Portland State’s most visible campus events seem to often have a political bent. Student marches, documentary screenings, bake sales, even the inescapable ASPSU election—there is often a sense that the participants have come together because they chose the same side on a critical and divisive issue.
Ondine hosts weekly Bible studies
Portland State’s most visible campus events seem to often have a political bent. Student marches, documentary screenings, bake sales, even the inescapable ASPSU election—there is often a sense that the participants have come together because they chose the same side on a critical and divisive issue.
On Thursday evening, 15 students met in the Ondine Residence Hall lobby.
The topic? Friendship.
Life Talks, founded by campus minister Joey Andersen and his student group, Impact, have been on the calendar every week for more than a year.
The meetings are informal and loosely structured. After introductions, Andersen reads a Bible passage and asks the group how it relates to their life. After a few minutes of discussion, he reads another passage. Then another. Members drift in, switch seats, start side conversations.
This is more youth group than seminary.
And this “not too intimidating” approach is exactly the point.
Andersen started Impact in winter 2012, hoping to “provide an environment where students can learn more about God and the Bible,” he said. In addition to Bible studies, Impact also organizes various volunteering efforts—working with the nonprofit Hope Worldwide in soup kitchens, holding sports tournament fundraisers and helping students move in at the beginning of each term.
More than anything, though, Impact is about social networking, participants said.
“These people are my closest friends now,” said Hannah Consenz, a sophomore music major who has been attending the Life Talks almost since the beginning. The half hour of casual chatting in an hour-long meeting gives students a chance to make their own connections with each other and the material.
This approach extends to the marketing of events, almost nonexistent by PSU standards. After a brief postering campaign, Andersen allowed the group to simply grow at its own pace, relying on word of mouth to recruit new members. This is how Matthew Hartman, another sophomore music major, came to the group.
Invited by a friend last spring, Hartman quickly integrated into the group and joined the Portland Church of Christ, from which Andersen and other ministers organize various campus ministries throughout the Portland area. In turn, he invited his friends. He even met his roommates at the Life Talks.
The Impact Bible studies are held each Thursday from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the lobby of Ondine Residence Hall.
