Here is his summary of what he wanted to find out:

Research questions: The overarching aim of this research was to evaluate whether students perceive themselves as spiritual beings, how they connect to their spiritual struggles, and what processes may help students in their spiritual development. The hope is to provide information to help higher education find their role in aiding in the spiritual development of students as they progress in their development.
If the aim of higher education is to develop the whole person, a student‟s spiritual development must be considered.

To read his findings, click here:

Wait … where am I again? http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/05/25/qt#228343

“Younger Americans are spiritual, but few are actively engaged with spiritual disciplines such as weekly church attendance, Bible study and prayer, according to a new study by LifeWay Research. The study, which surveyed Americans born between 1980 and 1991—referred to as the “Millennial” generation—found that while two-thirds of Millennials identify themselves as Christians, most have different spiritual habits than older generations.”

More at http://tinyurl.com/35rqeq3

Adam was the leader of the Garden, exercising the creativity, care, and authority of God in that realm. It’s a picture of God’s call for every person. We lead wherever God places us, and we reflect the character of God in the process. Simply put, we’re called by God to influence our world in such a manner that those around us can come to know who he is.

However, Adam’s sin marred this high calling of leadership, and it became a means for manipulation and self-justification. Too often we use our leadership to get others to do what we want them to do. Or we use our leadership to reassure ourselves that we are worthy to lead. We’re left in this uninspiring posture, asking a desperate question: as Christians, how might we better understand and practice godly leadership?”

Read more of Andre Yee’s thoughts at http://tinyurl.com/36mryyc

She has also posted an interesting video on her website. It’s annoying at first, ends up being funny (not ha-ha funny, but wry-smile funny) … and if you’re creative, it could be used to talk about issues of relationships, co-dependence, and obsession.

Or, you could just watch it as an ice-breaker.

http://www.susanisaacs.net/av/devotion.mov

If you want to find out more, see http://tinyurl.com/2cp544c

If you have resources relating to student suicide that might be helpful, please send them along to us here. We’ll gather them up and post them when they reach a critical mass.

Here’s a quote from Inside Higher Ed from an article about recent suicides at Yale and Cornell:

we know from our own work and much other research that each year about 10 to 15 percent of college students seriously think about suicide, and approximately 2 to 4 percent will make an attempt. This means that for every college student who dies by suicide, there are hundreds who have tried and thousands who have thought about it. Yet, we still have no overarching psychological theory to explain exactly what moves someone from thinking about suicide to taking action.

Let’s see if we can work together and help one another develop resources … and hope we never need to use them.

To read the read of the Inside Higher Ed article, click this link -

God never seemed to smile, as far as I could tell. Maybe He’d nod once and a while if you nursed the sick or something, but Jesus seemed to be somebody you could sit next to at a party and have a good time. Jesus was like an older brother instead of a father, someone who was still above you but not so distant that you couldn’t approach with questions or tears or even anger. You could bother Jesus with requests for a good grade or new skates or a Barbie carry-all but you’d never ask God for that because he was busy doing stuff like Ending Hunger and Healing the Wounds of the Church.

With God you had to line up and get a number, like at the bakery; with Jesus you could just walk over and see if he was busy at the moment.

This might be a good conversation starter for your next discussion. You can read the article at http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Does-God-Ever-Smile-/22271/

This article from Relevant Magazine has an interesting take on the subject — not one I expected when I first clicked on the link. http://tinyurl.com/y9djyqm