Story by Audriana Chenoweth
Photos by Corinne Konarska
Coming to college, students have the opportunity to break away from their parents’ beliefs and make their own choices about what they believe in and value.
“You know, when you grow up like your family goes to church every Sunday, like you just drive with them kind of thing,” junior Samantha Kapusta said. “There was that thing in my head that's like, ‘well, you really don't need to do this.’”
Kapusta began looking for a church and student organizations that aligned with her values when she came to Central Michigan University. Her drive to keep God in her life motivates her to keep meeting new people who have the same set of values and love of God as herself.
Throughout high school, freshman Anna Brummel struggled with her faith as she grew up within a Christian church her entire life. She understood life had a purpose but wasn’t close to her God or living out her faith.
When she began at Central Michigan University, Brummel did not plan to get involved in Christian organizations.
“When I came to college, like I obviously I had some faith and some values that were like biblically based, but it was more religion than it was relationship,” Brummel said.
Walking around campus during the fall semester, Brummel observed some of the chalking done by student organizations. The Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship stood out to her as their chalk asked students if they were looking for a Christian community.
Brummel decided what she was looking to get from this time at university and that joining this community would be good for her.
“Then they were handing out popsicles and I was like ‘okay, there’s boys who are Christian,’” Brummel said.
She decided then that she would attend an event and give the group a shot. Not long after, Brummel connected with senior Alyssa Elms and has since began attending other events and small group bible studies.
“I’ve like, kind of found my faith at a new level, I would say because when you’re a kid you kind of understand it, but it’s not the same,” Brummel said. “You’re an adult now and you’ve gone through so much more experience.
“Now it's still biblically based, but it's a lot more ‘relationship with God.’"
Prior to attending CMU, Elms believed in her God and went to church but didn’t treat it like a relationship, she said. She grew up attending Christian church services with her family beginning at the age of three.
Although Elms participated in church events she felt as though she was just floating through the motions of being a Christian.
“I do think that there's a difference between just believing that there's a God and you know, passively going to church and then actively having a relationship with Jesus Christ,” Elms said.
Joining a myriad of other clubs at the beginning of her college journey made Elms realized she was just going Chi Alpha because it was something she thought was a hobby of hers.
“I realized if I'm going to follow the Bible, and what Jesus says it's not a passive hobby,” Elms said. “It's not just a side thing that you do. It's like, who you are. And so I feel like that really changed in college through Chi Alpha.”
At the start of her college journey, Kapusta was nervous coming to a public school where she assumed many people did not have a strong faith.
“I feel like even a lot of people who might identify as a certain religion don't necessarily practice that while they're at school,” Kapusta said.
Building relationships through attending Sunday services at His House and meeting Elms at Mainstage during her freshman year helped ease Kapusta’s nerves about finding people who have similar values.
“The biggest and most important value of being a Christian is belief in the works, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ,” said Elms.
“I feel like a lot of people assume Christianity is a set of rules or it's a set of morals and there are aspects of those things. But it's all based on Jesus Christ.”
Elms is the President of the group this year and discusses her worries with other leaders about if the group focus enough on Jesus.
“You can, like, be a good person. But that doesn't make you a Christian. It's faith in Jesus Christ that makes you a Christian,” Elms said.
Sophomore Jessalyn Feighner didn’t grow up with a family in the church but began her religious journey by attending church-based summer camps her twin sister convinced her to go to throughout their years in primary school.
“Personally, for me, like I see God like through other people in so when I was there like I just met like, the most loving amazing people I've ever met,” Feighner said.
Feighner is still developing her relationship with her God but enjoys being around God-like people. She found Chi Alpha after by walking by a worship night outside of the bioscience building and sticking around alone in the back, only to strike up a conversation with one of the fellowship leaders and getting connected with the group.
“One of the things we say is like, all conversation should lead to Jesus, but we also really believe in relationship,” Elms said. “We really invest in like, the relationship because if you don't have a relationship with someone, then how are you supposed to, like impact their life.”
Each bible study leader invests their time in relationships with those who attend as their leaders has before them. They aim to make each interaction about Jesus but even if it doesn’t they are still spending time investing in the interpersonal relationships with each other which leads to more time investing in their relationship with their God.
“We all die and you don't get to take your college degree with you,” Elms said. “You don't get to take your stuff with you. You don't even get to take like all the good things you've done with you. But you know, there's eternity with Jesus. And that's only through a relationship with Jesus.”
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