Christian Reformed Campus Ministries - University of Toronto

Title: GCF - Suffering
Location: CRC Office - Wycliffe College
Description:

We all know life isn’t always easy.  As people who try to follow Christ, we know in our heads that life will involve suffering, hardships, pain–following in the way of the cross.

Surprisingly, we tend to hear very little in our churches or communities about real-life suffering.  In my experience, when we talk about our suffering or the pain of others, we quickly follow this with talk of how whatever we are facing will surely end soon, or will have good consequences in the end, or will make us stronger or more faithful.

Do we try to tame the intensity of suffering? Is there always a “bright side” to painful experiences?

This week at GCF, long-time GCF community members and friends Mari and Shannon are teaming up to lead an evening on suffering and the Christian life.  Here’s a teaser from them about the evening:

The following is an imaginative retelling of Mark 11:12-25 - I would like to give a disclaimer that this is not the official telling, and that if I were a prof, I would tell you not to write this part down:

Jesus is walking along with his disciples and he sees the fig tree and wants some figs.  He gets closer to the tree and realizes that there are no figs on the tree because it isn’t fig season.  He then throws a hissy fit.  “What is wrong with this planet?” he says.   “You can’t just walk up to a fig tree and get, say, figs, you have to wait for fig season, and even then the figs might not grow because, oh that’s right, the ground is cursed and we have to work really hard to make anything grow at all, and even all that hard work is no frickin’ guarantee.  I HATE this place!  It sucks!  Nothing works here!  I’m so over this planet!  I’m going to change everything!”  And then he does.  Sort of.

This Thursday evening, explore the terrifying world of meaningless suffering and how being Christians does not in any way protect us from this horrific fact of life. It will be fun. It will be scary. There will be stick figures.

This is certainly an evening NOT to be missed.

And consider bringing a friend who might need a community like GCF.

Looking forward to seeing you then,

Sara Gerritsma DeMoor

Associate chaplain

Start Time: 18:00
Date: 2009-11-19

Title: WBB: No one ever said this was going to be easy
Location: Wycliffe College Chapel, 7.22am
Description: 

No one ever said that this was going to be easy.
            Not Paul’s letter to the Romans.
            Not the faith that he there proposes.
            Not the Jesus he calls us to follow.

Romans 6 … things are settled.
            We are saved in Jesus Christ,
            no longer slaves to sin, but slaves of righteousness.

Romans 7 … things are unsettled.
            We are caught between conflicting laws,
            Christ and sin.
And we are all adulterers.

And it all comes down to “dwelling.”
            Romans 7 painfully reminds us that sin “dwells” in us,
            while Romans 8 insists that we are set free from sin
            because the Spirit of God “dwells” in us.

But this still doesn’t make it easy.
            There is still “war in my blood.”
            There is still a royal battle between a mind set on the “flesh”
            and a mind set on the Spirit.
            Death or life.
            War or peace.

Heavy stuff at any time, not least at 7.22 in the morning!

This week I’ll be preaching, David Julien will be presiding, and the band will be playing some Steve Bell for us.

Know anybody struggling with these kinds of tensions in their lives? Bring them along. They’ll be in good company.

In hope,

Brian Walsh

Start Time: 7.22am
Date: 2009-11-17

Title: Book Launch: Justice and Creation
Location: Leonard Hall, Wycliffe College
Start Time: 19:00
Date: 2009-11-12
Description:

CRC Campus Ministries, University of Toronto
and Crux Books
present
Justice and Creation
a book launch for
The Justice Project (edited by Brian McLaren, et. al.)
The Gift of Creation (edited by Norman Wirzba)
with contributor
Dr. Sylvia C. Keesmaat
Commentaries by
Bruxy Cavey (The Meeting House)
Ron Kuipers (Institute for Christian Studies
Music by
Michael Iafrate and Allison Hari Singh
The Hildegard Project

Thursday, November 12, 7.00pm
Leonard Hall, Wycliffe College
5 Hoskin Ave, Toronto

Title: WBB, Home Wrecking and Christ
Location: Wycliffe College Chapel
Description:

Dear friends:

These days, when I think about marriage or any other relationship of covenantal intimacy, words from a Martyn Joseph song invariably come to mind.

“I would never do anything in this world to hurt you…
But I do.”

The deep sentiment of faithful love meets the reality of pain, hurt and betrayal.

We profess with confidence that we would never do anything in the world to hurt the one we love the deepest, and yet we in fact do hurt that very person.

I think that Paul is on to something like this in Romans 7.

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Title: GCF – Carol Scovil: Reflections from the Hills of Nepal
Location: CRC Office - Wycliffe College

Description:
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GCF Thursday, November 5, 2009
Basement of Wycliffe College (5 Hoskin Ave)
- 6:00pm - dinner together
- 7:15ish to ? - Something After Dinner - Carol Scovil: In the Hills of Nepal
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Story-telling is a very important part of the GCF community.

Sharing bits of our stories happens informally all the time at GCF, of course:
We share about the ups and downs of the week past.
We tell stories that make of laugh.
We tell stories that make us cringe.
Sometimes we tell stories that make us weep.
We learn about each other through stories about our childhoods, our family traditions, our favourite holidays.

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Title: WBB and 21st Century Slavery?
Location: Wycliffe College Chapel
Description:

No longer slaves to sin, but slaves to righteousness!

Not exactly the kind of alternative that folks in the 21st century would find too appealing.

I mean, who wants to be a slave to anything?

And while I can get my head around being a slave to sin - I have some personal experience in the matter - what could it mean to be a slave to righteousness? Especially when you consider that the word that Paul uses for righteousness could be just as easily translated “justice.” A slave to justice? Wouldn’t we have assumed that slavery and justice have no place in the same sentence?

A slave to justice. What could that mean? And what could it look like at the centre of an empire that speaks the rhetoric of justice while it enacts the practice of oppression?

These are just a few of the thousand questions that Romans 6 gives rise to. Scott Flemming is preaching, and he’ll undoubtedly have his own set of issues to struggle with here.

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Title: GCF - Mid-term / Hallow’een / Reformation Day party!
Location: CRC Office - Wycliffe College
Description:

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You are warmly invited to:

The annual GCF mid-semester/Hallow’een/Reformation Day PARTY!

Thursday, October 29, 2009

6:00 pm - dinner and conversation

7:00 pm and onwards - hanging out, playing games, admiring costumes!

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It’s that time of year again.

The pace of academic life is spinning out of control.

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Title: WBB, Adam and Home
Location: Wycliffe College Chapel
Description:

Adam or Christ? Homewrecker or Homemaker?

Dear friends:

Last week I got to reflecting on reading Romans from the perspective of home, homelessness and homecoming. And I suggested in my WBB sermon (now posted at www.empireremixed.com) that Paul offers the story of Abraham as a family story for the church. Abraham is the father of all of us. In this memory, in this family story, there is the space for making home together.
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Title: Andy Crouch … in conversation …
Location: CRC Office - Wycliffe College
Start Time: 20:00
Date: 2009-11-02
Description:

Empire Remixed and CRC Campus Ministries
present
Andy Crouch
… in conversation …
Hosted and facilitated by Brian Walsh
Monday, November 2 @ 8.00pm
Chaplain’s Office
Wycliffe College, Toronto

Andy Crouch’s book Culture Making was named the “Book of the Year” by Christianity Today in 2009. And we are overjoyed to be able to host an evening conversation with Andy on November 2. Christian bookseller par excellence, Byron Borger (www.heartsandmindsbooks.com) said that this book “is spectacularly important and truly wonderful; wonderful for the cogent ideas and the lovely writing, the insight and the charm.” We agree. And that’s why we are hosting a conversation with Andy.
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Title: GCF - Money
Location: CRC Chaplains Office - Wycliffe College
Start Time: 18:00
Date: 2009-10-22

Description:

At GCF this Thursday night, we will be discussing an issue that is apparently more difficult for North Americans to talk honestly about than sex; an issue that is the number one source of conflict in marriages:

MONEY.

The best things in life are free
But you can keep ‘em for the birds and bees.
Now gimme money (that’s what I want)
That’s what I want (that’s what I want)
That’s what I want (that’s what I want), oh-yeaah,
That’s what I want.

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