Posted: Thursday, February 18, 2016 8:15 am
Northwest University Campus Ministries recently added a new spiritual life credit opportunity called Monday Devos. This devotional time was created to give students another spiritual life credit opportunity during the normal chapel time period. Held in Millard 101 at 10:00AM and 11:20AM, each week a different professor, faculty member or student will be sharing a devotional with students. Campus Pastor Phil Rasmussen said the idea of creating the Monday Devos was “a spirit inspired moment.”
The idea for starting a Monday devotional came from the comments and suggestions of students who desired something different from the regular biweekly chapel services. Rasmussen said, “It started by praying and just asking the Lord, ‘What can we do to make it different but still meet the needs of the diverse community that we are here to serve?’”
Associate Campus Pastor Christian Dawson said, “[NU] is an Assemblies of God university, but there’s a lot of people that don’t reflect that, and they love Jesus and they’re following Him [and are] passionate about Him in their own ways. We wanted to figure out a way to bring more of those people into our community.” The main purpose of Monday Devos is to add to the spiritual development of students on campus. Dawson said, “Our mission is the spiritual vitality of our community and the spiritual development of each member. We’re hoping that Mondays hit the personal and the relational aspects of spiritual development. We want people to hear the gospel, to be challenged by it, convicted by it, encouraged by it and we want to do that in as many ways as possible. Whether that’s in a Monday night Pursuit, a time of prayer, a life group, in your dorm room by yourself reading the Word or it’s a Monday small gathering, our goal is to help foster those moments and create opportunities for those to happen.”
Aside from providing more variety to worship and fellowship, Monday Devos was also created to help make sure that all students can easily meet the 35 spiritual life credit requirement. In the past, working students and commuters have struggled to earn the required credits due to conflicting schedules. With the new Monday devotional option, students are offered 14 additional chapel credit opportunities this semester. Commuter and working student, Kristen Arciaga, is grateful that Campus Ministries has developed this opportunity, stating it as “a relief.” The student responses from the new devotional time have been positive. Many students are not only grateful that there is now another way to receive chapel credit, but that it connects the personal and relational aspects of the Christian faith. Be sure to attend the next Monday Devos on February 22 with speaker Todd Nelson.
