previous happenings - 2007/2006 school year

Large Group (Aug 23, 2007) had Matt Belousoff (postdoc in Chemistry) talk about "Luke 15: Sheep, Coins and Wayward Children"

We brought cheer and fellowship and music to theHymn Sing at the Patrician Senior Home in UTC (Aug 9, 2007).

Large Group (July 26, 2007) had Stephen Mills (biochemistry professor at USD) facilitate a discussion titled "Genesis 1: 144 hours or ~14.4 billion years - Does it matter?"

Large Group IceCream & Game Social (July 12, 2007). IceCream, toppings, games.

July 4 Potluck at the Kua residence. (Photos coming soon.) Game playing and snacking started at 2pm. Then we had the main meal, dessert, more games, and some folks were able to catch the fireworks from Kristen's in Coast.

GCF SoCal Retreat (Jun 21-22, 2007) was held here in San Diego. Craig Gartland, IVCF graduate and faculty ministries regional director, led discussions on Following Christ in Graduate School.

Large Group: (Jun 13, 2007)
(Michael Evans, Graduate Student in Sociology)

End of Year Bonfire (May 31, 2007) with BBQ and smores, at La Jolla Shores. We also had a time of worship around the bonfire.

Large Group: A different model of Economics (May 17, 2007)
(Rich Halverson, West Coast Director of the Veritas Forum)

Large Group: David & Solomon - Kings or Mafiosi? Current Debates in Biblical Archeology (May 3, 2007)
(Archaeologist Tom Levy, professor in the anthropology department at UCSD.)
Recently, the question of whether the early Israelite kings were historical individuals or mythic figures created by later editors of the Hebrew Bible has become one of the most contentious issues in Biblical studies and archeology today. New archaeological data concerning the historicity of David and Solomon has come to light from Biblical Edom, one of ancient Israel's geographic neighbors in modern Jordan. Join us for an illustrated lecture highlighting the most recent discoveries by a UCSD Department of Antiquities of Jordan expedition that shed new light on this problem.

Large Group: Is Christianity to Blame for the Ecological Crisis? (Apr 19, 2007)
(David de Haan, professor of chemistry at the University of San Diego.)

Adjusting to Christian Life in Graduate School (Apr 15, 2007) panel discussion for the undergraduates. A panel of GCFers talked about what it's like to be a Christian and a graduate student and fielded questions about life in graduate school.

Easter Potluck (Apr 8, 2007) hosted by Aaron

Praise, Prayer and Communion (Apr 1, 2007)
Taking some time together as a community to reflect on where we've been, praise God, pray together, share communion, and to ask his hand on the new quarter.

Large Group: The Many and the One: Seeking Intellectual, Moral, and Religious Wholeness in a Fragmented World (Apr 05, 2007)
(Richard Madsen, Professor of Sociology at UCSD)
Max Weber said that the religion of modernity is polytheistic: we find ourselves caught between the irreconcilable demands of power, money, science, art, family, and religion. With its increasing specialization and its aloofness from society, the modern university is a good example of this. This talk covered how Madsen's autobiography and intellectual work tries to confront this fragmentation and to overcome it.

Large Group: What Religious People Think about Reproductive Genetic Technologies (Mar 22, 2007)
(John Evans, Associate Professor of Sociology, UCSD)
What do the average religious people in the U.S. think about reproductive genetic technologies? This talk reported on preliminary results from a national wide study of members of religious congregations. It also compared and contrasted differences between the average person and religious elites.

Large Group: A Protestant View of the Theology of Gender (Mar 8, 2007)
(Peter Jones, Adjunct Professor and Scholar-in-Residence at Westminster Seminary)

Burke Lecture: The Power of the Word: Scripture and the Rhetoric of Empire (Feb 23, 2007)
(Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza, Krister Stendahl Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School)
Instead of Large Group, GCF attended the Burke Lecture.

Spirituality and the Academy Conference (Feb 10, 2007) at USC.

Large Group: Conversation on Nature, Art, Life, and Meaning (Feb 8, 2007) (James Hubbell)

Local artist James Hubbell (for more info, check out: www.hubbellandhubbell.com or http://www.laprensa-sandiego.org/archieve/june27-03/space.htm).

Integration Dinner on Richard Niebuhr's "Christ and Culture" (Feb 2, 2007) GCF's professional and amateur social scientists got together to discuss the pertinent issue of how Christianity relates with culture from Richard Niebuhr's classic, "Christ and Culture".

Large Group: Science, the Evangelical Church and Origins: Is There a Pathway to Peace? (Jan 25, 2007)
(Darrel R. Falk, Professor of Biology at Point Loma Nazarene University)
Professor Falk is the author "Coming to Peace with Science: Bridging the Worlds between Faith and Biology," published in 2004. Falk explained his personal struggle to bring harmony between his life as a biologist and the evangelical faith of his youth, and how one can be a sincere Christian while believing that God created life gradually over billions of years using mechanisms which are still being discovered through the science of biology. Falk also addressed how evangelicals feel that gradual creation presents theological challenges that prevent them from embracing it and how the church can be unified even when its members hold different views on origins.

Large Group: Integrating Faith with a Career in Science (Jan 11, 2007)
(Elizabeth Komives, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, UCSD)
Professor Komives discussed the ancient Christian interpretation of Genesis and Exodus as it relates to evolution, the nature of man, and who God really is. She also gave a personal account of how this perspective has influenced her career in science and the integration of faith and science in her own life.

Praise, Prayer and Communion (Jan 7, 2007)
Taking some time together as a community to reflect on where we've been, praise God, pray together, share communion, and to ask his hand on the coming year.

GCF Fall 2006 Large Groups to be archived...

GCF Beach Day (Oct 2006)
We had a beach day at La Jolla Shores and invited both new and old students to come out and have a good time. People socialized, threw frisbees and footballs around, and walked barefoot in the ocean. And there was food too!

GCF BBQ (Sep 2006)
GCF had its annual welcoming BBQ to start off the school year in North Mesa. As usual, there was plenty of food and fun to go around!

NSO Table (Sep 2006)
GCF welcomed all new graduate students with a table at the Graduate Activities Fair during orientation located at Center Hall. We were excited to talk to so many graduate students and spend some time getting to know them. We provided cookies and candy to everyone who stopped by.