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University Daily Kansan, October 25, 1983
CAMPUS AND AREA
Students get advice from outdoor pastor
By JOHN HANNA Staff Reporter
He held up a dollar bill and said that it was like eternal life.
As he spoke to the group sitting below him, J.D. Norcote looked as if he had a knife.
"I want to give this dollar bill away to the first person who really believes that I'm not crazy," the casually dressed man said.
J. D. Norcross of the New Life Christian Fellowship in Lawrence explains why students should become Christians. Norcross, who speaks on campus when the weather is good, recently talked to a group of about 10 students over the lunch hour.
After about 10 minutes, a young man, one of about 10 students watching Norcross speak under a large, green ash tree outside Stauffer-Flint Hall, came up and took the money. Norcross said that God would give away salvation just as freely as he had given up his dollar.
"It'll go to charity," the student said as he walked away.
NORCROSS, A 30-YEAR-OLD pastor, has spent the last 12 years talking to college students about Christianity. Since 1973 he has preached at eight universities in Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland and Michigan.
He has been preaching to KU students regularly for eight semesters.
Norcross said he was baptized in 1971, when he was a freshman chemistry student at KU. Before then he had been an agnostic.
Norcross said he began to investigate the Bible because of his interest in his girlfriend, who had been reading it at her home, and that he had been having personal problems.
"Eternal life didn't impress me," he recently told the small group of students watching him outside Flint High School. "I felt like a chemistry student at KU."
"I lacked a really solid direction," he said. "I was concerned over things that I was doing that were hindering my own personal growth.
"Objectively, I saw that I could believe and should believe. Subjectively, I saw that I needed to. So I did."
NORCROSS TRIES TO stick to a schedule when speaking on campus. When weather permits, he starts at 11:20 a.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday and speaks for about 90 minutes. He starts at 12:20 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday and spends about an hour preaching. He continues each semester, he said, until the weather turns bad.
Norcross said he speaks during the lunch hour because many students schedule a break between classes then.
"It also because of the weather we were here," he said. "Usually, it's most pleasant."
NORCHRIS IS PAID about $600 to $700 a month through donations from the fellowship. He said the New Yorker paid preachers to be paid in that way.
Since May, Norcross has been one of three pastors for the New Life Christian Fellowship, which is a 150-member Lawrence church that meets Sunday morning and evening at Cordley Elementary School, 1837 Vermont St., and Friday evening at the Frank R. Burge Union. About half the church members are KU students, Norcross said.
Although he said he considered speaking on campus a part of his work for the group, he was not actually being admitted to the University, which brought him to the University, he said.
"We take the Bible at face value and accept its claim to be, literally, God's word," he said. "I wouldn't really call us fundamentalists because I've found that's a term that people have a lot of definitions for."
"I want to broaden students' horizons. When they decide what they want to believe in, it can be in light of the evidences of Christianity," Norcross said. "You can't take a course to find these things out."
Speaking to the students, he said,
"Often, when I bring up the evidences
NORCROSS TRIES TO keep up with the news and sciences such as anthropology, geology and astronomy, he said, and occasionally reads professionally. He put about two hours a day reading to gather information for his preaching.
"Sometimes I'm like a regular student and it gets done between one and three in the morning." he said. "One problem in doing research is that students are not really, in one sense, feel like I'm pursuing a liberal arts education."
of Christianity, someone will say, 'Hey, so what if it's history.' Well, I hope somebody cares. I'm asking you to base what you believe in on fact."
A student passing by Stauffer-Flint interrupted when Norcross said again that God wanted to give away salvation without strings attached.
"In't there more?" the student asked. "Don't we have to do good work?"
AS A BUS rumbled down Jayhawk Boulevard, Norcross and the student
debated the question until he had to leave.
"Come back Monday, and I'll be glad to discuss it with you some more." More.
He likes students to interrupt and ask questions, he said.
"A person can't interact and voice questions, he can never be answered." he said. "I'd say this is the way all teaching ought to take place."
Another student walking past Norcross tried to interrupt him.
"Hey," he yelled, "why don't you get a real job?"
NORCROSS SAID HE thought people made hostile remarks because they didn't really understand what he was saying.
"I don't take it personally," he said. "I've heard nothing worse than what I used to think in the past. The airwaves are free.
"I don't feel that I have to bait people. That wouldn't make sense. They'd stop, listen and be disappointed."
Physician criticizes new payment plan
By SUSAN WORTMAN Staff Reporter
lecture by Thomas Sanders, Universities Field Staff International, on "Is Brazil Rich or Hungry?" at 11:43 a.m. Ecumenical Christian Ministries Center.
A controversial new way of paying Medicare claims could reduce the quality of patient care in Lawrence, a local physician said last week.
Under the new payment plan, hospitals will receive flat rates for health care instead of receiving payments determined by the cost of medicine, the length of the patient's stay and other services.
CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER session will consist of silent prayer and reading from Merton, "Pray for Your Own Discovery," at 7:45 a.m. at the Ecumenical Christian Ministries Center.
"Of course we won't release people who aren't ready to go home." she said.
"RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN Women and Men (Exploring Changing Sex Roles)," a workshop sponsored by the Emily Taylor Women's Resource Center, will be from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the International Room of the Union.
But H. Penfield Jones, the physician, said the new payment plan would force physicians to release patients sooner so they can cover the cost of patients' stay.
TOMORROW
who aren't ready to go home, "she said. But, she said, Lawrence Memorial would probably depend more on the visiting nurses program so that patients could be cared for after their release.
"It is going to make it worse; it is not going to make it better," he said. "People won't get the good care that they are getting now."
JUDITH HELEFY, DIRECTOR of community relations for Lawrence Memorial Hospital, said she was not certain the staff might have on the quality of patient care.
Hefley said the payment plan would promote cost-efficient managing.
"It is supposed to be an incentive to keep costs down, so it should decrease in-patient work that could be done on an out-patient basis," she said. "But
DUNGEONS and Dragons will meet at a p.m. in the Trail Room of the Dungeon
UNIVERSITY FORUM will feature a
The new payment plan began on Oct.
1 in most of the country. It will not
begin in Lawrence until Jan. 1 because
hospital's fiscal year will end after
Oct. 1.
"If complications arise, if someone comes in for a gall bladder operation and gets pneumonia, Medicare will make adjustments," she said.
MEDICARE STARTED THE payment plan, Hefley said, in hopes of reducing the cost of health care
"There is a fear that Medicare won 't be able to sustain itself if something bad happens'."
But hospitals that treat many Medicare patients could be hard hit by the new payment plan, she said. Only 23 percent of the patients at Lawrence Memorial are on Medicare, so that is not a large concern for the hospital.
they (Medicare) are assuming that there are ways that the hospital can be more productive. It is going to be painful for hospitals, but probably they
UNDER THE PLAN. Medicare officials have separated the human body into 470 diagnosis related groups — or DRGs.
ON CAMPUS
One consolation for hospitals, Hefei said, is that adjustments would be made.
TODAY
A flat rate will be paid for any service performed that falls into a particular group. For example, all joint surgery might be put in one DRG; hospitals would be paid the same amount for a knee operation as for elbow surgery, because the two types of surgery both fall into the same diagnosis group.
The problem with the payment plan
Hefley said, is that if Medicare pays
$700 for a service under a certain DRG
and the patient's care costs $1,000.
Medicare will still pay the hospital only
$700.
"There is even a report out that says that there will be 1,000 fewer hospitals at the end of the century because of the increase in cancer." But won't this one will, though," she said.
CAMPUS CHRISTIAN fellowship will meet at 7:30 p.m. at 1116 Indiana St.
CAMPUS CRUSADE for Christ will meet at 7 p.m. in the Big 8 Room of the Kansas Union.
TAU SIGMA Dance Club will meet at 7 p.m. in Dance Studio 242 of Robinson Center.
KU WORD and Shield will meet at 7:30 p.m. in the Walnut Room of the Uplion.
CHAMPIONS! will meet at 7 p.m. in the Trail Room of the Union.
AN INFORMATIONAL.picket sponsor sponsored by the Justice for Humanity Project will take place before a 7 p.m. speech by General Bernard Rogers, in front of the Union.
Student Organization Office available in The Kansas Union for immediate occupancy. Any registered student organization may apply. Pick up information & application for office space at the SUA Office, Level 4 Kansas Union. Applications due by 5 p.m., Nov.2,1983.
presents
THE ISLAMIC CENTER of LAWRENCE
A FORMER CHRISTIAN MINISTER, a current Muslim speaker and an extensive world traveler, in a lecture titled
GARY MILLER
"A MUSLIM'S VIEW OF CHRISTIAN THOUGHT"
Place: Jayhawk Room, Kansas Union
Time: 8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct.25
Everybody is invited.
FREE REFRESHMENTS ARE PROVIDED.