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When I started college, I couldn’t have named a single Black gospel singer. I was a classical music major with a narrow range of taste, and thought I already knew everything about what “good music” was.

God’s wrath is troubling. God seems to choose some people … and not others. He gracefully invites and intensely disciplines. The God of the Bible—our Father—is accessible … and terrifying. Ten years ago this month, I became a father. 

Remember your commitment to keep growing in faith over the summer? ���� Press happens to have some great new resources to help you do just that: the LifeGuide in Depth Series.

If your life is like mine was, summer means leaving the support of your ���� fellowship and church and living in the spiritual desert of your home environment. Without even a strong church tie at home, I spent my first two summers caught in a harmful cycle of sin, guilt, and little spiritual growth.

At the end of every spring semester, college students across the nation gather for weeklong ��ñ���� training conferences called Chapter Focus Weeks.  And this year at my area’s chapter camp, I had the honor of team-teaching the second half of the book of Mark. For thirty hours during the week, thirty-two students and my coleader and I joined Jesus and his disciples in the struggle to understand the nature of discipleship and follow Jesus to his cross.

I’ve enjoyed life in college. A lot. I don’t think I’m alone in that. So when I got to the Blue Ridge Region’s chapter camp recently and entered a track called “Life After College,” I knew God was about to make me pretty uncomfortable.

If you are a student in an ��ñ���� chapter, there’s a very good chance that the transition from freshman to sophomore year will be hard for you.

In one year, I married off seven friends, left the neighborhood I’d inhabited since my first year of college, moved into a new house with two people who were never home, and lost my mentor when his wife took a job 500 miles away.

How do I get a job? That’s what you want to know, right? And not just any job, but a “real” job! (If you’re like me, you never want to work retail another day of your life.)