Opportunities to connect with God and each other to worship and grow spiritually at Redeemer looked a bit different this year, but God is still present and moving. Redeemer aims to integrate faith into all aspects of life and learning for its students. While the classroom is a key part of this process, the university also offers many other opportunities for spiritual growth and for connecting with God and others.
鈥淲e鈥檙e aiming to equip students for lives of service under the lordship of Christ,鈥 says Josiah Bokma, Redeemer鈥檚 chaplain.
As chaplain, Bokma, in collaboration with the chapel team, residence life staff, student leaders and faculty, leads the Redeemer community through a variety of spiritual touch points throughout the year. These include weekly chapel, spiritual and pastoral care, discipleship groups and a variety of other events designed to help students fully accept the love of Jesus and grow in their journey with him. 鈥淲e want to instigate a sense of the thrill of power and truth of Christ鈥檚 Kingdom,鈥 he says.鈥淕od is way bigger than we imagine!鈥
But with the arrival of COVID-19 in Ontario, it became clear that the usual spiritual activities and rhythms on campus would need to change. With virtual meeting fatigue becoming a hurdle, Bokma knew things would need to play out differently. 鈥淲e have to persevere in being creative with community, for the love of others, not just ourselves.鈥
We want to instigate a sense of the thrill of power and truth of Christ鈥檚 Kingdom…God is way bigger than we imagine!
With this in mind, Bokma, along with student leaders involved with spiritual activities and ministries, set out with fresh eyes and a renewed sense of purpose.
鈥淚nstead of just repeating what鈥檚 been done before, it was really interesting to rethink things,鈥 says Matthew Lewis, chair of the spiritual activities and services committee (SASC) of student senate. He worked with the committee to implement a number of new ideas and twists on well-loved activities. They created a prayer walk with different stations around campus with a focus on peace and solitude. Students could visit the stations and pray, then walk and pray. 鈥淲e wanted to access how students were feeling about the pandemic, let them sit in silence and walk with God.鈥
HotSpot, a regular worship night at Redeemer, was transformed into Mobile HotSpot. Rather than gathering together for worship, dorms booked time slots and the musicians and worship leaders came to them. Dormmates could then worship together with their own household. Lewis says he heard a lot of great feedback about this event. 鈥淭his is what many students were longing for. They just wanted to be able to come together and sing praises.鈥
The Common Ground, the men鈥檚 ministry at Redeemer, also had to get creative about their activities. 鈥淶oom is nice and it鈥檚 easy, but at the end of the school day, nobody wants to do another Zoom call,鈥 said Rowan Scott, one of The Common Ground鈥檚 leaders.
Instead Scott and his co-leader Johnathan Gordon put their heads together to come up with a weekly email newsletter that included video testimonies, a devotional and links to other resources. Then they encouraged readers to get together within their dorms and talk about what they had heard and learned. 鈥淓ven though we鈥檙e not meeting, we鈥檙e all talking about the same things. In that way, we still feel like part of the community,鈥 said Gordon. 鈥淎 big word that came up for me was peace. If our newsletter could bring a moment of peace, we wanted to be vessels of that.鈥
The Common Ground also had some fun within the provincial health guidelines during times when restrictions were loosened. To promote awareness of the men鈥檚 ministry they organized a disc golf tournament on campus that observed health guidelines. Over the summer they also reached out to students with a plan to make a physically distanced visit with their free-coffee van. 鈥淪ome of these people hadn鈥檛 had any human interaction in a couple of months,鈥 said Gordon. 鈥淲e figured we鈥檇 see what鈥檚 going on in their lives and make sure they鈥檙e okay.鈥 The free-coffee van was outfitted with Christmas lights, lo-fi music, a hanging plant and of course, free coffee. 鈥淚t was one of the most joyful days of the summer!鈥 said Gordon.
Bokma has been encouraged by the Redeemer community. Not only have faculty and staff worked hard to care for students well, he says, but student leaders have also been creative in reaching out to provide community. In the spirit of Song of Solomon 8:5, his hope is that Redeemer comes out of this wilderness season leaning on our beloved, Jesus, and his beloved, the church. His prayer is that we emerge from the pandemic more in love with Christ and more united as his church.
鈥淭he collective level of anxiety has been really high,鈥 Bokma laments. 鈥淲e鈥檝e all been stretched in that way. We aren鈥檛 self-sufficient. We can鈥檛 be all, we don鈥檛 know all, but God鈥檚 grace is available for us, right now, every day, all day.鈥