God-sized growth at Indiana University

Brandt Booram — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 19:05:56 +0000

Greek IV at Indiana University has had some rough seas. First of all, it isn’t exactly the easiest of Greek systems to start ministry in. 5,500 super Greeks who are consistently on the top of the party scene nationally. On top of its hostile climate, the IU Greek IV chapter has been recovering for about three years from doing community a little too well. At some point in its past IU Greek IV’s focus turned inwards to the core members rather than outwards to the masses of spiritually starved Greeks. Everyone had a great time and really made some great friends, but the balance between being in the world but not of it was partially lost. Three years ago staff began working on changing this focus back towards the need in the houses. These efforts produced minimal growth but good culture change. With this change came a consistent pleading to God for lost Greeks. The result was a spontaneous explosion.

IU’s weekly gathering commonly had between 10 and 20 students from six different houses. At the first meeting of this semester we were expecting about this many students. In fact we only set up about 20 chairs so the room would feel filled no matter what happened. In all honesty the Leadership Team and myself had done minimal extra recruitment for this event because we wanted it to be a gathering of our core members. We intended to present to them a vision that would compel them to take action in their houses thus multiplying my and the Leadership Teams impact. As the clock struck 8:30 I looked around the room and was stunned to see flocks of Greeks. I say flocks because we all know that Greeks travel in packs. We actually had to set up 20 more chairs to get everyone a seat and even then we were busting at the seams. When it was all said and done we had 43 Greeks come to our small call out meeting!

There were 11 houses represented! At the start of this year I wasn’t very sure whether our chapter was poised to grow or poised to stagnate. Clearly that question has been answered. In my limited experience in ministry I have found that God has a surprising way of moving. Often He acts unexpectedly allowing us to know what was clearly God breathed. I know that this growth may be an anomaly, but for now I rejoice that God has acted. I rejoice that He is far better at this work than I am, and I rejoice because the word is out, God wants to know Greeks.

A Seeking Sigma Chi

Tyler Riffe — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:30:40 +0000

At our large group meeting a few weeks back, a few Sigma Chi’s showed up to “check us out”. One of them, was Jimmy. I asked Jimmy if I could meet up with him for coffee during the week sometime to get to know him better and see if Greek IV could help him or his house out in any way. This is nothing new as I try to connect with each new guy that shows up at our ministry in this way. He was more than interested, maybe even excited. At coffee we stayed around “surface conversation” for a bit, then I eventually I asked him about his faith. He told me that he had “been around” religion for most of his life, but “has always known it should be more than just a religion”. I asked Jimmy if I could share with him what I believe that that “something more” is. He was eager to hear. I affirmed Jimmy’s realization that it should be something more, and in fact, it will change his life. I shared with him the Good News of Jesus Christ… and that by putting his faith in Him… He will come to know this “something more” for himself. Below is the whole story I shared with Jimmy if you want the Good News in more detail! Jimmy responded with eagerness. He wanted to know this Jesus… and he wanted to know how he could go about making Jesus the center of His life. I invited him to do a 4-6 week GIG (Group Investigating God) with me… he accepted… and we just entered into the Book of John in the Bible this week. I am excited to see where this GIG goes in the next few weeks… as I am hopeful that soon we will be celebrating another Greek student coming to faith in Christ!

Read what happens with Jimmy from his perspective… http://greekintervarsity.org/2009/11/invite-week-accepted/

And from my perspective… http://greekintervarsity.org/2009/11/a-recieved-invitation/

That day I shared this Good News with John…

God created the world and everything in it… and all this brokenness and pain that we see and experience in our world, well it wasn’t meant to be this way. He loved us and created everything to be good and created us to be in intimate relationship with God. But he also gave us the ability to choose, and we chose to turn our backs on Him and make our selves the center of our lives, this is what the Bible calls sin. This sin is the cause of that pain and brokenness. Because God is perfect and Holy and Just… our relationship with God is broken… as is our relationship with the world and the people in it. BUT thankfully, God loved us enough to not let it stay this way. He loved us so much that He sent His own Son, to experience our pain… and died on the cross to save us from our sins… and restore our relationship with God. This bridged the gap that divided us and God and it is by putting our faith in Jesus Christ that we can have eternal peace with God as a result. And even now, our lives can be changed by allowing Jesus to be the center of our lives… where He belongs. God has extended this gift to us… all of us… no matter what we’ve done or where we’ve been… and all we have to do is receive it.

John 3:16-18, Romans 6:23, Romans 3:23-24

greek iv stories » Large Group

God-sized growth at Indiana University

A Seeking Sigma Chi