Christians on Campus: Fellowship, the Word of God, and Prayer

Every Christian has a story. Have I ever told you mine? 

In this post, I will focus on my experience as a Christian since I arrived in college at the University of Texas in Austin, in particular my experience with a club called Christians on Campus. If you want the full version, I would be happy to tell you in person!

I moved across half the country to attend UT. When I arrived in Austin, I knew virtually nobody. One of my priorities was to get connected with other Christians. Fortunately, one of the few people I did know helped me to find a group called Christians on Campus. The first week of school, I went to Freshmen Connect, a welcome event for new students. Since then, my experience with the group has been awesome; I’ve been learning to live a normal, daily Christian life.

Christian Fellowship

My freshman year at UT, I built the habit of having Christian fellowship with other believers on a daily basis. In high school, what I considered an adequate pursuit of the Lord consisted of a weekly church meeting, an uplifting retreat every few months, and the occasional reading of a Bible verse or two. But when I arrived at UT and started meeting with Christians on Campus, I quickly discovered that these people were much more serious than that! Their pursuit of the Lord was not occasional, not weekly, but daily. During the course of my freshmen year, I began meeting and having fellowship with other believers every day of the week in Bible studies and small groups. I started to see a glimpse of the church life as described in Acts 2:46 – “day by day” and “house to house.”

Reading the Word of God

My second year at UT, I built the habit of reading the Bible on a daily basis. Some other students from Christians on Campus were doing a 90 day New Testament reading schedule, and I decided to jump in. For me, reading the Bible had always been a chore, something I knew I should do but didn’t always enjoy. Many times, I had the all-too-common experience of starting in Genesis or Matthew, only to fizzle out before reaching Numbers or Acts. This time, however, I started reading with companions. Each day, we texted each other verses that we enjoyed. Mysteriously, I started to gain a real appetite for the Word of God. I can honestly say that reading the Bible is now something I look forward to every day.

A Habit of Prayer

My third year at UT has been a year of learning to pray with others. Building an atmosphere of prayer with close Christian friends is not easy, but I have been learning to pray with others on a daily basis. This matter is a little bit harder to explain in words, but I feel like Galatians 6:2 does a pretty good job: “Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ completely.” Both in scheduled times of prayer and spontaneous times of prayer, I am learning to let others bear my burdens by praying with them.

Fellowship, the Word of God, and prayer are three crucial elements of our Christian life. I am thankful to the Lord that through my experience with Christians on Campus at UT, He has built these habits into my daily life.

P.S. You can also read a more detailed testimony from this past fall semester.