Josh Benner

Tag: bgsu

  • People oppose Christian prayer gathering at the day of prayer

    Wood_County_Courthouse_Jail
    Today is the National Day of Prayer. It’s a day set aside to turn to God in prayer. The modern day National Day of Prayer was established by an act of congress in 1952, although similar themed days in American government go back to the 1770s.

    I came across an article in my former college’s newspaper this week talking about some division within the Bowling Green, Ohio community over this year’s day of prayer.

    Bowling Green has an annual prayer gathering in front of the Wood County courthouse. This specific prayer gathering is organized by a privately funded Christian task force. The Christian task force (prepare to be shocked) keeps their prayer gathering as a Christian prayer meeting with Christian speakers.

    This is the heart of the controversy because some think that it’s wrong that the event is excluding other faiths.

    One of the wonderful things about our nation is the freedom to assemble and associate. Anyone of any other faith is welcome to setup a similar event for the day of prayer (or every day, for that matter). But a Christian group has every right to keep their event as a Christian event. The job of the privately funded task force is not to setup an event that equally represents all faiths.

    Literally hundreds of thousands of churches meet in a similar fashion every week. They’re also not meeting to pray to the deities of other religions.

    Part of the argument against this exclusively Christian prayer gathering is that it gets away from the heart of the meaning of the day of prayer. We can agree to disagree over that, but it doesn’t change that this specific group has decided to make their prayer service an exclusively Christian service.

    I ask: would anyone take offense at Buddhists having a Buddhist only prayer service? Would there be objections to Jewish people having a Jewish prayer service? Absolutely anyone is welcome to attend this Christian prayer service so long as they understand that it is a Christian prayer service, and that involves praying to Jesus in the name of Jesus. And that’s the heart of the issue. The Christian task force isn’t interested in generic prayers.

    Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear what you think, and don’t forget to subscribe! 

    Josh Benner  has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He has served churches in Minnesota and Illinois. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in St. Louis.

  • College graduation 10 years later

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    It’s crazy that I graduated from college a decade ago.

    I still remember so many events from that time like they were yesterday. I can still see the map of campus in my memory.

    So much of the person I am today I trace back to my time in college. So many of the friendships I made in those years I still maintain.

    I think of myself as a freshman. So shy and quiet. I had very little self-reliance. I grew up in college. I went from someone who was always a loner, to being in a fraternity and becoming president of one of the largest student organizations on campus (and involved in what felt like every other student group there was). I never even went to any of our dances in high school and in college, I was popular.

    I think about my fraternity. That community was what made college college for me.

    I think of all of those philosophy classes. People make fun of philosophy as being a “useless major,” but I still take a lot of pride in having a philosophy degree. I think a background in philosophy gave me some tools that I’ve continued to use.

    I struggled a lot at first. I had always managed to get decent grades in high school without really having to try, but college was different. Looking back, I doubt most of those 100 level classes in which I struggled were even that intellectually rigorous, I just had no idea how to take a college class.

    Like many freshman, I would come home whenever I had the opportunity, I procrastinated with my work, and my grades suffered. After that first semester, I was sincerely considering leaving Bowling Green and trying to enroll elsewhere.

    It wasn’t until my second semester that I had my first taste of Greek Life. That experience made me feel like I was truly a part of the university. For me and the rest of my time at Bowling Green, the rest was history.

    Ironically, as a young student, I would go home every chance I got. When I first graduated, I’d go back every chance I got. But the years went on, younger friends graduated, I went back less.

    My life has gone in directions I never would have expected. I cherish those experiences and memories. I will always be thankful for Bowling Green. Roll Along! 

    Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear what you think, and don’t forget to subscribe! 

    Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.

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  • Remembrance and reflection: my friend Johnnie


    I still remember the first time I ever talked to Johnnie. He was helping plan a philanthropy for his fraternity, and he called me after I had volunteered to do stand up comedy at the event. He was so enthusiastic, that I had a hard time understanding him. Johnnie had never heard my routine before, but he was so excited and complimentary that he made me feel like I was Jerry Seinfeld, or some other famous comedian.
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  • The perspective tragedy gives on what really matters

    It’s so easy to lose perspective. It’s so easy to complain out of habit, to get frustrated when things don’t go perfectly. We have our waiter make a mistake with an order and respond like they’ve committed some type of wartime atrocity.

    We complain and we get bitter. I think it’s not because the things about which we complain are so important, but because complaining becomes our comfort zone. Instead of just being happy and finding joy in everyday life, we treat anger like a warm blanket and wrap ourselves in it. (more…)

  • BGSU tragedy: shared grief I’ve observed from alumni

    I was out to dinner with my family this evening. The conversation swirled around various topics, but I was mostly in a different world, thinking of the deaths of three young sorority sisters in Alpha Xi Delta and I struggled to muster up much of an appetite to eat my meal. At a couple points, for a brief moment, I thought that I might have a warm tear trickle down my cheek, but I was able to hold it in. Like a broken record, I continually find myself muttering “it’s so tragic, this is just so sad.”

    For the current undergraduates at Bowling Green, I don’t think Greek life will ever look quite the same. An event this monumental can have a way of dividing time; there was time before the Alpha Xi Delta tragedy, but now the Greek community lives in a world after the tragedy.
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