Do you find yourself sitting in your office chair, twiddling your thumbs, wondering what to do with all your talents, passions, free time, and love of group activities? Probably not. But you should still join one of CTS’s great clubs anyways. This year students have a wide variety to choose from, and just so you don’t miss them, we’re putting the details on paper. Have fun!
Music and Munchies
Do you love jamming? Now imagine jamming without the long hours picking berries in the burning sun, sticky messes in the kitchen, and sweating over a hot stove. Awesome, right? This is Music and Munchies!
We get together on Thursday evenings at 8:30pm in the Seminary Chapel to enjoy fun, fellowship, food and tunes. You don’t need to be the next Elton John, Jimi Hendrix, or Whitney Houston to join us – all are welcome (including staff, faculty, students and spouses). Snacks are provided by our president and vice president/treasurer, Elly Boersma and Jessica Driesenga respectively, just two ladies who love to bake delicious things to share with others. All you need to do is bring your voice, instrument, hungry stomach, and/or song suggestions. Our focus is typically church music, ranging from hymn-tunes, to Gaither gospel, to contemporary, and everything in between. We hope to lead some music-driven chapels this year, as well as get CTS musicians used to playing together as a resource for other chapels.
So come for the munchies, and stay for the music! We’d love to have you join us, because friends who play together, stay together.
Feel free to contact Elly Boersma (erb86@calvinseminary.edu) or Jess Driesenga (jdriese4@calvinseminary.edu) if you have any questions.
Prayer Club
What We Do: We gather. We read Scripture. We listen for the Holy Spirit’s guidance. We pray in obedience to that guidance, in the name of Jesus. And we bask in God’s holy presence as he effects change in our lives, in the lives of his people in the seminary community, and in his world.
Also, Prayer Club is the custodian of The Prayer Room (located beneath the chapel). We have been working this fall to make The Prayer Room an inviting space for people to meet with God anytime the seminary is open. The Prayer Room has comfortable seating, cushions, soft lighting, several prayer stations and mediation materials, music, a prayer wall, and the residue of thousands of prayers that have been prayed over years of calling out to God.
We meet once a week for intercessory prayer on Mondays, 11AM-12PM. The Prayer Room is always open.
Mosaic
Mosaic “every nation, tribe, people and language” Rev. 7:9
A voluntary group designed to create a safe space for dialogue, self-expression, reflection, social and emotional support, fellowship, and cultural bridge building. This would include every nationality, especially those who are in stark ratio contrast with the majority of students. Anyone is welcomed to join/attend: faculty, staff, students, spouses, and alumni. Research has shown that people of non-European descent who work and study within a predominantly white context benefit from fellowship and advocacy that arise from participating in affinity groups. Moreover, such groups are often highlighted as a retention tool. The goal of Mosaic is not to cause a divide or to promote elitism; but rather to provide additional support in this Christian academic community.
We will meet twice a month, currently on Wednesdays. Our upcoming meetings are Wednesday, October 3, 2012, and October 24, 2012, 12:30pm to 1:20pm. We will meet in the lobby by the DeVos Auditorium. In addition, this semester, we hope to have some forum events to bring awareness and sensitivity to issues of diversity and culture. We also hope to lead one chapel service, this semester, which will highlight worship in different cultures.
I am a contact person, Robin Rhodes (rmr030@calvinseminary.edu), and so is Shannon Jammal-Hollemans (sjammal8@calvinseminary.edu).
The Church Planting & Revitalization Club
churchplanting@calvinseminary.edu. We’d love to have you join us!
We have two upcoming events this month:
First, Thursday, October 4 at President Medenblik’s home (the Parsonage); we will be having a free pizza dinner beginning at 5:30pm and we will be hearing from our new Missionary-in-Residence, Albert Strydhorst, about what we can learn from church planting and revitalization efforts in Nigeria. Please RSVP by 5:30pm on Wednesday, October 3!!!
Second, on Wednesday, October 17 we will be having another free pizza dinner, this time at the seminary, where we will be meeting with Pastor Tommy Kiedis and Pastor Ricardo Agreste. Pastor Tommy is the Senior Pastor at Spanish River Church in Boca Raton, FL (spanishriver.com) and and Pastor Ricardo leads Chacara Primavera Presbyterian Church (chacaraprimavera.org.br) in Campinas, Brazil. More information to follow!
Scripture Memory Group
Scripture Memory Group (lovingly known as the “Shema” group):
Chances are that you have memorized Scripture at one point in your life. Luke 2 as a child, the theme verse for “Cadets” or “GEMS,” or maybe you memorized Psalm 23. It sticks with you and comes to life when you speak it. It has a way of informing and transforming your everyday living. By it, you might see the world differently. The Word of God is living!
You don’t have to be a perfect memorizer to join the group! This group is meant to be an encouragement in the spiritual discipline.
Useful facts:
- It’s more than memorization! We talk about the text, and the community is great!
- We have snacks!
- We can help with memorization techniques.
- Not only is it helpful for oral comprehensive exams, but for life-long ministry!
- Bonus: Calvin’s Worship Symposium (in January) will be studying the Sermon on the Mount.
It’s not too late! You can join us this semester as we memorize the text.
Join the Scripture Memory Group for this beautiful spiritual discipline. We meet in classroom 241 every Monday morning at 10 AM.
Make Scripture a part of you! Come and be blessed by the Word of God!
The Social Justice Club
The Social Justice Club meets every Friday in the atrium next to the auditorium from 12:30-1:30. We’re experimenting with a new format this year. We are devoting each month to a different topic and then coordinating a series of discussions and events around that topic. September focused on the persecuted church with particular attention directed towards the Middle East, China and Nigeria. October is devoted to Creation Care. The Synod of the Christian Reformed Church recently came out with a new position statement concerning creation care and the science of climate change. We hope to explore that document while looking at ways that we as a seminary community can do our part to be good stewards of creation. In November, we will focus on human trafficking, a tremendous evil that plagues our society every bit as much as those countries more typically associated with the practice.
Defending the cause of the widow, the orphan, the alien and the poor is neither a liberal nor a conservative task. This task falls to the whole church. It is tied to the command to love one’s neighbor. In the words of Nicholas Wolterstorff, “The demands of love often exceed the demands of justice. But, the demands of love never fall short of the demands of justice.”
We devote our time together to exploring those demands. What does it mean to defend the cause of the widow? What does it look like when the church looks after the cause of the foreigner? How can the church preach a holistic gospel in a gracious, non-partisan way? One encounters many pitfalls while trying to answer these questions. That is why we have found it valuable to think through these things together as we seek ways to put love into action.
Grammatikos Greek Reading Club
Γραμματικός is a Greek word that means “schooled in the basics” or “learned in letters,” and that’s exactly what we’re trying to achieve in the Grammatikos Greek Reading Club. We meet for one hour on Thursdays from 4:30 to 5:30 in Room 240, and read through a passage of Greek together. People do as much as they are comfortable with. Sometimes people just read along and listen. We read the Greek out loud, to get a feel for the language, and then translate it together as best as we are able. The goal is to help people develop a “habit” of reading Greek, which is quite a beautiful language. The club is open to anybody who is interested, whether they’re just learning their letters, already schooled in the basics, or dreaming in Greek already. It’s a fun time, and we would love to have you join us!