OUR RESPONSIBILITY

Every month, students get together to worship, fellowship and testify about the wonderful things God’s done on campuses across New Jersey. 

Last Jersey Cru, our staff decided to invite a panel to discuss what God says about diversity and unity within the body of Christ. I was able to join a panel of intellectual, God-fearing believers to answer questions about race and our roles as Christians in the conversation.

A week after the panel, I was given the opportunity to speak at Kean’s Cru movement meeting on Ephesians 4:1-16. We talked about the 4 major responsibilities we have as Christians in addressing those different from us within the body of Christ.

Together, we recognized that humility, patience, gentleness & bearing with one another in love are all ways through which we can yield to our brothers and sisters in Christ. Yielding to one another is not very different than yielding to someone in traffic on the road. It takes the Holy Spirit giving us humility to lay down our desires (to be right, to be in control, to be comfortable) so that others may feel loved and so that the body of Christ may grow in maturity. 

“We are called to speak and act in humility, patience, gentleness and love.”

No matter what our opinion on a social justice issue, politician or carpet color of the church rug, we are called to speak and act in humility, patience, gentleness and love. This isn’t easy, but is necessary for the Christian church to grow more fully in Christ and therefore more accurately represent Jesus Christ to the world. When we do this, more will want to be a part of God’s family - because of our love. The Lord has challenged me to consider how I’m applying Ephesians 4:2 to my speech on social media, in person, or within the body of Christ.

CHANGE IS NOT EASY

In my last letter, I talked about how New Jersey is a “different world”… but really, it’s more like college life is a different world.

When a freshman walks onto the college campus, he/she is very aware of the differences from home life. Sometimes these differences stem from their ethnic cultures. Often students will start to feel alone, misunderstood, and frustrated by the second month of the semester… unless they meet a friend… someone else who may feel alone or scared but chooses to smile and say “hello”.

Beyond college life, many people are scared of what they do not know or understand and often that leads to assimilation or isolation. However, when someone is bold enough to engage with another person made in the likeness of God, they choose freedom over the bondage of fear.

A friend of mine gave her 3-year old daughter advice for whenever she would meet someone new at our biennial staff conference in July of this year. After her daughter greeted me, Sarah said “Pheobe, do you have a question for Ms. Tabitha?” “Oh yes…. Ummm…. What’s one good thing that happened to you today?” Pheobe would reply. Sarah is teaching her young daughter to not live in fear of the unknown when it comes to relationships but to engage in conversation that leads to freedom over fear.

At Cru15, I witnessed God do something with the fear once in our leaders hearts that was passed on to the 5,000 staff in the room.

Steve Sellers and the national leadership team began to look around and truly SEE who was and who was NOT yet in the room and then they encouraged us to wrestle with the question “why”...Why were there so few ethnic minorities on staff with the ministries of Cru in the United States?

I believe this year's national staff conference was the visible beginning of change for Cru in the U.S. and may even impact Christian evangelicals in America for the next decade. For forty days before the conference, staffs were invited to fast and pray for the Lord's hand in and through Cru15. The staff at Cru15 engaged in difficult conversations, many of which helped bring up some underlying racism they didn't know existed. We did this so that we can move to expand in our diversity ethnically as staff in order to show God’s love in our unity to a dividing nation. We were also challenged to grow in our commitment to share the Good news, move forward in building partnerships with the body of Christ, and take the good news beyond our borders so that everyone may have the opportunity to know God personally.

Jersey Metro Cru is Unique

Students who are and alumni who were involved in the Cru movements of New Jersey (known as Jersey Metro Cru) are unique. These young Christian leaders have been exposed to the Good News of Jesus as expressed through a variety of people and cultures.

Kean University Cru @ Fall Retreat 2014

A DIFFERENT WORLD
Not many college campus movements are made up of such an ethnically diverse group. Being involved in Cru at just one campus, you can befriend someone from Singapore, dorm with a Filipino American, meet African-Americans, Chinese Americans, first generation Haitians, second generation Dominicans or Puerto Ricans, Portuguese students and even 7th generation Germans. It's not uncommon to see this group having dinner, fellowshipping in the game lounge or going on mission trips together - especially in the northeast parts of New Jersey.

In fact, Steve Douglass, president of Campus Crusade for Christ - the worldwide non-churched based organization to which Cru belongs, spoke at Jersey Cru (our statewide Cru meeting) just two years ago. He told stories of people from around the world coming to know Jesus and then looked at the crowd and pointed out the reality of the amazing diversity in the room. We once asked how many people spoke a second-language and 2/3 students stood up. Darryl Smith, president of the high school ministry of Cru also came to speak at this meeting and noted feeling like it was heaven but without the amazing food.

STEP BY STEP
This type of environment didn't just happen overnight. 
A few students had to make a decision to be uncomfortable in a setting that was for the majority different than what they were used to. These students challenged the band to learn new music for worship, gave the staff different background music to play before and after the meetings, and introduced various Pastors and speakers to the team. Each individual student engaged with as many of the majority culture in the room as possible so that each person they met would know that not all stereotypes are correct and crossing culture isn't so scary. When other ethnic minorities came, they felt more comfortable seeing people who looked like them and sounded like them. This initial group stayed and created space for others to come and continue to create space. The ministry in New Jersey isn't perfect but also hasn't lost it's core values to glorify God but now expresses them through a variety of ways.

OUR VISION
Empowered and led by the Holy Spirit, each staff and student strive to advance God's kingdom by making Jesus Christ known in whatever way possible to whomever possible for the sake of influencing the state and the world. These staff and students recognize that there are students attending college on U.S. soil who are citizens of countries in which Christians are not allowed. They also see and seize opportunities to create communities that are ethnically diverse and reflective of their state.

SO WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL? 
Students, staff and alumni of New Jersey have a unique perspective of the body of Christ. 

• We can more easily connect with others across cultures unlike many in our nation.
• So we can share the Good News of Jesus with MORE people.

• We see the spiritual depravity first-hand as we engage in spiritual conversations across ethnic barriers on campus.
• So we can step up in leadership within and outside of our ethnic cultures to bring about positive change.

• We have seen and acknowledged the racism within our own hearts and the relational divide within the body of Christ nationwide.
• So we can challenge our brothers and sisters in Christ here and around the U.S. to grow in building relationships and loving others across cultures.

#GETOUTTHERE

God didn't just place you in the Jersey Metro ministry of Cru for no reason. Our nation is currently suffering from the lack of knowledge and love for each other that comes with the experiences we've had living here. You know this breaks God's heart. So Have His Heart for our nation.

Could God want you to go somewhere, say something, do something, or give something that can be a small step towards the healing of our nation? 

September is OVER!

New "Jersey Metro" Mission Statement

God is doing SO much! How is it already October?!

First of all, I am so sorry for getting this letter out so late! This new job is very time-consuming.

Second, thank you SO much for praying for me throughout the beginning of the school year! I have felt God's power in me through your prayers!

Our staff are already prepared for Fall Retreat coming up NEXT WEEKEND! We only have about 60 students from New Jersey Colleges and Universities attending the $100 weekend retreat, but we hope many more sign up this week!

We don't just want students there for the sake of numbers! In our experience, college students have been transformed by God because they are surrounded by peers who are also seeking God, they are being poured into through multiple biblical talks, and they can experience being still through something we call a "Prayer Journey." This all combined over two nights and five meals! That's a LOT of JESUS! :) Please pray for the Lord to connect with students at Fall Retreat.

Another super exciting thing that has already happened is JERSEY CRU! This year I actually got a chance to speak at our statewide student meeting, where a third of the room was filled with NEW students! This is very exciting for us as a Jersey Metro team. We have been praying for the 550 students involved across the state to attend the monthly gathering and almost 200 have come! I was able to speak about the very real spiritual war we are in as Christians and challenge our students to persevere when our enemies: our flesh, the world, and Satan attack.

One of the ways we hope they go on the offense in this war is by taking something the world says to use for our own glory and use it for God's! 

Social Media is on the rise.... still. Why not use your Facebook page, Twitter post, or your Instagram picture to advance God's kingdom and His GOOD NEWS?! We've been encouraging our students to do this and use the hashtag, #GOSPELGOESVIRAL so that we can track how many people are reading what we post on social media about Jesus! Join us and let's see what happens! 

I'll be posting on my blog, facebook and twitter. Feel free to simply "share" or copy and paste what I'm posting. Be sure to #GOSPELGOESVIRAL :)

A dream…

On August 28^th, 1963 our nation heard a speech from a well-known Pastor concerning a seemingly impossible dream called equality.

This speech helped “remind America of the fierce urgency of Now.”

“This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism... Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children. It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment,” says MLK Jr.

With Christine in the MLK garden @ KU

Later in his speech, King encourages the people to love one another and remember that each person is an individual who deserves a fair chance and we as a people cannot “walk alone”.

On August 27, 1985 I was born to a young Christian Puerto Rican couple in the back seat of a station wagon in the Bronx of NYC. After being raised in a very ethnically diverse environment, I later went to Kean University in NJ to study yet another culture – deaf education. The summer of 2008, after a one-year internship with Cru’s campus ministry in New Jersey, I joined staff.

Over the course of the past 11 years serving God through the ministry of Cru, the Holy Spirit has placed on my heart a dream to see His children fellowship together across ethnic barriers. I’ve been privileged to see Him transform the ministry in New Jersey and recently experienced amazing new efforts by the national leaders of the campus ministry to see an Acts 2 community come alive across the United States. (Specifically verses 7-11 & 42-47)

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. – Ephesians 3:20-21

Next week I will be at our headquarters in Orlando, Florida with a team from across the nation praying, hearing & strategically planning to make Cru a more ethnically diverse ministry. There is so much more I can say about this matter, but for now, I would just as you to please pray that I submit to the Holy Spirit and follow as He leads in regards to this very sensitive topic.

… And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.
– Martin Luther King Jr. 

Transition Transition Transition… oh, and Transition

May is all about transition. The sun transitions to a more visible position. Seniors say their final words of wisdom to the underclassmen before they head out to the real world. Staff families take off to lead in their summer mission assignments known as Summer Projects. Students transition out of their regular schedules. And I… well… I have just been announced as the Jersey Metro Cru female director!

One thing that is not changing this season is my location! This summer I will be working alongside Mark Scott, Jersey Metro male director, to plan how we will help guide the team for next year. I am also coaching new and returning interns on how to raise up their ministry team so that they can be fully supported as they enter into the full-time mission field. Please pray that I grow in discipline with my time and my relationship with the Lord as I lead in these new roles.

Tab, Laura, Nicole, Lakesha (new Kean Cru pres), Kassy, Sarah

I’m excited to announce that Laura Fairchild, former president of Kean Cru who I discipled from her freshman year, is now raising support to intern with our Mid-Atlantic regional office! She will be using her degree in accounting to be a support and resource to our staff across the region. 
I’m so proud of her willingness to take such a large step of faith to raise her salary for the next year as she surrenders her “American Dream” to serve her King full-time for a year. Especially as the first African-American woman to serve in that office! Please pray for her to meet those who God is calling to financially support her so that she can report in August.

Please also keep in prayer our Jersey Metro staff team who are serving this summer in the Dominican Republic, Hampton Beach in New Hampshire, and those staying in New Jersey. Many of our team needs more financial support in order to stay full-time campus ministers. Some have yet to even report because of this.  Please continue to pray as we trust the Lord with all these things this summer.

New Job!!!

From Chicago, he grew up in a predominantly African American church, has a beautiful, talented, intelligent wife named Jocelyn and 3 hilarious, fun, loving children. He couldn't be thug if he wanted but is the chillest White dude I know. ;) He's like my big bro... and NOW MY CO-DIRECTOR for Jersey Metro, Mark Scott! #jerseymetro #BIGNEWS

Crazy how a Boricua (Puerto Rican) from the South Bronx would end up raising funds to move to the step-sister state of New York, known as Jersey (not New Jersey, Jersey) to promote the mission and vision of God to complete strangers. #Bronx #NewYork #Give #NewJersey

Visit give.cru.org/0597677 to partner with us in advancing the mission of God. :)

God’s NOT Dead

“Son of God”, “Noah”, “Heaven is For Real”, and “God’s Not Dead” - Seems as though the month of April is Christian month for the American theaters.

I work with college students. College is a time where young people are searching for truth and clarity about themselves and what they grew up learning… sometimes that includes truth about who God is. A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of taking a few students to see the movie “God’s NOT Dead”. This film is a good example of an experience many students (including myself) have had as Christians in secular schools. This is one reason Cru exists – to help build the young Christian in their faith.

*We also hope to train students to share the reason for their faith (Jesus) with their professors and peers with uncompromising truth and loving respect.

Once a month on a Friday night, we gather students together for some praise and worship, a little spiritual jump-start, and a chance to hear what God is doing on these campuses through these students.We call it Jersey Cru.

At this month’s Jersey Cru, I will be announced as the female director of Jersey Metro. This is such a unique ministry with over 22 campus movements and about 20 staff spread across the state. 

Each movement and its staff coach are unique in geography, ethnic make-up, socio-economic status, and spiritual health. Some of these campus movements only have a part-time staff person who coaches the student leaders to share their faith and build Christ-centered movements at their university. Some of these movements are not yet officially recognized by the administration at their school. Jersey Metro is definitely a complex ministry.

 

With this new role, I get the honor to serve the staff persons who coach these students. Along with Mark Scott (current male area director pictured right), some of my new responsibilities will be to care for staff, cast vision for the purpose of the ministry and motivate the team and students to go wherever God calls us to go.

Thank God, these movements are all led by a God who pursued us to the point of becoming man who lived a life we couldn't, suffered a death we should have died so that we can live a life we don't deserve.

Please pray that I will be sensitive and obedient to the guiding of the Holy Spirit as He leads me to take part in leading this team.

Social Media

As I mentioned in November of 2013, social media is an advancing avenue for our students to use to start spiritual conversations with their peers.

#getoutthere is the slogan we have been using as @JerseyMetro to track  spiritual conversations on various social media outlets. One tactic we use to start these conversations is called “The Bi-Weekly Buzz”, where members of our staff team send out a video that can be re-posted, shared, and commented on. We’ve also started a blog on our newly designed website: JerseyMetro.com

On which, staff member, Joey Sforza recently posted:

Virality is in high demand.

Everyone on social media wants their posts to have more likes, shares, comments and re-posts. There is a deep emotional high that fills the soul when you see your post is getting lots of attention.

As part of this social media generation, Joey admits in his post his desire, like all of ours, to be known and loved. He then connects the reader to the terrible news that none of us will ever have that void filled through “likes” or “shares” or even in relationships. Joey then follows up with the good news that God can fill that void! J

Joey’s post was shared by nearly 30,000 people. This follow-up blog about it with a spiritual correlation was shared or liked by only 99.

It’s sad how so many people now live seeking purpose through how many “likes” or “shares” they receive. People are distracted with taking “selfies” in hopes to be “liked” while the enemy rages war against true loving community.  

Our hope is that through stepping into this social media world, we can engage people where they are and usher them into truly loving community with God and His family. That’s exactly what Joey did through this post and that’s exactly what our staff and students work toward in sharing the bi-weekly buzz (set up by Christine & Chris).

Join us on social media to #getoutthere with the good news that Jesus truly satisfies! You can follow @JerseyMetro on twitter or Facebook.

A Willing Heart

Will you check out this video describing the organization I work with as a full-time missionary and consider joining my team through prayer or financial support today?

8PM Midnight Prayer

This is happening tonight! Shining a light at Rutgers University in New Brunswick only a week away from Halloween! Please cover us in your prayers team!

#GetOutThere

#GetOutThere

Most students are distracted by classes, campus activities and jobs and can easily forget about their role as missionaries to their campus. One of the ways we are hoping to encourage them to remember to reach the state for Christ is to encourage students to use #GetOutThere whenever they do an activity that brings more attention to the name and character of Jesus Christ.

 

#Kean Cru leaders planning to #GetOutThere #ForChrist

A hash tag (#) before a comment is a huge way this generation communicates their true feelings, thoughts or opinions about a subject or picture. It also helps categorize all of the pictures or comments referring to that (similar to storing in a folder).

*see example on right

To be all things to all people, the Jersey Metro Cru staff team decided to use #GetOutThere to celebrate God’s work through the steps of faith students are taking. We will know when they take steps of faith to share the Gospel, pray or have an outreach because it will be under the category #GetOutThere and then we can share stories at our statewide meeting, Jersey Cru.

Jersey Cru

Kean Cru Group @ Jersey Cru at Rutgers University

Once a month the Jersey Metro staff team organize an event where college students from across the state gather together to rejoice in testimonies they hear and worship through various song and scripture. 

The cool part about Jersey Cru in comparison to nearly any other Cru ministry across the United States is the sheer diversity of the students. In surveying about 200 college students, nearly 75% of the room confidently affirmed that they can speak a second language and about 10% of them can speak a third. We are literally reaching the nations at our doorstep and can continue to reach the nations right here in New Jersey as we engage in spiritual conversations with new students and build up believers in their faith to do the same.

Last month, national director of Cru High School, Darryl Smith, came to speak at Jersey Cru. As the only African-American national director, Darryl and his wife, Gwen (pictured right) have been put in many situations as minorities but Jersey Cru was an entirely different story. It was very uplifting to see Darryl and Gwen respond with such positivity and joy to the culturally diverse ministry of the Jersey Metro campus ministry. "I was so encouraged by the diversity in that room. It just shows the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!" Darryl said as I drove him to the airport. "I just wish ya'll would invite me back when it's warm!" he finished. :)

Darryl and Gwen have been a great influence in my life since I interned in 2007. It was such a blessing to be near friends I'd consider spiritual parents who pour wisdom into me every chance they get! Praise God for the few minority men and women on staff across the states willing to step into a difficult situation so that ALL may see, hear and know Jesus Christ.