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Jill Benson

benson_jill.jpg“It wasn’t until I started attending CCO-sponsored TREK meetings that I realized that my relationship with God didn’t have to be viewed as separate from everything else,” says Jill Benson. “I realized that the things that were close to my heart were also close to God’s. As I continued to attend TREK, I learned what a worldview is and what it looks like to view everything through the lens of my Christian faith.”

When Jill first arrived as a student at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, she wasn’t interested in looking for Christian fellowship. “My first year in college, my faith wasn’t really a part of my life at all,” she remembers. “I never renounced God, I just kind of put him away on a shelf for a year. Over the summer, I re-embraced my faith, and when I came back for my sophomore year, I was desperately looking for Christian fellowship. I attended a CCO-sponsored group called TREK (Thinking Responsibly about Equality and the Kingdom) when a guy I liked—who is now my husband—invited me. I started going because I liked Steve, but I continued going because I liked TREK.”

Jill continued attending TREK throughout the rest of her undergraduate career, eventually joining the leadership team and being mentored by CCO staff member Allie Grott (now Mollenkof). “Everyone on leadership had to take a turn facilitating our weekly Bible study, something I wasn’t very comfortable with at first, but I really enjoyed in the end. I found that I had a great love for studying and teaching the scriptures, so my senior year, I took over Allie’s Bible study, teaching a group of junior and senior girls.”

After graduating from IUP in 2005, Jill and her husband, Steve, both joined CCO staff to minister to students at Penn State University. In 2009, they moved to Peabody, Massachusetts, and Jill is currently pursuing a master’s degree at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. The Bensons are actively involved in North Point Evangelical Presbyterian Church, where Jill helps lead music. Jill and Steve are applying what they learned as students and staff of the CCO by heading up a program called “Every Square Inch,” a five-month series during which Christian panelists explore how to apply their faith to their areas of expertise, including art, business, media, politics and science.

“My involvement in TREK helped me discover my passion for studying the scriptures, which is what landed me at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary studying Old Testament and Biblical Languages,” Jill says. “The CCO’s ministry, through TREK and the Jubilee conference, helped me realize that every decision I make matters to God, from what car I buy to how I shop to how I approach my immediate community. Some may see this as overwhelming, but for me, it gives so much more purpose and importance to my decisions. I don’t think this means that there’s always a right and a wrong decision, but I think there’s a right and wrong process, and finding the right process has been a wonderful experience.

“I don’t think I would be the person I am now if it weren’t for the CCO. There’s a chance that someone else in my life would have helped me reconcile the things I love with my love of God, but I often think I would have just continued to see those things as separate, understanding only a small portion of the big beautiful gospel I’m learning more about each day.”