Recent Comments ARCHIVE - Love writes a letter to Hate - 19 things I want RUF to be about - Time to Start - Casa Hogar 2 - Casa Hogar 2 - Casa Hogar 1 - End of the Semester Report - A poem by Nicole Rowlette - Mexico - Poem by Anthony Plopper - My Poem - Patty Griffin Rocks My House - End of the Decade - The Gospel by Tim Keller - Sex by Marva Dawn - The Interviews - Becky Robertson - The Interviews - Katie Willis - The Interviews - Ian Puffenberger - The Interviews - The Moyni - The Interviews - Chris Schaefer		The Interviews - Chris Schaefer 10/13/09 Chris is certainly right about sitting in the back. He, Matt and John would slip in after we started and sit on the table in the back. I would usually wander back there during the singing and say hi to them, but I tried to give them some space. It felt like they needed to work some things out without aggressive meeting and greeting. I'm glad Chris kept coming around, hearing the gospel and entering our community. He always was an insightful thinker who also loved to be around people and serve them without a lot of flashy programs. I'm not surprised he's doing what he's doing - which sounds really cool. 1. How did you first get involved with RUF? I didn't get involved with RUF until my sophomore year. My freshman year (2002-03) I participated in a different campus Christian ministry. It was very good in many ways. I met people who were very passionate about Jesus. They were serious about living the Christian life and about reaching out to others around them. But my best friends I found there, who were older and had spent more time with this Christian ministry, had grown increasingly disenchanted. It worked a bit too much like a business or the military. In the decisions on how to approach people and make friends, there was a little too much strategy and too little reliance on the Holy Spirit. There were heavy pressures to spend most nights of the week doing activities with this ministry. There was also not much of an interest in arts, culture, and the life of the mind--all things very important to me. Some of my good friends came through this ministry and they benefited greatly from the emphasis on the Bible and developing the Christian disciplines. I was, however, unsatisfied. So, the fall of my sophomore year, I started attending RUF along with some others who felt similarly. Matt Moynihan, John Harris, and I would slip into RUF meetings on the top floor of Dale Hall Tower. We would sit on the very back row, on the very margin of respectable group participation, but singing the RUF songs there in the dark along with everyone else, I somehow felt at home. 2. What was/is your favorite part about RUF? It was always a fascinating group of individuals. While I was there, we had an Eastern Orthodox guy, some true seekers with varying degrees of faith (one of whom called himself a "heretic"), a bunch of ex-Baptist/non-denominational types, and a number of people who grew up Reformed. One thing, which my time with Doug really impressed upon me was the importance of community. In American Christianity today, the individual really takes precedence over the group. And if you read the bible, you see the covenantal nature of salvation and the importance of the church body. For someone like me who grew up with "church-shopping", para-church ministries, and an excessive emphasis on individual salvation, RUF was a welcome change. Real community is hard, because you have to come to terms with the group's collective fallen-ness. But true community, when it happens, is quite beautiful. One RUF couple got married, and for housing, chose to fix up an old house on their own. The RUF (and Christ the King) community really rallied around the couple, working most Saturdays to clean and restore the house. I might add, that this display of community had more positive effects than just the restoration of the house: my roommate met the sister of the newly-wed, and ended up marrying her a few years later. 3. How would you describe your RUF to people interested in coming? Well, if it's anything like it was when I was around, RUF is composed of a laid-back, eclectic group of people, all bound together by the fact that they are sinners...forgiven sinners, but sinners nonetheless. It's not high-tech, super seeker-sensitive, but that's not what true Christianity and true community is all about. RUF is a place where you can ask questions and get to know people comfortably, and there's not . Doug always used to say that he needs to provide a backdoor for people to leave the group for whatever reason, which, as natural as it sounds, is not . 4. What traditions did you have at RUF that meant the most to you? Large group meetings were great. Hanging out at the Servens' house before, during, or after whatever event was always cool. - Do you have an appropriate funny moment that you can share? Matt Moynihan. 5. How did God use RUF in your life? It enabled me to reconcile my interests in academia and culture with Christian faith. I think the contradictions and pressures were too great in other churches and ministries for me to truly be able to be a Christian and to pursue my interests. 6. What did RUF teach you about Jesus and the church? That I didn't need to be perfect to come before God and be in the church. I had heard that truth in some form or another my entire life, but, as a perfectionist, I always felt pressure to get my issues straightened out before I could be accepted by God and the church (when church leaders regularly call you a "godly young man", it makes you hope that they never really get to know you). At RUF, I didn't feel that pressure. The part of the gospel about Jesus' atonement for me and then my fellowship with other sinners within the church made a lot more sense. 7. What are you doing now? Where are you in church? After OU, I spent a year in France and then two years at grad school in Philadelphia, where I was part of another great community. Now I'm living in Morocco, teaching English, and learning Arabic. I'm currently uncertain where God will lead me, but the biggest possibility right now is that I will finish my PhD and serve God in the academy somewhere, somehow. 8. What is the gospel? I'm still trying to understand it better, but here's a stab: The wonderful world that God created, and that we live in, is not what it is supposed to be. But God always had a plan to redeem the world, first through the Jews, and then specifically through the person of Jesus Christ, to be perfectly completed ultimately at the end of time, but with substantial effects in the here and now. Even though we do not deserve to play a part in this great plan of redemption, God has allowed us the honor out of his benevolent grace. As forgiven sinners, we walk through this life together in faith--faith in the person who made it possible, in hope--hope of that final redemption and restoration, and in love--love for God and for each other. Name: (optional)