Flourishing

You may have noticed that things have been pretty darn slow here at the Following Christ blog. I have been super busy welcoming new graduate students to Wake Forest University and reconnecting with familiar faces back after summers spent around the globe. It’s that time of year again.

Rest assured, however, that much has been going on behind the scenes. Plans are falling into place nicely for December’s conference. For more up-to-date information on this subscribe to our Twitter Feed here. Of course, there’s always information available at our website.

Here’s an especially cool part of the conference, the Bosscher-Hammond prizes. Here’s the scoop:

InterVarsity’s Graduate & Faculty Ministries (GFM) is sponsoring the Bosscher-Hammond Prizes, a juried competition culminating during the Following Christ 2008 Conference (FC08), December 27-31, in Chicago.

Three winning submissions will each receive $2,000 in cash and recognition during the conference. Twenty-six semifinalists will receive free registration for the main FC08 conference, December 28-31.

Of course, a picture is worth a thousand words so check out this video:

FC08: The Director’s Videos #4 from Graduate & Faculty Ministries on Vimeo.

While I’m at it, let me give a shout out to Mike Hickerson at Emerging Scholars. He’s started a new blog that seeks to connect with students who are headed into the academy. Check it out
here.

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We’re among friends here, so we can share a laugh about life as grad students…can’t we? Thanks to the folks in computer science over at the University of Maryland - Baltimore for this list. They had a longer list, but I redacted it down to my favorite ten (so you could get back to that chapter!).

See the complete list here.

Here goes…

I thought I’d clue you in on what’s coming up here on the Following Christ blog. I’m working on a number of posts that should prove to be pretty darn interesting and maybe even a bit provocative.

Our goal here is to provide content that intersects with the theme of Following Christ 08: human flourishing. We want to keep you up to date on new developments with the conference. We also want to get your input about what you’d like to see in the program. So…stay tuned!

Coming up…

I’m lining up interviews with key folks who are leading Following Christ 08 and other thought leaders. So…stay tuned…there’s much more to come!

Steve Hayner, Peachtree Associate Professor of Evangelism and Church Growth at Columbia Theological Seminary will be joining the roster of presenters at Following Christ 2008! Steve will be leading our inter-disciplinary track called, “Doubting Jesus.” The track is designed to be a place for those who are skeptical about Jesus or who are wrestling with faith to engage in honest dialogue.

Steve served has been at Columbia since 2003 he is also Scholar in Residence at Peachtree Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, GA. Prior to that he pastored a church in Madison, Wisconsin and served as President of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA.

Here’s Steve speaking about the mission of the church at a 2006 conference.

Readers of this blog know that Tom Wright and I go way back. Well, actually, that’s not true at all. But that’s beside the point.

Mike Morrell at Zoecarnate let me know that Bp Wright will be on the Colbert Report tomorrow night (June 19). I believe he’s talking about the issue of resurrection.

Stay tuned for footage and insightful commentary ;-)

You might have noticed a lull in the posting here at the blog. That’s because three weeks ago today (my wife) Anna and I welcomed our first son (Nathan) into the world. Let’s just say, he has shaken things up a bit!

We’re getting to know him and things are beginning to settle down a little bit, so posting should resume. Read on!

Welcome to Flourishing! This is the inaugural post on my (un)official Following Christ 2008 weblog. If you want a little bit of background about what this blog is all about, check out the “about” tab at the top of the page. If you’re thinking, “Who the heck is this guy?” check out the “about jeff” tab above.

I’m hoping to get this online community humming with Christian academics, professionals, and practitioners all of whom are thinking about what “human flourishing” (the conference theme) means for Christians and how it relates to life in general, to academic and professionals disciplines, and a whole lot more.

I want you to get creative and think about this topic and let’s have some generative conversations that can not only help us craft a cooler conference, but lead us into changing not only our disciplines, our culture, but maybe even more.