I came to my first Greek InterVarsity gathering, having no clue what to expect. I only came because my Big Sister in my sorority encouraged me to go with her right after I became a new member. I’d never been to any kind of “faith club” before but I was used to having religion everyday at a private school. However, all it took was that one meeting, and God opened up my eyes to a whole new approach to faith. Here were all these people, college people, social Greek people, from all different stages of faith coming together to talk about struggles and triumphs, some like me who grew up in the Church and others who had never been a part of a faith before. This one meeting changed everything for me.

Suddenly, I found myself surrounded by role models of faith; people like Taylor, Christa, and Caitlin. People who demonstrated their relationships with God; a relationship that I could also have. Next thing you know, I was applying to be on the planning team for our meetings, offering to start a worship band and lead worship, joined a discipleship group, and was even asked to emcee our Monday night gatherings. It was a whirlwind of growth opportunities that God had placed before me, but He wasn’t done yet. Then I came to Greek Conference, thinking to myself, “these people are a little crazy because they’re so loud about their faith.” Maybe that’s just because I’d always been to afraid to be loud about my faith or lack of it.

Growing up in the church meant growing up with religion, and going to private school meant religion classes and mandatory worship meetings, but no one ever taught me how to have a faith. It was the time in my life I felt most separate from God even though He was all around me. But then last year I learned about faith, MY faith. God reached out to me at Greek Conference, specifically through every verse of every worship song last year. I could hear in those words “take me as you find me…”, “consume me from the inside out…” – they were about me! That is to say, the lyrics were exactly what I was asking God for and He was responding with everlasting unconditional love that I’d always known was there but had a hard time believing in since my parents divorce. But now I knew God as a father that would never leave me and never stop loving me. All of these realizations hit me sitting there at the conference.

After Greek Conference, I really connected to my discipleship group, I began reading the Bible more often, I applied to be on the leadership team for our Greek InterVarsity chapter, and now here I am – the girl who used to whisper about God when in public just last year, is now testifying like one of those crazy people – unafraid to say “yes I have a faith! And let me tell you about it!” This is not to say that it’s easy to have faith. Because it’s definitely not. I struggle and fall all the time but have amazing sisters who are always there and my JMU Greek InterVarsity community supports me as well. More importantly, I have God there to catch me every time I come back to Him. That’s what God has taught me. To trust in Him, in our relationship, in my faith that I now have. So even though it was a little crazy, a little scary, and a little overwhelming, I was open to what God put before me. I listened to it, took a risk in responding to it and it changed my life.

This story was originally shared live at Greek Conference Charlotte 2011.

I’ll never forget Andy Dalton talking about leaving a legacy at Greek Conference 2009. It was then I knew that our bible study needed to be 100% God-focused and God-dependent, and it needed to continue after I left the house. That was before my senior year of college. The summer in between junior and senior year I prayed that God would draw Christians to our house during fall rush, or even that girls would potentially hear about the bible study and Greek IV while rushing. I was also on our leadership team for Greek IV and I made note of the freshman that came to Greek IV events. After rush, a few of the girls I had seen at Greek IV’s events joined my house.

That fall multiple girls began coming to my bible study as well. God was answering my prayers. A senior even messaged me on Facebook saying that she had been too scared the year before to approach me about the Theta Bible study (TBS as I affectionately called it,) but she was going to begin coming to the study and she was going to bring other seniors. I began relying on God even more for direction in my study and for praying for the Thetas that were coming. By the end of the school year Thetas were always reppin’ at Greek IV on Wednesday nights. Only two other Thetas were able to come to Chapter Focus Week during the beginning of the summer but one of them made the decision to follow Christ, while the other learned how to lead a bible study.

Since I am going back to Illinois for my masters program, I will be able to continue coming to our bible study at the house. I am excited to see God’s legacy and the bible study I felt called to lead my junior year-continue on. I can’t wait for the younger girls to influence other young girls in Theta. Through some Greek IV connections I also was offered to be the assistant to the house mom of Sigma Kappa at U of I. Although this is not my sorority house, the offer came after I was praying that God would lead me to who I was to live with in grad school.

Through Greek IV leaders and friends, I was emailed that the house mom was looking for a Christian grad student to live in and help her since she is moving out. I accepted and I’m excited to see what God will do through me in that sorority house as well. I’m planning on helping the Sigma Kappa Greek IV’ers lead their bible study as well. The more I rely on God and trust Him, the more shocked I am in what He can truly do in the Greek system if we let Him take hold of it. Lives transformed, the Greek system renewed, and world changers developed-God can do it all.

My story began in fall of 2006 when I came to the University of Oregon. I knew I wanted to be in a sorority, because I was a “homebody” and needed a support system away from my family. I went through recruitment and joined Pi Beta Phi sorority, which I still stand by as one of the best decisions of my life. Filled with both friendships and hardships, ups and downs, challenges and one of-a- kind experiences, Pi Phi gave me the home away from home that I was looking for. Then during my junior year, I joined Intervarsity and saw a whole new type of community that I could be a part of. I made a lot of great friends and challenged the way that I saw Jesus and how He taught and loved those around Him.

One day my IV staff worker Joel introduced me to Bethanee, a Greek IV staff worker from Willamette. During our first conversation, Bethanee brought up the possibility of starting a bible study in my house. My first reaction was skepticism, because spiritual conversations are a taboo in Greek life during recruitment, which ends up carrying on through the rest of the year. However, God showed his power through the people He brought together in community as Christians and Greeks. I’ve also had opportunities such as Greek Conference in SoCal, where I was inspired by other Greek IV stories, and girls prayer group with our InterVarsity chapter, where I received courage and acceptance through the whole process of establishing the bible study. God has shown me amazing support from both Christians and non-Christians, both Greeks and non-Greeks.

God hardly ever shows us the path ahead of time that he is going to place us on, but it is amazing to look back and see where he’s taken me during my four years at the U of O. Placing me in Pi Phi allowed me to build a foundation with the women of the chapter and solidify my leadership within the house. Then He gave me the opportunity to lead them in a whole new way and build on my Greek foundation with His love. He gave me the courage and the means to start a Greek ministry on campus and shine His light brightly in traditionally dark places. I am so grateful for the opportunities and experiences I’ve had, because they’ve not only changed our campus and Greek system, they’ve shaped me into who I am as well. As I look into the future of Greek InterVarsity at Oregon, I am extremely optimistic. I see it growing into a powerful organization on campus and impacting every chapter, both fraternities and sororities, to empower Greek men and women on our campus to change the world.

As a freshman at Willamette University I was excited to get involved in as many different places as I could. I hadn’t really done that in high school and in college I wanted to make up for lost time. I joined InterVarsity right away and got involved in Bible studies and leading worship. I had filled my time with all kinds of activities and wasn’t really looking for more. Greek life wasn’t even on my radar, because we have delayed recruitment. I honestly didn’t know much about the Greek system. I don’t even remember having conversations with friends about it. I knew about the Greek houses. I had been to the fraternities with friends, but I still didn’t know what it was about.

Right before Recruitment, I was at an InterVarsity gathering and this guy, Cooper, a sophomore in Sigma Chi, asked me if I was going to rush. I was honest and told him I hadn’t really considered it. And he said to me words that changed my life, “The Greek system really needs Christians and I think you’d do a great job.” I was flattered that Cooper thought I’d make a great Greek. I was also flattered that he would entrust the Greek system to me as a Christian and that he saw it as a place that Christians should go. Just as Jesus sent his disciples into surrounding communities, Cooper believed that Christians should go Greek! To make a long story short, I took Cooper’s advice and I joined Delta Gamma.

My favorite part of Greek life was living with a diverse group of women whom I would otherwise never meet. They are my sisters all over the world and I miss them. My life is forever changed, not just because I’m a Delta Gamma, but also because I am now on staff with Greek InterVarsity. In the last year, I’ve had the opportunity to see God start Greek ministries on two campuses in Oregon. God is at work in the Greek system out here and I’m excited to be a part of it. I can’t imagine what my life would be like without being Greek!

She began her ministry spending an entire year trying to pioneer on a large scale among all the sororities and fraternities on campus. Despite Lindsey’s passion for caring for Greek men and women and her desire to see cultural and spiritual change among them, she found herself busy, frustrated, and not seeing much fruit. So we stepped back, spoke with people who have gone before us in Greek ministry, and decided to start small with house ministry among the Zetas. We also started talking about Greek ministry with other Greek students who had been involved in the regular undergrad chapter. Since we had seen some conflict in the chapter because of prejudice towards Greek culture, ministry within the Greek system was an attractive idea.

One year later, Lindsay is ready to graduate and, unfortunately has not seen a new leader come up behind her in her own house. However, her desire to see ministry begin in the Greek system has rubbed off on others and has resulted in two fraternities with budding leaders, one of them having just started a GIG in the last two weeks with nine men interested and attending, albeit inconsistently so far. I thank God for sending Lindsey to Clarion and for calling her into the Greek community. Because of her obedience, we are seeing leaders developed in a couple different houses and partnership develop between the Greeks and the undergrad chapter (as well as reconciliation between them). I also, and especially, thank God for helping us to recognize where He’s already been at work and for inviting us to step out in faith and start serving and leading, growing in relationship with Him as we do so.

Finally, over the summer of 2009, God worked on me and my heart in so many different ways. After meeting with our Greek IV staff, Kristina, at the end of the Spring 2009 semester, I joined Greek IV leadership and began to embark on the journey that God had called me to two years earlier. I spent the summer praying for courage and boldness and seeking wise counsel from my family. When fall came around the butterflies in my stomach began to multiply, but so did God’s faithfulness. I have seen God work in so many tangible ways during my college experience, but this fall He has shown himself to me in powerful ways.

Every semester, I ask the Lord to show me a verse that I can call my “semester verse” that I will apply to that semester. As I started praying about that, the scripture that came to mind was Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” I started to think that it was such a prevalent verse and didn’t have the depth that I wanted, but the more I thought about it the more I realized that that scripture was about as deep as it gets- I can do ALL things. After that, God confirmed this verse to me in two ways- through my boyfriend Josh who suggested that I meditate on that verse, and through Kristina who brought it up at our first Greek IV leader meeting… He is so good! He showed me the depth and meaning of this verse and its application to my life this semester.

Every time I let those thoughts of fear and disbelief about my starting my study in Pi Phi, I was reminded of that verse. I finally took the plunge at our first meeting of the semester. I asked just about everyone that I could for prayer that day- I needed it, I was so nervous! I stood up at our meeting, and announced to the sorority chapter that I would be starting a faith group- a safe, non-judgmental place to come, ask questions, create meaningful relationships and explore who God is in our everyday lives as Greeks.

My biggest fear was that after I passed around a sign up sheet that I would receive it back blank. Ten names were on it when I got it back!! All I could think was, “God, you are so faithful.” That next night, five young women came to my study and we had an amazing time of sharing together about their hopes for the study and how we could invite other chapter members to join. I know that God is going to use this in the Pi Phi house and the lives of its members, and I am continually praying for His guidance to be ever-present in my life as I lead these young women.

“My freshman year of college was full of new friends, parties, and late night food. And don’t get me wrong, it was a blast. But I knew something was missing, and God knew it too. He began to pursue my heart and Greek IV fell right into my lap. Krystal reached out to me and gave me the encouragement I needed to get plugged in and to get involved. This organization, through God, has literally changed my life and heart around. I have never experienced the kind of community I have with those people.

Greek IV has given me opportunities to lead, to talk about Christ with my sorority sisters, and even to do mission work in Haiti. I have learned what it means to walk with Christ, even amongst the craziness of college life- and I cannot express how much joy it has given me.

And the only thing better than the incredible peace that has entered my own heart, is seeing it enter in others. My sorority sisters have been so eager each week to come to Bible Study-another outlet of Greek Impact. I could think of nothing better for my college experience than exploring God’s truth with my best friends. Greek IV, for me, has been the most tangible evidence of God’s incredible love.”

Since then we have been meeting weekly for a GIG (Greeks investigating God). Last week I invited her to become a Christian after she told me she was beginning to understand God, starting to pray, and even seeing God answer her prayers. Alex was not sure about completely submitting her life to God because, “most Christians I know do it half-way and I don’t want to do that. If I am going to become a Christian I want to do it 100% and I still don’t know how.” Alex is continuing her journey but I know that she is going to become a Christian, and I even invited her to do it again this week. God is working in her life–pray with me that he would continue to reveal himself to her in ways that she cannot deny!

The first Delta Gamma study had ten girls attend and even more girls were interested in coming! An incredible range of backgrounds were represented at the study: girls who had grown up in Christian homes and Jewish homes, girls who had never been to church growing up, seniors and freshman.

These girls, who all share a common bond of sisterhood, realized they have even more in common. They see now that they all have questions about God and how He is relevant to their lives today.  Because of Brinn’s faithfulness, these girls who know everything about each other, now have a place to talk about the things that matter most.