christian community

Survival is Insufficient: Why Bella Needed Community on Campus

ashlye.vanderworp@intervarsity.org — Tue, 17 Sep 2019 20:45:22 +0000

Ashlye Vanderworp

Survival is Insufficient: Why Bella Needed Community on Campus

“I went into college wanting to live missionally and bring people to Jesus in a secular university,” Isabella (Bella) Starchman, student at the University of Oklahoma (OU), said.

Growing up with pastors as parents, Bella meant this. But anxiety about schoolwork and fear that she would experience the same rejection she faced in high school soon replaced this desire.

In her first month at OU, Bella began to only focus on school—on being the perfect student and succeeding. She thought becoming involved in any sort of club would waste time she could spend studying, so she avoided everyone she came across and even ran away from students handing out flyers.

“I just wanted to survive,” Bella said. “I wanted to finish college with a perfect GPA and an opportunity to start over in a new phase of life.”

By October, though, Bella was tired of being alone. She decided to try out some Christian ministries but didn’t click with any right away. Disappointed, she walked around campus one day and prayed, “I’ll try one more time, and then I’m going to give up. Please help.”

As she prayed, Bella suddenly looked down and saw words written in chalk: ��ñ�� Christian Fellowship Large Group—Thursday, 8:00 p.m. Immediately she looked up ��ñ�� online, and, feeling as though the large group gathering would be too intimidating, opted to attend a small group first instead.

“It was so great!” she said. “Everyone there really loved Jesus and we just sat down with God’s Word and dug into what he had to say to us. ”

While this seemed like a turning point for Bella, it was the first and last time she attended the small group that semester. Tragedy struck her family two weeks later when her uncle committed suicide.

Bella was shocked, confused, and hurt. Her heart was hardened again, and she desperately wished she could stay home and not go back to OU because she didn’t want to be near people or let them in close.

Months later during her spring semester, Bella received a surprising text message from Anna, one of the leaders of the small group she attended, inviting her to an ��ñ�� game night.

“My first thought was, How does this woman even remember I exist?” Bella said. “She literally met me one time! My second thought was fear—I didn’t want to get hurt or feel rejected. But Anna’s message was so kind and genuine that it made me feel like she actually wanted me there.”

So Bella went and was instantly welcomed, having the opportunity to meet many of the students who were part of OU’s ��ñ�� chapter. She was surprised by how kind each person was and by how comfortable they made her feel. As she drove home, Bella cried, grateful for the ways God had just placed this new community in her life.

From then on, Bella had a community to go through life on campus with, from attending Bible studies to eating lunch and studying. Her hopelessness turned into hope, and she no longer dreaded being on campus.

“I wasn’t alone on campus all the time, which made OU feel more and more like home,” Bella said. “These were friends that loved Jesus. They wanted to see OU transformed by God’s love. More and more, I wanted to do that too.”

Now, Bella is a senior and is leading a small group Bible study herself, supporting others who, like her, experience pain and loneliness and long for a Christian community and witnessing to those who aren’t yet Christian. God has revealed so much to her, including the ways she had made perfectionism an idol, and has brought new life to places of past hurt.

“Through ��ñ��, God renewed my vision of his purpose in my life and what he has called me to do at OU,” Bella said. “He used ��ñ�� to lift my eyes to him and correct my ideas about what my life should be. Life isn’t about surviving—there is more.”

Bella found a community through her ��ñ�� chapter that showed her there was more to life on campus than what she thought. Find a community like this on your campus by clicking the button below.

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News Keywords

University of Oklahoma

christian community

A New View of Community

ashlye.vanderworp@intervarsity.org — Thu, 19 Jul 2018 16:49:32 +0000

Lisa Rieck

A New View of Community

When Josh Howard started college at Radford University in Virginia in the fall of 2016, he fully intended to find a Christian group on campus where he could grow spiritually. After experiencing hardship in high school that caused him to doubt the faith he’d been raised in, he’d come to a place of deeper faith before beginning his freshman year of college, and was ready to understand what he believed more deeply.

“I felt like, Okay, now that I’m becoming an adult I need to really learn more and get around people who are Christians,” he said.

But one bad experience with a Christian group during his first few weeks of college left a sour taste in his mouth.

“I gave up on it,” he explained. “I had my church family, but I [realized] I don’t really like the way a lot of groups act. My sophomore year I didn’t go to any groups.”

Acting on Conviction

In the summer of 2017, however, Josh felt convicted of the need to find Christian community.

“I started deciding that I really need to make my faith an important part of my life,” he said.

Then, a trusted friend at Virginia Tech recommended ��ñ�� and gave Josh staff minister Jen Jordan’s phone number. This time, Josh acted quickly.

“I met up with her and told her I was interested,” he recalled. “I went to that small group one of the first few weeks of the fall semester, and I’ve been going to ��ñ�� ever since. Right away I really liked it!”

By the beginning of the next spring semester, Josh led a second Bible study for the small ��ñ�� plant on campus. His view of Christian community also drastically shifted.

“For the longest time, I would get annoyed by people sometimes, or just want to do my own thing. Even my first couple years of college, I didn’t have that many friends, and I didn’t really want to make a whole lot of friends,” he reflected. “But I know in the Bible God calls us to come together as Christians and learn from each other. I knew I needed to get more involved in other people’s lives. And I think just being with ��ñ�� and having people I can be honest with, and the ways we learn from each other, has really shaped my understanding of how important community is.”

Wanting to Give Others the Same Experience

Being part of ��ñ�� also gives Josh more opportunities to do one of his favorite things: share about Jesus with others. The Radford chapter did a Proxe Station—an interactive art display designed to lead people into spiritual conversations— on campus and plans to do another one soon.

Josh said, “One of the biggest things I’ve learned from ��ñ�� is that people do want to learn more about spirituality even though it might not seem that way sometimes. It’s a lot easier to have spiritual conversations than I ever thought it would be before.”

His desire as he starts his senior year in the fall is that more Radford students would get to experience the love of Jesus and the community he’s found through ��ñ��.

“I really love having friends I can talk with about Jesus. And I have several new friends that I’ve made who are learning a lot about God who maybe didn’t think about religion too much before,” he said. “There are lots of people that need to hear the gospel at Radford, so I think ��ñ�� is a great way for people to learn more about who Jesus is and how we can experience him together.”

��ñ�� provides welcoming, witnessing communities where students can study the Bible and experience the real hope of Jesus and what it means to follow him. You can help create these spaces for students like Josh by giving to ��ñ��. Click the button below to learn more.

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News Keywords

christian organization on campus

radford university