Courtney is a southern girl who graduated from Chapel Hill in North Carolina.
It is important to get noticed on big campuses and is difficult to do. One way to get attention is to walk around campus with a "Homer Simpson" head. It began the Gospel according to the Simpsons.
Another time someone dressed up as Satan and autographed "The Screwtape Letters" by C.S. Lewis books.
Being in Chi Alpha ministry is tough...one difficult part about it is raising the budget and traveling to churches constantly. Pastors were not always gracious with their funding, and on top of it, she was having stomach problems, and to top it all off her team members left her in the middle of it. Many times Pastors have a difficult time giving to Chi Alpha when the students bellies are full, they have smiles on their faces, and drive beamers! Whereas giving to starving children in Africa is much easier because there is more of a sense of urgency!
Beginning was difficult. She started by calling local churches and asking if there were any students that went to their church that went to Temple. Upon getting about 4 students out of the 10 total that you need in order to start a campus group. After that it was important to assign student leadership...to make a long story short the president of Chi Alpha ended up slapping Courtney! That is crazy, what in the world? That is crazy! Inevitably Courtney had to ask the girl to leave leadership position.
On top of all of this Courtney began to have minor seizures. These seizures began to get worse and worse and she ended up in the hospital and then in a coma! She is better now and is on medication and finally has her drivers license and car back!
The ministry can be discouraging at times because there are currently only 8 solid individuals who are Christian and that meet regularly. There are more people who come to events but these are unChristians, which is good, but is difficult when you have these individuals get drunk at events and bring cocaine to events. Of course this does not happen all of the time but nevertheless it still does.
One of the most difficult things that Courtney has had to learn is that she does not feel that she is as good at Chi Alpha as she thought she would be. Additionally, fulfilling the call of God on her life has been much more difficult that she thought it would be.
It has also been difficult to be a female in leadership. The Assemblies of God seem to want female leaders but structurally the AG programs do not work for women. For instance, cohorts and catalyst groups. They are mostly for men: topics, attendees, etc.
In regards to opposition from students on campus there only seems to be difficulties with certain groups. There seems to be a "raw hate" from gay trans gender groups.
Courtney seems like an incredible woman with an awesome desire and passion to serve college students. She seems to have good insight and is very level headed and down-to-earth. I feel that she is going to do a phenomenal job reaching our college students on Temple University.
If i ever have any questions about how to network and work with college campus within the local church I am definitely going to contact Courtney. She has a lot to offer and I am inspired by her committment and willingness to persevere during tough times!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment