’s be honest) from a purely musical standpoint, most of those songs just aren’t that good or creative. They’re repetitive and boring. If you’re listening for leisure, there’s plenty of other good music out there.

Worship music can make you feel good about yourself in one of two ways. Like I’ve said before, you can take away a purely emotional response away from the mostly superficial (but true) lyrics and familiar chords. Or it can make you feel good because your attention is drawn to a God who loves you, who sent his son to die for you, and who was raised from the dead so you can be with him for eternity. And this reality, that the God of the universe chooses you to be part of His plans, that He has not abandoned you in the midst of a broken world and that one day you will be with Him forever, fills you with an unspeakable joy.

BLOOP BLOOP

(Sorry to anyone not from Columbus who doesn't understand the bloop bloop reference)