September Balaam`s Donkey.indd

please pass this
on to a friend
Kelsey Sturm
Editorish
Erica Bowler
Want to keep up with groups around the school? Find us online!
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Ambrose Global Missions Society
Ambrose University College
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On Twitter:
Assistant-extraordinare
Amy Matychuk
Minister
Steve Greenaway
Seminarian
Balaam’s Donkey
@ambroseuc
BHSS Ambrose
@ambrosemissions (AGMS)
Bethany Royall
Journalist
Ambrose Outdoors Club
Jordan Los
Ambrose: English Literature
Evangelist
Playlist of the Month
Fellow Ambrosians welcome back (for those
of you returning) and welcome to all of the
newcomers! I want to start off by encouraging everyone to see the new school year as
an opportunity to really explore and discover
where God’s leading them. And I’ll warn youonce you start asking questions, going beyond
the norm, and stretching yourself, you will feel
uncomfortable and there’s a good chance you’ll
wish you never took the initiative in the �irst
place... BUT! It’s all worth it. And perhaps I can
soften the blow by throwing some sweet tunes
your way while you’re on this crazy rollercoaster journey one might call “life”.
My taste is eclectic- for some I should �lag that
as a warning, I suppose. Most sift through my
iPod with reactions like, “what the../who?/
my grandma has them on cassette/where in
the world did you �ind this?”. I would also like
to invite the Ambrose community to get in on
this, so pllllllleeeeeaaaaaase do not hesitate to
email me your favorites so I can post them in
next month’s playlist!
Love, Pease, Fryer Grease
-Erin Case
Erin Case
Electic
S�p������ Beat�:
No Place To Hide: Allison Kraus and Union Station
He Can Only Hold Her: Amy Winehouse (R.I.P.)
Martha My Dear: The Beatles
Calgary: Transit
Rude Boy Don’t Cry: Bedouin Soundclash
Take My Hand: Ben Harper & The Blind Boys of Alabama
Don’t Ask Me Why: Billy Joel
Set You Free: The Black Keys
Hysterical: Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah
Living in the Ghetto: Toots and the Maytals
Paradise: Slow Club
Calgary- Bon Iver
Mi Swing Es Tropical: Quantic and Nickodemus
Let God Arise: Chris Tomlin
Waltz in C# minor, Op. 64 #2: Chopin
Hallelujah: Django Reinhardt
Jesus is Still Alright: The Doobie Brothers
All I Ask of You: Skrillex
Agaetis Byrjun: Sigur Ros
BALAAM’S DONKEY
Falling into a new semester...
T� ��� 2011 A������ F������� �� A��� ��� S������
You are called to ministry.
There are many of you, in every degree
that Ambrose offers, and it doesn’t matter
whether you belong to Biology or English,
or Behavioral Science, or Music or History.
Ambrose as a school exists to equip you to
go into ministry in ways that are both conventional and unconventional, and you
are in the degree you’ve chosen because
of gifts and passions God has given you.
This does not mean that you should
feel lesser because you’re in Behavioral
Science instead of Church Ministry. It does
not mean that you will necessarily make
less of an impact on the world, or that
your calling is somehow less important or
less Godly.
One of the �irst weekends I went home
from school in my �irst semester and
attended my home church, one of the
pastoral staff asked me if I felt called to
ministry. I felt stung without realizing
why, and heard myself say, “I believe we’re
all called to ministry, and that some of it
is vocational.” I think he appreciated my
answer, but he amended his question to,
“Do you feel called to vocational ministry,
then?”
No. I don’t.
Least holy? Come on. I’m an English Literature major, and no matter what job that
gets me, no matter where I end up, I will be
surrounded by people, and not all of them
will be Christians. I will be living where
others can see me, and I will be interacting with people who do not agree with me.
My responsibility as a Christian and as an
Ambrose graduate is to do ministry no matter where I go or what I do, and ministry has
myriad forms. Ministry does not mean only
leading in church. It does not mean leading
a Bible study. It does not mean reading your
Bible on your lunch break where others can
see you. Ministry means being present in a
loving, caring way in the lives of the people
you know. It means a genuine, dynamic concern for PEOPLE. Ministry, no matter where
it happens or what form it takes, is holy.
I’m not saying this to air grievances or
complain. I’m saying it so that when you are
tempted to feel lesser (if you are—I was)
because your classes are not titled Christian
Spirituality and Prayer Paths to God and
Practical Theology, you don’t give in.
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SEPTEMBER 2011
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Write. Research. Discover. Do what you
love because God gave you a love for it.
And then, when you �ind a job, the �ield you
choose will be all the richer for it.
-Amy Matychuk
And that’s okay.
Another encounter I had in my freshman year was with an individual who’d
just met me and found out which degree
program I was in. Conversationally, this
individual said, “You do realize that you’re
taking the least holy degree it’s possible to
take at Ambrose, right?”
INSIDE:
Here’s your chance to be featured in the paper! Jot down
quotables from your classmates or profs and submit them to
[email protected] by October 10, and we’ll feature them in
next month’s edition.
SEPTEMBER
CONTRIBUTORS
The voice of the students of Ambrose University College
The Back Page
Quotable Quotes
4
Presidential Thoughts;
Balaam’s Interviews 2
In Acts 1:8, Jesus commands his followers to be his witnesses: locally,
nationally, and globally. The Ambrose Global Missions Society’s (AGMS)
role is to provide Ambrose students with opportunities to gain awareness
of the needs of many who do not yet know Jesus Christ and of the work
being done by Christians globally. AGMS will also provide students with
opportunities to directly engage in God’s global mission while studying in
Calgary. Join us Wednesday mornings at 7:30am in the Ambrose prayer
room for a time of prayer for our world! Look for our special events on our
facebook page, or follow us on twitter.
Evangelism;
Editorial 3
Tuning in
4
2
Commander-in-Chief
For the Fame of His Name
Other Presidential Thoughts: “He had to be like me to save me!”
Today I would like to explore the Christological issue of impeccability. I was introduced to
this term in my �irst theology class at AUC/
NUC, and it has been my pursuit ever since. This
topic brings up two interesting questions. The
�irst is: could Christ have sinned? Did he have
the choice (posse non peccare – able not to sin)
or not (non posse peccare – not able to sin)?
And, secondly, could Christ have been tempted?
The fact is that Christ never sinned but many
people who I have talked to assert that he had
the ability to be tempted and therefore had a
choice to sin or not.
I have already written two major papers
on this issue so I wish to stick to one type of
argument here – “he had to be like me to save
me.” Cyril of Alexandria said that the Word took
what was ours to be his very own so that we
might have all that was his. For Cyril, speaking
against Nestorius, a body and soul needed to
be assumed as the human is comprehensively
tarnished. I �ind this idea problematic, because
taking on a body and soul isn’t technically
becoming ‘like us’. Let us look at what the incarnation looks like.
Jesus:
1. was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born
of a virgin (I needed a mom and dad)
2. is not separated from God at birth (we
were)
3. is an ontological being of divine and human
natures joined together (we have one nature)
4. has an unfallen human nature (our nature
will inevitably sin)
5. is the second person of the Trinity (we are
maximally human)
6. sees sin in its rawness (we are gullible)
When we look at our maximally human selves
(Jesus was more than maximally human), we realize that the person of Christ is fundamentally
different than us. Furthermore, we do not even
meet his ‘human’ criteria. To take Cyril’s words
practically, to be like us, Jesus’ humanity had to
be separate from God to truly take on a form
that could be sacri�iced for our salvation. In
fact, the argument of most people I have talked
with depends necessarily on Christ seeing this
world through fallen eyes: “he had to struggle,
he had to complain, he had to experience my
weakness,” etc. The folly of these desires is that
they run a crash course with the metaphysics of
the person of Christ (as the list has shown). Hebrews 4 says that Jesus was tempted in every
way that we are, but he was without sin. Think
of everytemptation out there (homosexuality,
murder, rape, molestation, hatred, pedophilia,
gambling, etc.) … and now apply it to Christ. Is
this what we are to believe? To interpret ‘temptation’ properly, it must be seen as an internal
desire for something that one knows is not the
right choice (James 1). I, on the other hand, believe Jesus was propositioned (Matthew 4) but
it never became an internal struggle.
In conclusion, I realize that this article won’t
convince some (or many) to believe that Jesus
was non posse peccare, but that’s okay,because
it wasn’t my point (the papers I have written
explore many other fundamental issues on this
topic). I simply wish to break down the soapopera statement of “he had to be like me to save
me” into a plausible proposition: “he wasn’t actually like me” and that’s why he could save me.
Let the reader change their cognitive paradigm
– instead of trying to see how Jesus was like us,
let’s �lip the tables and compare ourselves to
him. In doing so, I believe we can more readily observe the obvious difference between his
humanity and ours.
-Sven (Steven Greenaway, Seminary Student
Council President)
Balaam’s Interviews
Who’s Who and What’s Going Down at Ambrose University College
As the Board of Governors search for a new
President for Ambrose University College, Dr.
Riley Coulter has taken on the role of Acting
President in addition to his already established
position as Chancellor. Dr. Coulter
is well versed in the leadership of
academic institutions,having been
the president of Canadian Nazarene
College/ Nazarene University College since 1990 and co-president
of Ambrose for one year before his
Chancellorship. While students may
have seen Dr. Coulter on special
chapel days, including convocation
and scholarship chapel, much of his
work is unseen by the student body.
In an interview with Dr. Coulter, I learned
that a major portion of his work is to maintain
Nazarene Church relations and raise funds.
This task involves preaching at churches
throughout Canada up to three Sundays of every month. In addition, he serves on the President’s Cabinet, the main decision making body
of Ambrose, and meets with different government organizations. Dr. Coulter is also a family
man and has been married to his wife Karen for
forty-one years; together they three children
named David, Mark, Brenda, and Sharlene and
two grandchildren, Kaley and Chloe.
In the past twenty-one years that
he has been af�iliated with Nazarene
and Ambrose University College,
Dr. Coulter has experienced many
changes: the upgrade of Canadian
Nazarene College to a University
College, the mergence of NUC and
AUC, and the campus relocation
to name a few. The vision for the
school, however, remains the same.
When asked what he is looking forward to in this academic year, Dr. Coulter says
that he is excited about young people realizing who they are in Christ and understanding
God’s plan for their lives whether in a church
or within society. He proceeded to talk about
how each program at our school prepares students for ministry, using his son and daughter
as examples. Dr. Coulter’s son Mark graduated
from NUC with a Bachelor of Theology and currently pastors in Barrie, Ontario. His daughter
Sharlene graduated from the same school with
a degree in Behavioural Science and is now
the Director of Volunteers at Kids Cancer Care
Foundation. While Behavioural Science has
not traditionally been referred to as a ministry
degree, when commenting on his daughter’s
work Dr. Coulter says that “If that is not ministry, I don’t know what is!”
As students of Ambrose, we can support
our school through prayer especially during
this time of transition. Dr. Coulter asks that as
a student body we pray that God give wisdom
and discernment to those in leadership, including the Board of Governors in their search for
a new President. God will provide for Ambrose
as He has in the past, but as a student body we
can also pray that He will continue to provide
for us, speci�ically for our �inancial needs.
To all those hardworking Ambrosian students out there, Dr. Coulter encourages you
to see the big picture and try not to focus too
much on the immediate things, such as an upcoming exam or paper deadline. It’s important
to have a balance of work and play; in his own
words, “Study hard, play hard, and enjoy life.”
-Bethany Royall
Is Evangelism for All Christians?
I would normally prefer to draw this
answer from directly a Scriptural source, such
as Matthew 28:16-20, but I prefer the words of
the magician and avowed atheist Penn Jillette,
“If you believe that there’s a heaven and hell and
people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life or whatever, and you think that it’s not
really worth telling them this because it would
make it socially awkward. . . How much do you
have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How
much do you have to hate somebody to believe
that everlasting life is possible and not tell them
that? If I believed beyond a shadow of a doubt
that a truck was coming at you and you didn’t
believe it, and that truck was bearing down on
you, there’s a certain point where I tackle you.
And this is more important than that.”
Does it bother you that an atheist is
more passionate about Christians evangelizing
than some Christians are? Some Christians may
be more gifted than others, but all Christians
are to evangelize.
Why Evangelism Doesn’t Happen
One reason evangelism doesn’t happen is because of sin and disbelief. A Christian
not evangelizing is disobeying a direct command from Jesus (Matthew 28:19-20), and
a Christian who doesn’t even care has good
cause to question the legitimacy of his salvation. Evangelism should be the natural out�low
of our love for God and others. Think about it:
the creator of the universe, whom you have rebelled against, condescended and died on your
behalf so that not only might you avoid eternal
damnation, but also enjoy eternal glory. How
could you not tell people about this?
So, one reason evangelism doesn’t
happen is because people either don’t know
the Gospel or don’t believe the Gospel. Another
reason why evangelism doesn’t happen is that
a person can struggle on the best way to practically communicate the faith to others. You may
say, “There’s so much in the Bible, where do I
start? What are the most important points?
How do I reach people I know? How do I reach
strangers?”
How to Evangelize
Jesus tells us exactly how to evangelize
others. Matthew 28:19-20 says, “Go therefore
and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son
and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe
all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with
you always, even to the end of the age.” There
is one command in this passage: make disciples
(Go is not a command in the Greek text). This
command is followed by 3 participles (“ing”
words), go, baptizing, and teaching. Go denotes
the circumstances of making disciples—as you
go about your daily lives—baptizing and teaching are the means by making a disciple. A paraphrase would read, “Therefore, make disciples
as you go, by baptizing them and by teaching
them.” From this we can conclude that disciples
are made as other disciples go about their daily
lives, teaching others and baptizing them.
A Practical Aid to Evangelism
This year Ambrose Student Council will be offering practical training for those
who desire to make disciples. We will be offering a 6-week course training course here on
campus. There will two sessions offered every
week, just in case you can’t make one, and will
only require an hour of your time each week.
The Ambrose Student Council is also developing opportunities for you to evangelize within
3
the local community. The �irst meeting will be
Friday September 30, 2011 at 5:30pm here at
Ambrose. Dinner and course materials will be
provided. Also, contact [email protected]
if you have any interests or questions.
-Jordan Los
From the Editor:
On behalf of the student leadership
at Ambrose University College, I’d
like to welcome you to the Fall 2011
semester! I’m looking forward to the
opportunity to serve you this coming
year. My hope is for Balaam’s Donkey
to be for you an edifying creative outlet
as well as a way to share things of importance with the student body. One of
the ways we hope to do that this year
is through our new column, “Balaam’s
Interviews”. Ambrose has no lack of
talented faculty and staff, and my hope
is to give us as students a greater appreciation for them through hearing
more of their stories
It’s been encouraging for me to hear
from so many of you so far! If you have
any submissions for the paper, or questions or concerns, please address them
to [email protected].
Blessings,
-Kelsey Sturm
Editor-in-chief
Come experience nature and
meet other students in a beautiful
outdoor enviroment!
The Ambrose Outdoors Club was
created to connect students with
God’s creation and give us all
a break from school and work.
There is NO membership fee
this year! We’re planning hiking,
skiing, sports, and lots of other
activities. Our first event will be
a hiking trip in Kananaskis on
Saturday, September 24. We will
be car-pooling from the campus,
so the cost for this event will be
$5 for gas. Contact Emily Charter
([email protected]) or
Nicholas Thomas (nthomas@
my.ambrose.edu) for more
information.