An extravagent and outrageous Kingdom...

If you read my last post, you probably would have sensed the desperation and the desire for me, firstly, and my students, secondly, to live out the Gospel that we believe in. Well, little did I know that this weekend, I would be given the opportunity to try it out.

Inter-Varsity is all about Scripture study and using the inductive method: observe, interpret, and apply. So that's the method that our supervisors' used to shape the training a bunch of us new staff received this weekend.

Observe: We looked at this passage and this passage over the weekend.

Interpret: We talked about how as staff, we have made the sacrifices and given up everything in order to pursue and follow the Kingdom of God. We also talked about how we spend a lot of time trying to pursue Christian students to live out their faith, when in fact, a lot of them are only interested in the title of being a Christian, they aren't totally interested in living the title out.

Apply: So after all this talking and these realizations, we went out randomly into the city and the campus and invited and compelled students to come to an awesome 3 part party that we were putting on. They had the opportunity to eat free food and win some good money if they participated in a scavenger hunt throughout the city and campus.

There's more to this story and what we all learned. Let's just say that it was such an eye opening experience and that I am excited to take what I learned this weekend, interpret it for my own campus, and then apply it.

I wonder too what happened to the people we invited, to those who were invited but declined, to those who were thinking of coming but didn't show up, or to those who came and were able to have a good time with us. Can you imagine what they told their friends when they talked about their respective weekends? How outrageous would their story sound, that they were invited to a party with free food, won money, and then hung out at a mansion by Lake Ontario?

And actually, that's how outrageous the Kingdom is. It tells us to invite people to a lavish party that we don't know and who couldn't repay us.