New Orleans

From L.A. to LA: Reviving Campus Ministry Along the Gulf Coast

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Mon, 13 Aug 2018 16:37:23 +0000

Gordon Govier

From L.A. to LA: Reviving Campus Ministry Along the Gulf Coast

Starting new things with God in difficult places is “our heartbeat,” says Area Director Beau Crosetto. Six years ago, Beau and his wife, Kristina, moved from San Diego to Los Angeles to focus on Greek students who were not being reached with the gospel. In 2018 Beau and Kristina are trying something even more ambitious: moving halfway across the country to replant ��ñ�� in Louisiana.

Louisiana has 39 campuses and nearly 300,000 college students, but it’s the only state with no ��ñ�� undergraduate ministry and no ��ñ�� staff. Six of the 10 campuses in the Baton Rouge/New Orleans area are majority Black, and two of them have the biggest Greek systems in the state. “What does it look like to start a movement that reaches high identity Black students and high identity Greek students?” Beau queries. “This is where we’re going to start!”

God was already at work opening doors for ��ñ�� in Louisiana through long-term prayer and alumni cultivation by Bill DePury, Area Director in nearby Florida. In March, Smiley Abrams of Mississippi and Chelir Grady of Texas—two veterans of ��ñ��’s Black Campus Ministry—brought teams of students to help Beau and Kristina make connections on several campuses and plant seeds of ministry. During one visit more than 100 students at Southern University expressed interest in campus ministry involvement.

In April ��ñ��’s team of Evangelism Champions visited three campuses—Louisiana State University (LSU), Tulane, and the University of New Orleans—and connected with 120 interested students, including two new believers. The outreach at Tulane was assisted by an ��ñ�� alumnus from the 1960s who has been praying for ministry to return to campus for many years. Another alumna at LSU guided the team down Greek Row, where they found several students who were already involved in Bible studies and interested in ��ñ��.

Beau was cautious about visiting Loyola University New Orleans, as he had heard they were leery of outside groups. But he met an administrator there who had also been praying for ��ñ�� to come to her campus. She introduced him to other administrators, including the Directors of Greek Life, Athletics, and Student Affairs. They welcomed him to campus and even talked about giving ��ñ�� office space.

In his planting ministry in Southern California, Beau learned how to start chapters on multiple campuses at once and network them together, raise up staff and volunteers, create advisory councils to resource the campus mission, and design tools that help spread the gospel on campus. These tools, lots of prayer, alumni involvement, and much more are being put into play now in Louisiana.

This fall as classes begin, Beau and his team have ambitiously identified five campuses for planting: LSU and Southern in Baton Rouge, Tulane and Loyola in New Orleans, and Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond. Allison Allred, another campus ministry veteran, has joined the team, moving with her family from Arizona to Baton Rouge.

“The state of Louisiana is the leading edge of our new 2030 Calling, of reaching every corner of every campus with the gospel,” says Jon Hietbrink, Vice President, Central U.S. “I’m so excited about what God is doing in Louisiana.”

_{^{Photo: Students Lauren and Mark at Tulane University}}

News Keywords

Southeastern Louisiana University

Evangelism

Greek Ministry

Black Campus Ministry

On the Way Home

ashlye.vanderworp@intervarsity.org — Mon, 09 Jul 2018 20:23:40 +0000

Drew Larson

On the Way Home

When Taylor started college at the University of Rhode Island, she had one goal: to be a normal college student. She wanted to make friends, get involved on campus, and learn to impact the world after she graduated.

There was only one thing she wasn’t interested in: having anything to do with God.

“I grew up nominally, culturally Christian, and it all meant absolutely nothing to me,” Taylor said. “Faith didn’t seem relevant at all, and I had no intention of exploring it when I went to college. I considered myself done with church.”

A Noticeable Faith

That intention lasted a semester and a half, until Taylor realized she was hungry to serve others with her spring break. She agreed to go with ��ñ��, whom she had met during one of their outreaches when they knocked on her door months earlier, on their annual service trip to New Orleans to help those affected by Hurricane Katrina.

While there, she couldn’t help but notice the faith of the people she served with—and the people she served.

Taylor’s curiosity was piqued.

“I started thinking that this couldn’t just come from nowhere,” Taylor said. “I had never been given a reason to believe in God, but I wanted to know where this kind of faith came from.”

One evening of the trip, Taylor’s small group leader encouraged her to pray. She agreed and experienced the presence of Jesus in her heart for the first time.

Then, on the way home, she gave her life to Christ.

“I gave my life to Jesus,” she said with a smile, “somewhere on a bus in the middle of Georgia."

A Broken Heart for Others

After that, Taylor’s life changed dramatically. As she became more involved in her ��ñ�� chapter, she discovered a community of friends who encouraged her and invested in her relationship with God.

She had always had a passion for helping others, but as a new Christian, Taylor’s view of service changed. She began to view her whole life as an extension of Jesus’ mission, and her enthusiasm for sharing the love and patience of Christ to others on campus was ignited.

“[Because of Christ] I have felt love for people that I don’t really want to love sometimes, and I’ve had my heart broken for people and campuses that could not have possibly come from my own heart.”

Taylor eventually became a student leader of her chapter and now works on campus full time as an ��ñ�� campus minister. Her eagerness to lead others into new life in Christ has only grown since that day on the bus, and, having seen what God did in her own life, her hope of what God can do in students’ hearts is almost limitless.

“I’ve seen that when I submit myself to him and open my hands in surrender, he shows up in bigger ways than I could have imagined.”

��ñ�� chapters across the country provide spaces for students like Taylor to experience the love of Christ in community and serve others through that love. You can be a part of creating more communities on campuses without one by giving to ��ñ��'s 2030 Calling. Click below to find out more.

Give to the 2030 Calling

News Keywords

Evangelism

��ñ�� Staff

Orientation of New Staff

New England

serve

university of rhode island

serveup

Spring Break

spring break mission trip

Serious About Spring Break

AD-16225 — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:53:44 +0000

News

Gordon Govier

Serious About Spring Break

For many ��ñ�� students, Spring Break means heading off to a week-long urban ministry experience in cities such as St. Louis, New Orleans, Providence, Chicago, and Oakland.

This week for instance, 18 student leaders from Shasta College and Simpson University in Redding, California, are in Oakland for an urban plunge. Their campus staff member, Rachel Kuhn, explained:

Students spend a week in an urban center learning about God’s heart for the urban poor and oppressed, racial reconciliation, justice, and Christian community. Our week in Oakland will combine service, Bible study, simulations, and teachings by servants to the disadvantaged. As students learn to follow Jesus in loving ‘the least of these,’ some may become local activists on their campuses, others might change their major, and still others may decide to pursue a life of promoting Justice for the Kingdom of God.

The University of Rhode Island newspaper published an article on New England ��ñ�� students’ trip to New Orleans.

As Christians, we believe that our faith does not allow for us to be complacent,’ said Rhode Island College senior Adam Croft. ‘We believe we are called to action to serve and come face-to-face with the brokenness of the world.

Croft said at the end of each day, the team will have a discussion time to talk about how the day went, what they did and how it affected each of them. This time will also allow students to converse about what they think the Christian faith has to say about each project and also about challenges they might face.

In the daily discussions ��ñ�� staff and students offer other team members a glimpse of the gospel that they may not have seen before, as they investigate what the Bible says about justice, compassion, hospitality, and other themes. Afterwards one student wrote a follow-up report,calling it one of the best weeks of her life.

The Tufts Daily also reported on ��ñ�� students heading to New Orleans.

[��ñ�� campus staff member Alexandra] Nesbeda, who first traveled to New Orleans as an undergraduate in 2006, applauded ��ñ��'s commitment to continuing the rebuilding efforts even after Hurricane Katrina ceased to be breaking news. She estimated that it would take an additional five to 10 years for the city to fully recover.

What I like about this trip is our commitment to go back every year,’ she said. ‘We haven't forgotten New Orleans. We want to finish what we started.

Not all college students are partying during spring break. Many have jobs and other responsibilities. And some are making life-changing discoveries about the Kingdom of God through ��ñ��’s urban plunges.

Mission Network News also carried a story on ��ñ��'s spring break urban plunges.

_{Photo: Marquette University students at Providence, Rhode Island, urban plunge.}

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