Point Loma Nazarene University

Last weekend (Friday evening, Saturday) I was at Point Loma Nazarene University in glorious San Diego for a spiritual retreat for students. This wasn’t my first time at Point Loma but that didn’t stop us from being stunned by the beauty of that campus overlooking the Pacific on the hills of Point Loma peninsula. So thanks to Mary Paul and Melanie Wolf (and recently departed Mark Carter) for the kind invitation; Kris and I loved it.

Chapel was my first stop where I “gospeled” on the King Jesus gospel project I’ve discussed here many times. It is always a delight to talk to college students and, now that I’ve moved to Northern Seminary, getting to be with college students was even more significant to me. We had a great lunch discussion with some student leaders, leading to a relaxing afternoon… so I could be ready for the retreat on campus.

We spent our afternoon on the beach at The Del (Hotel del Coronado), walking and basking in the beauty of the Pacific. (Saturday afternoon we walked the boardwalk/walk on Shelter Island, punctuated as it was by the occasional pergola decked out in bougainvillea.) Ah, San Diego, we love ya.

The focus was spiritual disciplines, and that led to three separate sessions and conversations: Friday evening on the Jesus Creed as a recited prayer that can shape our day; Saturday morning on the value of learning how to pray (and pray better) through the use of prayer books, beginning with the Psalms and then on to the various prayer books in the church; and then our closing session was on fasting, where I have a general policy that I discourage anyone — especially young adults — from fasting until they have been given clearance by a medical professional. Yes, I have a book on each topic — The Jesus Creed and Praying with the Church and Fasting — so it was an especially intense time for me as I sought to bring out the essential ideas of each project for the students.

Great questions and conversation with those PLNU students.

Now our thanks to Mary and Melanie, and then to Melanie and Phil for taking us out for a wonderful dinner at Buon Appetito in San Diego … and to the whole PLNU community for its education and focus on discipleship. I’m a fan of the Nazarene movement and so this was a good time for me to be with them again.