Project 12 -- Jesus People USA Ten Month Discipleship Intensive (Chicago)

We are off on this years outreach next Monday Februrary 9. We don't know where we will be located in the Ocala forest so we may be out of reach of facebook. If not we will send news and pix as we go. If we lose the internet we will report as soon as we get home. Please, lots of prayer, for travel, for opportunities, for needed rest, and freedom from sickness.

Someone asked when registration for Project 12 is closed. Actually it never does. We accept anyone into the school at any time even after the start, even way after. The way we make up for that, if they want to graduate is to have them attend the next year's session up to the time they entered. We have several students coming back this year from last year. By the way it looks like we have about ten coming this year. I always hope for about 12. It makes it seem like so original.God Bless and if you are thinking about coming, give us a write:curt (at) jpusa (dot) org.

Going to Andrew and Rebecca's wedding was like a Project 12 reunion.

Whitney Rae Hurst, Jon reminded me that you had been in Project 12 -- Jesus People USA Ten Month Discipleship Intensive (Chicago). We're so proud that a P12 almuni is going to serve in a orphanage in China for 3 years!. We wish the very for you, you're going to be such a blessing to the kids there!!

There is only One --Jesus

Project 12's, The Gathering, is the kickoff for the year. We call Project 12 an intensive but The Gathering is even more intensive. We might relate it to a boot camp of learning to love one-another and God.
This year The Gathering will be held at Hebron Ministry Center near Bloomington Indiana from Sept 28 through Oct 5. Hebron is a drug rehab for men. The following poem capsulates our respect for what they do.

I'll remember the men of Hebron farm,
Long after the next ice age
Flattens this part of Indiana.
But no matter how those heavy glaciers
Scour these acres,
They will not obliterate
What was done here'
These fields will still be haunted with hope.
On dark nights trees will look like crosses
And the hound of heaven will howl
Still sniffing out the lost.
The wind will sigh, Jesus, Jesus
Through the leaves
Someone in that day will understand
The old, old truth
That when the men of Hebron are gone
Even the rocks will cry out.

At The Gathering P 12 staff and students will learn and practice worship methods that apply to both public and private worship. We will open the question, how do we know what we think we know about Christ. We will tell our stories to each other and try to understand how what we have been, good and bad, feeds into what we are and how the Holy Spirit can help us be Christ's servants. We will also take some time to anticipate what living in intentional community is like. That's a lot of stuff. That's why we call it an intensive. Bonfires, hikes, personal alone times, wonder walks, play worship, Bible study, stories, movie discussions, treats, prayer together. The Gathering is what we have always known as a retreat but in this one we want to come out "wrecked for the world" and ready for discipleship.
Start praying now and during the week of October 5 through October 12, 2014.

This poem pictures what all the staff tries to do in Project 12.

His name was Stoney.
He was not a sculptor
Who sets his vision in granite.
He was a quarry man
Who takes what is set in stone
Separates it out of the rock
From which it was hewn
Shapes it, knocks off the rough edges of
Big personality
Prone to venality
Unfinished puberty
Staking out its property
"What's the plausibility
Of my applausability?"
From the wannabe rock star

Cutting the chips away
So it will fit the place
The architect has chosen.
Not the planner
Nor the preacher
He was the texture maker.
Differing faces on different stones
Make beautiful places,
When put together
Straight and true.
Not easy to do

But since we understand the unity
Of deity as the multiplicity of trinity,
It is easy it is to see how
Rough hewn stones
Can fit together miraculously.
They call it The Church.

Thank you Johannes de Silentio for not questioning, not whining, not saying no, leaving our comfortable life for awhile. Thank you for your obedience to the Lord. Thank you for sleeping on the ground, camping out with a bunch of kids, trying to reach lost souls. Praying that the Lord will bring the Project 12 -- Jesus People USA Ten Month , Discipleship Intensive team in touch with some people who God has been working in their hearts, and ready to follow Jesus! Ocola, Florida, 60 to 70 degree weather, here they come! God bless you all!!

Grounds for God

At the Project 12 Gathering the students were given a sheet of philosophical terms to memorize, subtitled "Terms that will help you be interesting at parties." They were given experiences that raised questions, "What is the process by which one comes to believe in God?" "What is faith, anyway?" "Isn't faith at the bottom of everything?"
At the end they wrote their own personal grounds for belief in God. Here are samples of what they wrote.

The band, As Cities Burn wrote the lyric, “I think our God isn't God if he fits in our heads.” That has always really resonated with me.
__________

My thesis is this: If God is real, and he is who he says he is, then what the Bible says must be true. Which means that if we seek God with our whole hearts then we will find him. Then I suppose the question is, am I really seeking him with my whole heart?
How do I know if I am seeking him with my whole heart? And how do I know if I have really found him?
__________

I think back to how God has loved me thought all my transitions as a Christian, and that He won’t leave me regardless of how many different transitions I may go through.
__________

The only way anyone can believe in God is purely by faith. You can have reasonable evidence that leads you to believe, but that evidence is relative. It is personal to the individual. It's all perception. Many different people can have the same experience, and all of those people will get different things out of it.
__________

In one of the worship and prayer times we had one night God just became real to me and I knew that God was there. My faith became my own and God spoke and moved that night.
__________

So, my grounds in Christianity are based on from when I was growing up but I believe that he has led me to have a personal relationship with him and that he has a plan and purpose for me that is led by the bible and not by man.
__________

I have yet to find my reasons for believing. But if all of what we see is real, I do believe that there is strong evidence for creative design.
__________

I support a thesis of both intelligent design and a transcendent experience of Special Revelation.
__________

If I have an intellect to imagine God exists, then He must have given it to me, therefore he exists.
__________

An epistemology rooted in the belief of a large group of people who have the same (or similar) presuppositions is not necessarily valid. If this view were not subjective, denominations of the Christian worldview wouldn't exist. Because there are denominations within Christianity that essentially contradict other denominations.
__________

God loves me so much that He allows me to choose to love him not because I have to, but because I want to love him back. It is better to have too much room than not enough room.
__________

In my small confused mind I cannot even begin to comprehend the great paradox that God is, but I find myself needing to thank Him often for the ways He surprises me, humbles me, loves me, and reminds me of my own frailty and insignificance without destroying me...
__________

For me, the belief was aroused not only by the things written in the Bible but also by the experiences I have in my life.
__________

I was alone, in the quiet of my room, when God showed up and held my hand and whispered truths to my heart about how He would never leave or forsake me, as long as I lived.
__________

Thankfully, Jesus patiently held my hand while I slowly made the jump from impatiently waiting to waiting in earnest, finally ready to hear what He had for me next.
__________

I asked my father why he exactly believed in God. He said, "I dunno. I just believe. That's it. I don't really have a reason."
__________

My epistemology is very simple, I believe in the God of the Bible due to my experiences.
__________

I accepted Christ as my Savior. Nothing transcendent happened. (Well the scriptures say that angels rejoice over someone knowing the Lord, but of course I couldn't hear it.)
__________

Faith is setting aside logic and reason and saying to my self, I don't know why you did this God but I trust you any way.
__________

I don't care a lot about the textbook side of believing in God. The whole concept of proving where the Bible came from or if there is proof of God on earth doesn't matter much to me. I know God is real because I chose to believe so.

Grounds for God

At the Project 12 Gathering the students were given a sheet of philosophical terms to memorize, subtitled "Terms that will help you be interesting at parties." They were given experiences that raised questions, "What is the process by which one comes to believe in God?" "What is faith, anyway?" "Isn't faith at the bottom of everything?"
At the end they wrote their own personal grounds for belief in God. Here are samples of what they wrote.

The band, As Cities Burn wrote the lyric, “I think our God isn't God if he fits in our heads.” That has always really resonated with me.
__________

My thesis is this: If God is real, and he is who he says he is, then what the Bible says must be true. Which means that if we seek God with our whole hearts then we will find him. Then I suppose the question is, am I really seeking him with my whole heart?
How do I know if I am seeking him with my whole heart? And how do I know if I have really found him?
__________

I think back to how God has loved me thought all my transitions as a Christian, and that He won’t leave me regardless of how many different transitions I may go through.
__________

The only way anyone can believe in God is purely by faith. You can have reasonable evidence that leads you to believe, but that evidence is relative. It is personal to the individual. It's all perception. Many different people can have the same experience, and all of those people will get different things out of it.
__________

In one of the worship and prayer times we had one night God just became real to me and I knew that God was there. My faith became my own and God spoke and moved that night.
__________

So, my grounds in Christianity are based on from when I was growing up but I believe that he has led me to have a personal relationship with him and that he has a plan and purpose for me that is led by the bible and not by man.
__________

I have yet to find my reasons for believing. But if all of what we see is real, I do believe that there is strong evidence for creative design.
__________

I support a thesis of both intelligent design and a transcendent experience of Special Revelation.
__________

If I have an intellect to imagine God exists, then He must have given it to me, therefore he exists.
__________

An epistemology rooted in the belief of a large group of people who have the same (or similar) presuppositions is not necessarily valid. If this view were not subjective, denominations of the Christian worldview wouldn't exist. Because there are denominations within Christianity that essentially contradict other denominations.
__________

God loves me so much that He allows me to choose to love him not because I have to, but because I want to love him back. It is better to have too much room than not enough room.
__________

In my small confused mind I cannot even begin to comprehend the great paradox that God is, but I find myself needing to thank Him often for the ways He surprises me, humbles me, loves me, and reminds me of my own frailty and insignificance without destroying me...
__________

For me, the belief was aroused not only by the things written in the Bible but also by the experiences I have in my life.
__________

I was alone, in the quiet of my room, when God showed up and held my hand and whispered truths to my heart about how He would never leave or forsake me, as long as I lived.
__________

Thankfully, Jesus patiently held my hand while I slowly made the jump from impatiently waiting to waiting in earnest, finally ready to hear what He had for me next.
__________

I asked my father why he exactly believed in God. He said, "I dunno. I just believe. That's it. I don't really have a reason."
__________

My epistemology is very simple, I believe in the God of the Bible due to my experiences.
__________

I accepted Christ as my Savior. Nothing transcendent happened. (Well the scriptures say that angels rejoice over someone knowing the Lord, but of course I couldn't hear it.)
__________

Faith is setting aside logic and reason and saying to my self, I don't know why you did this God but I trust you any way.
__________

I don't care a lot about the textbook side of believing in God. The whole concept of proving where the Bible came from or if there is proof of God on earth doesn't matter much to me. I know God is real because I chose to believe so.