New seasons mark new beginnings. At Seattle Pacific University, spring quarter is officially underway. The days are getting longer, the weather is getting warmer, flowers are blooming, and trees are finally getting their leaves. Throughout the country, the time for spring cleaning is underway, and so is the time to switch up a few things. If you are feeling stuck in your faith, or are wondering how to get engaged with your faith more or are feeling unsatisfied, you are not alone.
Finding a community that challenges you in your faith, especially one that you feel welcomed and a part of, can be difficult for many college students. With what can be so many different options or maybe lack thereof, how can you find the right community for you?
To Xavier Smith, a senior majoring in economics and a regular attendee (or member) of Seattle Church of Christ in Queen Anne, participating or starting a Bible study is a great way to help find or start a faith community.
“A Bible study is an opportunity to read the Bible together, [to] understand what does it mean to be a follower of Jesus, and then just really examine the word between two or three friends,” Smith said. “If someone says, Hey, I want to learn about God and become a Christian, I might invite someone and say, Would you like to have a Bible study together?”
Taking an initiative sometimes means you may have to go searching, and that may last longer than you thought. Jonathan Grady, the College Pastor at Mosaic Community Church in Seattle, discussed his journey from attending Mosaic during college to becoming its college pastor and how he tried multiple churches in the Seattle area before settling on Mosaic.
“I went [to Mosaic] during college. My roommate and I initially were looking for a church to go to, and I Googled churches near me. Mosaic came up, and a few other options too. I checked all of them out; I went to one or two just to kind of see what was there,” Grady said. “Then when I went to Mosaic, [and] something was different. I was like, I think I want to go back there. So then I started going there throughout all of my college time.”
Mosaic Community Church holds several Bible studies for college students. From the University of Washington to SPU, many have found community outside of just church. Gavin Priest, a senior studying physics education at SPU, is a member of Mosaic who attended these Bible studies before going on to become one of its main organizers.
“You can choose what group you’d like to go to. So for a while I went to [these small groups] called House Churches,” Priest said. “I went to one for a while, and now I’m leading one.”
Bible studies are not the only events Mosaic or other churches hold for college students either. In February, Mosaic and several local churches held an event at the Lynnwood Event Center called the Here I am Conference where speakers from across the globe came and spoke. To Grady, this event highlighted the need for Christians to participate in a community.
“It was for really anyone in the Pacific Northwest who calls himself a Christian. The point of the conference was to really understand what God’s heart is on international missions, and even missions in your local community, like loving and caring for the people in your local community,” Grady said. “They had a lot of these speakers come in, but they weren’t really speakers you would think. Like, Oh, this person’s a public speaker. They came and spoke, [but] they were more like practitioners, people who are currently doing it [international missions] and have been doing it for decades.”
Grady also felt that the Here I Am Conference was also impactful by the way it gave those who went new motivation to follow after God.
“It was not sort of the feel good conference where you [think], Well, that was cool; I liked that. It was more a stir to action,” Grady said. “It was maybe less of a conference and more of a meeting, [where] we all get stirred to go do the things that God asked us to do.”
Retreats are another great way to meet new people and strengthen your faith as well according to Priest.
“A couple weeks ago, we had a guys retreat at our college pastor’s [Grady’s] house, and it was just really impactful. We spent a lot of time journaling, spent a lot of time with the Lord, kind of reflecting on what our what the Lord has for our lives,” Priest said. “It was really cool, because we balanced this time of community and also a time of seeking the Lord in our lives.”
Priest also highlighted going to church service or going to one of Mosaic’s College Nights as other strategies to grow in community as you are likely to encounter new people who will help challenge your faith even more.
“Go to a Sunday service and or go to one of the College Nights. Those are a great way to meet people and figure out if this is a place you want to grow in your faith,” Priest said. “I think for me, it was going to one of the College Nights and finding people that really loved the Lord and were serious about following God better. And then seeing that, Oh, all these people were very inviting to a bunch of different events. I was able to grow in community very quickly.”
Becoming a Student Ministry Coordinator or being affiliated with one can help you create connections and help find a faith community on campus at SPU as well according to Emilio Tolomeio, a sophomore majoring in Business and Economics and an SMC in Ashton Hall.
“I was inspired to become an SMC because I had a really good SMC my freshman year. I had friends who were SMCs, and it was just a really cool way for them to connect with the class below them,” Tolomeio said. “It was also just a great opportunity to just share my faith with others and why it means so much to me, and just be there for people who have questions or who are interested in who Jesus is.”
Even if you don’t have the time to attend hour-long or day-long events, SMC’s are always available and on campus to talk and help you in your faith according to Tolomeio.
“Talk to the SMC on your floor or in your building,” Tolomeio said. “They will probably have good advice for you.”
But, all these different ways of creating or finding a community require you to open up and be open-minded with people according to Smith.
“It starts by sharing your life. Imagine you have a light, when you go up to a high place and you’re waving that light around. Everyone’s gonna see it. You have to make that your life,” Smith said. “Your life [needs to] be like a light. People are gonna see that light, and they’re gonna come to it.”
To Smith, people that want to be more engaged with their faith and a faith community also need to be ready to listen and follow after God no matter where He tells you to go.
“It all starts with God,” Smith said. “It’s like, Show me where You want me to go.”
This personal outreach can take shape by simply talking to your friends about it according to Grady.
“If you have a friend who’s in a church community, say, Hey, can I come with you to that? One of my good friends, who now is really involved with Mosaic as well, invited himself to his friend’s church because they were talking about it on a ski trip,” Grady said. ”He said, That sounds cool, can I come with you? Invites, or inviting yourself to go to your friend’s church or house church or life group or Bible study, whatever you want to call it is great.”
