friendship

The Loneliness Crisis on Campus

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Tue, 27 Aug 2019 11:05:48 +0000

August 27, 2019

The Loneliness Crisis on Campus

For Immediate Release

Students at Russell Sage College and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in Troy, New York, can easily find out who the Christians are on their campuses. ��Ƶ students bring them cookies every week. Students can sign up for the deliveries throughout the school year, the cookies are made by members of local churches.

One student recently told the cookie team that their presence was a comfort to him. He knew that if he felt stressed or lonely, there was a group of people who cared about him.

Stress and particularly loneliness have become a more ominous presence on college campuses. A survey by the global health service company Cigna has found loneliness at epidemic levels in the US, particularly with ages 18-22. A YouGov survey proclaimed Millenials the loneliest generation. The Higher Education Research Institute reports its Freshman Survey finds students rating both their physical and emotional health lower and lower every year.

These kinds of mental health concerns are familiar to ��Ƶ Campus Staff Ministers. “Students often don't know how to have conversations, do conflict, and link theoretical faith values to day-to-day prayer, vulnerability, and community,” said Scott Hall, a veteran staff member based in Kent, Washington. Before teaching about doctrine and Christian values, he said students need to be shown how to love, pray, talk, and share with each other.

On the campus of San Juan College in Farmington, New Mexico, the ��Ƶ chapter has countered loneliness with a tradition of weekly, family meals on campus for students. “It helps to be together, share laughs, know each other, see what the whole community’s like,” said Campus Staff Minister Rashawn Ramone. Before, “they never really had time to be able to sit down with other people and listen to them.”

��Ƶ President Tom Lin believes genuine community, much needed on today’s campuses, is the starting place for campus ministry. “Students need to have places where they can be themselves, ask questions, find encouragement, and learn about Jesus,” he said. “Our 2030 Calling will offer this on more and more campuses every year.”

��Ƶ starts the 2019-2020 school year with 1119 student and faculty chapters on 772 campuses across the US, from the Ivy League to community colleges. During the previous academic year, ��Ƶ saw 3,140 decisions to follow Christ through our campus ministry, up 39 percent from ten years ago. ��Ƶ is a founding member of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students and a charter member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.

For more information:
Gordon Govier
608/443-3688

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Committed in Friendship: How Jesus Transforms Through Relationship

ashlye.vanderworp@intervarsity.org — Tue, 13 Aug 2019 20:22:50 +0000

August 13, 2019

Drew Larson

Committed in Friendship: How Jesus Transforms Through Relationship

“I wouldn’t be a Christian today if it weren’t for you and ��Ƶ.”

When Lara Archibald clicked on the new email she had just received from her former student Hannah, she expected a quick life update or maybe a short prayer request. Hannah was one of the first students Lara worked with when she started as a Campus Staff Minister with ��Ƶ in 2011 at the College of Lake County (CLC), a large community college in north Chicago.

Instead, Lara read one of the most encouraging compliments a campus staff can get.

In 2011, Hannah was one of 19,000 students studying at CLC, a school where campus ministries had often struggled to gain any long-term traction. Lara connected with Hannah through mutual friends during her first week of planting a new ��Ƶ chapter there, and Hannah quickly became a staple of the fledgling chapter, attending almost every group meeting and activity.

Despite that, her relationship with Lara grew slowly. Hannah was like many community college students, juggling a number of commitments in addition to her studies, such as family obligations and jobs. She also struggled with outreach and cultural conflict. “[At first] she had a very hard time with our missional focus as a ministry,” recalled Lara. “She didn’t always know how to engage outside of her Christian bubble. We did a lot of conflict mediation and butted heads a lot.”

But Hannah stayed committed to her ��Ƶ community, and Lara and Hannah stayed committed to each other. “We spent a lot of our time together talking about how to love people across differences, suspending judgment in favor of love, and pursuing reconciliation,” said Lara. “Our community loved her through many seasons of life, and she stayed with us even when it was uncomfortable and unpredictable. I still laugh when I think about how one of her best friends today was one of her worst enemies when they were student leaders together.”

Over time, Lara watched as Jesus began to transform Hannah’s heart. In 2015 she attended Soul Surf, a spring break evangelism trip in Florida, and returned to campus with such a newfound passion for reaching students with the gospel that she became the chapter’s evangelism and outreach coordinator. Later that year she survived a catastrophic car accident, an event that profoundly altered her spiritual maturity. “I’m not sure she was ever able to name what changed. But [after that] myself and our faculty advisor both noticed a substantial transformation in her pursuit of God and her witness to others,” Lara said.

It was the interpersonal connection between Hannah and Lara, however, that yielded the most transformational fruit. “Our mutual commitment to one another, despite great conflict, is what impacted Hannah the most,” said Lara. “One of the things she said to me was how meaningful it was that I never stopped pursuing her as part of the community, even when we didn’t see eye-to-eye.”

Since graduating, Hannah has not stopped asking God, “What’s next?” Her spiritual growth continues to be evident, and Lara has seen her settle, commit, and invest in God’s kingdom in ways that she wasn’t doing when they first met. “She’s pursuing Christlikeness even when it’s uncomfortable,” said Lara. “[Following Jesus] wasn’t just talk with Hannah. I learned just as much working with her as she says she did with us.”

Across the country, there are opportunities to be a part of transformative ��Ƶ communities, like the one Hannah was so committed to. Find an ��Ƶ chapter at your college by clicking the button below.

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Good Gifts: Emily’s Story

ashlye.vanderworp@intervarsity.org — Mon, 10 Jun 2019 22:23:45 +0000

June 10, 2019

Emily Baez

Good Gifts: Emily’s Story

I sat down at a table in the dining hall and texted an old friend from high school. “Are you at orientation?” it read. Waiting for a response, I looked around the room to see groups of people sitting together and joking about their dorms, majors, and what they did last summer. I wondered how they connected so quickly. Was there a team-building exercise I missed? Did everyone coordinate with their childhood pals to go to the same college? Lunch ended, and I decided my goal that weekend would be to make a few lasting friendships, people who could accompany me on smoothie runs or free movie viewings on campus. But I left orientation with that goal unfulfilled.

A week later, someone stopped me before entering the student center. She asked if I heard about ��Ƶ—which I had because my brother was a part of it—and handed me a list of small groups. “Thanks,” I said, but no thanks, I thought. I didn’t come to college to go to church. Plus, growing up in church meant I already knew Jesus. Why would joining some group further establish that? I left her with an “I’ll try to make it,” but knew it wasn’t going anywhere near my calendar.

Instead I spent the next two years joining and quitting student clubs, dodging invitations from my brother to come to Bible study, and applying to transfer to another university because I thought it had “better student life.” It became apparent that nothing was fulfilling me. Instead, I envied those who were having the coveted college experience, the years that were supposed to be the best of my life. They weren’t—they were boring and lonely.

When I moved into a student apartment my junior year, I thought I found the remedy. But then, a toxic sense of pride and independence started to consume me. I was convinced I didn’t need anyone else to be content and that happiness was as easy as living closer to campus and going to parties.

But when the novelty of all that wore off, I couldn’t ignore the fact that something was still missing. I couldn’t admit it, but I wanted to connect—to others, to something or someone greater than me.

Making New Discoveries

It was in that place of desperation and failure that I finally gave in to going to an ��Ƶ conference (called “Sonburst” at the time). Even though I didn’t want to go—considering how uncomfortable it would be to hang out with a bunch of strangers for a weekend—I pressed that register button and felt a strange mix of urgency and confusion. Isn’t this what I wanted? Friendship? People to grab smoothies with? But I didn’t want it in a faith-based context. I know about Jesus and don’t need this, I thought. I really did think I knew him—even without prayer, without being challenged or studying who he is and why it matters. But at Sonburst, for the first time, I realized how wrong I was.

That weekend, I discovered a community I never knew I needed: a group of people that genuinely cared for me and wanted to understand who I was. We gathered in small groups one morning and someone made a confession with complete vulnerability. The way others responded made me realize I could be honest and vulnerable too. I didn’t need to hide any part of me. For the first time since starting college, I was connecting in a way that surpassed small talk and group projects.

I also discovered a new knowledge of who Jesus is. I realized that the gospel was this radical, redemptive truth, and I was excited about it. I wanted to find out what it meant to be “missional.” I wanted to dig into scripture and learn as much as I could. I wanted to know Jesus and to have the closest of bonds with him. Because as it turned out, there was more to Jesus than what I thought I knew—more that needed to replace whatever I settled for before.

Saying Yes

On the last day of the conference, a feeling of peace and belonging overwhelmed me as we met in campus groups to make “I will…” statements. In that moment, I was ready to erase the boundaries I spent years drawing between myself and others. I was ready to surrender my overzealous need for independence. I was ready to accept the love I was experiencing and reject the notion that a superficial relationship with my maker, and with everyone else, was somehow enough.

When it was my turn, the words “I will commit to Bible study and embrace this new group of friends” spilled out. The room cheered. I was saying yes to community. More importantly, I was saying yes to Jesus.

Committing

The commitment I made four years ago meant I had to adjust my schedule to go to small groups. But sometimes, committing to Jesus meant living in places or cities outside my comfort zone. Other times, it meant staying put when I really wanted to go or leading a small group when I didn’t feel equipped. Last year, it meant volunteering to lead another chapter in my hometown. It’s meant and continues to mean trusting Jesus in every decision and every step I take post-college.

Now, I’m reminded constantly that we have a good Father who wants to give us good gifts. The gifts of understanding, community, and a promise between a Savior and his people, were offered to me time and again. For too long, I said no to those gifts. Finally accepting them meant finding what I was missing. It meant I wasn’t alone.

There are many students just like me who enter college thinking they know who Jesus is but pursue other things over him. But ��Ƶ wants every college student to have the opportunity to experience God's good gifts of community and a deep walk with him. Find an ��Ƶ chapter near you by clicking the button below.

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A New View of Community

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

July 19, 2018

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 ��Ƶ 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 ��Ƶ 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 ��Ƶ 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 ��Ƶ 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 ��Ƶ 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 ��Ƶ 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 ��Ƶ.

“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 ��Ƶ is a great way for people to learn more about who Jesus is and how we can experience him together.”

��Ƶ 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 ��Ƶ. Click the button below to learn more.

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