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It is with a heavy heart that I write to you this afternoon.
Facing difficult COVID-related financial shortfalls from donors unable to sustain their normal giving this upcoming year, CU made the difficult decision to lay off over 30 people across our organization last month. This has affected every campus where CU ministers, including Yale. Therefore, we are saying goodbye to Jane Hendrickson and Michael Racine right on the cusp of what was already shaping up to be a challenging semester for ministry. As I have expressed to our CU Lux community, these 2 servant-leaders have glorified God so well in their work. Jane, a 6-year veteran has been a highly-competent, faithful, loving, servant-hearted leader helping this ministry continue on true to its mission over many, many seasons. She has gone above and beyond to serve each of our individual students, the ministry at Yale, and the broader CU organization. Michael, with 3 years on our team, has brought academic excellence, theological depth, and a compassionate heart to our campus and organization. He as inculcated in others a real heart for seeking God with his well-measured and God-centered words in teaching and everyday conversation. Blessings to you, Michael, as you transition to another role in Christian Union.
Student Leaders Mobilize Online Initiative
BY EILEEN SCOTT, CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Slack. Zoom. Pray. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the University of Pennsylvania moved classes online, members of Martus, Christian Union’s ministry on campus, swiftly leveraged digital and social media tools to create a sacred space for remaining close to God and each other.
Ministry Director Tucker Else reading Scripture with students weeks prior to the pandemic
Christian Union New York Virtual Salon
On August 26, 2020 Christian Union New York hosted a virtual salon on Perspectives on Homelessness with Ed Morgan.
Flourishing in Digital Babylon
by david kinnaman and mark matlock
In a previous era, we had some semblance of success with mass-producing disciples. We had big rallies and crusades and whiz-bang events, and many young people came forward to pledge their lives to Christ. But as the growing dropout rate starkly reveals, that approach alone doesn’t seem to work here and now as well as it did there and then.
In digital Babylon, faithful, resilient disciples are handcrafted one life at a time. Over the past ten years, we’ve observed five patterns of intentional behavior we can adopt to guide disciples in the making.
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and , though the mountains tremble at its swelling.
— Psalm 46:1-3
Report Details ‘Pivotal Moment’ for Gen Z and Millennials
by tom campisi, managing editor
With its report, The Great Opportunity: The American Church in 2050, the Pinetops Foundation examines the fruitfulness, or lack thereof, when it comes to the engagement of today’s teens and young adults.
According to its 2018 report, approximately one million young people are leaving the church each year—but a “great opportunity” exists if we can reverse the current trends assigned to Generation Z and younger Millennials.
The Loneliness Epidemic among Young Adults
Dr. Sam Kim is a scholar at the Yale-Hasting Center, where he explores the crisis of professional burnout in academic medicine and health care. He is a recipient of the Lifelong Learning Fellowship at Yale Divinity School and Yale Medical School and worked as a research fellow in global health and social medicine at the Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School.
The co-founder of 180 Church in New York City, which started with students from Columbia University, Kim earned a doctorate in ethical leadership at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He is a regular contributor to Christianity Today Exchange and the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College.
You have previously written about a loneliness epidemic in society. Please elaborate on this in regards to today’s young adults.
A significant pattern related to the Cigna study of loneliness and social isolation is that Generation Z (ages 18-22) is now the loneliest generation in history. Although Gen Z is perhaps the generation that is most technologically connected, they scored the highest on the UCLA loneliness scale, an instrument that measures and assesses subjective feelings of loneliness by using a twenty-item questionnaire.
We are in Week 4 of the summer term, albeit virtually.
