Helping Students Face Anxiety, Depression, and Loneliness

As students prepare for their first fall semester on campus after over a year and a half of virtual learning it almost feels like life is returning to normal. But as dorm rooms, cafeterias, and classrooms fill up again, many students are still feeling empty as they battle the anxiety, depression, and loneliness churned up from the trauma and isolation of the pandemic. 

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• Cultural Engagement

One Strike and You’re Out?

If a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD but the thing does not take place or prove true, it is a word that the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; do not be frightened by it. (NRSV) - Deut. 18:22

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• Seeking God

The Impact of Christian Union Lux

Editor’s Note: The following article contains first-person accounts from alumni who were actively involved in CU Lux, Christian Union’s ministry at Yale University. 

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• Alumni
• Yale

Learning to Engage for the Sake of Mission   

Christian leaders falling from grace has become a routine headline over the past few years. Our leaders have been caught in abuse, scandals, addiction, or lavish spending of church funds, leaving a trail of wreckage in the congregations they led, but also a bad impression on a watching world. It appears that Christians, who declare love and grace and humility with their lips, are often living a life that is out of sync with their declared good news. The word for this is hypocrisy, and it’s hurting the church more than ever.

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• Alumni
• Cultural Engagement

Initiative Invigorates, Encourages Stanford Students

  When the word broke that Stanford would continue virtually for the entirety of the 2020-21 academic year, ministry fellow Abigail Carreon knew something had to change. In one-on-one meetings with CU Caritas students, she heard repeatedly about feelings of isolation and loneliness, apathy towards coursework, and what she suspected were the beginnings of depression for many of them.  

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• Intellectual Engagement
• Stanford

CU Libertas Celebrates Seniors

In an exciting and encouraging end to their time in college, seniors of CU Libertas gathered in person to be celebrated and recognized by underclassmen and to get off campus for a seniors-only day retreat. Though these kinds of events are typical for the graduation season, Ministry Fellow Laurel Copp says that these were the only two in-person events the ministry formally hosted all year due to COVID-19 restrictions.

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• Alumni
• Brown

Carter Conlon: "We Have Abandoned the Ways of God"

Carter Conlon, chairman of the board and general overseer of Times Square Church in New York City, recently compared the United States to a shipwrecked vessel—with more storms on the near horizon. The coming darkness and desperation, however, could usher in a great opportunity for the Church to be a voice of hope and salvation, he said. 

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• New York
• Seeking God

Revival, Reformation Are Preceded by a Return to God 

“We need to admit that there’s a problem,” said Matt Bennett as he addressed the need for widespread repentance to Christian Union Cornerstone Partners in a Zoom meeting, Monday evening, June 7, 2021.

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• Alumni
• Seeking God
• Cultural Engagement

Q and A with Dr. Vincent Naman

  Christian Union New York has teamed up with the ministry’s alumni engagement team to connect recent graduates and young professionals to mentors who work in the same field. Part of Christian Union’s mission is to transition college seniors into the workforce or graduate school well, linking  them with a broad Christian network to support and sustain their faith while also networking professionally. 

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• Brown
• Dartmouth
• Princeton
• Yale

"God Weighs Nations in the Balance"

Judgment isn’t a topic most people want to talk about, but as Christian Union founder and CEO Matt Bennett argues on these two episodes of Forerunners of America INSIGHTS, it isn’t something we can afford to overlook. In light of the challenging past couple of years, many believers think they are being winsome by offering a watered-down gospel that shies away from the tough but beautiful reality of a just God. Yet, it is precisely God’s perfect justice and righteous judgment that our world and our culture are hungering after but attempting to find apart from Christ. 

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Amazing Dreams Led Him to the Truth 

British author Paul Kingsnorth had tried it all in his search for “a truth he would surrender to.” He started with environmentalism, in hopes that saving the planet, educating people, and valuing creation and its limits would give him meaning. Later, Zen Buddhism offered the stillness he longed for and an attempt at communing with something bigger than himself.

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Noted Author Speaks at CU Martus Lecture Series

  Most college students are not concerned about virtue. According to author Karen Swallow Prior, virtue has primarily been whittled down to an old-fashioned word for sexual purity. But the concept of virtue is a robust one, extending far beyond what most modern Americans attach to the word, she said. Prior shared those sentiments when she spoke earlier this year at CU Martus’ leadership lecture series, Philia.

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• Intellectual Engagement
• Penn

CU Nova’s Tru Thursday Refocuses Outreach Efforts

  Prior to the current academic year, a handful of zealous Princeton University student leaders were given the reigns of TruThursday, the African, African American, and Caribbean culture leadership lecture series at Christian Union Nova. The team transformed the weekly gathering into one of the most popular events in the ministry. 

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• Princeton
• Seeking God

The Pilgrimage to a Holy City

Editor’s note: The following article was reprinted with permission from the Harvard Ichthus, a journal of Christian thought and expression produced by undergraduates at Harvard University.

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• Harvard
• Intellectual Engagement

  When Dr. Ben Pascut prepared to teach a workshop on organizational excellence for CU Lux at Yale University, he did not have to look very far for subject matter—it is one of Christian Union’s core values.

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• Intellectual Engagement
• Yale
• Cultural Engagement

Christian Union Nova at Princeton

Andrew, a rising senior, believes the most impactful aspect of his experience with Christian Union Nova at Princeton has been stepping up into a leadership role within TruThursday. At Princeton, TruThursday's mission is to reveal and exemplify the Gospel while celebrating African, African America, and Caribbean cultures. "Christian Union has definitely had a very impactful time on me during me time at Princeton and I definitely don't know where I would be without it." -Andrew Hama, Princeton '22

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• Princeton

Prayer, Revival, and Societal Transformations

At Christian Union’s Cities Conference in Manhattan in 2018, George Otis, Jr. talked about the first Great Awakenings in the United States and the ensuing socioeconomical impact that followed in various cities and communities that were “overwhelmed by the grace and presence of God.”

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• Alumni
• New York
• Seeking God

Riley ’22 Leads Communal Scripture Reading Initiative

  Spring had finally arrived in Hanover, New Hampshire. On a warm May afternoon, amidst the golden sunshine, a group of students from CU Vox were spread out on blankets, reading the Bible out loud on the Dartmouth Green.

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• Dartmouth
• Seeking God

Pilar Is Christian Union’s Minister of Music

  Linnette Pilar has a heart for worship and a prayerful passion for New York City. Pilar, executive assistant to Christian Union Founder and CEO Matt Bennett, is a member of the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, a six-time Grammy-winning group of singers who minister in their home church and around the world.    

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• Intellectual Engagement
• New York
• Seeking God

Students Organize Worship Meetings, Easter Celebration

As COVID-19 regulations slowly lifted for churches and campus events this spring, a group of students with Christian Union’s ministry at Cornell hosted an in-person Easter sunrise service at the John R. Mott Center with a limited number of attendees.

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• Cornell
• Seeking God