Grant Norsworthy, an Australian bass player who has rocked out on stage as a member of bands Paul Coleman Trio and Sonicflood, challenged students to rethink the idea of worship as being something more than a slot in a church service where songs are sung.

"Nowhere in the recorded words of Jesus does he ever ask us to sing songs about his love," Norsworthy said during chapel, Tuesday. "Yet over and over again, he asks us to be his love to one another. When I realized that, it changed the course of my life."

In 2008, Norsworthy left Sonicflood and is now a spokesman for Compassion International, a Christian child advocacy organization involved in child sponsorship.

He said that Christians often misuse the word "worship," using it exclusively to describe singing songs about God and not using it as what it is intended: a word of action that describes Christians loving God and one another.

This "cheap worship," where one simply sings of God's love but neglects to act it out, is what Norsworthy called the "mortal enemy" of the Church.

"Our struggle today is for costly worship," Norsworthy said.

He then explained the paradoxical nature of "The Killing Tree," a song he used to perform with Paul Coleman Trio, to explain the paradoxical nature of Christianity.

"'Killing' is a very heavy word," Norsworthy said. "But tree is a life word. It's about greens and life. You put those two words together, and you've got a paradoxical, intriguing song title."

He said that the tree represented the cross - the greatest paradox of all, because, just like Christ, we must "die to live."

"What I'm trying to say to you today about cheap worship and costly worship is that we love the 'live', yes we do, but we really don't want the 'die,'" Norsworthy said.

He said that many modern worship songs, such as "Happy Day" and "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever," focus on the 'live' aspect of the cross' paradox and not the cost. He said the cross is a wonderful free gift to humanity, but paradoxically, this free gift costs everything.

Norsworthy then quoted James 1:27, saying that pure worship is taking care of the orphans and widows without becoming corrupted by the world.

"When James writes 'orphans and widows,' he means anyone I know about who's in need, anybody who's in my sphere of influence that needs help," Norsworthy said. "As I give it to them, that is worship."

He called this selfless lifestyle a "deathstyle," as one had to let their own selfish desires die.

Norsworthy, in regards to the last part of the verse, said that because of the ubiquitous message of the world that, instead of asking people to "die to live" tells them to "buy to live," he had become corrupted.

"This is the only way we will be God's love, rather than just singing about God's love," Norsworthy said, adding that churches were only known for being the latter.

Norsworthy didn't think the main problem with the world was war, poverty, starvation, natural disaster or terrorism but rather selfishness. He said people make sure that their needs are taken care of before thinking of others.

He said that whatever is left over goes to the poor and that little bit buys a little bit of "feel-good" for one's self.

He showed pictures of Tanzanian children that his friends, Peter and Ann, had visited and described how, despite the obvious poverty, the two were generously taken care of. On one wall of the house, "Jesu ana toshe" was written in Swahili, which means "Jesus is enough."

"I'm inspired by that," Norsworthy said. "I'm inspired by the people I've met in Rwanda. I'm not here to tell you about people who need your pity. I don't even really need your sponsorship to be honest with you."

He said that there will always be the poor because Jesus always wants us to have an opportunity to worship by caring for them and that he had wrongly seen the poor as an opportunity to feel good about himself.

"Yes, let's sing songs," Norsworthy said. "But only as they inspire us to be God's love."

This Halloween, JBU students participated in a type of door-to-door request different from the traditional trick-or-treaters.

Junior Liz Chance organized a canned-food drive on Oct. 31 from 5-8 p.m. for an Leaders Scholars Institute project. Nine teams competed, and together with Allen Canning Co., they collected over 1,000 non-perishable food items.

However, it was not until last Thursday that people began to sign up, Chance said.

"I was having a panic attack every time I saw a sign," she said.

Chance said that this delay came as a surprise to her because she thought that Halloween would be a perfect time for a food drive because of the ease of donation and the fact that Thanksgiving is right around the corner.

However, when the project was only a few days away and few had signed up, Chance started becoming apprehensive.

"This is a grade of mine, plus I just kept thinking how selfish JBU was going to look if they couldn't spend time to collect food for those in need," she said.

Soon though, people from the Fellowship of Christian Athletes along with others signed up to help, Chance said. They comprised teams of five to seven people and chose names such as "We Can," "Armadillo Roses" and "The Breakfast Club."

The winning team was "THE F.C.," led by Ryan Helmer with 227 items. Their prize was t-shirts designed and donated by A-One Graphix with the winning team's name on them, Chance said.

The work that went into this project was quite extensive, Chance said. She contacted local churches, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Manna Center for support. She requested funding from Student Government Association, which approved $100. She got John Marks to make flyers, and she publicized and organized everything. In addition, she did this in half the time because most students take the full semester, Chance said.

The food is going to the Manna Center in time for Thanksgiving meals in the community.

"It's definitely been a success," Chance said.

John Brown University's Students in Free Enterprise are beginning a new initiative this year by partnering with Sam's Club in Fayetteville, Ark. to impact two Sam's Club small business members in Siloam Springs by easing strain on the environment and their pocketbooks.

As part of the 2nd Annual Environmental Sustainability Challenge, a national SIFE competition, Sam's Club has agreed to grant the JBU SIFE team $1,000, which it will invest back into those businesses it chooses. SIFE's job is to help them implement more environmentally sustainable practices by targeting problems areas and making improvements in waste and recycling, conservation of water and energy and the relation of those green-business practices with the community.

Joe Walenciak, professor of business and faculty advisor for the challenge, said that SIFE has not yet chosen the businesses it will work with but that their team has some possible innovations in mind.

These innovations may include upgrading old, inefficient equipment that uses excess energy, purchasing weather-stripping supplies for gaps in doors, installing better insulation, replacing high energy light bulbs with energy-efficient bulbs, replacing filters and switching to environmentally safe chemicals for cleaning.

"This [challenge] will stretch students to get out into the community and figure out what makes businesses sustainable," he said.

Walenciak said that teams must submit a report and three-minute video clip to Sam's Club by March 1, 2010, detailing their project and the influence it had on their businesses. JBU will be competing alongside two other SIFE teams from Northwest Arkansas-Northwest Arkansas Community College and the University of Arkansas.

On Earth Day, April 22, 2010, Walenciak and a JBU SIFE representative will go to the Sam's Club Home Office in Bentonville, Ark., to compete for $1,000 and regional honors. If the JBU SIFE team is named one of five finalists from Sam's Club regions around the United States, it will be eligible to compete for national honors and $5,000 in prize money.

The top three national winners will be announced later at the 2010 SIFE USA National Exposition in Minneapolis, Minn. The winning team will be awarded $5,000, the second place winner will receive $4,000 and the third place winner will receive $3,000.

A complete collection of copies of all Civil War military documents will soon find a home in John Brown University's library.

Robert Jones, who lives in Rogers and is a friend of Associate Professor of Theology Galen Johnson, is donating the two collections, which contain the complete record of Civil War documents for both the Union and Confederate armies and navies.

JBU will receive the 130-volume collection, "The War of the Rebellion: Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies," and the 30-volume collection, "Official records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion."

Jones said his father, Bill, was an avid student of history and was particularly interested in the Civil War.

"He loved books and loved to read, so he found out about the set of books and decided that he wanted them," Jones said.

Jones said his father, in his later years, passed the books on to him. Jones left the books at his parents' house until his father and mother passed away.

"Upon my mother passing away in September, I talked to my brothers and sister about what I would like to do with [the books]," Jones said. "We decided that a conservative Christian college would be the ideal place instead of a public library."

Mary Habermas, director of the library, said the books would be a valuable addition to JBU's library.

"It's of value to historians because it is the complete set," Habermas said. "It would be a treasure trove for a person looking for primary resources about the Civil War."

Habermas said it was common for JBU's library to get book donations, but not usually complete collections such as these.

The books, which Habermas thinks will be delivered by late November, will be stored in a display case. They will be limited to in-library use.

Trisha Posey, assistant professor of history, said she would use the books for her U.S. History class and probably for her American Slavery in Comparative Perspective class, as well. She said the books would be a valuable resource not only for researching traditional military history, but also issues such as the social history of armies or slavery.

She said that, although more and more documents are being posted online or put in online databases, students could benefit from having hard copies of resources.

"I'm excited to see how students will use these sources for unique projects," Posey said.

Republican United States Senate candidate Col. Conrad Reynolds (Ark.) is letting students voice their opinions and concerns for their state. And he's listening.

Reynolds embarked on his "Youth Listening Tour" last week. He is visiting universities across Arkansas to listen to what issues students are dealing with and what can be done to shape America's future.

On Friday, October 30, at 11 a.m. in Bynum Theater, Reynolds met with JBU students to address these issues.

This SIFE-sponsored event was open to anyone at JBU, and about a dozen students and faculty attended. The event was geared towards graduate students, but undergraduates were welcome to attend, as well.

"Being the father of a military veteran now returning to college, I feel the concerns of students are an important factor in any solutions to restore our voice as citizens and restore a government which can allow us to succeed," Reynolds said before the event. "My goal is to listen to them, so that I can take their voice with me to the Senate."

Sophomore Emily Forret said that she enjoyed discussing political issues with a political figure.

"I enjoy hearing what [politicians' thoughts] are on current political issues," Forret said. "They seem to have a better, more educated view on current subjects than the media."

Charles Greathouse, SIFE student president, said that having Reynolds come to JBU is good for the school because it raises political awareness.

"It's good that students are able to speak with and influence someone who could be our next senator," Greathouse said.

Sophomore Ron Asbill did not see this event as beneficial. He said his fear is that bringing politics to JBU will disrupt the "relative peace and sense of purpose" that is currently present on campus.

"We often hear that politics and religion do not mix well, and, with so many important decisions occurring today, it is a distraction unwanted on my part," Asbill said.

Reynolds, a retired colonel in the United States Army, currently owns his own consulting business in Conway, Ark., and serves an independent contractor with the Department of Defense.

His first stop on the Listening Tour was at Harding University on Oct. 27. After speaking at JBU on Friday, Reynolds visited with students at the University of Arkansas. He plans on speaking at other universities as well, but those schools have not yet been determined.

There is a new 1.8-mile Dogwood trail soon to be finished around the back of the John Brown University campus. Steve Brankle, associate director of facilities services, said the lit trail will start at the end of Valley Road, pass North Hall and Facilities, and then go up around the new Performing Art Center, KLRC, and the monument across the street.

Brankle said that the City of Siloam Springs has a trail system and that there has been talk of making this trail for a long time, but, because of lack of financial resources, this plan has been on hold until now.

There are several parties involved in making this plan a reality, Brankle said. JBU is donating the easement of 20-foot wide of land, the Walton Family Foundation is funding the actual labor and the City of Siloam Springs cleared the work and is putting in the lights. DECCO Contractors Paving are putting the pipes in, getting the base down and asphalting for the 40-spot parking lot that will be built for the trail, he said.

"This is going to be a wonderful addition to the campus," Brankle said.

The work on the new trail was scheduled to be done last month but because of the heavy rains this fall it has taken longer than planned, Brankle said. The workers hope that the people of Siloam Springs will be able to enjoy a new and beautiful trail within the next three weeks, he said.

Brankle said that the peacefulness around the creek will be a huge attraction and that people are already walking the trail though it is not finished yet.

"We are blessed to have this trail around our campus," he said.

Last summer, President Chip Pollard consulted John Brown University's cabinet, consisting of vice presidents and executive directors, and invited twenty other JBU faculty, staff and cabinet members to form the Strategic Planning Committee. This committee's purpose was to examine and update JBU's past values and to plan future changes.

"I was looking for people who could help to contribute and would come from a variety of perspectives on campus but also see the needs of the university as a whole," Pollard said.

The SPC was formed for three reasons: to get caught up on past requests, to make a plan to handle the significant economic change and to prepare for the visit of the Higher Learning Commission, an organization that visits JBU every ten years and allows JBU to be an accredited university. The HLC will come to JBU in three years.

"They want to know that you are thinking about the future," Pollard said.

Currently, no significant changes are being made to JBU's values. Pollard said that the committee should have a more finalized plan by January or February.

"I'm trying to not start on something until we know what we want to work on," he said.

As of now, the committee is seeking community input concerning the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to JBU.

"It's a back-and-forth process of planning, community input, planning, faculty input and more planning," Pollard said. "We work on it, spend a lot of time on it but then keep adjusting along the way."

Over the summer, SPC members were required to read two books and administer a survey to the JBU community, asking their opinion about the characteristics of JBU and how they would rank JBU's strengths and weaknesses. In August, the group met to review their findings. Pollard said that the most significant thing they found was that the community wanted to better emphasize JBU's "Christ-centered education" stance. Although Pollard had thought JBU expressed this point enough already, he said it was confirming to see that the community wanted this value to be first and foremost on the list.

Tom Perry, university controller, serves on the committee and said he was not surprised by the findings but was encouraged.

"It is always tempting to place academics or our work here at JBU ahead of Christ," Perry said. "The surveys demonstrate a concerted effort by the community to resist this temptation."

Other values, in order, included: service, people, pursuit of learning, excellence and stewardship.

Overall, Pollard said he did not think the values had changed that much since he came to JBU six years ago.

In 2002, there was a long-range planning committee that logged values and needs of JBU at that time, and the SPC has taken those notes, updated them, made sure nothing was missing, and is currently finalizing them.

Ed Ericson, vice president for academic affairs, serves as a member of the Strategic Planning Committee and also of the Steering Subcommittee, a small group within the SPC that sets the agenda for each of the Committee's meetings and also reviews materials between the meetings, which are held on the second Monday of every month from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the Administrative Dining Room.

Ericson said he hopes that the group can finalize the document by next fall and that they can rouse campus-wide conversation about where JBU is now and where it should be heading in the future.

"[The SPC] has been a good and helpful process, and I think the resulting document will serve the institution well," Ericson said.

The Venue will be held on Nov. 13 from 7 p.m.-10 p.m. Enjoy an evening with real Guatemalan food, salsa dancing and live Latino music. Donations will be taken for coffee. All donations will go toward helping Mama Carmen and the kids in her orphanage in Guatemala.

Missions Fair

The Annual Missions Fair will be held Nov. 10-12 in Walker Student Center from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. If you are interested in missions, doing your internship somewhere different, seeing the world, learning a new language or practicing one you are learning now, considering a short term mission trip or career missions, then check out the multitude of opportunities offered by more than 20 different mission organizations. Contact: Bob & Cheryl Headrick 238-8616.

Coffee House

The SIFE Coffee House will be held every Thursday from now until Dec. 3 at 7 p.m. During each coffee house, there will be a special speaker, presenting topics about financial skills. The event will be hosted at "The English Tea Room" on West University Street in downtown Siloam Springs. SIFE is supplying free coffee and snacks.

Students are free to come and go.

Also after attending SIFE Coffee House, you will be eligible to receive a coupon for "a free drink with any food purchase" at The English Tea Room.

Blood drive

A blood drive will be held on Monday from 12 p.m.-6 p.m. in the Hurte Lounge. There will be a free cholesterol screening, free snacks and free T-Shirts for all participants. The blood drive is sponsored by Christian Healthcare Professionals of Tomorrow. Contact Erin R. Jackson at jacksone@cbco.org.

After drawing criticism for refusing to marry an interracial couple, Keith Bardwell, a Louisiana justice of the peace, resigned.

The couple filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against Bardwell on Oct. 20, claiming the two violated Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

Military captures Taliban stronghold

cnn.com Tuesday, Nov. 3

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistani military forces took over a Taliban stronghold in the tribal region of South Waziristan, the military said Tuesday.

They secured Sararogha and have begun to clear the town of weapons and ammunition. A day earlier, military forces gained control of Kaniguram, another key Taliban stronghold.

Pakistan's army attempted offensives in this area three times since 2004 but without success until now.