In the News....

It's the third week already! Here's a couple highlights of things that are happening!

* Dr. Craig Hazen, Professor of Comparative Religions and Apologetics from Biola, is joining us this Friday, 2/6 @ 7pm, 155 Dwinelle to discuss Christianity in a World of Religions.

* There's also an all day training session on Saturday w/ Dr. Hazen. If you're interested, you can sign up online. Cost is $10, and it'll go 10am to 4pm @ Willard Middle School Auditorium.

* This semester, there'll be Friday night Courses in lieu of big group bible study, including Course 101, Survival Kit 1, Church 101, the Gospels, and more. Sign up online by 2/8. There's also plenty of information about what classes are offered, a description of each, and a list of prerequisites and requirements. Take a look.

* GLive practices are going to start soon! Watch out.

* Gracepoint's Sunday Service schedule has changed! We start Prayer Meeting at 10:00am, and Worship Service starts at 11:15am. Dorm pickups are only available for Foothill, Stern, and Bowles from 9:20-9:40am. There'll be lunch after service each week.

* Allen's posted some good info about our Valentine's Day of Compassion activity, which is coming up soon. Check it out and sign up!

* Pictures from Winter Retreat are also online...

Juniors Discipleship Retreat, Fall 2008

The juniors from across Koinonia, acts2fellowship, and Kairos all took off for Sierra Lodge some Fridays ago after "This Is Your Life" bible study. About 60 juniors left from Berkeley with a handful of staff for our Junior Discipleship Retreat, Fall 2008.

Once we got there, after registration, we played a fun game, "This Is Very Fun." The whole point is no laughing, no smiling, while trying to be as silly as you can to eliminate the other folks in your circle. Some people were terribly gross in their attempts to get others to laugh (ahem, K.Huang & K.Ding), and there were others who were just plain funny (Daniel).

The next morning, Pastor Ed and Kelly joined us and we shared insights from our week's devotion, Ezekiel 3. Then, we read an excerpt from Nation of Wimps before heading out to Island Lake for a short, but beautiful, hike. After returning to the house, we discussed the Nation of Wimps excerpt and how we could apply it to our lives and how we can understand the college campus. Then it was Sophie Scholl, an incredible movie about a young woman's conviction to stand up for what she believed to be right during the Nazi regime.

The next day, after some time of reflection and sharing, and some work around the house, we had our Worship Service there. And then we came back home to Berkeley. It was a whirlwind, but very memorable.

Caught some things on video. Think it's a pretty good summary of what happened:


Junior Discipleship Retreat, Fall 2008 from kevan on Vimeo.

As usual, pictures are posted online (and have been for a while now!). Until next time.

What's Up

Here's the news for this weekend, starting with Friday dinners (Oct. 17):

• H.1 Guys are meeting at 5:45pm @ Anna Head West parking lot on Channing. We'll be heading up to the Rose Garden and Cordonices Park to hang out, eat dinner (we'll bring the food!), and get away from Berkeley. Yes, it's only 10 minutes away from Berkeley, but it'll be fun.


• H.1 Girls are meeting at 6:00pm @ Anna Head West parking lot. The girls will head up to LBL for a nice dinner and hot chocolate. There's a Berkeley LBL webcam, but personally I don't think it does the view any real justice. You'll just have to go there yourself to experience it in person!

Afterwards, we're headed to Koinonia's "This Is Your Life" bible study. Pastor Ed'll be talking about the reliability of the bible, how we can know it's trustworthy as a document that tells us about the life of Jesus and about God. "This Is Your Life" will be at 7:45pm @ 2050 VLSB.

After VLSB, some of the juniors will be taking off for the Junior Discipleship Retreat with Pastor Ed and Kelly. Come to 2050 w/ your bags already packed because we're leaving directly from the parking lot! Pack appropriately: it'll be mostly low to mid-70s during the days, and low to mid-40s at nights.

The rest of H.1 will be going over to Steve and Suzanne's to hang out with them, and also with H.5. We'll watch GLive, laugh at the juniors and seniors, and look ahead to the Spring semester when we'll be putting together GLive for 2009! Wow. Crazy.

Extra: This past weekend the Koinonia staff went to Sierra Lodge to work on the Barn. It's awesome right now. There's a ton more pictures, but here's a small taste. For those of you going, you'll see this very soon.

Junior Discipleship Retreat at Gracepoint Berkeley

Pastor Ed and Kelly Kang

It's an annual thing (starting this year) for the juniors to head up to Sierra Lodge during the summer and have a discipleship retreat with Pastor Ed and Kelly Kang. It's a nice getaway from Berkeley, and as beautiful as campus is during the summer, it's just not the same as going to the mountains, rivers, lakes, and meadows of the Sierras.

Pastor Ed Kang teaching archery

About 50 of us--all the juniors of Gracepoint Fellowship Church involved in discipleship classes--took off from Berkeley on Friday afternoon. We arrived (after stopping by In-N-Out) around 9:30. After the requisite registration stuffs, we sat down for a guys-dominated game of King Kong Shower (yes, we crushed the sisters), and then each wrote out one truth, one lie. It was one way to get to know one another, laugh a little, and for names to attach themselves to faces. For many people, it was their first time seeing all their classmates in one room. Last year's Gracepoint Live seemed like a massive throng of people, but this was a lot cozier, and it was a real opportunity to see who our "partners in the gospel" were.

We listened to Tony Campolo's "Seize the Day" message, as well as Bill Hybell's "5 Tests of Leadership". Together with Philippians 1 and the message on Isaiah 40, we were filled to bursting with a sense of calling for our lives to reveal the glory of the Lord as we fill the valleys and flatten the hills in our own hearts.

Singing How Great Thou Art at the Lake

There was a bunch of other stuff we did... organize the basement full of tools, clear the hillside of combustible material, string bows and shoot at our own archery range (2 sisters hit the bulls-eye... no brothers--although Daniel, infamous author of Dis-Gracepoint, hit a granite rock), race on kayaks, throw each other into the water, sing Les Mis, hike on the Pacific Crest Trail, eat good food, have a lot of brownies, use Sierra Lodge rental Nalgenes, miss the Boreal exit, get worked by mosquitos, have our own Sunday Worship Service with college student band, sing How Great Thou Art at the lake, sing all of Beauty and the Beast and The Sound of Music with Emily & HG7, and more. What a list of stuff! Can't do all of that at Berkeley, Gracepoint Juniors! Only at Sierra Lodge!

We had a great time. And, more seriously, I'm very thankful we had this opportunity to reflect on the trajectory of our lives, and how we want to grow as Christ-followers together in the upcoming year.

Thanks to all the juniors, Hannah (who took care of all the food), Pastor Ed and Kelly Kang (for all the messages, challenge, encouragement, and inspiration), Ben (for taking care of the whole trip, not to mention the rides), Daniel (for laughs), and all the other brothers and sisters of Davis Waypoint and Berkeley Gracepoint Fellowship Church who helped build Sierra Lodge so great times like this can happen!

Studying @ the Office

If you want to study after service on Sunday (12/16), I have to go to the office to do some work. There's a nice conference room, drinks, and a quiet place to study if you need it. I work a stone's throw away from Willard, where we meet for Sunday Service, and you can join me.

On another note: Early Bird registration for the winter retreat ends 12/20. Checks can be brought to the Willard courtyard after Sunday Service. There'll be a table to receive Early Bird registration checks.

J-Term & other news

Some of you guys (Sophs) are thinking about signing up for J-Term (Jan. 13-16) and wondering what class to take. If it helps at all, the plan for the spring semester for sophomore smallgroup is to go ahead w/ the Bible survey we wanted to do first semester but didn't get a chance to do. You can take that into consideration as you're thinking about what J-Term class to take. Of course, a study through the NT Survey or OT Survey class at J-Term will probably be more in-depth than what we'll do, but wanted to give you guys proper notice.

In other news:

• Winter Retreat early bird signup is $20 cheaper if you sign up online and turn in your check (payable to GFC) by Dec. 20. You can hand the check to your smallgroup leader or mail it to NorthLoop. Early Bird signup is $90; afterwards, it's $110. A table will be available next to the Book Table on Sunday at Willard if you want to drop off the check.
• If you want to be an Impact Volunteer next semester and participate in 1-on-1 tutoring, let me know at kevanDOThoATgpmailDOTorg. An email was sent earlier to one of the aliases and I can forward it to you.
• If you didn't get your two part gift from us (H.1 staff), hunt us down. It's our Christmas gift to you!

Bible Study & Study Break

Joyland Christmas Celebration was so fun! Cheers to all you who made it and saw all the kids on stage. It was like a miniature version of GLive (the DVDs are coming the 14th!).

Anyway, photos from the different events are filtering through iPhoto and then to Flickr, and they'll get posted when they're good and ready. But for now, here's the 411 on this upcoming week's events:

• Combined bible study is on Tuesday night, 7 PM @ First Pres., on the corner of Dana & Channing.
• H.1 study break on Thursday night. Drop in for food and to decompress from all the stress. Drop by sometime between 9:00-10:30 PM @ the YWCA on Bancroft, in the Fireside room. We'll be handing out something special.
  
• K1 Christmas Party and gift exchange is this Friday, 12/14, beginning at 8:30 PM. Bring a $5 WRAPPED gift. Location coming so stay tuned.
• J-Term for sophs and juniors is happening the week prior to the retreat, so sign up if you're interested. Seminary style classes will include New Testament Survey, Old Testament Survey, Advanced Course 101, and Church History. You can find more info and sign up online.
• Also, if you haven't already, you need to sign up for the winter retreat online, Jan. 18-21. We'll have a Koinonia snow trip on Thursday, Jan. 17, so try and get back in time.
• For seniors, you need fill out the senior discipleship retreat online signup to reserve a spot. Make sure you do it.
  

By the way, better sign up for that winter retreat as there's an early bird and late registration. Early bird registration is about $20 cheaper... Study hard.