Living the church-college covenant

Few students at Messiah know about the covenant document that defines the relationship between the college and the BIC Church. However, as the experience of David Perry, a junior music education major at Messiah who is attending the Grantham BIC Church, illustrates, the church-college connection is much more than just words on paper.

The opportunity to travel with the college’s music ministry team, New Light, should have been a summer-long spiritual high. But one month into the group’s tour, David felt spiritually dry. “My heart just wasn’t in the right place,” he says.

A well-timed week with a BIC church in Wisconsin gave the New Light group the chance to refresh and rejuvenate through prayer and Bible study before heading on to several weeks of camp ministry.

Pastors and/or other members of church ministry teams are invited to be part of the church-college covenant by participating in the Coupon Connection. Let us know that you have a young person attending Messiah College, and we’ll shoot a coupon book your way. The coupons can be redeemed for a meal or snack for two (or more) in any of the college’s three eating facilities: the Lottie Nelson Dining Room, the Falcon, or the Union.
Rebekah Basinger, director of congregational relations, explains. “We’re doing this because we believe it is important to hold onto the hearts and loyalty of our young adults during their college years. While we can’t provide this same benefit for BIC students enrolled in other colleges and universities, it is in keeping with the church’s covenant relationship with Messiah that we offer the program for students enrolled at our college.”
To receive a coupon book, send an email to BICComm@messiah.edu, providing the name of the student and home church of that student.

Over the next month, “through speakers, in my conversations with others, and just through simple meditation, God showed me that I was actually trying too hard to get to Him. I realized that I was putting too much pressure on myself to have a right relationship with God, and it was blocking me from Him,” David states.

During a BICWM-sponsored Ignite event held at the West Milton (Ohio) Christian Center, David prayed that God would break him down to the very core of his being and to use him fully. This step of rededication was reinforced at Roxbury Holiness Camp in Pennsylvania, New Light’s final stop, where the theme of the week was “Extreme Surrender.”

Now back at Messiah, David states: “My prayer life and devotion time has been drastically changed. As I become busy with schoolwork and college activities, I pray that I can continue to experience God the way I should.”

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