A 2005 graduate with a degree in Biochemistry, Jay transferred to Messiah College after his freshman year.  There, he got involved with the CCO’s ministry at Issachar’s Loft and was influenced by staff members Tim Bogertman, Dave Tanis, Alece Nauck-Heisey, and Jeremy Stoltzfus.  At the Loft, Jay participated in Who’s Zooming Who—a fellowship and Bible study group dedicated to learning about cultural issues in order to formulate a faithful biblical response.  “All of the transformative experiences I had as a college student were Loft/CCO experiences.  The Loft enabled me to make sense of what I was doing as a student.”

Jay remembers hearing Byron Borger, associate CCO staff member and owner of Hearts and Minds Bookstore in Dallastown, Pennsylvania, speaking about integration of faith and learning.  Byron challenged him to think about Christian education as something deeper than simply praying at the beginning of class and then learning pagan ideas from pagan textbooks and accepting them as truth.  Jay says, “I think in no uncertain terms the CCO saved my faith in college by demonstrating how to be thoughtful, scholarly, critical, and still a committed Christian.”  Without that influence, he believes he would have graduated with a watered-down Christianity or a watered-down understanding of Biochemistry.

Most of Jay’s experiences with CCO ministry at Messiah came through his involvement with the Wilderness Team at Issachar’s Loft.  In 2004, Jay participated in the CCO’s Leadership and Discipleship in the Wilderness (LDW) program with staff members Ryan Carlson, Jeremy Stoltzfus, and Jamie Jennings.  After graduation, he led LDW trips for the CCO and then moved to Pittsburgh to work with the CCO’s Outdoor Leadership Team.  He says that concepts taught by the LDW curriculum come to mind nearly everyday.  In addition, Jay remains close friends with those who were in his life as a student and says, “These are people that are and will be deeply connected to my life for a long time.  That trip gives one a glimpse of what relationships are supposed to be like in a broken world, and after living that way for just a moment, it’s impossible not to think of it when your day-to-day life doesn’t reflect that.”

Once he receives his assignment from the Peace Corps, Jay says that his only job will be to serve the community in which he lives.  Even before Jay attended college, he knew he wanted to serve others in some capacity, but the CCO helped him to build a much better framework for understanding the work he will be doing with the Peace Corps.  Prior to his experience with the CCO, Jay thinks he may have felt that the only way to really serve was as a missionary or pastor.  He believes he would have signed up with a mission organization but sees himself as much better equipped to serve in his capacity as a Peace Corps volunteer.

Jay credits his experience with the CCO as having provided the framework or lens through which he evaluates all of his decisions and interactions.  That framework serves to shape decisions regarding how much energy he uses, the type of car he chooses to drive, his decision to live abroad and serve as a volunteer, and his involvement in political campaigns and in biodiesel projects.  “The CCO focuses on faithfulness in ALL areas of life, and I try my best to do that.”

Click here to find out Denny’s top three favorite things about his job, the craziest thing a student has ever asked him, and his favorite sport.

Stephanie was a freshman at Robert Morris University when she started attending a Bible study led by CCO staff worker Kristie Simo Martel. During her sophomore year, the Bible study leadership was assumed by CCO staff worker Katherine Sikma, with whom Steph also met weekly. “Meeting weekly with Katherine and attending women’s Bible study helped to keep me grounded in my faith,” she says. “It helped to remind me why my values and actions as a Christian were important. It was also great to hear from the other girls how God was working in their lives.”

Steph graduated from Robert Morris in 2007 with a degree in hospitality administration, and she went on to earn her MBA from Duquesne University. She is still living in the Pittsburgh area, and is looking for a job.

“I am looking for an entry into the field of human resources,” Steph says. “I actually chose this field because I feel that it is a way for me to serve God by serving others.”

If the CCO’s ministry hadn’t been available to her at Robert Morris, Steph thinks she would “probably would be worse off” in her faith. “Many college students who grew up in the church drift away from God and His teachings, but that constant contact with other Christians helped to strengthen my relationship with God at a time where I was really discovering and deciding who I was. My involvement with the CCO in college taught me to rely on God to get me through the tough spots. It has also helped shape the life that I plan to lead. I want to glorify God in whatever He leads me to do. Right now, I have to have faith that His plan for me is better than anything I could imagine.”

Click here to read how Kevin’s life was transformed by the CCO’s ministry.

“I think it is important for people to understand that we, as Americans, have more than we need and more than most people in the world. The simple act of giving something of ourselves that we probably won’t miss can change someone’s life. The sweater your grandmother gave you that you hate, can make a difference in someone’s life,” says Nicki.

To read the full article by WVUToday, click here.

Ken transferred into Messiah College as a sophomore in the late 1980s after spending a year at a British Bible college. He first made a commitment to Christ as a five-year-old attending Vacation Bible School, but it was during his college years that he began to really take hold and understand his faith.

“While in England, I started understanding more and more about God’s claims on my life,” Ken says. “But it was during my time at Messiah that the CCO ministry helped fill in what it meant that God had those claims. The CCO’s coherent global philosophy made sense from top to bottom—from evangelism and conversion to what it means to live out our Christian faith in all of life. It provided a full picture. Messiah would have been a more confusing and frustrating place without the CCO telling me that my faith is supposed to be about my life today. Faith is relevant in everything, even in how we approach our school work.”

During his time at Messiah, Ken served as a resident assistant under CCO staff member and resident director, Doug Bradbury, and during the summer of 1990, he participated in the CCO-sponsored Christian leadership development program, the Ocean City Beach Project. He went on a short-term mission trip to Haiti and attended the Jubilee conference. And a couple of years after graduating from Messiah with his degree in communications, Ken came on staff with the CCO, first serving students at Geneva College and later working for the CCO’s training department.

Today, Ken and his wife, Lynette, are raising their three children in Pittsburgh’s East End, where they are intentionally involved in their neighbors’ lives. They are members of Bellefield Presbyterian Church, where Ken has taught adult Sunday school classes and currently serves as an elder and the chair of the University Council: Bellefield is a hub of CCO ministry to students at the University of Pittsburgh. And since 2007, Ken has served as Program Director for TWOgether Pittsburgh, a marriage preparation and enrichment program.

“I am able to comfortably talk about the marriage relationship and the deeply Christian foundation of it without explicitly quoting Bible verses,” says Ken. “I believe that Scripture provides the foundation of what everyone should know about doing marriage, but they just don’t do it. It’s like weight loss—we know that in order to lose weight, we need to eat less and exercise more. It’s just a matter of doing it. The community sites we use to do our programs are churches; our goal is to equip someone at each site to continue doing this programming after we leave.”

Ken credits the CCO with helping him to understand the biblical foundations for all areas of life, and to be able to communicate that to people—from the students he interacts with at church, to the couples he counsels at work, to his neighbors who have never set foot in a church building. “I’m not afraid to teach or train people who are clearly smarter than me,” he says. “The CCO gave me a clear understanding that everyone is gifted differently and has a different role, and they modeled for me that education doesn’t have to be hierarchical. I teach PhDs in my Sunday school class, which gives me a healthy sense of self and makes me realize that it’s really the Scripture that needs to teach.”

Click here to find out Becky’s three favorite things about her job, what she believes are the biggest challenges college students face, and what she likes to read.

“My roommate Louise was a born-again Christian,” she remembers. “I would come home from fraternity parties and she would be reading her Bible, and I thought she was one of the weirdest people I had ever met. But she didn’t judge me, she just accepted me. She invited me to Christian fellowship meetings where I started noticing a difference between Louise and her Christian friends and the drunken kids at the frat parties I was attending.”

Kay attended the Chatham Center Weekend in 1973, which was a precursor to the CCO’s annual Jubilee conference. “It was amazing to be in that hotel which was overrun by college kids. Just being able to see how many other Christian college students were out there—who believed and were excited about it—was a really great, powerful experience.”

She enjoyed getting to know Christian students from other schools, and listening to speakers like RC Sproul and Terry Thomas, and Christian musicians Noel Paul Stookey and Phil Keaggy. “Terry and Natalie did a workshop on sexual purity, and I still have the notes and a cassette tape, with all of the Scripture references. I’ve used it in my work with young people since.”

Today, Kay is Associate Pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, where she lives with her husband, professional bagpiper George Balderose.

After graduating in 1976 with a degree in mathematics, Kay worked as a computer programmer for three years, and then realized that what she really wanted to do was “help people and tell people about the joy of Jesus.” Even though she was already doing that in her workplace, she sensed a call to fulltime ministry.

Kay went to Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, and while raising her family, she pursued part-time jobs in women’s ministry, Christian education, and as editor of a Christian web magazine. In 2002, she was ordained as a Presbyterian minister, and in 2009, she assumed her current position.

And she points back to her college years as foundational for the faith she still practices today.

“The whole Christian experience at Westminster really changed my life,” Kay says. “I moved from the hedonistic, pleasure-seeking, wild and crazy college lifestyle to realizing that because of Jesus, I was a worthwhile person and I had value. Students who knew me as a senior didn’t believe the stories of what I was like as a freshman, I had changed so much! I have always had such a burden on my heart for college kids and such gratitude for those adults, whoever they were, who came to campus and talked to us about Jesus. The decision to live for Christ changed everything.”

Click here to read Kate’s story.

“The church that was being held in this building was in decline,” explains Jake. “There weren’t enough members to keep the place running. Ever since my first year on staff in August 2007, I’ve wanted to start something up here. It was necessary to end what was going on in order to allow space for something greater to happen.”

In collaboration with the Reverend Michael McGee and the Reverend Paul Cooper, the rector of St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church in Cranberry Twp., College Hill Anglican Fellowship was born.

Before any services could be held in the building, it needed to be refurbished. Over the course of a weekend, Jake, local residents and Geneva students scrubbed, hauled, dusted, weeded and planted all around the church’s property.

The building was finally ready to host its first preview service on a Sunday evening in September 2009. Word spread among community members and students alike.

“The first week we had over 100 visitors,” remarks Jake. “We ran out of bulletins. We ran out of seats. The place was packed. It was standing room only.”

In order to make the church more accessible and appealing to students, all services are held on Sunday evenings. Afterward, a home-cooked meal is prepared by student volunteers. Visitors stay well past the hour-long service chatting with one another, laughing and sharing stories.

“There’s something about what we’re saying and something about what we’re doing that makes students want to be here, and it creates a safe space for them,” comments Jake.

For students raised in a Christian home and attending a Christian college, it’s easy to feign belief in a system you’ve practiced your entire life. By making students partake in the process and not just observe it, students are making what were once their parents’ beliefs into their own.

Roman, a senior at Geneva College, grew up in the church. He never made a serious heart connection with his faith and eventually became jaded by Christianity. Roman and his girlfriend, Lauren, began attending St. Christopher’s and found the church members open and genuine. They became invested by joining the leadership team.

“It was refreshing for Roman to hear that church was not about what you do or don’t do. You don’t need to have it all together,” says Jake.

When it was time for College Hill Fellowship to commence services, Roman and Lauren were among the group of core students to help get it off the ground, and they continue to contribute to the church in significant ways.

“About 80% of our members are students,” says Jake. “We’re very intentional about getting students involved. They serve in hospitality, the worship band, as greeters, in a student choir, and with the meal after services.”

When asked what students tell Jake about the newly established church, he responded, “They say that it’s a refreshing sort of thing, and a safe place where they can ask questions. They don’t have to come here, they want to.”

Photos by Cory Morton.