Every Campus

Can Culture Fit with Faith? One Graduate’s Story

ashlye.vanderworp@intervarsity.org — Tue, 04 Jun 2019 19:10:39 +0000

Nathan Peterson

Can Culture Fit with Faith? One Graduate’s Story

“It completely blew me away.”

That’s how JD Mercado describes his first ��ñ�� large group at Northern Arizona University (NAU). They worshiped in Korean, Swahili, and Spanish—something he’d never experienced before. “I just felt a sense of peace, not fully understanding the significance of multiethnic worship at the time, but just an innate sense that something was right, something was being done the way it should be, and that God was at the center of that experience,” he said.

JD had just transferred to NAU during the spring of 2013, and he had only known about its ��ñ�� chapter for a few weeks. But this large group experience inspired him to apply to be a Worship Team leader, a role he served in all four years at NAU.

Later that same year, JD was invited to the Native ��ñ�� Would Jesus Eat Frybread? conference to explore his heritage as a member of the Piipaash and Quechan tribes of the southwestern US. He agreed to go but felt a little uncertain, as he remembered one pastor’s warning that culture couldn’t blend with faith.

The conference proved to be just as moving as his first large group, especially when a group of Native Hawaiians performed a hula. “I remember being invited into that moment,” JD said. “That was so memorable for me to see Indigenous people being gracious with their culture, that Jesus gives us an ability to offer an invitation, and that there’s a way to honorably engage with culture. That was something that I immediately began to want for myself, something that I’d never thought about before.”

JD’s four years with ��ñ�� continued to help him grow in his appreciation for multiethnic worship and explore the connection between his faith and Native heritage. He also had the opportunity to perform through spoken word and song at ��ñ��’s Ambition Conference in January 2018.

Preparing the Way

Upon graduation, JD decided to pursue a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing at the Institute of American Indian Arts, with hopes of becoming a published author and teacher. But he also began to experience what he later called “a dry season,” during which he felt like expressions of Christianity revolved too much around Sunday morning corporate worship and prayer and then were neglected the rest of the week.

He reached out to Native ��ñ�� Director Megan Krischke to discuss opportunities to continue serving with ��ñ��. This led to his decision to help plan the upcoming Would Jesus Eat Frybread? conference in November 2019. Struck also by John the Baptist’s example in Scripture, JD sought to prepare the way for a movement of the Spirit by prayer walking four campuses, including Coconino Community College. He plans to return to Coconino to continue building relationships with Native students.

“Volunteering has been really affirming that God is active in my life,” JD said. “In the midst of this dry season, I had this conversation with Megan. I just felt like God was hearing me, saying, ‘I want to use you, even though you’re feeling dry and burned out. Would you just come to me and be replenished and trust that I know what I’m doing with your life?’”

In many ways, JD’s volunteering experience has helped address his disappointment in not sensing the call to join ��ñ�� staff after college. “I think I needed to understand that whatever I was planning to do after college, God was going to be in that,” he said. “The world needs more writers, more teachers, who are not just Christians but who believe in the things God cares about. The fabric of our society is strengthened by the type of people that ��ñ�� impacts during their college experience.”

JD encourages fellow alumni, “God begins a work in us through ��ñ�� in college, and it doesn’t end when you graduate. In this longstanding partnership between chapters and alumni, there are only beneficial things that come from that.”

Like JD, do you long for a way to continue serving college campuses? Consider prayer walking a campus as part of our EveryCampus initiative, a partnership of multiple ministries to launch movements and communities of Christians sharing the real hope of Jesus on every campus in the country. Click below to find a campus to prayer walk near you!

Prayer Walk a Campus

News Keywords

Native American

Native American ministry

Bible Studies Transforming Meredith College

ashlye.vanderworp@intervarsity.org — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 19:39:19 +0000

Ashlye Vanderworp

Bible Studies Transforming Meredith College

Meredith College is a small, all women’s college in Raleigh, North Carolina. It’s a unique campus that functions much like a sorority, full of traditions that foster community and empower the women who attend.

Much like the campus itself, Meredith’s ��ñ�� chapter is also unique. It is the only Christian organization that actually meets on campus, while others only have chapters at North Carolina State University down the road. It is also the only organization on campus, religious or non-religious, that is majority non-White.

A Life Devoted to Bible Study

Robin Bolash serves as the ��ñ�� Campus Staff Minister at Meredith College. Having worked with ��ñ�� for over 20 years, Robin leads in ways that significantly shape the women in her chapter who are shaping the campus.

But when she was a college student herself, it was through ��ñ�� that Robin truly learned who Jesus was and what he had planned for her life.

“I grew up in church, and I was curious about the Bible, but I had no idea how to study it. When I got to college, we learned how to do the ��ñ�� Bible study method, and it was the best thing that happened to me. In that moment, I decided this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life—I want to help people unlock the Bible,” Robin said.

This is why Robin focuses all of her chapter’s activities on Bible study. She has seen firsthand how studying the Bible can change a student’s life and how many want to just, as she says, “have the keys.”

Robin also disciples many students in her chapter herself—students such as Tori and Indyah.

World Changers Developing World Changers

When Tori and Indyah were assigned to lead a Bible study together two years ago, they had never met. However, as they began to lead together, they became close friends.

They prepared for small group each week, studied Scripture together, and discussed the questions they had about the passage, helping them form a close bond. That bond then flowed into the rest of the group.

“The way we study the Bible with ��ñ�� impacted our small group because it really allowed everyone to state their opinion. . . . Everyone’s on the same page, like no one knows more than someone else. We’re all starting off at the same level,” Tori said.

So, Tori decided to share that with a Sunday school class for high school students she taught at her church back home.

“I printed off manuscripts for them, and they really enjoyed it just like I really enjoyed it!” she said.

The pastor of the church Tori taught at regularly checked on all of the Sunday school classes. She noticed, though, that when he came into her classroom, he stayed for a while, watching what she was doing.

“I would think to myself, Am I doing something wrong?” Tori said.

The next thing she knew, at a churchwide Bible study one Tuesday night, Tori’s pastor distributed printed manuscript passages to the congregation. He then began to lead the church in Bible study the way Tori led her class—the way ��ñ�� does Bible study.

“Now, my whole church is doing Bible studies how we do [in ��ñ��]. I have definitely seen a lot of growth in my Sunday school class, in my church, and in myself,” Tori said.

As Tori led her class at church, her and Indyah’s ��ñ�� small group continued to grow closer and fall more in love with Scripture. This past school year, every new leader of the ��ñ�� chapter at Meredith came out of Tori and Indyah’s small group.

“I think most of it came from them seeing how community actually works and seeing how comfortable it can be,” Indyah said.

One of those new leaders was Essence, a member of Meredith’s track team.

Essence

When Essence began school at Meredith as a freshman, she had never experienced Bible study before. She joined Indyah and Tori’s small group and was soon invited to Beach Retreat, an annual event for the chapter.

As the students read the story of the Samaritan woman, Essence saw herself in the story and realized she was pursuing stagnant, stale water, rather than Jesus’ living water. In that moment, she decided to give her life fully to Jesus.

“I had never studied Scripture like that before,” Essence said. “I was able to write on the text, ask questions and observe, you know, interpret what the text means and how to apply it to my life. . . . Everything started making sense at that point.”

Today, Essence leads a Bible study for her track and field teammates. Though she’s faced difficulties with many members leaving the Bible study—because many athletes and minority students leave Meredith College after only their first year—she is committed to sharing with her team what she experienced.

“Bible study is amazing. You build so many relationships, so much love for people, so much love for God. It’s something that changed my life for the better.”

Bible Study Fostering Community in Corners of Campus

��ñ�� at Meredith believes the best way to reach the students on campus is through Bible studies where they feel like they belong and can be themselves, making them more open to Christ.

“These women are with each other, and they’re just having conversations. They’re doing observations together, then they’re asking all their questions together, and then they’re talking about applications together. And so, you’re getting to know each other while exploring the Scriptures together. You’re beginning to identify yourself in the story while sharing yourself with people. There is something very communal about this method,” Robin said.

Though their chapter is small, that communal environment centered around Scripture is what the women of ��ñ�� at Meredith spread to many parts of campus, from athletes, to freshmen, to art majors. Their Bible studies are multiplying because these women jump in when Robin encourages them to lead where they already are involved on campus, where they are already influencing, with the people they are already praying for.

“I’m looking at what Meredith needs and where there are gaps. I want to see where the Lord wants small groups to be, who are the students he’s bringing into this tiny, little fellowship, and how far can we reach—how far to the corners can we go,” Robin said.

To hear more about what the students at Meredith College have to say about Bible study, watch the video below.

Do you have a desire to reach people on your campus or in your life with the love of Jesus? Consider starting and leading a Bible study. For more information on how to lead a Bible study, click the button below to visit Howto.Bible, a new project from ��ñ��.

News Keywords

Manuscript Bible Study

Small Group Bible Studies

Every Campus

inductive bible study

The Beginning of the End

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Fri, 04 May 2018 14:44:54 +0000

News

York Moore

The Beginning of the End

��ñ�� loves faculty, students, and staff, but we love Jesus even more! That’s why the changes that are happening across America give us hope for even better years of ministry than the 77 years behind us.

One would have to go back to the late 1940s to find a time in American history where there have been this many new Christian organizations. There is a virtual explosion of new student movements, and while some are small or regional, several have catapulted to a size and influence on campus that is staggering.

Times are good for us in ��ñ�� too. We’ve never seen so many students come to Jesus in all our history. We continue to add new staff at an unprecedented rate. We are planting new chapters in new places like never before.

That’s good news but what’s even better is that we are not reaching students and faculty alone. We are living in what I believe are just the very first days of a mighty move of God on our campuses. I believe we could see a soul harvest in America in the coming days that will rival the Jesus Movement of the 1970’s. It is not business as usual.

As an additional sign of how the world of campus ministry is changing, Cru (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ) and ��ñ�� USA have entered into our very first nation-wide partnership. The partnership initiative, Every Campus, seeks to accelerate planting new ministries throughout the country on the 50% of college campuses that currently have no Christian witness! The hope is to mobilize churches, organizations, and networks to establish Christian communities where there are none. Every Campus is now becoming a coalition of multiple organizations committing with Cru and ��ñ�� to get to the unreached campuses of the U.S. in the coming years. God is definitely doing something in our time.

This is the end of college ministry as we know it, for at least five reasons, and that is a good thing.

For starters, there are more churches and new organizations reaching more places than ever before. And we need every one of them, and many more. If you add up the campuses all eight of the largest, historic campus ministries are on, 50 percent of American colleges still have absolutely no Christian ministry.
We are entering a new era of trust and partnership. As the National Director of Catalytic Partnerships for ��ñ��, I’ve never before seen such a willingness to partner as I’m seeing now. Leaders all over are sensing a new, sweeping move of God, and there is a strong belief that God is calling all of us to partner together to see great things happen.
We don’t own the campus or campus ministry. This is a humbling and sobering fact but a fact nonetheless. The needs of the college campus in America far outstretch the resources of any ministry. ��ñ�� has staff, financial resources, training, conferences, camps, and great leaders but combined these are but five loaves of bread and a couple fish. In the hands of Jesus, however, the resources can be multiplied.
There is a confluence of vision and dreams for revival among leaders. Nearly across the board, campus ministry leaders are sensing God calling their organizations to partner and pray for a mighty revival in our time. Because of this, the old, normal way of just putting our best thoughts and practices in play for the campus isn’t good enough. We need a supernatural move of God!
Finally, it is the end of small things. Over the course of my preaching career, I’ve led over 16,000 people to Jesus. That’s pretty awesome and I’m humbled every time I think about that. I’m even more humbled, however, when I learn that many more college students are coming to Jesus each year through new, young ministries. At campus events, concerts, conferences, and in the streets, God has raised up a new and powerful generation of fire-eyed evangelists who are leading more to Christ in their first years than I’ve seen in over two decades! This gives my heart joy but I still believe this is just the beginning of something yet to come.

Prayer will be a critical part of our future ministry, just as it has been for the past 77 years. I invite you to join with us in regular prayer for our campus mission by signing up for our monthly Intercessor email. At this critical time, please be praying for our ��ñ�� leadership as they develop long-range plans for partnership and mission.

York Moore is a National Evangelist, and National Director of Catalytic Partnerships for ��ñ��.

News Keywords