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Printer-Friendly ModeFour new Christian groups formed
November 14, 2005 —
Students questioning the Christian faith or looking for an alternative to His House for fellowship now have the chance to explore other Christian organizations on campus.
With the emergence this fall semester of four new Christian organizations, group leaders are hoping to appeal to a larger percentage of the student body. Catholics on Campus, Alpha Delta Chi, Campus Crusade for Christ, and the Student Bible Study Group have all come forth to offer a fresh experience to the campus community.
Catholics on Campus is a new organization created in October that provides Catholic faith studies and a weekly mass right on campus in cooperation with the Diocese of Saginaw.
Justin Findlay, a 21-year-old junior and CoC's student group leader, emphasizes that while the group is Catholic based, "We are definitely reaching out to anyone and everyone interested not only in Catholicism, but Christianity or a higher power as well."
Father Steve Gavit from St. Mary Church in Bay City, an SVSU alum from the 90s, is CoC's chaplin. Findlay states that while their chaplin is quiet at times, "Father Steve has been extremely supportive and helpful. He really relates to the students and what it means to be a college student."
Findlay, a Caro native, hopes that their weekly Sunday night mass and Wednesday night Bible study will be able to provide a place of worship to not only the estimated 25 percent of SVSU students that are Catholic but also anyone else interested. He is optimistic that the steady growth CoC has seen in the past two months will continue and make their organization a lasting one on campus.
For all of the ladies out there looking for a social atmosphere with a Christian influence, Alpha Delta Chi has their answer. ADX spawned from an idea SVSU junior Rachel Florence had after observing a friend's involvement in a sorority at Albion. Florence, joined with other young women on campus, created ADX, a Christian sorority.
"ADX is a social Greek sorority focused on Christian women," she says. "While there obviously is a strong spiritual emphasis, this group is primarily social. There are many ministry groups on campus already, and we just wanted to give Christian young women an opportunity and group to get to know one another and grow in faith together."
She says the group has several objectives.
"Since we place such an emphasis on the Christian faith, we're intended for Christians," she says. "The purpose of ADX is to grow closer to God, grow closer to each other, promote academic achievement, and share God's love by serving the community."
Florence, 20, explains that this semester ADX is focusing on building a strong foundation in preparation to be in full swing for the winter semester. In the future, the Macomb native hopes that in addition to their main focus they will be able to go on retreats and reach out by performing service projects in the community as well as offering social events.
ADX is a local sorority but has a number of sister chapters in California. Florence maintains that the longevity of ADX is dependent upon the younger classes.
"I only have a couple years left, but I have faith because even now our vice president is a freshman," she explains. "In the future, I can definitely see this group becoming a main sorority on campus. Maybe someday there might even be a brother fraternity for us."
One of the new groups on campus is part of a larger organization that may sound familiar to some. Campus Crusade for Christ, also known as CRU at Saginaw Valley, is an inter-denominational Christian organization committed to reaching out to students and providing them with a resource through which they can learn about Christ.
CRU's leader, Jandrew Gonzales from Ontario, is committed to showing students that CRU is a friendly and welcoming group, with something to offer everyone.
"CRU is for everybody," he explains. "What our aim is to just point everyone on this campus to Jesus, let people know what he's about, what the Bible says he's about, engage people in conversations about it, challenge them, listen to them and invest time with them. If you're a Christian then we'd like to challenge you to share the love that Jesus has for us through his sacrifice on the cross. If you're a non-Christian then we'd like for you to know what God's about."
Gonzales, 20, says that a lot of CRU's success is due to the help provided by the CRU chapter at the University of Michigan, specifically Jeff Nieman, its director, who has been trying to bring CRU to Saginaw for many years.
"The person who's the brains behind all of this in terms of coaching and encouragement is Jeff Nieman," Gonzales says. "He has been praying for us and helping us out from his spot at U of M. He comes once a month or even once every two months to give a talk at our meeting and check up on things."
Gonzales, a junior, points out that CRU would like to build from the inside by training its own to lead, not only to work on campus but also to branch out into the community.
"The only unique thing that I can think of which CRU offers to SVSU is we'd like to train leaders," he says. "We'd like to train leaders to lead bible studies, train leaders to lead seminars on how to share your faith with others and train leaders to be effective in their own respective Church communities."
Like other groups that are just getting up and running, CRU is trying to establish a strong foundation. Next semester, CRU has ambitions to do many things.
"We only have our weekly meetings so far, but next semester we're holding a small group on how to lead small groups," Gonzales explains. "Community service and helping out the University is also something all of us would love to do. We would love to give back to the SVSU student body and Saginaw itself."
To round off the new religious groups on campus is the Student Bible Study Group, led by Stacy Haynes.
The addition of these Christian organizations has provided students with several more opportunities to be involved in student life. More information for these groups can be at the Student Life office.