“I’ve never told anyone stuff like this before.” -Abbie, a sophomore U-M student said as we sat across from one another talking after one of the Fall Getaway main sessions. These words were the resounding sentiment amongst our students throughout our weekend. Intimacy with God and with one another is a difficult thing to cultivate in our culture, especially the college campus. Students desire to be accepted but struggle to connect in deep and meaningful ways.
Into this darkness, Kevin Butcher, Pastor of Hope Community Church in Detroit, shinned the light of the gospel of grace. Throughout the weekend he led our students into a place of vulnerability with one another and with God that many of them never visit. In a world saturated with social media, students feel the pressure to constantly put forth an image that shows they have it all together. Hours of effort and energy are invested in crafting the right kind of profile that displays a likeable, successful and fun person that anyone and everyone would want to befriend. Reinforcing this pressure is the pressure to build their resumes in a way that presents a version of themselves that is appealing to potential employers. On both academic and social fronts our students are sandwiched between an overwhelming expectation to perform.
This approach to life bleeds into their faith and undercuts the gospel of grace. An overwhelming urge to perform to receive God’s acceptance plagues far too many hearts. Standards of what it looks like to love God are set so high that many live in perpetual guilt and shame. This leaves most feeling disconnected from God and each other.
This is Where the Healing Begins…
These lyrics from Tenth Avenue North encapsulate what our students experienced during that weekend. Pastor Butcher opened one of our sessions with these words, “Many of you need to undergo healing so you can fully receive the love of the father.” Wounds from our past teach us something. Sometimes they teach us to work harder and other times they teach us to give up altogether because we couldn’t reach a standard expected of us. College is the great reinforcer of this dynamic.
In addition to laying out God’s unconditional love for those who believe, Kevin encouraged us to be living examples of God’s love and acceptance to one another. We spent time intentionally sharing hard things from our past so we could relate to one another on a more authentic level and practically experience a brother or sister in Christ loving us despite our sin or shortcomings. This exercise showed us that as we extend and experience the love of the father through the body of Christ, we can experience healing that leads to a fuller picture of God’s love for us individually and corporately.
The good news of the gospel is that we don’t have to perform because our elder brother laid down his life for us, paid the penalty we deserved for our sin and reconciled us to our heavenly father. Because of that we can fully receive the love of the father. Our students gained a deeper understanding of that through our time together and it laid a foundation that students brought back to campus.
We have been overjoyed with the continuation of this attitude of vulnerability, transparency and generous love amongst our cru community. Students who attended the weekend organized nights back on campus where they gathered with one another to share in a similar way from their time at Fall Getaway and invite others to taste and see” the love of the God through the love and acceptance of our Cru community.
By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:35
We are trusting the Lord to cultivate a robust community that shows the world the deep, vast, wide and long love of God and shares the truth that, in Christ and the fellowship of his sufferings, there is nothing anyone can do to make God love them anymore. Or any less.
Please pray that our students would:
- Walk intimately with God
- Grasp the depths of God’s grace
- Share the love of the Father with others
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