“CU Martus Made a Profound Impact”

Someone recently asked me the best way to find community when arriving on campus for the first time. I thought about this question a lot before I first came to Penn as well. Would I be able to find a Christian community at an Ivy League university? Would I be able to grow in my faith, or would secular thought extinguish it?

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• Alumni
• Penn

Matt Bennett Featured on Podcast

The Biblical Courage podcast invited Christian Union Founder and CEO Matt Bennett to share the story of how Christian Union was formed almost 20 years ago. Bennett, who mentions that he had become a Christian in the first grade, grew up in the faith, and after college opted to forgo the family business in the hotel industry to pursue ministry. 

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Court Rules in Favor of Campus Ministry

When the University of Iowa deregistered a number of campus ministries, citing discrimination for requiring their members to be Christian, the ministries fought back. This past week, a federal appeals court upheld a previous ruling in 2019 stating that the university cannot selectively deregister student organizations. The lawsuit, originally filed by InterVarsity, is an important victory for religious freedom in the university setting.

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• Cultural Engagement

CU Lux Hosts Event with Popular Show’s Director

Over the past year, the internet has become an increasingly popular companion as COVID-19 restrictions kept people from socializing. According to one article by BBC, since lockdowns started in March of 2020, adults have spent nearly six and a half hours a day watching TV and online videos. This averages to watching about 45 hours of online content a week. Streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime have made this number all the more feasible as they came out with new shows and movies to keep the public entertained.

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• Yale

His Story Becomes Our Story

Christians who are serious and well-intentioned about their faith often experience angst-filled perplexity when they ponder the significance of the Gospel for what many of us inevitably spend most of our waking adult lives doing: working.

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CU Libertas Preparing to Meet Freshmen and Sophomores

Matt Woodard, Christian Union’s ministry director at Brown University, is twice as excited for the upcoming Freshman Gathering Campaign at Brown University this fall.

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• Brown
• Seeking God

Helping Students Face Anxiety, Depression, and Loneliness

As students prepare for their first fall semester on campus after over a year and a half of virtual learning it almost feels like life is returning to normal. But as dorm rooms, cafeterias, and classrooms fill up again, many students are still feeling empty as they battle the anxiety, depression, and loneliness churned up from the trauma and isolation of the pandemic. 

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• Cultural Engagement

One Strike and You’re Out?

If a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD but the thing does not take place or prove true, it is a word that the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; do not be frightened by it. (NRSV) - Deut. 18:22

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• Seeking God

The Impact of Christian Union Lux

Editor’s Note: The following article contains first-person accounts from alumni who were actively involved in CU Lux, Christian Union’s ministry at Yale University. 

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• Alumni
• Yale

Learning to Engage for the Sake of Mission   

Christian leaders falling from grace has become a routine headline over the past few years. Our leaders have been caught in abuse, scandals, addiction, or lavish spending of church funds, leaving a trail of wreckage in the congregations they led, but also a bad impression on a watching world. It appears that Christians, who declare love and grace and humility with their lips, are often living a life that is out of sync with their declared good news. The word for this is hypocrisy, and it’s hurting the church more than ever.

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• Alumni
• Cultural Engagement

Initiative Invigorates, Encourages Stanford Students

  When the word broke that Stanford would continue virtually for the entirety of the 2020-21 academic year, ministry fellow Abigail Carreon knew something had to change. In one-on-one meetings with CU Caritas students, she heard repeatedly about feelings of isolation and loneliness, apathy towards coursework, and what she suspected were the beginnings of depression for many of them.  

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• Intellectual Engagement
• Stanford

CU Libertas Celebrates Seniors

In an exciting and encouraging end to their time in college, seniors of CU Libertas gathered in person to be celebrated and recognized by underclassmen and to get off campus for a seniors-only day retreat. Though these kinds of events are typical for the graduation season, Ministry Fellow Laurel Copp says that these were the only two in-person events the ministry formally hosted all year due to COVID-19 restrictions.

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• Alumni
• Brown

Carter Conlon: "We Have Abandoned the Ways of God"

Carter Conlon, chairman of the board and general overseer of Times Square Church in New York City, recently compared the United States to a shipwrecked vessel—with more storms on the near horizon. The coming darkness and desperation, however, could usher in a great opportunity for the Church to be a voice of hope and salvation, he said. 

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• New York
• Seeking God

Revival, Reformation Are Preceded by a Return to God 

“We need to admit that there’s a problem,” said Matt Bennett as he addressed the need for widespread repentance to Christian Union Cornerstone Partners in a Zoom meeting, Monday evening, June 7, 2021.

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• Alumni
• Seeking God
• Cultural Engagement

Q and A with Dr. Vincent Naman

  Christian Union New York has teamed up with the ministry’s alumni engagement team to connect recent graduates and young professionals to mentors who work in the same field. Part of Christian Union’s mission is to transition college seniors into the workforce or graduate school well, linking  them with a broad Christian network to support and sustain their faith while also networking professionally. 

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• Brown
• Dartmouth
• Princeton
• Yale

"God Weighs Nations in the Balance"

Judgment isn’t a topic most people want to talk about, but as Christian Union founder and CEO Matt Bennett argues on these two episodes of Forerunners of America INSIGHTS, it isn’t something we can afford to overlook. In light of the challenging past couple of years, many believers think they are being winsome by offering a watered-down gospel that shies away from the tough but beautiful reality of a just God. Yet, it is precisely God’s perfect justice and righteous judgment that our world and our culture are hungering after but attempting to find apart from Christ. 

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Amazing Dreams Led Him to the Truth 

British author Paul Kingsnorth had tried it all in his search for “a truth he would surrender to.” He started with environmentalism, in hopes that saving the planet, educating people, and valuing creation and its limits would give him meaning. Later, Zen Buddhism offered the stillness he longed for and an attempt at communing with something bigger than himself.

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Noted Author Speaks at CU Martus Lecture Series

  Most college students are not concerned about virtue. According to author Karen Swallow Prior, virtue has primarily been whittled down to an old-fashioned word for sexual purity. But the concept of virtue is a robust one, extending far beyond what most modern Americans attach to the word, she said. Prior shared those sentiments when she spoke earlier this year at CU Martus’ leadership lecture series, Philia.

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• Intellectual Engagement
• Penn

CU Nova’s Tru Thursday Refocuses Outreach Efforts

  Prior to the current academic year, a handful of zealous Princeton University student leaders were given the reigns of TruThursday, the African, African American, and Caribbean culture leadership lecture series at Christian Union Nova. The team transformed the weekly gathering into one of the most popular events in the ministry. 

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• Princeton
• Seeking God

The Pilgrimage to a Holy City

Editor’s note: The following article was reprinted with permission from the Harvard Ichthus, a journal of Christian thought and expression produced by undergraduates at Harvard University.

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• Harvard
• Intellectual Engagement