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Ryan Heimann

heimann-ryan.jpg“I share my faith by having different values and priorities than I would if I didn’t know Jesus,” says Ryan Heimann. “The CCO’s ministry helped me to put everything into its proper perspective. I work to serve, not to earn the highest paycheck or to gain the most respect. My home is a place of hospitality and rest, not extravagance. My marriage is based upon love and humility, not attraction or convenience. I spend time with a community of believers because God uses them to change me and uses me to change them, not because it’s comfortable and fun. People have value because they’re made in God’s image, not because I like them or because of what they do for me. My significance is based in God’s unfailing love, not in anything that I do or don’t do.”

Ryan first connected to the CCO during his first year as a student at Washington and Jefferson College. “My experiences in my youth group were some of the most formative in high school, so I went to college immediately looking for Christian community,” he remembers. “My involvement with the CCO made me more of a leader and redefined my sense of community. At the first Christian fellowship meeting I attended, [CCO staff worker] Fiona Hunter invited me to step up into more of a leadership role, and CCO staff continued to invite me to do things that I never would have stepped into without their persuasion.”

The greatest example of this was Ryan’s decision to participate in the CCO-sponsored Christian leadership program, the Ocean City Beach Project. “Had [CCO staff member] Sharon Dickson not continually pursued me to get me to complete the application, I would have never stepped up into the greatest community experience of my life. I had participated in mission trips and retreats and youth camps before, but living in a community of 18 other college students committed to following Christ while being exposed to gifted teachers and ministry within a local church gave me an entirely new appreciation for what living in a local body headed by Jesus can accomplish.”

The Jubilee conference also played a significant role in Ryan’s faith development. “Jubilee showed me the heart of the CCO and put the rest of my college fellowship experiences in perspective,” he says. “The focus on calling, occupation, and the drama of Scripture always served as a reminder that campus ministry wasn’t an end, but means by which God changed me and those around me. I still often remind myself to ‘imagine the Kingdom,’ to picture the world as God created it to be and to recognize goodness as well as brokenness.”

Today, Ryan is putting his degree in Accounting and Information Technology Leadership to work through his position as an auditor and Certified Public Accountant. He and his wife, Lizz, live in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, outside of Pittsburgh, where Lizz serves the CCO as a campus worker at Robert Morris University. Ryan and Lizz worship together at Charis 247 Faith Community, an Anglican church plant, where Ryan plays with the worship team on Sunday mornings. Ryan and Lizz regularly get together with a group of 20-somethings for fellowship and Bible study.

“Without influence from the CCO, my faith wouldn’t be as well-rounded,” says Ryan. “I wouldn’t have met my wife. I may not know a number of my closest friends. I would probably have a very different understanding of community, faith, and leadership. My life is inextricably intertwined with the CCO and my relationship with Jesus Christ.”