Font Size: A A A

With a desire to change hearts, Sarah Mason and Amelia Charles started Campus Church.

Jacqueline Puglisi

November 12, 2012

When students Sarah Mason and Amelia Charles decided they wanted to see revival on BC’s campus, they created Campus Church, a weekly Sunday service dedicated toward spiritually equipping and uniting students.

Mason and Charles, both BC juniors and psychology majors, realized they had the same desire for revival on campus after meeting earlier this semester. They both expressed a concern that the campus seemed spiritually dead. Mason said she noticed this when she first came to BC two years ago, and Charles saw the same when she arrived this semester. They wanted to do something no one else was doing and realized they had a lot of similar ideas.

	Worship at last Sunday's Campus Church meeting

Their desire for revival was sparked after BC’s Christian Emphasis week. Tony Noland’s messages received a positive reaction from students and Mason and Charles wanted to follow-up on that reaction. The idea started with a plan to have small group meetings, where people would pray for and keep accountability for each other within each group. However, it was difficult to find leaders on campus for each group, so the idea was expanded into Campus Church.

It was not an extremely difficult task to begin Campus Church, but Charles said it wasn’t an easy task, either. After receiving the thumbs up from BC’s president, Dr. David Olive, the plans began and the first Campus Church service was held shortly thereafter. Charles said she and Mason didn’t want to plan forever, but just get their ministry started and let God fill in the gaps where they couldn’t.

“We were completely lost,” said Charles. “We were in a spot that we had to fully rely on God, and that’s when beautiful things happen, when you can’t do it yourself. We had to rely completely on God.”

Each weekly service includes a message from a community pastor, worship and small group discussions that reflect on the sermon. Mason and Charles want to make Campus Church open to both students and members of the community. They are moving toward this goal by having pastors from the community give the message, and they also want to put together service teams to reach out to the community.

Some other things Mason and Charles want to accomplish with Campus Church include uniting the campus. They want to bring together all of BC’s organizations and groups.

“We want to connect them all because we are the body of Christ,” said Mason.

Charles also added that the campus should not be separated into programs that are afraid of stepping on each other’s toes to do the kingdom work God has called us all to do.

The vision Mason and Charles have for Campus Church is to engage, enable and equip students and the community through discipleship and outreach in order to bring about revival. They want change to happen and want to cultivate spiritual growth.

“We want to transform hearts, to transform the campus, to transform the community, to transform the world,” said Mason.

Many have asked Mason and Charles what will happen to Campus Church after they graduate. They have thought about this and are working toward sustaining the church through disciple-making and equipping. They also believe getting the community involved will help keep Campus Church going after they are gone.

Campus Church is held at 2:30 p.m. every Sunday in the chapel. This time slot allows students to still attend their morning church service in the community, and also gives students who don’t like to wake up early an afternoon service option. The service is part of many weekly events held on campus. Others include daily prayer at 7 a.m. in the SAC, resident hall Bible studies, FAC meetings at 8 p.m. on Mondays and Elevate services at 7 p.m. on Tuesdays.

Comments: