Mid-Semester Update for Aggie RUF!

RUF Large Group and events have been at full swing for over half of the semester now! It has been a joy to preach through the Gospel according to John at Large Group. Freshmen Biblestudy (led by me) and small groups (led by students and interns) have gone well this semester and have allowed many students to plug into a Gospel community. This semester we have hosted leadership team meetings and sophomore leadership team meetings in our home every other Sunday night. In a nutshell, our meetings are characterized by a "fixed theology and a flexible methodology". We have worked through our principles Scripture, Justification, Sanctification, while spending time organizing, scheduling, brainstorming and talking through ministry at RUF A&M. 

On Thursdays we invite students for a “drop-by” lunch at the student center and on Friday afternoons we play pickleball at a nearby park. These two events welcome in new students each week! 

Last weekend we brought 42 students to a Fall Conference at T-Bar-M in New Braunfels. We joined several TX RUFs for a joyful weekend away. Rev. Derek McCollum, the senior pastor of Hope Presbyterian in New Braunfels, led us in the preaching of God’s Word for large group each evening and on Sunday morning. On Saturday morning, students were able to choose seminars to attend including Evangelism, Suffering, How to Read the Bible and Personal Devotions. 

Coming up! This Sunday night we will be hosting a “Sunday Night Fellowship” in our home. This will be a night for all students to come and rest, sing hymns, enjoy good dessert and Gospel community. We are looking forward to having students in our home. Other events to come include a Halloween skating party, Fall barn dance, Friendsgiving with RUF-international, and a Lessons and Carols. What a joy it is to have so much opportunity to share the Gospel! 

Please be in prayer:
- RUF events mentioned above - that the students will feel welcomed by a Gospel community and that many will come to know the Lord. 

- Our interns! This week both George and Emma are at RUF intern training in Denver, Co. Please pray that this week is rejuvenating and encouraging for them both. Please pray that as they return they will have ample opportunity to share the Gospel on the campus of A&M.

- Our team - we meet every Monday to plan the week and future events. We are currently going through the book “The Gospel-Centered Life” together as a team. I am so grateful for the Lord working in each of our hearts as we prepare and propel each other on. 

- Our family - Please continue to pray for Alex’s pregnancy and for baby girl as we are getting closer and closer to our due date! (Nov. 26th). Pray that the Lord continues to grow us closer to Him as a family as we learn to parent a toddler and as we minister together in RUF. 

- Please continue to pray for me as I continue to teach this Fall. I am teaching Freshman Biblestudy on Tuesday afternoons on the Principles of RUF (Scripture, Justification, Sanctification) and I am preaching through the Gospel according to John during weekly Large Group. Please pray that the Lord will keep me before Him and that He will become greater and that I will become less. 

- Please also pray for me as I take my written exams for ordination (History and Sacraments) over the next couple weeks. Lord willing, I will be able to go before the presbytery for my oral exams at the end of January. 

We will visit this later, but "Fellowship" is one of the four central fruits that RUF pursues in its Philosophy of Ministry. This goal emphasizes our corporate hopes for student transformation. The whole trajectory of our purposes in a student's life is a future that is far more corporate than individual, a body instead of an isolated person. This means that we go to great lengths in order to introduce students to the glory and growing pains of one-anothering in Jesus’ church. We believe that Scripture teaches us that growing as a Christian is a community project (1 Cor 12:12-27).

Therefore in keeping in step with the first half of our mission statement in "reaching students for Christ..." a major part of RUF's role is teaching, observing, demonstrating, evaluating and equipping (TDOEE) students to live in a Gospel-centered, Biblically-focused community and learning how to live in fellowship with one another. We place a great emphasis on providing opportunities (connecting them to a local church, service, social gatherings, weekly events, conferences) for students to gather together. Some of the most practical ways we do "fellowship" is through what RUF calls, our three avenues of ministry: one-on-ones, small groups, and large group.

To this end, if you were to ask an RUF campus minister, "How is RUF going?" one common response will be, "Come ask me in 8-10 years." We know that one day, students will graduate college and move on to wherever God has called them. Our hope is that when Texas A&M students graduate, move to a new city, launch their careers, and grow their families, their central source of fellowship (koinonia) for the rest of their days will be where God promises to meet and grow His people, a local Gospel-centered, Bible-believing church. We believe this matters.