Day 2 Staff Conference Recap

Yesterday started with the morning session lead by Greg Jao (Regional Director for New York/New Jersey).  That guy never ceases to amaze me.  The speaker that had been scheduled to speak that morning became ill so Greg was pulled in last minute and only had a few days to prepare.  But as always, he delivered a great message.

A few snippets from Greg:
- When you look at the creation story, "both diversity and unity were intended by God".....both should be sought.
- Textbooks and academic studies allow us to know more about the world that God created, "textbooks should be viewed as an invitation to worship God."  Do we encourage our students to view their studies as such?
-As we think about the renewal of campuses, "God is making all things new, not all new things."
-"The university can all diagnose what is wrong...but who has the confidence to define what is healthy?"

Following Greg a professor from Washington University in St. Louis spoke about how he views his role in the university.  One of the things he talked about is how the university is failing to develop students.  This is something I've heard numerous times lately from people outside of InterVarsity.  Specifically at a Alumni professional conference down in Chicago, one of the seminars I attended highlighted how their alumns were embarrassed by the new graduates that started coming in for job interviews.  These alumns were surprised at how ill prepared these students were for the job world.  And that was from a non-Christian perspective.

Anyways, this professor talked about how in the university world, it's gone from "student development", to "student affairs" to "student services".  So currently universities are serving students but not developing them.  I feel that's a huge area InterVarsity can speak into.

Later that evening Mary Poplin spoke and she lived up to all my expectations.  She was the only speaker so far to get a standing ovation.  Some of my favorite quotes from here were:
"You are not in a war against people but against ideas and principalities."
"Evil can not create...it can only distort what has been created."
Perhaps the most exciting and scary thing she said is that our movement will see the universities renewed...but it will come at a cost. Overall, it was a very encouraging and motivating talk.

And lastly, one of Matt's videos was played. It's the University of New Hampshire one here (second video down): http://vimeo.com/channels/160445