Seth Hedman

AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race, I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place. Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall, And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

Wow, it is the beginning of October and I am about to turn 24 on Friday.  The last month and a half is an absolute blur. I finally understand the hectic NSO (new student outreach) season. There have been so many new students and events and cool Jesus things that I could write an update for each week!  Nevertheless, I will hit some of the major events that God brings to mind. Being on Campus Man, I love college students! Overall, I am just thrilled to be working on campus. I am living in a house right across the street from campus with a couple other recent college grads. I am grabbing meals with students to talk about life and Jesus.  I am playing pickup basketball with students.  It kind of feels like I'm back in college but instead of going into debt I am getting paid, instead of going to class I meet with students and do Jesus stuff, and instead of doing football all the time I am playing ultimate frisbee. It's the life! I am truly experiencing that "if you lo...

I've been seeing these Planned Parenthood ads going after Republican Senate candidate Joni Ernst and all I can say is: she's got my vote.  That means that she is a threat, that she takes her pro-life position seriously.  Maybe it has something to do with the fact that  Planned Parenthood in Iowa has closed 11 clinics in last two years  and if Ernst is elected, they face even greater resistance and restrictions.  The abortion industry is big business.   In 2009, they performed 332,278 abortions and made just 977 adoption referrals.  That makes up 37% of their income, which has led to 500 million in profits over the last decade.  If you do the math, thats $185 million dollars in profit from killing the unborn.  They give few to no  mammograms.   They frequently recommend sadomasochism, bondage, and torture (and worse, like fecal play) to underage girls .  They have been found to encourage and cover up statutory rape and chi...

[ update] I am encouraged by pictures and reports coming out of Ferguson tonight.  From the reports I read, the Governor called off local police and instead sent in state highway patrol troopers who, in civility and without riot gear, joined their fellow citizens to peacefully march and protest.  This is a victory for freedom and an answer to prayer.  Now let's pray that other officers and prosecutors will do their job well and gather the evidence for seeing that justice is done. [ original story ] When the small St. Louis community of Ferguson witnessed the death of an young black man at the hands of the police, it is appropriate to respond like this to such a tragedy:

Me and other first year IV staff at staff training. Whenever I write one of these updates, I look back at my Google calender to help recall what I did and big events that happened. Looking back on June and July, it's hard to even pick a few events that stick out to write about. It was a busy, hectic, awesome, fun, and rewarding summer. I worked a ton, prayed a ton, traveled a ton, and enjoyed every minute because it was preparing me for this August and the beginning of the school year.  Here are a few highlights: 

The Same People Calling Slippery Slope Arguments A Fallacy Are Now Using Slippery Slope To Describe The Hobby Lobby Ruling Logic is not our generation's strong suit. Most University students walk around holding many inconsistent and illogical beliefs on a regular basis. For example, many students believe "There is no Truth" or some variation (no absolutes, it's all relative), ignoring the fact they have just made a truth claim they believe is True. They will believe that everyone should be tolerant except against intolerant people. I have had people look me in the eye and tell me they don't really know if 2+2=4 or not. If I point out the logical errors of their ways, that they have broken the law of non-contradiction and inherently contradicted themselves, they simply point out that logic is all a social construct and language is inherently meaningless anyway. Nevermind that statement must be meaningful to be true. It is at this point I feel like ripping...

The Law is reason free from passion. - Aristotle I was very disturbed by the aftermath of the Hobby Lobby ruling yesterday, both from my friends on social media, from bloggers online, and from politicians with real power and influence. After I read the case and wrote a basic outline , I kept hearing people, over and over again, say things that simply were not true. There was a lot of passionate rhetoric that had no substance in reality. At best, this response is proof that our political discourse has truly devolved into ignorant soundbites that get the most clicks and votes, where truth is an afterthought. At worst, politicians and pundits are deliberately deceiving people to rile up your base and smear political opponents. It's probably a little bit of both. Remember the narrative pushed by the left: the Republican war on women. It's not about Truth, it's about the narrative that helps re-election. I picked out a few of the deceptive untrue or irrelevent memes I ...

My legal mind really enjoyed reading the Hobby Lobby case today. Here are 8 keys to understanding the ruling, it actually makes a ton of sense. 1. Hobby Lobby already provided 16 of the 20 contraceptives mandated by the Affordable Care Act. They only objected to IUDs and morning after pills that may prevent implantation of a fertilized egg, thereby violating their religious beliefs that life begins at conception and should be protected. 2. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) was an act passed by a Democratic Congress in 1993 (and signed by Clinton) that reiterated religious protection of all "persons" by requiring that any law, even if applying to the general public, must not "substantially burden" one's religious convictions without being for a "compelling government interest" and using the "least restrictive means."

Our Rejection of the Five-Fold Gifts of Ephesians 4 Has Created A Crisis in Church Leadership When it comes to the Ephesians 4 model of church leadership I have laid out in previous posts, my understanding is relatively impercise. I am not going so far as to argue for the exact details and systematic structure of a local church, or greater church denomination, ought to implement. In fact, that is actually more of what the spiritual gift of managing described in 1 Corinthians 12 is for. I am arguing that whatever structure is built, it must have different people in high ranking leadership with all of these gifts or else the leadership will suffer tremendously, as history bears out.

Why do we only focus on pastor and teacher? The answer is found in church history, bad theology, and fear. In my last post, I introduced the Ephesians 4 model for church leadership and the 5 spiritual gifts: Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Shepherd, and Teacher. Clearly these are all Biblical terms and gifts that compliment each other well in church leadership. Clearly, we can see many of these gifts and characteristics in ourselves and others around us. So why is the apostle, prophet, and evangelist so uncommon in the local church? Why do we drive by churches that advertise their "Head Pastor" but not their "Head Evangelist?" I would love to see an ad in the church bulletin looking for a "Youth Prophet." The answer is found in the history and development of the church.

How Ephesians 4 Changes How We See The Church Several weeks ago, I went on all-too-common twitter rant, lamenting the pain and suffering in the world and wondering if I'm not wasting my time leading worship or working on a college campus.  A mentor saw the rant and pointed me in the direction of a sermon series over the Ephesians 4 model for church leadership and, in particular, the role of the prophet. I am not much of one for "personality tests" and whatnot, but I was floored by how well this biblical model described me and, as I have researched and thought about it more, how our ignorance of this model has led so many problems the church is experiencing today.  My research inspired me to write a lot over this topic. I argue that the church's historical disregard for the Ephesians 4 model of leadership has led to a crisis in Church leadership, a systematic injustice which amputates the Body of Christ  and handicaps the Church's ability to fully and properly...

Battles Over Religious Expression Continue To Get IV Kicked Off Campus The campus ministry I work for, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, was featured by the New York Times today at the center of the clash between colleges and christian groups over the freedom of association. All over the country InterVarsity is getting kicked off of campuses and refused official recognition because they refuse to allow non-Christians into leadership positions.  

After being inspired by Eric Rafferty and spending basically an entire day on the awesome  piktograph.com , I completed this infographic for the vision God has given me for the next two years at Central and William Penn and my need for partners.  I'm really proud of it!

        So... May really flew by! Two weeks of finishing up at Drake, two weeks at a conference in Missouri, and all of a sudden it's June!  I'm excited to share with you some of the great experiences I had with the grace of God and His people this month! Leaving A Legacy          During the first two weeks of May, I ended my semester working at Drake as a volunteer staff.  I briefly mentioned in my last update that I had finished June leading worship for the last time at Drake.  It was a bittersweet moment, playing for the last time with two other seniors on the worship team, but finishing with a really fun night of worship and celebration.

Wow! April was a really fun month.  I got to see a lot of fruit on campus, have great interactions with students, and really start to settle into my role as a staff and raising partners.  The month was not without challenges though, including a nose surgery that sidelined me for a full week.  Two major highlights stick out with a couple minor points. Free Relays Taxi!!!! In response to reading the book Radical by David Platt, our InterVarsity leadership group got together last Spring and discussed how we might live out that book by radically serving our campus.  We came up with the idea to give free taxi rides home to students during Drake Relays, a big party week on campus.  We were a little worried about logistics and how students would respond... but it went amazing! We gave over 500 rides over three days and had nothing but ecstatic responses!

God has something to say. Imagine a righteous man who always does what is right: First, he worships Me exclusively; he doesn't indulge in gluttony or excess, nor does he worship idols like money or success—he doesn't even think about it! He puts God first above everything else; money, sex, success, relationships. Nothing gets in the way of God. Second, he does not sleep with anyone but his wife. He doesn’t have sex before He is committed to His wife.  He doesn’t watch porn. He is in control of His sexual appetite.

After much prayer and reflection, I gave this spoken word poem at Vineyard Community Church on 4/6/14 over the life of Daniel the Prophet. On The Shores of Babylon Daniel's Answer to The King by Briton Riviere (1890) God is my Judge That’s what my name means You may know me as Daniel But they even tried to take that from me I know you live in an age of plenty You think yourselves quite mighty And scoff at the idea of tyranny But take a minute, remove this cultural context which is so blinding And step into my shoes, you’ll see what I mean

It's Official I am proud to officially announce that I'm going to be a full-time InterVarsity campus missionary at Central University in Pella, Iowa!!!  It was a long process and I spent a lot of time in prayer and talking with friends and family, but I have no doubt that Central is where God wants me to be.  Go Dutch! Here's the story. I never got to sign a letter of intent when I came to play football at Drake, so I decided to fake a signing to go on staff at Central.

This is the first of a "Perspective of a Prophet" series in which I will be extensively studying and then speaking from,  the perspective of various Prophets . These words are not necessarily what I would say nor how would say them but from the perspective of the prophet. This installment is John the Baptist. Preaching of St. John the Baptist by  Domenico Ghirlandaio (1490) You wouldn't like me very much. Jesus called me the greatest man ever that ever lived... but you wouldn't like me very much. I prepared the way for the Messiah, that He may reconcile all people to God... but you wouldn't like me very much. You wouldn't like me because I told the truth and didn't pull any punches. Because I called people to "REPENT!" and "BEAR FRUIT!" before I told them that God loves them.  I'm sure you would have reminded me to "speak the truth in love" and "not be so serious all the time." You wouldn...

In order to fully understand sexuality today, in a culture drowning in lust and confusion, we have to go back to the very beginning, to Adam & Eve, and learn that human sexuality is not about fun, pleasure, love, or even procreation; it's about Jesus.  Can we really use Adam & Eve as that kind of universal principle? Adam & Eve in Worthy Paradise by Peter Paul Rubens (1615).  Genesis Principle Genesis 2:24 reads: " For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh." This brief verse following the creation of the first humans is more than just a description of the first act of sex between Adam & Eve, but a principle and standard by which all future human sexuality and marriages should be judged and based on. The future tense of "shall" and the reference to father and mother, of which Adam & Eve had none, shows this is, in fact, talking about future sexual relat...

Our parents spent 18 years preparing us for the world. Now that we're on our own, we do what we want, often to our doom. Our early years in our parent's house were spent learning a lot of do's and don't, a lot of life lessons, and a lot of cliches we rolled our eyes at.  Usually our teenage years we feel like we are under the heavy boot of Big Brother and can't wait to get out the house. College, for many, is the first time we are on our own away from home and our parent's edicts, so we respond by basically complete rebellion against everything they've ever taught us.  Here's compelling proof that during College we do the exact opposite of what our parents told us to. 1)  "Don't make faces like that or it will get stuck" In an effort to rebel against our parent's ban on making faces, these girls have resorted to looking like aquatic birds for aesthetic reasons. The plus side is they're really good at eating spaghetti.  M...