Being a sophomore, I had become quite adept at avoiding street vendors, whether with my cell phone or a brusque “I’ve got class.”  I was almost past the table about to put my hand up to tell the voice that I was late, but I couldn’t.  Something that day made me freeze, turn around and look up to see a man wearing frat glasses and Sperry’s.

I grew up in a Christian household.  We went to church most weekends and my parents waited for me to get baptized until I fully understood the commitment.  As I got older, we went to church less when the usual sports or work got in the way.  I left high school a believer, but a convenient one who turned his Christianity on and off.

I came to Northwestern not thinking about fraternities.  I had no idea what they were all about so for the first few months I pretty much ignored their rush posters.  January was the first week fraternities could give out bids.  That first night, I meandered up to the fraternity quad for one reason, the free food.

The first and only house I visited was Delta Chi.  I did enjoy a delicious meal but beyond my growing pile of wings, I found something else.  A bond between brothers that I couldn’t explain.  They weren’t just friends, something else held them together.  I left that night with a new view on fraternities, or at least Delta Chi.

The next night I was given a bid.  I accepted the greatest gift college has given me so far.  What I didn’t know at the time was it would also be one of the greatest challenges I would have to face.

After initiating 13 new members in my pledge class, our fraternity faced deactivations and leaving seniors.  We came into this year with only 28 active members.  With the realization that we would not be able to stay viable unless we found a great rush class, my fraternity faced a culture change.  It started with a realization that we were not very good at rush but it quickly morphed into a realization that our chapter was facing deeper problems.  Brothers were content with where they were as a chapter.  Simply put we got lazy.  Not just in rush, but in brotherhood and the betterment of our community.

It took a few months but our chapter did change, and with it came 27 new members, doubling the size of our fraternity.

This brings me back to the day I met Ryan Mercer in the fall.  I wasn’t actively pursuing a Christian group on campus but to this day, I believe Jesus told me to stop turn around and tell Ryan yes, that indeed I actually was looking for a Christian group.  That group turned out to be Greek InterVarsity.

Religion was sort of a taboo subject in my chapter.  It wasn’t persecuted but it was just something that was not talked about.  I bought into this culture my freshman year.  I would quietly pray but I doubt any of my brothers actually knew I was a Christian. I think God stopped me that day because he wanted me to stop making my faith convenient and quiet.  I was put in a transitioning fraternity so I could make a difference.  Greek InterVarsity has helped me get over my fear of talking about my faith.  Through it, I’ve found other quiet brothers who want to talk about Jesus.

This has culminated into Sunday nights at 6 p.m. when Northwestern’s Delta Chi holds it’s Bible study.  Ten brothers meet together and have real discussions about faith.  I joined a changing fraternity and I think God wanted me to join Greek InterVarsity to change it even more.

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!

After attending Greek Conference in Indianapolis back in February, I made a vow to share the word of God with people in my house. That started with having individual conversations with people about God. It didn’t always feel natural, but I have had a handful of great conversations with people about their religious backgrounds and beliefs. Then, I decided to make an announcement during my chapter meeting about wanting to have a time where brothers in the house could come together and talk about religion or any other topic they had on their mind.

I picked Wednesday night during our dinner time to have the discussion. Amazingly, 16 guys showed up. We started by all sharing our religious backgrounds and upbringings. Then, we moved to current beliefs or questions that we have. The discussion flowed form there and we had an hour discussion about religion. A lot of people posed difficult questions, questions I didn’t have answers to. Even though I didn’t have the answers, we had a really great dialogue between all of us.

I know this discussion doesn’t resemble the typical house bible study, but I feel like I need to take baby steps and my house needs to take baby steps before I feel comfortable incorporating scripture. I will keep praying for God to work through me in my house and I appreciate any prayers from people reading this. If you are reading this and are in a similar situation as I was, I would love to talk to you. I still have a lot of work to do, but I feel great about where my house is right now and I think this Spring will be a great opportunity for me to continue sharing the word of God.

During Happy Hour (our weekly prayer meeting) a few weeks ago, as we were praying towards our Greek IV vision of seeing our Greek system renewed, the thought popped in my head to plan a similar outreach dinner with friends from Greek IV. I presented the idea to the group right when we finished praying and things kind of took off from there.

The goal of the event was to create a comfortable atmosphere for spiritual conversations to take place. We wanted to make it a place where our friends who are seeking Jesus could feel free to ask questions. We also wanted House Ministry Leaders to be excited about evangelism and reaching out to individuals in their houses.

So I sent an email to all the House Ministry Leaders who were at the Happy Hour when we talked about it, encouraging them to set aside their Saturday evening and pray for 1 or 2 people they could personally invite to the dinner who might be searching for Jesus, or would benefit by getting better connected to the Greek IV community. As with anything, about half of the people we invited couldn’t come, but we had 7 non-christians come! We all ate dinner together and then left the night open for whatever people wanted to do. Some people played cards, some people roasted marshmallows around the fire pit and others just hung out and talked. There seemed to be just the right amount of Greek IVers there to keep conversations going and to make sure that all our guests felt welcomed.

I brought my plege kid, *Jose because I know that he really wants to investigate Jesus right now. While we were driving to dinner, I mentioned that it would be a great chance for him to ask people about their faith journeys, so that’s what he did. He was able to hear several people’s testimonies and help start some great conversations around the campfire.

I also brought my other plegde kid, *Andy, along with 2 of his friends from another school. We’ve had some spiritual conversations in the past and he has come to our seeker discussion group at the house. Although we didn’t have any deep conversations that night, he told me afterward that he really enjoyed the evening and the people he met.

We intentionally invited a few people from fraternities and sororities new to Greek IV. They were able to talk with a few Greek IV leaders for a while and I think they really enjoyed getting better connected to the Greek IV community.

One House Ministry Leader, Ric brought a friend from his fraternity who seemed to be really engaged with the conversation around the fire pit about a broad range of spiritual topics. As we were driving home, he said something to Ric about wanting to get more involved in the house Bible study.

It was an awesome night. We were encouraged by what God did that night and know God is doing more than what we see. We are planning to have another dinner event like this before the school year ends. I pray that this is something God will continue to use to inspire us to be reaching out to our brothers and sisters as a witnessing community.