Campus ministries abundant

Christian leaders and students seek to harvest up diligent followers

At GCSU a plethora of Christian ministries are offered to serve students looking to be apart of the Christian faith. Every weeknight worship services, bible studies and fellowship activities cover the spectrum of time. All the ministries believe and unite under one premise: Jesus Christ was more than another philosopher or teacher, he was God’s son. Yet, their ways of serving that principle varies. They organize different religious services to appease students preferences.

Baptist Collegiate Ministries

Nexus meetings are held at the BCM House located at 216 N. Clarke St. on Tuesday evenings at 8 p.m. and have song service led by student bands at GCSU, followed by a speaker and ending with a final song. Nexus also has eight different Bible study groups that meet weekly and cover a variety of topics that students can join if interested.

“This year, BCM changed its weekly worship meeting’s name to Nexus, which is a means of a connection between members of a group or the center of something, symbolizing students coming together to connect to their relationships with God as well as strengthen and encourage one another along the way,” BCM President Cameron Lovett said.

BCM is supported by the Georgia Baptist Convention and the Washington Baptist Association. Although many of the members are predominantly Baptist, everyone is welcome to join BCM in their worships and fellowships.

Mission trips play a vital role in BCM and through fundraising throughout the year as well as receiving support from these Baptist conventions, they are given money to send students on mission trips to both national and international locations during the summer vacation to promote God in the world. As a group, BCM is headed to Seattle, Wash., over spring break for a mission trip.

“I decided to join BCM to be able to have a group of Christians to fellowship with and help keep me on the right paths in college,” said Kayla Albright, a freshman nursing major. “I have really enjoyed being able to have a church group to attend while I am away from home and I’m really looking forward to a mission trip that we are going on over spring break to Seattle, Wash. It’s been fun getting to know some great people and BCM’s been a great place to get involved to help me grow not only spiritually but as a person.”

Campus Catholics

During Campus Catholics meetings on Tuesday nights at 8 p.m., there is fellowship, worship and a talk from guest speakers, students or ministers from the Sacred Heart Catholic Church at the Campus Catholics House on 211 W. Greene St.

Aside from worship, Campus Catholics also have communion services, bible studies, socials and religious mass on Sunday nights at 5 p.m. at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church.

Along with enjoying fellowship and worship together, Campus Catholics President Sophie Dunne sees the impact that the group can have on the community around them.

“Our main focus at Campus Catholics is building a strong community that will spread love and charity to the local area and world by living our Catholic Christian faith and deepening our understanding of our own unique faith,” Dunne said.

On a more personal level, Campus Catholics has an emphasis on strengthening intimate relationships with Christ through growing in knowledge of the Catholic faith. Campus Catholics are open to all students who are interested in the faith and want to experience it.

“As a Campus Catholic member, it has made me become more in touch with my spiritual side because it has allowed me to become one with my religion. The teachings along with the weekly mass has helped me learn how to pray and meet other Catholics that I would have not met on my own,” said Sean Noah, a junior pre-mass communication major.

Campus Outreach

The Campus Outreach mission is “to glorify God by building laborers on campus for the lost world.” Through fellowship, worships and prayer meetings, students are able to learn how to be disciples and reach out through faith to those around them.

“Most of our evangelism at Campus Outreach is mainly for students to have a personal ministry wherever they are and look for ways to share the gospel to those around them. By sharing their ministry, they fuel the large truck that is Campus Outreach,” said Campus Outreach Treasurer Joseph Hoyt.

Campus Outreach meets Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. in the Arts & Sciences auditorium for weekly meetings. Each semester, Campus Outreach focuses on a new theme and has speakers give a message that relates to the theme each week.

Aside from those meetings, Campus Outreach also meets at 6:45 a.m. on Friday mornings at the First Presbyterian Church of Milledgeville to come together as a group to pray for the GCSU campus and the world.

Campus Outreach is affiliated with the First Presbyterian Church of Augusta, but considers themselves interdenominational, meaning that they accept all denominations other than the Presbyterian faith.

Each year, Campus Outreach goes on different retreats and participates in community service such as Compassion in Action, a day of service projects, in order to be involved and be an example to the community.

“When I left my church back home, we had been talking about ministering to other people and I knew that Campus Outreach would be a good outlet,” said Brad Parr, a freshman undeclared major. “It’s been a lot of fun. I have only been in it for five weeks, but I’ve made a lot of new friends that hold me accountable to my beliefs instead of claiming them and not acting on them.”

Episcopal Campus Ministries

Episcopal Campus Ministries is one of the more recent ministries to come to the GCSU campus, allowing students to discover and find comfort in the Episcopal faith. They have social events the first and third meetings of every month and focus on theological discussions on the second and fourth meetings.

“We like to hear what you have to say and encourage those people that are questioning religion to come experience it for themselves, instead of forcing them to believe that what we say is right just because we said it,” Episcopal Campus Ministries President Laura Lowndes said.

The meetings are held every Tuesday at the St. Stephens Episcopal Church, located on 220 S. Wayne St. They start at 6:30 p.m., with worship kicking off at 7 p.m. They also partake in a weekly Eucharist, a communion, in a small, intimate setting in order to experience the Episcopal church in its traditional way. The group encourages members of all different faiths to come to the meetings and discuss their views as well as ask questions.

“In the end, we go back to our Episcopal traditions and they are all about love, doing Christ’s work and bringing in those people who are searching or lost and giving them the home they have been searching for,” Lowndes said.

House Church

House Church is unique in the fact that it is a religious group on campus run entirely by students. Since it is not a Registered Student Organization at GCSU it is housed off-campus at various locations. Meeting Tuesdays at 9 p.m. and Sundays at 8 p.m., the House Church focuses on the teachings of Jesus through many different forms such as small group discussions that cover various topics or worshiping together.

“As a Christian community, we try and allow the Lord to be the leader in all the things that we do. He is our ultimate authority on what we decided to teach and share with others from week to week because he knows what people need to hear at every meeting,” House Church President Amanda Kendrick said.

With 12 student leaders and 40 regular attendees, the House Church organizes socials and community outreach in order to promote Christ in the community around them.

According to Kendrick, “Everything that we do at the House Church is focused on knowing the Lord, living out his word, loving one another and serving the Lord through each other.”

The Wesley Foundation

The Wesley Foundation, affiliated with the United Methodist Church, serves as a place for students of all denominations to come worship.

As a whole, Wesley Foundation meets every other week, and while their location tends to change, they usually meet Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in the Magnolia Ballroom for worship.

Wesley Foundation’s mission this year is centered on cell groups, an intimate Bible study for sophomores to seniors, and Freshley, a ministry dedicated to freshmen. Cell groups are different from other ministries’ small groups since they usually meet in different members’ homes, switching weekly, and offer co-ed as well as gender specific groups.

The title cell groups comes from the idea that each group is a cell, a tiny part of a bigger body. Like cells, the groups seek to grow and multiply in order to powerfully affect the GCSU campus. Since beginning the first cell group last Fall, Wesley already has eight groups, averaging 10 people per group. Using scripture, prayer and worship, the cell groups are able to experience Christian teachings in a small, intimate setting.

The Wesley Foundation also hosts socials and a yearly spring retreat to St. Simons Island. This year they also have plans to team up with other Wesley Foundations at North Georgia, University of Georgia, Georgia Southern, and more for a two-week trip to a Haitian refugee camp.

The main focus of the Wesley Foundation is building genuine disciples of Jesus and using that discipleship to transform GCSU’s campus and the world around them with Christ’s love.

Wesley Foundation president Charles Sandusky has seen how the ministry has made an impact on students’ lives.

“Many people make Wesley a place where they can be real,” Sandusky said. “Our cell groups go beyond the average small group experience you might have had in the past. You can be vulnerable and honest and that is where most people are able to find the love of Christ.”

Posted by Lauren Corcino on Oct 1 2010. Filed under Close Up, Special Sections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.