Bae and Payne among Ministry’s First Graduating Class
by rachel mari, contributing writer
Though commencement plans for Stanford’s Class of 2020 have been put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Caritas, Christian Union’s ministry at Stanford, will celebrate its first graduating class since its inception four years ago.
Garrett Brown, Christian Union’s ministry director at Stanford, said it was “bittersweet” that those students could not finish the year on campus, but rejoiced at what this class had accomplished.
Our New Alumni
During the past several weeks CU New York has partnered with Christian Union’s recently hired Vice President of Alumni Engagement Christine Foster, to coordinate meetings with our ministry fellows and graduating seniors. CU New York reaches out to CU’s seniors annually in an effort to facilitate connections within professional networks and to build the Christian Union community in cities across the nation.
Initially, these connections were to be made in person on each of the campuses in which CU is currently present, but under the circumstances of COVID-19, these meetings have migrated to Zoom. Using a virtual webinar platform has actually provided a unique opportunity for an even greater involvement of our CU alumni, as they were able to dial in from across the country. On each call, CU alumni shared testimonies and practical advice to these graduating seniors on how to navigate the challenging transition from college to the workplace.
Call with CU Martus (UPenn)
Ministry in the Midst of a Pandemic
Here are the latest updates from Matt Bennett, Christian Union's founder and CEO. The most recent is immediately below. To read his previous updates, simply scroll down. Please pray for the ministry, and consider making a special gift today.May 29, 2020 Update
Dear Friends and Ministry Partners,
Greetings in the name of our wonderful and great Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To Him be all praise and glory!
As I write, we are now in day 120 since the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus to be a pandemic.
Like you, I have continued to hear heartbreaking stories about people and their loved ones who have become sick or have passed away due to COVID-19. I heard a story a couple of weeks ago about a student who plays basketball at one of the schools where we minister. Her father, a doctor, passed away after contracting the coronavirus as a result of his work serving the sick. Please pray for her and for her family. I live in New York, where similar stories are, tragically, not uncommon.
I also continue to hear stories about men and women who have lost some or all their livelihood due to the far-reaching economic effects of the coronavirus.
We will continue to pray. We will continue to pray for those who are hurting in this difficult time, and for those who are sick. We will continue to pray that we, as individuals and as a nation, will humble ourselves, pray, seek God’s face, and repent — trusting that God will hear from heaven, forgive our sin, and heal our land. I cannot overemphasize the importance of repentance as we ask God to bring this pandemic to an end. Every time a pestilence is mentioned in the Bible, the context is that of God using it to call people back to Him. May many return to Him.
We also continue to hear from our faithful ministry partners that they would like me to keep the updates coming during this unusual time. So I will continue to communicate openly about how the pandemic is affecting our work.
In short, we are seeing two realities as we survey all that is happening in and through the ministry. One is an enormous blessing, and the other is an enormous challenge.
First, because God is who He is and because He causes all things (even a pandemic) to work together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose, He has been at work in tremendous — and even unprecedented — ways during this time. Don Weiss, the ministry director of Christian Union Gloria (CU’s undergraduate ministry at Harvard), reports that nearly 40 incoming freshmen have already connected in some tangible way with others in the ministry. This is remarkable.
If you’ve been around Christian Union long, you’ll know that outreach to freshmen at each of these schools is a concentrated effort in the late summer and early in the fall semester of each year. But we’ve never before had one of our ministries connect with this many incoming freshmen, this far in advance of their arrival.
At Dartmouth, the story is even more amazing. Not only has Christian Union Vox, our ministry there, been intentionally connecting with incoming freshmen, but they’ve already started a Bible course for these students. As I write, 12 such students are involved. Each of these students is just wrapping up high school and is headed to antiviral-meds-info.com. This is both extraordinary and extraordinarily encouraging.
Both of these stories are perfect examples of God working in new and creative ways that we may not have seen if not for the pandemic. Here is another encouraging update, a video update from four CU faculty members who serve as a part of Christian Union Nova, our ministry at Princeton.
The second reality is that we continue to face very real and not insignificant financial challenges as a result of the pandemic. One of the steps we’ve taken is to establish a new initiative we are calling Cornerstone Partners.
We are asking anyone who wants to bring sweeping spiritual change to America and appreciates Christian Union’s work, but who is not already a Christian Union ministry partner, to consider making a financial gift to help maintain and even accelerate the ministry’s work at Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Harvard Law, Penn, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale — and in New York City.
Our very real need is to develop an army of men, women, and families who care about impacting the nation’s future and current leaders with the Gospel — and who will agree to help support this work on a monthly basis. If at this time that is not possible for you, we fully understand. But if you do have the capacity, we’d ask you to please prayerfully consider joining us, at any level.
If you are inclined to give, I have even better news — if you act soon, your impact will be doubled. Because of a wonderful challenge gift from our partner, the BridgeHead Foundation, any gifts up to a total of $125,000 will be doubled!
If you have the capacity and feel God leading you to give — thus doubling your Kingdom investment — please go to http://www.ChristianUnion.org/Cornerstone.
Please pray for us as well, for we know that “unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” We are excited about all that God is doing, and our trust is fully in Him. In the days and months and years to come, we look forward to being able to continue sharing great stories about what God is doing in and through our amazing ministry faculty — because we serve a great God.
Thank you for standing with us, and for your continued interest in our ministry.
Yours in Christ,
Matt Bennett
April 23, 2020 Update
Dear Friends and Ministry Partners,
I recently asked Christian Union faculty to share a little bit about how their ministries are functioning in a COVID-19 environment. I think you will be encouraged by this short video (6:51) that they sent in response.
Without you, this transformation simply isn’t possible, and God will do abundantly more in the coming year. Please read the previous updates, below, to learn more about how the pandemic has had an impact in our ministry, and consider making a special gift today to spur the ministry on during this critical time. To God be all the glory.
Thank you again — and may God bless you richly in these difficult times,
Matt Bennett
Founder and CEO
Christian Union
April 9, 2020 Update
Dear Friends and Ministry Partners,
I know that many of you who are reading this letter may be facing uncertain or difficult times. If you have suffered personal loss of some kind in this season, as so many have, my heart goes out to you.
My prayer for you is that you will draw near to God, knowing that He will keep His promise to draw near to you. Even if you haven’t suffered loss, but are facing tremendous uncertainty professionally, financially, or health-wise, I will pray you’d cling to Christ and that you’d cast your burden upon the LORD and allow Him to sustain you. This is His promise from Psalm 55:22: “He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.”
Christian Union's Statement on Recent Events
Christian Union denounces in the strongest terms the brutal killing of George Floyd. This and other recent events show that the human heart is desperately sick and in need of redemption. This is a time of great sadness and should be a time of repentance, humility and the pursuit of Christian unity in our nation.
Christian Union Day and Night Leads National Fast
by catherine elvy, staff writer
Christian Union Day and Night recently called believers across the United States to an extended time of prayer, fasting, and repentance in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the spring, 4,700-plus individuals signed up to fast and intercede in the wake of the global health crisis. Though the fast originally was scheduled to run for 40 days starting on March 18, Christian Union Day and Night extended instructional programming through May to support more concerted prayer.
May 31, 2020
Christian Union Nova invited participants from all classes, all denominations, and all Christian ministries to this annual event. We enjoyed a time of connection and fellowship.
Get Involved
To learn more about how you can get involved, please send an email to Christian Union's VP of Alumni Engagement Christine Foster: christine.foster@christianunion.org.
This Sunday, May 31, 2020, is Pentecost Sunday — the day we remember the initial outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the disciples.
We need a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit on our churches today.
As amazing as Jesus’ earthly ministry was, the Church would not be alive today if it weren’t for the Holy Spirit’s coming. As irreplaceable as Jesus’ crucifixion was, we would not be in Christ today if it weren’t for the ministry of the Holy Spirit. As powerful as the resurrection of the Son of God was, most of the world would never know about God’s love if it weren’t for the advent of the Holy Spirit.
Christian Union Lux Helps Produce National Event
By Tom Campisi, Managing Editor
Christian Union Lux was honored to host the Collegiate Day of Prayer at Yale University on the evening of February 27 in Dwight Chapel. The two-hour event assembled Yale ministries in united prayer, worship, and exhortation from Scripture, and also served as the national broadcast for over forty thousand online viewers.
Over two hundred years ago, Yale, along with Williams College, Brown University, and Middlebury College, established the Collegiate Day of Prayer as a regular event on their campuses. By 1823, almost every major denomination and university in America “embraced the practice of a concerted day of prayer for colleges,” according to the Collegiate Day of Prayer Web site. The event lasted for about a hundred years and helped fan the flame of various revivals and awakenings on campus.
Unlike most colleges we are still in session and finishing Week 8.
Please pray for our seniors as their last few weeks as Dartmouth students draw to a close. We are saddened that we won't be able to properly say goodbye. Pray for them as they leave "campus," that they would be bold and faithful witnesses for Christ in their new communities.
My thinking seems increasingly flat (clearly), but in the midst of this I nonetheless find Ephesians 3:20 to be an encouragement - because it pulls my imagination beyond my immediate circumstances toward what might be, or will be.
“Morale is low…mutiny is imminent.” Those are words that might have been penned during Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition, or by sailors circumnavigating the globe during a scurvy outbreak. Or they might be the words of families and individuals after having been quarantined for weeks during the Covid-19 pandemic.
(Psalm 46:1-2)
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The semester has just concluded for our students—and what a semester it has been! As others have said, we are very excited to get back to more normal times rather than “unprecedented” ones. Though it has been an unusual semester for us, God has remained the same and has continued to be “our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble,” as the Psalmist declares. What a joy it is to know God is constant, even when everything else appears to be in disarray.
As most of us continue our stay-at-home daily rhythms, our students are wrapping up this very unusual Spring quarter with their final projects, papers, and examinations. Certainly, while no one could have anticipated what this year would be like, I think back to my prayers in the fall as we stepped into this academic year. I had prayed that our students, as well as our ministry team, would hear from God in new and fresh ways. It’s fair to say that prayer has been answered! There have for sure been some heartbreaks along the way, but as I interact through video conferencing with our Stanford students, generally I find hopeful faces looking back at me. I remain encouraged by how they have faced this challenge, and continue to see God actively speaking into their lives.
I love the long New England spring and earliest glimpses of summer, complete with vivid green grass and blue skies. These annual transformations flood our senses and happen right on cue per God’s decree each May. This year, however, we missed seeing one of the most satisfying transformations of all—the procession of graduates flowing through Phelps Gate into old campus on Monday, May 18th. We know they celebrated uniquely in each of their homes, but the caps, gowns, and sweet smiles of victory and triumph are always a joy to see!
A CU New York Virtual Forum featuring CEO & Founder Matt Bennett
June 13, 2020
Thanks for joining Christian Union Caritas (Stanford) at 4:00 PM PST for the virtual reunion. Christian Union Caritas invited participants from all classes, all denominations, and all Christian ministries to this annual event. We had a great time connecting with other Christian alumni, visiting with current students, and meeting the Christian Union ministry faculty and staff.It was a time of connecting and encouragment during this unique time in our nation's history.
Learn More
For questions about the Christian Union Caritas, contact Christian Union's VP of Alumni Engagement Christine Foster: christine.foster@christianunion.org.
May 23, 2020
Thanks for joining Christian Union Libertas (Brown University) at 4:00 PM EST for the virtual reunion. Christian Union Libertas invited participants from all classes, all denominations, and all Christian ministries to this annual event. We loved connecting with Christian alumni and current students. Thanks for joining us!
Learn More
For questions about the Christian Union Libertas contact Christian Union's VP of Alumni Engagement Christine Foster: christine.foster@christianunion.org.
June 13, 2020
Thanks for joining Christian Union Vox (Dartmouth) at 4:00 PM EST for a virtual reunion. Christian Union Vox invited participants from all classes, all denominations, and all Christian ministries to this annual event. We enjoyed connecting with other Christian alumni, visiting with current students, and meeting the Christian Union ministry faculty and staff.
It was a great time to connect and encourage one another during this unique time in our nation's history.
Learn More
For questions about the Christian Union Vox, contact Christian Union's VP of Alumni Engagement Christine Foster: christine.foster@christianunion.org.
