1st and 2nd YEAR
When you come to a new place you are often wondering, “What are the rules?” because you need to know them so you’ll know when you’ve scored a touchdown or when you’ve stepped out of bounds. Well, at UCFSSM our rules are buried beneath the values we are trying to get you to adopt. In other words, you might stumble into our rules but we’re more worried about you breaking our values than our rules. It’s our desire to help you, and the Kingdom you serve, to thrive!
God has called you to UCFSSM, and our mission is to call out the revivalist in you.
REVIVALIST (n) a believer who is focused and passionate, willing to pay any price to live in purity and power because they are loved by God and love Him, whose manifest presence transforms lives and cultures.
Over the years, we have learned the important truth that who we are becoming is both expressed and affected by simple choices and behaviors. These choices and behaviors produce a lifestyle. Based on your call to become a revivalist, we have a set of expectations that we want you to adopt.
Ultimately, we want choices to flow from who we are. However, some things are first learned from the “outside in.” In other words, we adopt them before they feel quite natural or necessary because they help shape our inner world. School is often an “outside in” experience. For example, we didn’t know the English language but we imitated and adopted a set of behaviors, principles and exercises and eventually learned it.
“passion”
When we are passionate about something, our whole being is engaged. Our mind, emotions, bodies and energy are all directed at that thing that has captured us. Obviously, the Lord Himself is the One we encourage you to direct your passion towards. As you love Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength you tap into His passion for His Church, the lost, and yourself.
There is a “passion continuum” or scale; in other words, you might say, “I’m a 2 on a passion scale of ‘1 to 10’.” Then this year will be a great success if you become a “6” by years end. We don’t expect everyone to be a 10—though many will be—but we do expect growth.
At the very least, the core value of passion is expressed in the following:
- Worship with your whole being. Worship is not free time, or conversation time, or necessarily “soaking” time. It is a vital sacrifice we bring to the King every day. It is a step beyond convenience. It does take a purposeful heart to worship every day with joy but He is so worth it! Allowing yourself to become disconnected or uninvolved is not an option and leadership will address it if we see this in your life.
- Allow your passion to be revealed in excellence. Some of the work you are asked to produce is only viewed by you and God. That should be enough for you! If you find yourself trying to cut corners or “beat the system” you are missing the whole point of this school.
Most of you are already well aware of what it has cost you to attend UCFSSM. We recognize and value your sacrifice. Still, there is more. UCFSSM is not a “one night” school. Rather it’s an eight-month school and it costs far more than money to attend here. If you’re unwilling to pay the price, we might have to say to you, “Ok, we accept your resignation, pray about coming back next year.”
“Willingness to pay any price” at least looks like the following attitudes and behaviors:
- We don’t want you to miss a day of school, but you are allowed 2 absences before Christmas and 2 afterward. Please don’t treat these absences as something to “spend” to go to the beach, extend vacation or take a day off. This is exactly what we don’t want you to do! They are for crises and unavoidable situations that often arise. We expect you to manage these 4 “excused” absences so you will not require more.
- Leading with a king’s heart and a servant’s hands is one of the core values of a revivalist. So, we ask you to serve a whole lot. Be quick to volunteer whether it be tearing down the room or serving at a banquet. Your leaders have been setting an example in this area for years. One important lesson they have learned is that “the seat of service often turns into the throne of destiny.”
- UCFSSM is dependent upon your faithful payment of your school tuition. None of our money comes from the church’s general fund. “Paying any price” looks like getting a job, diligently getting support, or giving up something important or pleasurable (like a latte or a Christmas trip home) in order to keep your school tuition and housing current.
The Good News without power is not good news. Paul was glad in I Cor. 2 that his preaching wasn’t with persuasive words but demonstrations of power. Throughout the year, you will have lots of opportunities to allow the power of God to be demonstrated through you. One of our goals for you is the same as Christ’s assignment for the twelve disciples in Luke 9 - that every student would know how to drive out demons, heal the sick and preach the kingdom.
“loved by God and love Him”
All of this we do because we are loved, not to earn the love of God. Jesus died so that He might have relationship with us; don’t let go of this in the swirl of activity that is at UCFSSM.
- Let all other motives, be they a desire to change the world, to be a person of vision who’s “great for God,” or the drive to please leaders and classmates, be secondary to our connection with Him.
- Life is busy. UCFSSM is demanding and there’s a danger of losing your connection with Him in the midst of all this ministry. Concentrate on maintaining your personal friendship with the Lord this year. This is why journaling, prayer, and worship are so important. These are habits you must make space for outside of school. We believe you’re in school all day every day. Encountering God as you do your daily Bible reading can be a revival experience! It is a mistake to let go of Him in this season of new friends, learning about Him and ministering to and for Him.
“transforms lives and cultures”
Christ’s mandate to us is that we make disciples of the nations as we are “going.” All of us should graduate with a humble confidence that we can reproduce ourselves by “teaching them to obey everything Jesus Christ has commanded us” (Matt. 27). Like Paul says, “Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ.”
- Read the assigned books on time so that you can discuss them and understand a lecture in order to integrate the truth they contain into your life.
- Memorize the assigned scriptures on time that you might know the Word.
- Do your Kingdom Foundations studies on time so you can discuss them and understand a lecture about them, thus building a strong foundation.