CCO Campus Ministry

Home / Transformed Lives / Jeff VanderMolen

Jeff VanderMolen

vandermolen_jeff.jpg“The CCO introduced me to the theme of ‘all of life redeemed,’ and that changed my life,” says Jeff VanderMolen. “I realized that going into the film business would not have to compromise my faith. I also realized that to really do my work ‘Christianly,’ I needed to become excellent in my field. If you’re lazy, sloppy or don’t take it seriously, people won’t take you or your faith seriously.”

Jeff first connected to the CCO’s ministry during his freshman year at Messiah College, when CCO staff worker Doug Bradbury served as Jeff’s residence hall director. As a sophomore, Jeff became a charter member of Issachar’s Loft, a leadership development and fellowship opportunity for Messiah students.

“The CCO provided an alternative vision, even at a Christian college,” says Jeff. “There were great opportunities to grow at Messiah, but you had to take them. Issachar’s Loft was an alternative to the typical college experience—the mindset of living for the weekends, or the goal of studying to simply get the good job and the paycheck. There was another layer with the CCO. As a Messiah student, I had to go to Chapel, and I had to take Bible classes, but the CCO ministers had us reading books in addition to our school work. It wasn’t just another social club; there was real substance there.”

Because of the epiphany Jeff had that he could serve God through the film industry, he spent his last three semesters of undergrad at Messiah’s Philadelphia campus, and he graduated in 1993 with a BA in radio, television and film. Today, he lives with his wife, Sarah, and their three children in Pittsburgh, where Jeff works in the film industry as a freelance gaffer. Jeff provides lighting for local commercial jobs, as well as the Hollywood films that increasingly come to Pittsburgh to film. The VanderMolens are also active members of Friendship Community Church, an inter-racial congregation located on the edge of Pittsburgh’s Hill District.

“I had originally planned to go out to Hollywood, but there is a cost to that lifestyle,” Jeff says. “The cost of living is a lot more, but so is the cost to family life and balance. I have friends who did go to California, and they work all the time. They are afraid to ever turn down a job.”

Jeff first moved to Pittsburgh because Sarah was working for the CCO at Chatham College (now University), and he is grateful now that they made the choice to stay. Not only has he become a big fish in the small pond of Pittsburgh’s film industry, but he also has the opportunity to fulfill another calling that he received while a Messiah student: a commitment to the people of Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere.

The CCO introduced Jeff to Haiti via a short-term mission trip the summer after his sophomore year. Sarah took a trip herself during her years on CCO staff, and since then Jeff and Sarah have led several short-term trips themselves—first for the CCO, and now, through Haiti H2O, a nonprofit which connects churches in Haiti with churches in the United States by leading short-term mission trips. Jeff serves as the Trip Coordinator, and he credits his post-graduate experiences with the CCO, particularly through the Outdoor Leadership Team, with preparing him to lead meaningful trips. A participant in the CCO’s charter Leadership and Discipleship in the Wilderness summer trip, Jeff learned that, as T.S. Eliot said, “You can have the experience but miss the meaning.”

“Mission trips can often be the most powerful experience in a person’s life, and to be able to share that with college students or with the multi-generational church groups we take is amazing,” says Jeff.

“There are people who take their Christian faith seriously,” says Jeff. “It is not just a Sunday thing for them. Being a part of the CCO’s ministry, as a student and afterwards, staying in Pittsburgh, has kept me in touch with these kinds of people. It’s kept me working to live out that holistic Christianity, in my family, in my workplace, and in my community. Because I am surrounded by people who are striving to live faithful lives, and that makes me want to do that too.”