San Diego State University

Real Ministry Touching Real Lives

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Mon, 09 Oct 2017 18:41:57 +0000

Gordon Govier

Real Ministry Touching Real Lives

When the San Diego State University ��ñ�� staff met for prayer before the start of classes this semester, two staff members each sensed God impress on them that “faking it” was going to be an issue to deal with in campus ministry in the weeks ahead.

Alan Sun, the South San Diego Area Director, was not too surprised then when New Student Outreach began and he met a student who confessed that he felt like he was faking it in his spiritual life. The student’s father was a pastor, but he explained that he had just been going through the motions and didn’t really have a faith of his own anymore.

The next time they got together, Alan and the student had a long talk about the barriers that were keeping him from an authentic faith. “He wanted to drop that mask and be himself,” Alan said. Eventually they prayed together and the student recommitted himself to following Christ.

During the six years he was a campus minister at San Diego Mesa College, Alan met few students who were faking it. “Everything was on the table; that’s the uniqueness of a community college,” he said. “At San Diego State though, there’s always an image that you have to keep up, the challenge of needing to be something that you’re not.”

Alan’s ministry has been shaped by his time at Mesa, and he and his staff now coordinate a unique ministry that links San Diego State with two other local community colleges: Southwestern College and Imperial Valley College. Student leaders of the San Diego State ��ñ�� chapter spend some time each semester helping with outreach at the other two campuses, and students from the community colleges attend the weekly Wednesday night large group meetings at San Diego State.

There are obvious differences between life on commuter campuses and residential campuses but they are maybe not as significant as they first seem. Alan recalls driving to a retreat once with men from the top San Diego State fraternity houses. A community college student who was a professional gamer on the side was also in the car. “As they talked about their hobbies and their lives, they realized they were not that different,” he said.

Serving at the community colleges has been encouraging to student leaders from San Diego State, where ministry faces its own unique challenges. “Rejection is the norm when passing out flyers on the San Diego State campus, but the response rate is high at community colleges,” he said. “It’s been good for student leaders to get ministry experience outside of their context.”

Formative Fellowship

Alan still has the flyer he received as a new freshman at the University of California San Diego (UCSD), inviting him to an ��ñ�� barbecue. The free food was appealing and he was looking for a Christian community to join. For the rest of that year he vacillated between ��ñ�� and an Asian American fellowship. Though he felt more at home when he was with students of the same ethnicity, ��ñ��’s focus on pursuing God and reaching out to others gripped him.

During his sophomore year, James Choung, then the UCSD Team Leader, encouraged him to commit to ��ñ��. “I remember conversations with James about how my ethnicity is valued in the kingdom of God,” he said. Alan led a small group Bible study in ��ñ�� the next year and became chapter president his senior year.

As Alan prepared to graduate, James invited him to join ��ñ�� staff. Once again Alan was torn. His mother was encouraging him to use his molecular biology degree to do cancer research and to explore science as a profession, in part because his father had died from cancer when Alan was in high school. He filled out the staff application but finally decided against campus ministry.

He worked for a year-and-a-half in the biotech field but he also used his ��ñ�� experience to host Bible studies. After he led a co-worker to faith in Christ, he thought to himself, “I should be doing this as a job.” He re-applied to join ��ñ�� staff.

San Diego Mesa College was his first staff placement; he partnered with Serene Neddenriep there and they became part of one of ��ñ��’s first chapter-planting cohorts. Together they learned some of the best ways to connect with community college students (and administrators).

Four years ago Alan was named South San Diego Area Director. Not long afterward, ��ñ�� was derecognized at California State University system campuses, including San Diego State. ��ñ�� suddenly no longer had the privilege of being an officially recognized student organization.

“That catapulted us to a new normal for outreach,” Alan said. Without a table on the quad or space on a bulletin board with other student groups, ��ñ�� came up with a creative alternative to spread the word about chapter activities: banner backpacks. “It ignited an ingenuity and a missionality that is still used to reach students,” he said.

Today, Alan and his wife, Anna (who is also on staff), direct a 12-member team that partners with local churches to serve students and faculty at San Diego State, Southwestern, and Imperial Valley. The strongest partnership is with Holy Spirit Anglican Church, which lists ��ñ�� on its webpage as a ministry partner in serving the San Diego State community. “They are a couple of blocks from campus and have someone present to volunteer at almost every one of our gatherings,” Alan said.

The church partnerships, the current staff team, and the student base at San Diego State have the potential for reaching more of the 100,000 students that Alan has identified on all of the surrounding community college campuses. "When we think about the harvest being plentiful, I think about my area,” he said. And he’s not faking it.

News Keywords

San Diego State University

San Diego Mesa College

Southwestern College

Imperial Valley College

Planting

commuter campus

Staff Life Is a Journey

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 15:47:58 +0000

News

Gordon Govier

Staff Life Is a Journey

Five colleges in four years meant that once Gent Grush finally settled at San Diego State University (SDSU) as a student it took him an extra year to get his psychology degree. But those two final years at SDSU also solidly grounded him in his faith.

Gent (who is named after his great-grandfather) had a very practical reason for checking out all of the SDSU Christian fellowships when he arrived: he needed to find a roommate. Three of the leaders of ��ñ�� happened to be looking for a fourth, and so he found a home in ��ñ�� at SDSU. “��ñ�� proved to be the perfect place to grow my faith,” he said.

Gent’s three roommates were Asian American, and it wasn’t long before he began to be confronted with his own ethnicity—a journey that continues today. He is thankful that his roommates understood how to deal with ethnic differences in a helpful way, starting with food and other aspects of their culture that opened up avenues of conversation. “That was a great on-ramp for a White guy from Colorado,” he said.

His last year at SDSU he discovered he was on another on-ramp, this one toward joining ��ñ�� staff. He became a Resident Assistant (RA) in one of the largest dorms on campus. That opened a door that had been closed to dorm-based Bible studies, which he then began to invest a lot of time leading. ��ñ�� staff members at the time also needed to shore up lagging ministry support, so they concentrated on that, turning over all of the chapter leadership to student leaders such as Gent.

“I always had a desire for ministry, so this seemed like the right first step,” he said. The SDSU chapter was thriving, having doubled in size from 40 to about 80 between the time he first began participating and the time he graduated. Gent joined ��ñ�� staff upon graduation and continued the work that he enjoyed: discipleship training and leadership development.

However, someone who really loves ministry can easily get burnt out. And after three years that’s what happened to Gent. “I thought my staff career might be over,” he said. “I needed a vacation.” But what he got was something even better, even though it didn’t look that way at first.

The SDSU staff team wanted to send their student leaders to the Los Angeles Urban Program (LAUP) for the summer. And because the other team members had families, Gent was the obvious choice to lead them. “In my opinion the last thing I needed was an Urban Program,” he said. “But God did a miracle.”

Gent’s ethnic journey, which had begun five years earlier with his three Asian American roommates, took another giant step forward during his first LAUP summer. As he participated along with his students, the urban experiences challenged many of his social assumptions, and reading Bible texts that were new to him challenged his theological assumptions. When his group traveled to Tijuana and spent a night in a homeless shelter, for example, he understood better the fear experienced by many in the immigrant community.

LAUP required Gent to be closer to God than he had been all year long. It exposed him to God’s concern for justice and God’s care for the vulnerable and the exploited in a way that refreshed his soul. He knew that he would not have experienced the same renewal had he taken an ordinary vacation, as he had hoped to do that summer.

Gent returned to SDSU refreshed but soon found himself being drawn back to Los Angeles. The staff team at SDSU was changing, the woman who would soon become his wife lived in LA, and there was a staff vacancy at the ��ñ�� chapter at California State University, Los Angeles.

He arrived at Cal State LA in the fall of 2013, just as the California State University System implemented a system-wide policy requiring recognized student groups to accept any student as a potential leader, which conflicted with ��ñ��’s requirement that all chapter leaders affirm ��ñ��’s Doctrinal Basis. Implementation of the policy varied widely from one campus to another in the 23-school system. Gent found a professor who attended the same church he did, who would reserve a room for ��ñ��. The chapter was able to keep meeting with few problems.

The student population at Cal State LA provided another cross-cultural ministry opportunity for Gent. As he mentored the Black and Latino women who made up the leadership team, he realized their experiences and discipleship needs were far different from students he had worked with elsewhere. Once again he was confronted with the contrast between the assumptions he was used to and the ways other Christians responded to the gospel message.

Last year Gent made another transition. He became director of LAUP. He was ready for a change but the change became a challenge. He discovered that although LAUP works well for students who, like Gent, come to college with little exposure to ethnic and cultural differences, it’s not the same experience for those whose lives have included cultural displacement, poverty, and injustice, like many of the students at Cal State LA.

Over its 36-year history LAUP, has been transformative for many students and staff. But Gent believes LAUP must change if it’s to be effective for every student. “LAUP’s responsibility is to disciple all students properly,” he said.

Tom Allen, ��ñ��’s regional director for Southern California, marvels at how Gent faces ministry challenges with courage, humility, and conviction. “I praise God for the way Gent’s leadership is forming student disciples who love God deeply, care for their neighbor compassionately, and engage our complex world thoughtfully,” he said. “Rather than despairing over the challenges of LAUP, he sought the Lord with a deepened humility and greater confidence in a God who can do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine. I am eager to see what Gent re-imagines for LAUP and how our big God multiplies that vision to something more than Gent even imagined.”

Gent doesn’t know yet how LAUP will change. But using what ��ñ�� has taught him about how God values justice, he believes it will become better. He is trusting in God’s faithfulness to help him meet this new challenge.

News Keywords

San Diego State University

Cal State LA

LAUP

Los Angeles Urban Program

California State University

CSU

Campus Ministry Through a Different Lens

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Thu, 10 Dec 2015 19:44:27 +0000

News

Gordon Govier

Campus Ministry Through a Different Lens

More and more community college students are experiencing new life through ��ñ�� campus ministry. And ��ñ�� staff member Christy Gates suggests that if more of her colleagues tithed their time for outreach on a nearby community college campus, it would revitalize their ministry. “Everybody needs something to keep their innovation sharp,” she said. “Those four hours would give staff the opportunity to think differently and see what they’re doing at a residential school through a different lens.”

The perception of ministry on community college campuses is that it’s more challenging than on a residential college campus. “It’s not hard; it’s just different,” Christy said. With the right strategy and good coaching, ministry can be fruitful.

“Even spending one afternoon a week at a community college, you can meet people; you can see something happen,” she said. “There are so many people who are ready to come to faith but no one is going to their schools to invite them.”

Community college students often have jobs -- sometimes full-time jobs -- and family responsibilities. They don’t hang around campus after class because their schedules are busy. Yet they have the same spiritual hunger and the same desire to find meaning and purpose in life that students on residential campuses have.

Christy’s skills in commuter campus ministry were honed during two years as a volunteer and seven years of full-time ministry at Purdue University—Calumet and other nearby commuter campuses in the south suburbs of Chicago. Then a year-and-a-half ago she married Marvin, a Coast Guard helicopter pilot, and moved halfway across the country to San Diego.

Moving from the Midwest to Southern California, even to do the same kind of work, is more than just an internal transfer.

“I knew that learning the culture of a new region would be a challenge,” Christy said. Friends on staff coached her to help prepare her for the changes. Eighteen months later she’s still adjusting and impatient with the adjustment process, but resigned to the reality that transitioning to a new region involves a continual commitment to learning and growing.

Now as an Associate Area Director she works with a team of staff at San Diego State University and nine surrounding campuses. One of her main goals is to help her team better reach students at the community college campuses. “Seeing staff and students get excited about what God is doing on community college campuses—those are the moments when I feel like this is worth it.”

One of the things she appreciates most about San Diego is the strong tradition of evangelism and prayer that’s been developed. San Diego evangelism is widely known across ��ñ��, and Christy learned about it long before she knew she would be moving to San Diego. “The way I’ve grown the most though is by the culture of prayer here,” she said.

Christy enjoys taking students to Campus by the Sea, ��ñ��’s Retreat and Training Center on Catalina Island, but that’s also where she gets homesick. “I really miss Cedar Campus,” she said. ��ñ��’s Retreat and Training Center on the shore of Lake Huron in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula played a major role in her growth as a Christian and her decision to join ��ñ�� staff.

Christy stumbled across ��ñ�� midway through her sophomore year at Marquette University in Milwaukee. “I was hanging out with friends, trying to get good grades, but struggling with what my real purpose in college was,” she said. She joined a Bible study and made some new friends, and then was invited to Cedar Campus for Chapter Focus Week at the end of the school year.

“I remember encountering God’s love in a way that affected me as a whole person, not just intellectually,” she recalled. “I recommitted my life to Jesus and also solidified my involvement with ��ñ��.”

Over the next four years, as an undergrad and then a grad student, Christy became one of the leaders in the Marquette ��ñ�� chapter. “It was a great time of growth,” she said. “I was all-in with ��ñ��.” That included attending Urbana 2000 and getting involved with the Chicago Urban Program (CUP). She returned to Cedar Campus several times and experienced God’s love in a variety of ways, expressed through the students and staff she worked with, and the various tracks at the events held there.

Eventually Christy began to think about joining ��ñ�� staff but rationalized that it was just because of the attraction she felt to Cedar Campus. When she finally began working in her field, physical therapy, she continued to volunteer with ��ñ�� at the nearby Purdue University—Calumet campus. But the idea of joining ��ñ�� staff full-time wouldn’t let her go.

Over a period of time she challenged God with various questions about full-time staff work, and God answered each question she had. Still she resisted. “I was concerned that I would ruin God’s will for my life if I didn't clearly hear God telling me to do it,” she said. Finally a radio sermon helped her realize that she could join staff if that was what she really wanted. And then when she was offered a promotion at work, she knew that what she really wanted was to work with students full-time through ��ñ��.

Now, as a transplanted Midwesterner in Southern California, Christy still works directly with students at San Diego State, Grossmont College, and Mesa College. Through all of the changes of the last two years she feels like she’s learned a lot more about campus ministry and discovered many of her blind spots. She recommends that more staff take advantage of peer visits and opportunities to gain new perspectives into campus ministry from visiting other regions.

Because of her husband’s job, she knows she will be moving again in another year-and-a-half. Wherever they move, Christy hopes to be able to continue working with students. After all of her struggles about career direction, she knows that there’s nothing she wants more than to see God at work through students and faculty on campus.

News Keywords

Purdue University-Calumet

San Diego State University

God's Kingdom in Your Midst

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 19:22:47 +0000

Alumni Profile

News

Lisa Rieck

God's Kingdom in Your Midst

“Life after college is tough,” Anthony Moore, a 2012 graduate from San Diego State University, candidly admitted. His post-college year has been one of looking both outward to intentionally love coworkers with the love of Christ and inward to face personal battles.

The Kingdom of God at Work

“Once I graduated, I felt very on my own,” he said. “Still, the skills I picked up in college—talking to people about Jesus, inviting, asking the right questions, knowing what mistakes to avoid—really helped me feel confident. . . . ��ñ�� equipped me with the tools I needed to talk to people about Jesus and spread the kingdom.”

As an editor and content specialist for Spread Effect, a startup/marketing company, Anthony has the opportunity to share Jesus with coworkers in some way every day. “I work in an almost entirely spiritual-less environment,” he said. “My coworkers are all young guys, not believers. I pray for them, serve them lovingly—as best I can—take interest in their lives, and make myself available to them by letting them know I’m a guy they can talk to about spiritual stuff. I also ask if I can pray for them, or at least tell them I’m praying for them.”

Talking about Jesus with non-believers wasn’t always something Anthony was confident and passionate about. He grew up in a Christian home, but his involvement with ��ñ�� in college was what helped him own his faith. “My first interaction with ��ñ�� was my first week of college when I saw a flyer for a free barbecue,” he recalled. “I was immediately drawn. That was my first taste—no pun intended—of campus ministry, and I knew I wanted in. I had a choice—stay with God in college, or fall away. I decided on the former.”

From there he began to grow in spiritual maturity and evangelism. “Spreading the kingdom is all about overcoming a fear of rejection for me,” he said. “��ñ�� taught me to just jump, to just go for it.” He admitted that the process of growth was not always easy, though: “Some of the biggest cringe-worthy moments I’ve ever had in my entire life were ones spent knocking on strangers’ doors in residence halls I had never been in, inviting people to Bible studies. I both hated and loved the awkward interactions. But once you can talk to a stranger about Jesus, you can talk to anyone about anything. It’s like learning a new language—you have to do it a lot to get good at it.” Now he’s grateful for the ways he was encouraged and equipped to grow in this area.

That growth has continued after college, as he intentionally pushed himself to seek out Christian community. Currently involved in two separate small groups—one for men and one for college graduates—Anthony said, “I knew that I needed Christian community after I graduated and left ��ñ��, and getting plugged into a church was the best option.” He added, “As an introverted guy, it was tough placing myself out there to people I had never met or even seen, but I knew that was the way to go.”

The Kingdom of God Inside Us

His church community has helped in a season of facing personal sin and the brokenness of his past. “In college,” he reflected, “it was all about pouring into and helping members of ��ñ��; after college, God has placed me in a season of working on myself, admitting my faults and brokenness, and letting him in to heal me.”

In a blog post Anthony wrote on his personal blog (stuffgradslike.com), he cites five common addictions college grads face: sex and pornography, drugs and weed, eating disorders, drinking, and working. He hasn’t been immune to some of these addictions himself, so this post-college season has required much humility, courage, intense counseling, and a constant turning to Jesus. “I’m a broken, selfish, disobedient, self-absorbed sinner that is a complete mess—a train wreck,” Anthony admitted. But with help from others, he’s been able to experience growth and healing. “I’ve made a conscious decision to confront and identify every negative, sinful, broken pattern I’ve developed over the years and give it to Jesus,” he said. “Jesus is really where real progress, growth, inspiration, and healing come from.”

In the midst of the moral and emotional struggles, he’s discovered a depth of God’s grace and forgiveness that he didn’t previously know. “I’ve learned that God will forgive me, no matter what I do, no matter how low I sink—and I can sink to places so bad I didn’t even know about them. I’ve also learned that there’s hope for the future—that if I let Jesus in, if I learn how to surrender to him, if I acknowledge that I need help, help will come.”

It’s this hope that keeps him pressing on, facing challenges, and working to love those around him with the love of Jesus he’s experienced. His hope also reminds him that God can and does use us in the midst of our struggles and despite our sin. In his words and in his actions, he offers all of us—especially those in secular workplaces—valuable wisdom and perspective for our work: “Pray for your coworkers, even if you don’t think you mean the prayers. You’ll start to have compassion on coworkers, Jesus will begin to answer your prayers, and their lives will be changed, as will yours.”

Anthony challenges us not to stop at praying for coworkers, though. With a boldness he learned in ��ñ��, he added, “Pray that God shows you where your heart needs to change. Ask God to give you his eyes to see the world—men, women, work, money, pain, hurt, suffering, boredom. Also, take a risk! Ask your coworker to church. Ask if you can pray for them in person. Let them know you’re praying for them. Selflessly love others!”

In this challenging post-college year, Anthony is doing all of those things, and watching the kingdom spread in his midst.

How are you loving coworkers? Leave us a comment sharing how God’s using you to bring his kingdom in your place of work.

Click here to read Anthony's article Developing Friendships with Coworkers and for tips on making friends at work.

To read more alumni stories, go to http://www.intervarsity.org/get-involved/alumni/alumni-stories.

News Keywords

San Diego State University

��ñ�� alumni