God’s Work in Huntington: A New Chapter
Have you ever been sure God was calling you to something, but not known how to go about it or what it was going to look like once you had? Following the guidance of the Holy Spirit often means taking the step in front of you without knowing exactly where the path is headed. Thankfully, we have a God who knows exactly what lies ahead.
In 2008, Tom Bergler felt God was calling him to form a community in Huntington, Indiana, where he was a member of the faculty at Huntington University. With no established prayer group or other organization to begin from, though, this was not exactly an easy task. Growth was slow and difficult, but meanwhile a lot of lessons were being learned about what it takes to build a community from scratch.
Eventually, Tom felt God was leading him to begin a chapter of University Christian Outreach at Huntington University. Just as with beginning a new community, beginning a new chapter without an established community nearby was a new challenge for UCO. To make things even more interesting, Huntington University is a Protestant Christian university, a very different environment from most UCO chapters. Excited about this new opportunity, UCO sent staff and resources, and the new chapter began in 2016.
Working with the Huntington students has its own advantages and challenges, some very different from a secular university. The student body is full of young people who are passionate enough about their faith to choose to attend a Christian university. They already desire to serve God and follow him to the best of their ability. But UCO, with its emphasis on Ecumenism and Charismatic worship, still stands out as a very different environment from those most of the students are used to. Many of them come from backgrounds with little to no emphasis placed on the Person and role of the Holy Spirit, making Charismatic worship and the Gifts of the Spirit especially difficult to explain. And while most Protestant churches are open to ecumenical cooperation, a lot of that cooperation takes place exclusively with other Protestant churches. Some of the students are initially doubtful that Catholic and Orthodox Christians can, in fact, be Christian.
As the UCO chapter began to grow, a formation community and men’s household became possible. The community began to celebrate the Lord’s Day together regularly. Some of the UCO students, feeling God’s call, have gone on to work for UCO or to join the Huntington community, or often enough, both.
One of these students is Nic Craig, who took a break from both school and UCO during Covid. Covid was especially hard on the UCO, with a large number of students graduating and restrictions on group gatherings making it difficult to bring in new people. Upon returning to complete his education in 2021, Nic realized that the current UCO members were mostly new students who were much younger than him, and that he felt a little out of place and unable to connect. Ben Rigel, who had been in UCO with him and moved on to serve on staff, invited him to a Community Lord’s Day. He was happy to find more adult fellowship and support, and the Community became his lifeline for the remainder of his time at the university. Open to the call of the Lord after graduating, Nic had considered going to seminary to become an Anglican priest, but felt God putting mission work on his heart, and eventually joined UCO staff in Huntington. He is a committed member of the Community that provided him the connectedness and support he needed when the young UCO students weren’t able to do that for him.
Today the UCO chapter continues to grow, sending twenty eight students to last year’s Fan Into Flame event, and having twenty six in formation this year. In addition to helping individual students to hear and follow the call of the Lord in their lives, the ecumenical witness of the chapter has made a noticeable difference in the attitudes of both the faculty and the student body toward ecumenism.
Students at Huntington are often already hearing God’s call to serve in some form of outreach or ministry, and as such tend to be enthusiastic about UCO’s mission, and more likely than the average UCO student to be interested in doing mission work for UCO after graduating. Given the typical ecumenical demographics of UCO chapters and staff, the addition of multiple enthusiastic and involved Protestants has been a blessing.
The Community has benefitted from the UCO chapter as well. It is still small, able to meet together in a single home, and primarily composed of young families and couples. Lord’s Days and small groups are their primary joint activities. Members make a one year commitment renewed annually, and continue to discern where the Lord is leading them. They have heard the call to give the Lord all of their lives, for the rest of their lives, and they are following that call.
Going forward, the Community has a continued need for more people, especially families who are formed and experienced in Community life. Resources for providing formation, leading worship, and simply giving pastoral care and guidance are all in short supply due to the small size and young age of the group. Any Sword of the Spirit members or UCO graduates who might be interested in helping build a new community would be welcomed with open arms.
As always, prayer is the single most powerful tool we have. Please pray for God’s blessing on the Huntington Community and UCO, for growth in Charismatic life within the Community, and for continued growth in numbers. In particular, in addition to the Community’s need for families, the UCO and Community would both love to have a more ecumenical membership—although in contrast to most groups in our region, that mostly means more Catholics!
God’s work in Huntington is exciting and ongoing. We still don’t know exactly where the path will lead, but we know Who is guiding us along it.
