A churched life: Synergy event encourages mindful habits and defines the role of students in the Church

By Chelsea McKana

Worship music played in the background as students filtered into BTS 104 for the second Synergy Initiative event of the year. The discussion – which included Bryson Jackson, Director of Groups and Classes Ministries at University Baptist Church in Beavercreek, and Cam Armino, Associate Director of Career Services – kicked off at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 29. 

Jeremy Kimble, director of the Synergy Initiative, opened the session with a word of prayer before jumping straight into the night. The title of the event: The Church, its Mission, and Your Role. Kimble centered the discussion around what the church should be about and how they could participate

“Identity leads to activity,” Kimble said.  

The central verse for the evening was 1 Peter 2:9-12. The church as a whole is now God’s chosen people who are “called to make known the excellencies of Christ.”

Kimble exhorted students to recognize that the Christian life is a churched life. Living biblically means the believer keeps the church central and dominant. 

He emphasized the importance of the local church and church membership. 

Roughly 90% of the New Testament uses local church language as opposed to the universal body of Christ. Church membership was especially important. Kimble referred to it as a “commitment to oversee and be overseen in discipleship.”

Jackson spoke about God’s call on his own life towards church planting.

“Devotion to the local church was so much more than a degree,” Jackson said.  

He encouraged students who may not have Bible degrees to become involved in the ministries of their own local churches. 

The second focal point of the evening was the church’s mission. Kimble used Matthew 28:18-20 as a framework for what that mission should look like. First, declaring the gospel of Christ and then gathering believers into churches under gospel teaching who are then sent out. The church is to engage in mission

Arminio provided a brief overview of how the students might steward this call to be living missionally in their workplace. He encouraged them to look at spiritual and economic things as an integrated part of their lives. 

“You can use your career to serve others and engage in ministry,” Arminio said. He further pushed students to “have a broader perspective for engaging the world missionally.”

Kimble wrapped up the night by talking about the student’s role in – and how they should start getting involved in the local church right now instead of putting it off. 

“Now shapes the future,” Kimble said. 

He urged students to consider that the patterns they create in college will follow them wherever they go, good or bad. 

The students were sent from the event with a call to pursue their own spheres of influence and their own local churches. 

When asked why she attended the event, Kaleah Peter, a sophomore Professional Writing and Information Design major, said her first motivation came from the need for healthy churches in her own home town. The Synergy Initiative even pushed her to consider going on a trip to the city where she lives to become involved in church planting, and hopes other students feel a similar calling

“You should definitely go, just see what it’s about,” Peter said. “When you go, I feel like the Lord’s really going to convict you.”

Students can get further involved with Synergy by reaching out to Synergy Connect, the student organization on campus that works with students to mobilize them for church ministry now and in the future. 

Chelsea McKanna is a Sophomore Professional Writing and Information Design major with a minor in Missions. She spends her free time with friends or sipping coffee with a new book to read. 

*Photos by Logan Howard