Category Archives: Reaching The Campus

Stories of Reaching The Campus

Hungry for Soul Food

Posted on November 10, 2011 | Leave a comment

Main Session Friday Night

After a stormy drive from San Diego to Long Beach and very bumpy boat ride out to the Island, the Staff and 207 college students from San Diego arrived on Catalina and kicked off our 2011 Soul Food Fall Conference. From the moment the conference started it was clear that the students were hungry, some of them may not have know what they were hungering for, but their openness, and desire to learn and experience God revealed their Hunger.

At Soul Food, 9 San Diego Campuses come together for a weekend of discovering and exploring our Soul’s hunger for God. The most unique thing about Soul Food that separates it from any other Christian retreat I have ever seen is that Soul Food is designed and created for non-Christians. From the intro games to speakers to the Seminars, every aspect of the weekend is meant to help those who do not know God discover Jesus and walk closely with him. And for the Christians, what is a better learning experience then walking with their non-Christian friends as they start a relationship with Jesus!

Traditionally Saturday night of Soul Food is where the main Speakers (this year Beau and Kristina Crosetto) make a clear presentation of the Gospel and make an invitation to accept Jesus for the first time. We often see many students stand for this invitation, but what was unique this year is that many students were so ready to start a relationship with Jesus that they literally were coming up to staff and leaders starting Friday night asking if they could start a relationship with Jesus now! On the Island 5 students had accepted Jesus before our speakers had ever made an invitation!

By the end of the weekend, we had witnessed the greatest harvest we have ever seen at Soul Food, with 16 students making first time decisions to follow Jesus and 41 re-commitments! THAT IS 57 DECISIONS FOR JESUS!

This just goes to show, that Students were just hungry for their souls to be fed, and that is why we bring them to Soul Food!

- Gent Grush is a full time staff at SDSU

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Posted in Retreats

Greeks Meet God!

Posted on October 18, 2011 | Leave a comment

Last week I got to lead on John 5, Jesus heals the lame man at the pool, at our weekly bible study this week held in ZBT. Although we have seen over 27 students come to faith (some of which made re commitments in their walk with the Lord) in one month back to school, not many of these have been Greek. In fact we launched Greek IV a couple of weeks ago after rush ended, so we are slowly gaining momentum.
We have only 3 first-timers attend last week but all 3 responded to God’s word!

I challenged them at the end to think about an area of their life they want to be ‘unstuck’ or ‘made well’ in and to write down if they believed Jesus could do this for them. After the study the 2 guys who were there both said they’d like to meet a guy leader or staff for coffee because they had a lot of questions about Jesus. (I heard them in their small groups asking: How do I know I have Jesus in my life right now?!) and a sorority girl that came made a re commitment in her relationship with God. We are excited to have students follow up with her and get her connected to a house study 2 of our leaders are starting next week. I wanted to share this story with you to show you how God is moving in the Greek system on SDSU’s campus!

-Casey Groff, on-campus Greek staff

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Posted in Conversion in Students, Fraternities & Sororities, Reaching The Campus, Staff Projects

Video of first month of school

Posted on October 6, 2011 | 1 Comment

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Posted in Conversion in Students, Reaching The Campus, Staff's Reflections

Are Commuter Students Unreachable? We Think Not!

Posted on October 6, 2011 | Leave a comment

We have a problem in college ministry at SDSU— 28,000 students are commuters! That means they don’t ‘hang out’ around campus much, don’t participate much in extracurricular activities, don’t attend small groups, or Fuel, and don’t have much time for anything other than classes! So how do we get them connected to God, to community, or give them a place to ask questions about faith? We have a proposal: THE TENT.

Some of our leaders at our on campus tent!


THE TENT has become a new strategy for InterVarsity this year to specifically reach commuter students. It is a simple pop-up tent that is on campus every Tuesday, in the same place, during the same time. And so far, God has used the tent to see 3 people come to faith in Jesus for the first time, along with helping many Christians get connected with InterVarsity! Our goal is that everyone who is on campus on Tuesdays would know who InterVarsity is, that they have a place to ask questions about God there, a place to receive prayer, and a place to get on mission with God. Our hope is that nobody will miss us!

Please pray for us! This task of reaching commuters is a daunting one, but God is making headway! Please also come and visit the tent! It is in front of Hepner Hall every Tuesday from 10am-4pm!

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Posted in Commuter Students, Conversion in Students, Reaching The Campus, Staff Projects

Greek InterVarsity Kicks off tonight

Posted on September 28, 2011 | Leave a comment

“No Experience necessary; Judgment left at the door”

Now that fraternities and sororities have wrapped up rush/recruitment it is time for our Wednesday night gatherings, house studies and events to begin!

The student leaders have been preparing all week for our 1st Wednesday night gathering TONIGHT in ZBT, a fraternity house on SDSU’s campus. Greek IV gathers Wednesday nights and leaders bring their brothers and sisters and other friends in the Greek system to a safe space to explore their faith. “No Experience Necessary, Judgment Left at the Door” is our tagline to help Greek students feel welcomed to hang out, eat food, win Greek IV gear, listen to testimonies and most importantly, hear the word of God! As a community we gather together and have fun on Wednesday nights hoping Greek students encounter God and see the truth about who He is. We get to have a time of questions where we answer anonymous questions around the topic of faith anyone has at the end of each night.

Please keep us in prayer as the Greek leaders have done walk-arounds (went to every sorority/fraternity house to promote Greek IV), invited their friends and peers, posted events on facebook and are really excited to see God move in our ministry this year!

- Casey Groff, On-Campus Greek Staff

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Posted in Fraternities & Sororities, Reaching The Campus