First Day of "School"

Today was our first day of school at Hillsong College. This week and the next week we have intensives. Basically, we have chapel then two 3-hour (or so) classes. Today we had "Church and Ministry" and "Personal Leadership." Both were really good.

In Church and Ministry, the professor talked about the House of God. He described "the House" as the place where Heaven intersects with Earth. An example of this would be the temple of God in the Old Testament. It was where God's presence lingered/dwelt. The House is when we are gathered together as a body in God's presence. The professor (which I don't know his name haha) made four key points about Jesus in "the House" and how he responded to it. The first observation from the Bible was that Jesus was planted in the House. He was deeply rooted and was a part of what God was doing on Earth. Second, Jesus was committed to building the House. We are called to first and foremost build God's house before we focus on our own ministry. Third, Jesus loved the House. And lastly, Jesus confronted people about their attitudes toward the Church. It was a good message to start off our year in college as leaders. The Church is the House of God and we must plant ourselves in it, we must commit to bringing others to the House. We must love the House. Just as a husband loves his wife, so Jesus loves the Church (Eph. 5:25). And lastly we must stand up for the Church when others want to bring it down!
--The Church should reflect who Jesus truly is in order to build the kingdom of God--

In Personal Leadership, our principal, Lee Burns, talked about mission, vision, core beliefs, values, and culture. What I've learned is that these are all essential in leadership and fulfilling your dreams and goals. He shared with us Hillsong Church's vision and mission statement. It's cool to see these goals and vision they had 25 years ago when they started out and seeing where they have come today. Lee encouraged us to create our own mission statement/slogan to live by. Everybody has a mission statement. When you have a conversation with someone, they know you're mission statement. They already get the idea about who you are and what you are about. The mission statement that I have created for myself is this: "To love people through the eyes of Jesus." What I mean by this is that I need to love people for who they are. I need to love the brokenhearted and homeless and the weirdos because that is what Jesus would do.

Well, I've shared what I learned on my first day. Hope it's not too much. I'm really tired so it might not all make sense. Anyways, two more weeks of intensives and then our "real" classes start. Yay! I'm excited to finally be starting. I must say that I really miss playing drums... It's been probably 3 weeks since I've played :-( I play in spirit here, which is just as good (I guess) :-)