Posted on April 5, 2007
Campus Crusade for Christ is putting a new spin on Jesus.
“We offer students a way of thinking about Jesus in a way they haven’t heard before,” said Dan Flynn, campus director for the organization. “We’re not churchy, we try to be as relevant as we possibly can.”
In an effort to stay relevant, CRU is redefining its role on campus and the community. Rather than reaching out to Christian students, already active in their faith, the group tries to reach out to those who do not subscribe to the religion.
“Our goal is not to keep students active in their faith, because we don’t really see ourselves as strictly working with students entering JMU as Christians,” Flynn said, who added that he did not become a Christian until he reached college.
“Our primary goal is not to baby-sit Christians, to hold their hands and walk them through the next four years of their lives,” he said. “Our mission is to turn lost students into Christian laborers.”
In order to do this, the group sponsors an annual conference in Panama City, Fla., where students spend their Spring Break talking with others about their faith.
“It’s a chance to talk to people and connect with them and share what we believe,” junior Jonathan Reeve said. “I really enjoy seeing where people come from on a spiritual basis.”
Sophomore Stephen Hunt, who has attended the conference both years he has been at JMU, also got a lot out of the trips.
“Every day we’d go on the beach and share our faith,” he said. “It’s made me a lot more comfortable doing that on campus.”
Senior Amanda Dalton, who has been involved in CRU since she was a freshman, attended a “mission summer project” the summer after her sophomore year. While the trips go to a variety of places, she went to Ocean City, Md., where she spent the whole summer working and training in different ministry areas.
“We went out and talked to people just to see what they thought,” she said. “Then we’d talk about what we believe if that came up.”
Dalton added that expressing her faith has helped to solidify it.
“When I talk to people about what I believe, it makes it more real to me,” she said. “CRU has given me more courage to talk.”
While CRU may do a lot to reach out to those not active in the Christian faith, this does not mean that it’s ignoring its Christian students. Some members of the group are more active in their faith than ever and give credit to the organization.
“[CRU] has strengthened my faith so much,” sophomore Jackie Milam said, adding that since she’s entered college she’s had to be responsible for her own faith.
“[Faith] had to be my own, not something my family forced upon me,” she said.
Dalton agreed.
“It was really cool because I had never been around other Christians before,” she said. “You see that it’s important to so many other people that you want to be the same way.”
While the group is 300 members strong, Flynn said there are always ways to reach out to more students. In the next few weeks the group will be hitting the campus with a surprise initiative. While he could not provide any further details, he added that students will not be able to miss it.
“We’re about to do something that’s out of the box, something really different,” Flynn said. “We’re going to blitz the campus. We’re hoping to make a big splash.”
