Pittsburg State University students filled the basement of the Campus Christians house for a casual social event on Thursday, Jan. 22. Pittsburg State University Campus Christians Director Chris Hay was in the basement kitchen serving up hand-made grilled cheese sandwiches while simultaneously greeting students as they walked in. Students described the vibe as “welcoming,” which was evident when Jarrod Powe, an electrical tech student graduating this May, was met with cheers as he walked in with cheese for the event. First-time visitor to Campus Christians Lexi Miles, a freshman majoring in business management with a minor in history, felt that everyone was “super-duper nice,” and is “excited to learn more about Christianity.”
Students like Miah Shelby, a graduate student studying social work, and organizers enjoy the atmosphere of community at the Thursday night gatherings as a way to relax and have fun. Campus Christians also has other events focused on more intentional worship and learning.
“A lot of times it’s just like a chance to have fun and relax,” Shelby said. “Let loose after a hard week. And then every first Thursday of the month, we do a worship night in, so it’s a bit more intentional of getting in the Word together. I love that worshiping and music, that’s a good time.”
PSU Campus Christians Women’s Minister and Communications Director Brittany Holloway, a 2020 PSU graduate, said, “We all just love being together, hanging out, having a good time, learning about the word of God, what it says, applying that to our lives, and taking that out into the world.”
“We do Thursday night fellowship events,” Hay said. “We do Bible studies on Mondays and Wednesdays. We partner with other campus ministries across the Midwest, do fall retreats and spring retreats, girls’ events and guys’ events, and a bunch of stuff like that. We also house students as well.”
One of those students being housed, Powe, is happy to be on the leadership team, setting up events and helping new students to feel welcome.
“I’m a resident of the guys’ house,” Powe said. “There are six guys and eight girls this semester. This is our first event; we have events every Thursday night at seven. I’m really happy to be part of CC and be on their leadership team. We help organize the events, try to talk to new people as they come in and visit, and we clean up afterwards.”
Powe and Shelby both said that the feeling of belonging and acceptance are some of their favorite aspects of Campus Christians.
“I feel like everyone is one big family,” Powe said. “Once you get into this, you feel like you belong. I think everyone down here feels at ease, where you can just relax.”
“It’s a bit smaller, like a really good tight-knit community,” Shelby said. “Everyone was super welcoming and I think as a Christian it’s really important to find accountability and fellowship with other Christians that can encourage you and build you up. It’s a very accepting community; people may not feel like they fit in elsewhere or like they haven’t found their crowd yet, but Campus Christians is a really good place that you can find your crowd and feel welcome no matter who you are.”
A testament to that acceptance of everyone, Miles said this was her first time coming to a Campus Christians event and she has had an easy time talking to others.
“Everyone’s super-duper nice, and it’s so easy to start conversations, I haven’t really had an awkward conversation,” Miles said. “I did join the small groups, and I am real excited to learn more about Christianity and God, because I don’t really know anything.”
Miles said she is new to Christianity and showed up to Campus Christians in an effort to open up and make friends in the Christian community.
“I really got into Christianity because of my boyfriend and his family,” Miles said. “I didn’t grow up with religion at all, so I’ve been trying to be more open and it’s hard coming from my household. But I’m just trying to put myself out there and make more friends.”
Through the different outreach efforts of Campus Christians, including a weekly free breakfast, Hay estimates they have 2,000 student interactions a year and has roughly 60 students who attend events.
“We have been super blessed to grow a bunch over the past couple of years,” Hay said. “We’ve probably pulled like 30 to 50 students when it comes to our events. In our orbit, there’s probably 60-ish students when it comes to our fellowship events like small groups, and we also weekly give out free breakfast at the tech center or the oval. Yearly, we probably have like 2,000 interactions with students from all the stuff that we do. We’re a nondenominational campus ministry, whoever wants to come, can come.”
Hay said that Campus Christians is meant to be a community, but not a replacement for church attendance.
“At the end of the day, we are not a church,” Hay said. “We want students to be put into a church and be part of a community, and like this kind of be an extension. A home and community for them.”
Everyone the Collegio interacted with at the event encouraged readers to come to a Thursday evening event and feel welcome.
“You (students) can come to CC whenever you want,” Powe said. “You (students) can just walk on in.”
“Feel more than welcome to come try it out,” Shelby said. “We’ll welcome you with open arms and hopefully you’ll feel that, and if you don’t, we’ll do better.”
“We’d love students to come around,” Hay said. “Students have probably seen us from times when we’re doing outreach, but we really encourage students to come to an event, come join a Bible study. All our Thursday nights, we try to make them super low barrier of entry; we want students to feel welcome. Follow us on Instagram (@CCPSU), Gorilla Engage, and Facebook.”