Part I: UNI Campus Ministries

last night we began visiting the different campus ministries. Since tyler and i are student leaders with the UNI Navigators, we want to get Shannon's (the staff leader on campus) approval before we go any further, even though we've gotten a lot of positive support. i'd also like to get my local pastor's say on it too.

anyway, last night we visited Intervarsity and talked a little with their President, Chris (who's also a good buddy of tyler and me, and he's tyler's roommate) and told him and the group what we were doing, why we were doing it, and what we hoped to achieve (short term and long term). they were way welcoming, and we worshipped together, then a staff guy for the area spoke about the outreach strategy on UNI's campus, then we had cake (which was way good). they're focus is almost exclusively on dorm outreach (which is good, 'cause somebody needs to be committed to that), while the Navigators are really devoted to Discipleship (their motto is "to know Christ and make Him known"). i was also struck by how much smaller they were than the Navs. that's not a bad thing at all, i just didn't know we were the largest group on campus.

i hear there are around 15 separate groups ministering on or around Campus, and if we have time we want to hit 'em all. after we meet with these groups, we'll let the Nav leadership know what we found, what we talked about, and what the groups are working on. then we hope to organize some interorganizational service projects, retreats, and outreach programs. right now on campus we already have BASIC, which is the weekly worship in Lang Hall which is by far the largest gathering of Christians on campus and is also put on by different organizations, and we also have The Main Event, which takes place every year in the fall for three days where there is large group worship (2 or 3,000 people), then there are 4 hour and a half long periods for workshops, small group bible studies, and a large group speaker (usually focusing on missions).

our ultimate goal is not necessarily to combine all the groups into one large super-organization, but to help each group recognize all the others as legitimate members of the Body of Christ, and to recognize that while one is focused on Social Justice, another on local service, another on worship, another on outreach and sharing the Gospel, and another on Discipleship, they are all arms and legs of Christ, doing His work as He guides us.

So tonight we're going to visit Campus Crusade for Christ, and tomorrow we hope to go to Revolution, which is a worship service/bible study held at a local coffee shop by the same name.