An Ever-Changing Story
I've been working for the University Church of Christ at Pepperdine for almost a year now as the student coordinator for student membership with the church. Mostly I spend time talking with the students and getting them connected with the church on campus. As a church on a college campus we want to make sure that our students are taken care of and are getting the spiritual guidance and food that they need. My job is to make sure that the students are familiar with the Church of Christ and then if they wish to be added as a member to get their information, enter into the directory and send their names to the church office to be printed in the bulletin and announced during the two services the following week at church. The other part of my job is to run reports for the frequency of the members' attendance and find out if the students Church of Christ students are being taken care of as well as if the students who join the church as freshman and go over-seas for a year return to the church.
Toward the end of every school year student workers reapply for either the same position or another for the following year. Things are going to be a little different next year in that there will no longer be interns but coordinators for each position and many people who sort of work under them. So, I applied to be a coordinator again for the same position. In the application process we are asked a few questions about our spiritual journey to the current time. It was about a year ago this time that I wrote out my story for the same reason and I was thinking, "well, it's pretty much the same," but as I began to write I realized that my story has actually changed quite a bit. A lot has happened in a year and God has done a lot of teaching and healing in me. I told my story very differently than I had ever really told it before. It went something like this . . .
I grew up in a rather large family that attended church together on a weekly basis and as I grew I was very much involved with the youth group. At home my sister and I argued about everything all the time and being the older sister I took advantage of that authority fairly often. I was baptized at the age of 16 and began to realize my role as an older sister and model of Christ to her was very important. I took on more of a leadership position in my final years of High School specifically with the youth group and moved out to a Christian University where I knew that I would find support and guidance from a Christian family. It is really in my college years that I have had to make my faith my own. I have always been a church-goer and that wasn’t a struggle for me, but more understanding why I believe the things that I’ve been taught and how different parts of life play into Christian faith. I have been through some of the struggles of moving away from home and my parents accepting that I have grown up, but tremendous growth and healing have resulted. I have also in this past year worked through some personal issues with the help of counseling. I have been blessed with amazing friends and a relationship with someone who loves God more than me and strives to learn more about God and grow to be more like Him everyday, and that continues to challenge me and strengthen my faith. Being away from home it is difficult to maintain a close relationship with my sister, but I am trying to be a good model for her and hope that one day she will commit her life to Christ. Finding a balance between the time that I spend with people developing friendships and making sure that I have personal time with God everyday is the main focus in my life right now. As well as striving to be wholehearted for God.
A year ago I would not have been able to say these same things. God continues to teach me new things about Him and how to be a better example of His Son.
I will continue to work for the Universtiy Church of Christ next year and will have a partner working with me so that we can incorporate more student/pepperdine resident activities in order that the college students and the Pepperdine faculty and residents can become more aquainted and the church can actually be a family.
I've been working for the University Church of Christ at Pepperdine for almost a year now as the student coordinator for student membership with the church. Mostly I spend time talking with the students and getting them connected with the church on campus. As a church on a college campus we want to make sure that our students are taken care of and are getting the spiritual guidance and food that they need. My job is to make sure that the students are familiar with the Church of Christ and then if they wish to be added as a member to get their information, enter into the directory and send their names to the church office to be printed in the bulletin and announced during the two services the following week at church. The other part of my job is to run reports for the frequency of the members' attendance and find out if the students Church of Christ students are being taken care of as well as if the students who join the church as freshman and go over-seas for a year return to the church.
Toward the end of every school year student workers reapply for either the same position or another for the following year. Things are going to be a little different next year in that there will no longer be interns but coordinators for each position and many people who sort of work under them. So, I applied to be a coordinator again for the same position. In the application process we are asked a few questions about our spiritual journey to the current time. It was about a year ago this time that I wrote out my story for the same reason and I was thinking, "well, it's pretty much the same," but as I began to write I realized that my story has actually changed quite a bit. A lot has happened in a year and God has done a lot of teaching and healing in me. I told my story very differently than I had ever really told it before. It went something like this . . .
I grew up in a rather large family that attended church together on a weekly basis and as I grew I was very much involved with the youth group. At home my sister and I argued about everything all the time and being the older sister I took advantage of that authority fairly often. I was baptized at the age of 16 and began to realize my role as an older sister and model of Christ to her was very important. I took on more of a leadership position in my final years of High School specifically with the youth group and moved out to a Christian University where I knew that I would find support and guidance from a Christian family. It is really in my college years that I have had to make my faith my own. I have always been a church-goer and that wasn’t a struggle for me, but more understanding why I believe the things that I’ve been taught and how different parts of life play into Christian faith. I have been through some of the struggles of moving away from home and my parents accepting that I have grown up, but tremendous growth and healing have resulted. I have also in this past year worked through some personal issues with the help of counseling. I have been blessed with amazing friends and a relationship with someone who loves God more than me and strives to learn more about God and grow to be more like Him everyday, and that continues to challenge me and strengthen my faith. Being away from home it is difficult to maintain a close relationship with my sister, but I am trying to be a good model for her and hope that one day she will commit her life to Christ. Finding a balance between the time that I spend with people developing friendships and making sure that I have personal time with God everyday is the main focus in my life right now. As well as striving to be wholehearted for God.
A year ago I would not have been able to say these same things. God continues to teach me new things about Him and how to be a better example of His Son.
I will continue to work for the Universtiy Church of Christ next year and will have a partner working with me so that we can incorporate more student/pepperdine resident activities in order that the college students and the Pepperdine faculty and residents can become more aquainted and the church can actually be a family.
posted by Traci Himes at 10:56 AM
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