Student Union, Grove City College
So I’m back in the Student Union building at Grove City College, Grove City, Pennsylvania. I say “back” because it was two years ago when I last wrote a couple of Catches from here. I spoke in chapel yesterday morning for the allotted 17 minutes, and something must have struck a chord because over 800 students came back to hear me in a 45 minute session last night.
I had numerous individual comments that what I was saying was just what was needed right now on this campus. And what I am saying is that the Christian subculture in America has gone off its track (if, indeed, it was ever on), and it was now up to them to enter the world as Christians in culture, not as cultural Christians. The use of the word “Christian” as an adjective is now a liability in a culture that thinks Christians are judgmental, pushy, anti-homosexual, and hypocritical.
I pointed out to them that as Christian musicians, we never proved ourselves on the world’s stage. We only excelled in our own separate Christian market where it was easy to be somebody with limited competition, like playing in our own sandbox.
I am amazed that they are receiving this and accepting the challenge to prove themselves in the world and bring the gospel along with them. The world never needed Christian anything. It needs Christians taking up their place in it. We can only pray that some of these students will do just that.
[By the way, if you live in the Grove City area, I have one more session tonight in the chapel at 7pm. I would love to meet you!]
John Fischer The Catch 
Hi John, If you see a very beautiful young lady with long curly dark auburn red hair, it is my daughter, Hannah, a senior at Grove City College. Her boyfriend, Ryan will probably be by her side. I told her to give you my regards if she gets a chance to talk to you. I’m praying your session goes well today as God continues to bless and use you. Jim Woodring
oh, how i wish grove city were accesible to me– no chance you have time to travel further east? – i’m hurting so very badly John- how i could use…
…insufficienly shut in to require a visit…feeling more tare than grain-
f
What a message! I trust it will be united with hearts to accept, not just in concept but in reality. “As you are going throughout the world…” is powerful and effective because it lifts up Jesus.
You are dead-on about our tendency to self-isolate. Recognizing the problem and actually doing something different is the real challenge, isn’t it?
Totally agree with you, John!
Several years ago, I had the proverbial “cup of coffee” at a Christian TV station — which is where I thought I was supposed to be — but got sacked in a way that could only have been God sending me a message. As I drove away, He said to me, “it is more important to be a Christian in broadcasting than in Christian broadcasting”. Should America (and, in fact, Canada) be a “Christian Nation” or a nation of Christians?
Hi John,
Being “Chirstians in culture” got me thinking about these words from Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel: “You are the salt of the earth”. Salt was used at that time to preserve meat. To “save” it. If the meat went bad because someone forgot to salt it, would we blame the meat? But that’s what we do with our society today. We blame it because it has gone “bad” rather than looking at the Church’s responsibility to be salt.
Grace and peace be yours in abundance!
Bruce MacPherson
Well put.
Hi John, Hope my son, a soph. at GCC took the opportunity to hear you. Back in my DJ days, I played your stuff on the late night radio — wore out the vinyl on Still Life.
Could you help me with something? Looking for your lyrics for “Rest in Him.”
Keep up the good work of challenging young believers to be a part of their culture — changing it from the inside out. My best, Bruce Schultz, Minneapolis
Glad you found it.
I am not sure where exactly this item fits in… but I know it does, somewhere:
From an AP article on the New York protests –
But from the kitchen perspective, the most crucial donation happened a few days ago, when the Rev. Leopoldo Carl of Overcoming Love Ministries in Brooklyn wandered into the park and offered the use of his soup kitchen — a state-of-the-art commercial operation capable of cooking for more than 1,500. The church, he said, had plenty of cold storage too.
“My congregation wants to help,” he boomed. “And many of them are homeless.”
Volunteer Heather Squire was incredulous. She had spent the past week desperately searching for such a space, so that the protesters could store fresh produce for the winter and move away from the daily trips to home kitchens that are simply not equipped to cook in volume. She had even talked with a real estate agent about renting a commercial facility — a sore point among some protesters who would rather spend donated money on food.
“I’m an atheist,” Squire says. “But there is something mystical happening here.”
I thought this was a perfect example of what happens when Christians move out into the world instead of remaining insular.
How true!