Making Campus a Place Where People Encounter God and Find Joy

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 13:00:31 +0000

Nathan Peterson

Making Campus a Place Where People Encounter God and Find Joy

“Jocin means joy,” Jocin Thomas said, and it’s pronounced JOE-sn. And if it wasn’t for ��ñ�� there would have been a lot less joy during her days as a student at Baruch College in New York City.

“��ñ�� is what made my college experience and where I grew the most, spiritually, professionally, and in leadership,” she said. She commuted to Baruch each day from her home in Long Island and, without an ��ñ�� community, Baruch would’ve been just another thing to do. “It would have felt like high school all over again.”

Someone in her church recommended ��ñ�� to her, so she connected with the chapter early in her freshman year. It was a dissonant connection at first. People were seeking God, experiencing God, and studying the Bible differently than what she knew from her church. But since their love for God was unmistakable, she stayed with it.

“I didn’t realize what the gospel was, and how to share it,” she said, describing her spiritual life before college. “Starting to see my faith outside of the four walls of the church and developing an authentic relationship with God was huge.”

��ñ�� gave her college years purpose, something she missed after she graduated with her Human Resource Management degree and worked in retail for two years. When she switched jobs and began working at a church, she found a mission but she wasn’t sure that was God’s purpose for her.

“I was sitting by the pier in Bay Ridge, saying, ‘God what do you want me to do next?’” She thought of ��ñ�� and how campus ministry had changed her life. She had been helping as a volunteer but joining staff seemed too challenging. Her parents had emigrated to the US to seek a better life for their family and it was shameful in their culture to ask for financial assistance.

And yet, she didn’t see any other option. “My life changed through campus ministry. I wanted to be a part of that and see that happen for other students, and faculty,” she said.

She wrestled with the decision for months before finally plunging ahead. She found a way to present her ministry challenges that resonated with potential partners and overcame some of the cultural barriers.

“The way the Lord worked was so great because now it is the most favorite part of my work.” She said. “I love being able to tell people about the work that God is doing. I thought my culture would have rejected me but to see 80 percent of my network being the ones who are supporting me, that has been such a blessing.”

Jocin started in an administrative role, as Operations Director for ��ñ��’s New York City Area. Then she became an Associate Area Director, and is now an Area Director.

She loves working with her fellow New York City Area Directors, and is constantly thinking about her time as a student at Baruch. “What helps me in my role as Area Director has been having a healthy example of what a chapter can look like,” she said. “That has really helped.”

As a student, Jocin knew little about ��ñ�� beyond her campus. Now she has the bigger picture and a bigger purpose.

Over the decades, ��ñ�� has typically ministered on about 15-16 New York City campuses. Today that number has grown to 25. But all five boroughs of New York have 85 campuses, with 600,000 students. Jocin is always looking to see where to go next, where to have the biggest impact.

“This is a place where I can see people encountering God,” she said. “I see God at work in all these different areas. And being able to work with people to make it happen, seeing God at work, it never gets old." That’s joy for Jocin today.

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Chapter Camp: Powerful Moments of Clarity on Character of God

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Mon, 01 Jul 2019 14:38:29 +0000

Gordon Govier

Chapter Camp: Powerful Moments of Clarity on Character of God

Deep in the Adirondack Mountains, on the shore of a scenic lake, about 100 ��ñ�� students from New York and New Jersey campuses spent a week in May in the gym at Young Life’s Saranac Village camp. They divided into 12 tribes, “stoned” prophets with paper wads, and engaged in other experiential activities to help them better understand the Old Testament.

They were attending Origins, a survey class of the Old Testament offered during two separate weeks of Basileia, the region’s Chapter Camp. (Basileia means kingdom in Ancient Greek, i.e., God’s kingdom, and Chapter Camp is a week of leadership training and Scripture engagement held during spring break or after the end of the school year.) Jason Gaboury, ��ñ��’s New York/New Jersey Regional Director, shared teaching duties with Lindsay Olesberg, ��ñ��’s Scripture Engagement Director, who developed the Origins class.

“What was really beautiful from my perspective is that students began to see the same character of God in the Old Testament that they see in Jesus,” Jason said. “When students begin to see that, it is really powerful. I think that happened when they began to see that the loving kindness, faithfulness, longsuffering, and generosity of God isn’t a New Testament idea. It goes all the way back to Genesis.”

��ñ��’s Chapter Camps are famous for immersing college students in a week-long, in-depth Bible study of the Gospel of Mark, but other portions of Scripture are also studied. Often students have the misunderstanding that the God of the Old Testament is different than the God of the New Testament. The Origins class shows that God’s character is consistent throughout the Bible.

During Basilea, Jason shared comments on Facebook from students about how their week away from campus was changing their lives, including one from Rutgers student Chenghui: “I learned from Basilea this week that God is gracious and holy, to be revered and feared. But I learned from Origins track that he is not just a God of judgment but also a God of mercy and grace. His love is actually far greater than I could have ever imagined.”

Jason described another student who made the connection at the beginning of the last day of the class. “He had one of these powerful moments of clarity,” Jason recalled. “He said, ‘I never really understood the New Testament before; now I get it. I’m so excited to go back and lead my fellow students in studying the Old Testament and understanding who God is from that perspective.’”

Seventy colleges in New York and New Jersey have an ��ñ�� presence. Most sent representatives to one of the three weeks of Basileia. This was Jason’s first chance to teach Origins. “Having seen how transformative it was for the students, we will absolutely teach it again,” he said.

After all, how often do you get a chance to stone prophets?

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