One of the perks of attending CBU is the opportunity for students to grow in their faith outside of the classroom, through groups such as Spiritual Life, which has introduced new events this fall.
One recent SL event was a new, weekly module called “Spiritual Training.” The two-hour events continued for a three-week period, hosted about 60 students and was led by Brian Zuniga, director of Discipleship.
Spiritual Life is designed to “help students come to know that their extrinsic worth and eternal value can be secure in Jesus Christ,” according to calbaptist.edu.
Zuniga outlined the best ways students can get involved and grow their faith this year.
“The best way to find out about SL events is through our Instagram, which is @cbu_sl, in Chapel and [through our] SL app, Spiritual Life @ CBU. That’s a really good way to see what’s going on. On campus, the biggest place we point people to start at is SL groups. Those are communities that happen at all different living areas around campus,” Zuniga said.
“For the SL training, we want to just create a space to help people get some training in different ways of following Jesus. Tonight is talking about what it looks like to have conversations about faith,” Zuniga said.
Zuniga added what he hopes the students learn from the evenings.
“I hope that students learn that it’s OK to talk about faith and learn about ways to talk about faith in a way that is tactful and loving,” Zuniga said. “Be open to having faith conversations if someone isn’t a follower of Jesus. We are at a Christian campus and students should have the freedom to say, ‘I’m just not in a place to talk about that right now.’ If you are a follower of Jesus, you should have the freedom to ask if someone wants to have that conversation.”
Marissa Mckinely, sophomore English major, said she has been actively involved in SL events for more than a year.
“I’ve been to a ton of the events, especially SL nights that are out on the lawn. I was introduced to SL by the group that was held at Tower, where I lived my freshman year,” Mckinely said. It’s where I found a lot of my friends and I found a lot of people who had discipled me so that’s been huge and I wouldn’t have had that if I hadn’t shown up.”
Madi Goulet, sophomore nursing major, also began her experience at Tower.
“We heard about this event tonight, SL Training, through the other people we formed with at Tower. I was a part of an SL discipleship group last year and after spending time doing that, it made me learn that I definitely want to grow in those aspects, which the training helps with. I think it’s a great resource for students to be able to grow in their faith overall and also to learn about what it means to share that faith with others and to evangelize,” Goulet said.
For students unsure of where to start in their walk with Jesus, Zuniga made some suggestions.
“Just look at the Bible, that’s one of the best places to start. Plugging into a church community is crucial, Zuniga said. “SL is taking some space in student’s lives while they are on campus to give them some training and help them be intentional in their faith, but churches in this area are amazing. I would make sure that if I was a student really trying to find Jesus that I was getting plugged into a church.”
