Magic, Zombie Apocalypse, and Backward Monkey Heads

Monday nights at the couches, we have had some bizarre conversations.

The first Monday, We spoke about Magic, a game that a group was playing on the couches. From that conversation, a Christian young man got up and wanted to talk about using Magic to reach the young people who were sitting there. He explained that he started playing the game as an outreach to the young man. It was a great opportunity to share (again) with this young man that we do not need to become like people to witness to them. We just need to start a conversation.

A young lady was listening with interest, and began asking questions about the scripture. Our Bible conversation went very well, also. We covered several issues with a curious new believer. We went through a number of scriptures about the Christian life and living. She was very interested and loved the teaching and is encouraged to continue with the study.

This last week, we went back to the couches, and the introductory conversation was about a Zombie Apocalypse and Backward monkey heads. These young men, two of which are professing Christians, were more prepared for the Zombie Apocalypse and how to escape than how to share their faith. A further discussion about this brought up more evolution talk from my Atheist friend, and about how we can make new creatures. He cannot see that these backward monkey heads don't evolve, it requires an intelligence outside to do so.

This conversation led to a philosophy question about God, free will, and sin. It was a wonderful conversation with another curious young man. It was interesting to see the Christians pipe in. We spoke about the Word being the truth and that the judgment is coming, and it will be what the Bible teaches, and there will be judgment for all men, and if we die in our sins we will be judged by a holy God and spend eternity in a lake of fire- far worse than the potential of being killed by zombies. I encouraged them to be concerned about their eternity.

Finally, we had a real great conversation with a young Lutheran girl who had some confusion about salvation, but the good news is that she holds the scripture in very high regard. I have great hopes for this young ELCA lass. She was willing to sit with Jake and I and converse about how one is saved, what the role of baptism is, and whether or not a person can be in a lifestyle sin and be saved.

Have a Merry Christmas, and we will see you January 11th on the couches!

New Study Mondays 7:00 PM @ Couches

Change Collegian Network is all about teaching people how to share their faith (Evangelism) but we are also all about spiritual growth. Our faith is based upon the person of Jesus Christ, and the person of Jesus Christ has been changed by many different groups over the years, and even today we can find a different Jesus being taught in churches, on talk radio, the popular media, and even in modern 'christian' literature. Who is the real Jesus? We will strive to answer that question together over the next several weeks leading up to winter break and continuing into the spring semester.

We hope that you will join us, whether you are a committed follower of Jesus Christ, someone who is curious about Christ, or someone who does not believe in Christ. We will meet in the SMSU Student Center, by the couches, at 7:00 PM each monday night that school is open. Join us!

Don't forget- Next Meeting SMSU CC206 7:00 Monday

All of our friends from the Evolution Open Forum and from 'The Big Question' are all invited to our next meeting, this coming Monday at 7:00 PM at CC206. Bring your new Bibles, and your questions, and we will have a discussion about all your questions, and maybe even give you some new ones!

You are all also invited to become a FAN of ChangeSMSU on FACEBOOK! http://www.facebook.com/johnchisham?v=feed&story_fbid=187047821195#/pages/Marshall-MN/ChangeSMSU/182520875912?ref=ts

Join us for THE BIG QUESTION

Change Collegian Network SMSU is hosting an Interactive Forum called THE BIG QUESTION on October 13th at 7:00 PM at SMSU Charter Hall 201.

This is a forum and a challenge to all students to come and wrestle with the Big Questions in Life- is there a God? Is there absolute truth? Where did we come from? Why am I here?

It is a challenge to be intellectually honest, and to be challenged in your thinking about the Big Question, and the answers you have come up with!

The presenter will be Shawn Holes who has travelled to over 100 college campuses discussing these questions in the open air with thousands of students. The audience will have full opportunity to interact with Shawn, asking questions, and engaging in lively discussion with him.

We hope that whether you are athiest, agnostic, Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, irreligious, non-religious, spiritual, philosopher, theologian, student, professor, or community member that you will join us. The more variety, the better the discussion and interaction to the BIG QUESTION

The first 100 audience members get a free gift! Come early!

Come to CCNSMSU

Our kickoff party is coming up September 14th in SC 206! Come and check us out!

Check out our Repent and Witness Evangelism Camp Praise Report Pictures!

The Gospel was preached and God was glorified at our recent Evangelism Camp held on Thursday, July 30th through August 3rd!

Check out our pictures from...








Click on our Missionary Team's Team picture to view photos:





Photography by Shawn David Holes of www.luketentwo.com

Learn more about CCN's Evangelism Camps!

Recap of CCN Repent and Witness- Our Purpose!

4 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, 5 that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— 6 even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— 7 so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you j wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

I am writing this on the tail end of the trip to New York City for the Repent and Witness Camp, for Change Collegian Network. This was an excellent camp! As my wife says, when it comes to New York City, I am like a kid in a candy store. There are SOOOO many people and so many opportunities to preach, to share, to hand out tracts, just to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. What a privilege! But, a close second is the fellowship of believers who are united in faith and in purpose to win the lost for Jesus Christ to the glory of God the Father.

My Team

The Men- always prompt and ready to preach

My team was made up of awesome believers from around the country. Kris from North Carolina, Ryan and Bryce from Nev-ah-da, Al

Pastor Al was always sharing and praying with people

and Aaron (father and son) from Connecticut, and Jack Suehiro from California (fellow ambassador) This team had two associate Pastors, which means that my prayer is being answered that pastors would get out from behind the pulpit and preach to the lost who will never come into a church.

As we discussed goals, we had two who had never broken the sound barrier, both from Nevada.

Bryce from NAH-VAH-DUH breaking the sound barrier with Psalm 23

They both desired to get up and preach, but were tentative. They were both obedient to the Lord and proclaimed the Word with boldness on the very first day. I only had to do my Steve Sanchez (the Pusher) impression once. When Ryan

Ryan breaking the sound barrier

got up and read John 3, he was shaking. When he got off, he was trembling. It reminded me, as I prayed with him, that we should all tremble before the Word. We should be reminded of Ezra and other prophets being undone as they read it. Both of these men were very humbled as they read the Word.

All the other members of the team had experience in the open air, but with the exception of Kris, who was with us last year, none had really done it in an intense urban setting like New York City. These guys all desired to get out and preach. Specifically, Aaron

Aaron Preaching @ Battery Park

and Jack wanted to speak with doubter or atheists and practice with their apologetics, and to learn how to turn back to the law and the Gospel effectively. Both got their wish as we traveled to Times Square on that first night. Immediately after preaching the Gospel, conversations broke out. Aaron got the French athiests, and Jack

Jack sharing with NYC's finest

got the wider grace Catholic. They did excellent work in both these situations. It was very cool to see these men obediently be stretched with no real coaching on my part. As we headed back late to our location the excitement was palatable and the fellowship was very sweet.

The Teaching
The teaching was focussed on training and motive for Evangelism. From our first joint devotion time, which was on Unity, or how to extend grace to team members who are from different denominations which may have different focusses on issues not central to salvation or faith, because we were all in NYC to win the lost for Jesus Christ using Biblical methods. So, as we broke into small groups and studied, we solidified our bonds as brothers (and sisters) in the Word, and we prayed together for one another and fort the city as we went forth.

Shawn Holes then gave us an excellent teaching on counting the cost of being an evangelist. What we do and how we do it, as we know, is very opposite of what the world system recognizes as acceptable. It is really counter- cultural! Unfortunately, it is also counter church culture as well. Shawn shared that some of our worst criticism

Shawn bringing the teaching

may come from within the walls of the church and family! He encouraged us to not to look back once we began the mission which God had sent us on, so to count the cost before we would become an evangelist.

Pastorboy (Me) gave a message about our motive for preaching to the lost- the love we have for God. We should love God with all of our heart, soul, strength and mind. Because we love God, he is an easy subject to speak about, and we ought to love Him and obey His commands. Because we love Him, our fear of man is suppressed, and we preach to honor God. But we love mankind because we love God, so we preach so that man might be saved, and that God might receive the glory above all else.

Ministry

The focus, or purpose was very clear for us. We were not here to build a missions house or to do art projects with kids, or to paint homes. We were here to preach the Gospel. Many trips and much money is spent every year to give young people a ‘missions’ experience, but it has nothing to do with evangelism, that is, proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ. The things are good works that we ought to do because we love people and want to help them out, but it is not really missions. These are things we should do for our neighbors year round to show them love (as we preach the Gospel) The Great Commission is that we would preach the good news to every creature. Well…there are a LOT of creatures in New York City from all over the planet. Literally thousands of people heard the Gospel call in the 4 days of the camp. There are many stories, but in my dispatches that follow, I will try and detail some of the more unique ways that we did it.

I would encourage everyone who wants a Missions experience to get trained in Biblical Evangelism and make plans to attend either the Ambassadors Alliance, a Transformed Conference, a Crash Course, or a Basic Training Course, and then to make plans to come next year to New York City to get your Masters Degree in Evangelism. Because as the old song says- if you can makepreach it here, you can makepreach it anywhere.

Kenya Missions Trip

One of the local churches is traveling to Kenya this summer to build up and equip several local churches, and to do evangelism.

And our own Abby A. is traveling with them. She is excited to work with the women in these churches, as well as with the many young people giving purity talks- based upon the Bible's teachings, of course!

Please pray for Abby, and the rest of the team. She really loves the Lord and I know she loves people enough to share the good news with them!

Thurstin 1st time open air Preaching

Matt needed some notes, But he was bold in a very difficult place!!

Renewed Passion!

Michael Marcavage, Vincent Pieter, John Chisham Sr. And John Chisham Jr., Matthew Thurstin, Greg, Robert, Jay Estabrook, Jake Gardner, and Shawn Holes at PCB

Well, to say that Panama City Beach was a life changing experience would be an understatement.

CCNSMSU members have returned to campus with a renewed passion, even a NEW passion to win their friends, neighbors, and classmates to Christ.

Join us at 7:30 Thursdays at SC 206 to catch the fire to reach the Lost. We invite all clubs and organizations and individuals with the same passion to join us for training!

CCNSMSU At Spring Break PCB

It is Spring Break here in Sunny Florida. Hundreds of thousands have come to the beach for an annual dose of drunkeness, drugs, fornication, and flaunting of the lusts of the eyes and the lust of the flesh.
Our Campus group, (Change Collegian Network) travelled down here and joined forces with Shawn Holes, Michael Marcavage, and seven others to proclaim the Gospel to these young people focussed on fulfilling the lust of their flesh. After months of prayer and preparation, I thought I would be prepared. But I have never been in so wicked and vile a place as here.
Day one, we hit the beach at 11:00 AM and set up our station near LaVela, the worlds largest nightclub. If you have State Farm Insurance or Geico, you should find another company immediately because they are major sponsors of this wickedness. We have a half mile haler, and some microphones, and we simply preach the law and call men to repent and believe the Gospel. To those who are seasoned open air preachers, this is paradise and hell rolled up into one. Paradise in that there are 1000 sinners in direct hearing of the free preaching of the Gospel. The bad news is that many of them have no concept of decency in terms of dress or behavior. They do not understand personal space, or respect personal property. During our day there, young men and women openly exposed themselves, made sexual gyrations, and cursed God and us. We were privileged to be spat upon, have objects thrown at us, and have our micropone and speaker attacked. While they are doing this, they are proclaiming their goodness and their belief in God. I wonder quietly which emergent church they attend, and what jesus they worship.
There are so many who claim to be Christians here. I wonder if Jesus was speaking to them in the words of Jeremiah the prophet: 9Concerning the prophets:My heart is broken within me; all my bones shake;I am like a drunken man, like a man overcome by wine,because of the LORD and because of his holy words.10 For the land is full of adulterers; because of the curse the land mourns, and the pastures of the wilderness are dried up. Their course is evil, and their might is not right.11 "Both prophet and priest are ungodly; even in my house I have found their evil,
declares the LORD. 12 Therefore their way shall be to them like slippery paths in the darkness, into which they shall be driven and fall,for I will bring disaster upon them in the year of their punishment,
declares the LORD. 13In the prophets of Samaria I saw an unsavory thing: they prophesied by Baal and led my people Israel astray.14But in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies; they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from his evil; all of them have become like Sodom to me, and its inhabitants like Gomorrah."15Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets: "Behold, I will feed them with bitter food and give them poisoned water to drink,for from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has gone out into all the land."I am so tired of these pastors giving bad advice and counsel to young people that Jesus loves them and will forgive them no matter what they do. A partial truth is still a lie. Young people who believe it will go to Hell just as sure as the most lost heathen. You cannot be a Christian and drink sin in like wine. The open flaunting of sin is beyond anything that I have seen; and the accompaning self righteousness and pride that states that they are still moral and good and christian is unbelievable. And they get this from their 'christian' parents and 'christian' pastors.
Pray for us, we are leaving this internet cafe and going out to do more preaching

Repent and Witness NYC 09

Here is the new repent and witness video!

Make sure that you sign up before March 1st; there are only 30 spots open as of right now!

Great Turnout for Fireproof!

Last night, at SMSU, we showed the movie Fireproof. On a night when the College is largely empty, we had 200 some people show up. This was a combination of college students and community members. We are so thankful that so many came!

To open up the movie, we showed the new CCN Repent and Witness video, and there was great feedback from the audience about it. We passed the plate, and were able to raise about $499 to help with our Missions Trip to Florida. This will cover our campsite and most of our fuel! Praise the Lord!

We also helped another ministry, called the Alternative. They took the child care duties, and folks donated directly to them. Recently, they experienced a plumbing issue at their building and are not able to meet there for a while. Please pray for Sharon and Steve and the kids- they are great folks.

Thanks to the community for supporting this effort!

Repent and Witness=NYC 09

Make plans to attend and

Sign up NOW at www.changeyourcampus.com

If we get enough participants, we will road trip it out there!

New Meeting Time! New Location! SC206 Tuesdays 7:30PM

Tuesday Nights, 7:30 PM 

Room: SC206- Above the Bookstore, in Alumni Hall of Fame 

This semester, we will:

• Open with testimonies of the week!
  
• Then we will pray;  for each other, our campus, and CCN national, and for our missions trips!
  
• Spend the next 50 minutes in intense training for our spring break trip to Panama City Beach Florida and to New York City using the Intermediate Training Course!
  
• Practice what we preach by going out into our campus and sharing our faith, along with road trips to Minneapolis and Sioux Falls SD.

Remember, we also desire to start a Bible Study for young believers and for those who have questions about Christianity! Keep your ears open for the best time!

This year, Repent and Witness NYC is July30-August 3rd. The Cost is around $250. Go to changeyourcampus.com to register!

No Meeting Tonight

There will be NO MEETING tonight, January 12th, due to blizzard

We are changing our meeting times! Comment here to vote on the best time for you!

Monday Lunch (11-1:00 PM)

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday late nights (after 8:00)

Tuesday/Thursday Lunch? (11:00-1:00 PM)

Other suggestions?

Leave your ideas in the comments section!