Campus Ministries is gearing up for the anticipated annual Christian Focus Week, an extended period of worship and connection for students, that will start Feb. 8 and last until Feb. 13. This year’s theme is “Citizens.”
The Scripture chosen to represent the theme is Ephesians 2:19-22, which reads, “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”
Co-chair for the student leadership team is Steven Rutherford, a junior business administration major from Benton. He said the inspiration for the theme came during the brainstorming process with the Christian Focus Week team. During the discussion process, Rutherford posed the question, “What should being a church member look like?”
He emphasized the value of connection.
“What I’d really like to drive home is getting involved,” he said. “Not just putting everything on the leadership of the church, actually being active.”
After searching through Scripture and prayerful consideration, the team arrived at the idea of “Citizens” because they wanted to communicate with the student body the importance of understanding their roles as citizens of Heaven and this world.
Rutherford said the team’s vision for the week is to see students being inspired to plug in and invest their time fruitfully on earth.
“It’s easy for everyone to go through the motions. But the Lord calls us to be intentional and have relationships with people and to be working toward Him every second we can,” Rutherford said.
Campus Ministries director James Taylor says his hope for this year’s CFW is that it will meet students where they are.
“My goal—and I think the leadership team’s goal—is for students on our campus to have the opportunity to hear [the gospel], to believe it and to be changed by it. So, wherever they are in their journey, [we want] for the week to help bring them closer to Christ,” he said. “We have a variety of events that hopefully will connect with people in different ways.”
Some of that variety includes having a new speaker each day, a different direction from last year. “I’m looking forward to the chance to get to hear from a number of different people and have some different voices,” Taylor said.
Christian Focus Week has been part of Ouachita for over 30 years. Since it lasts an entire school week and there are a multitude of activities some classes will be cancelled to accommodate extra worship services. Taylor expressed gratitude to Ouachita’s administration for valuing CFW enough to bend the school schedule around it.
“That’s the great thing about how Ouachita invests in the spiritual lives of its students. The school says this is important enough that once a year they set aside time other than the normal chapel time for morning worship services. It’s a tradition,” he said. “Really it’s because the administrators at this school support this week that it makes it the success that it is.”
This Christ-centered weeklong experience will kick off with the Jillian Edwards concert in JPAC on Feb. 8. The concert is free for students, faculty and staff and $5 to the public. Pancakes will be served at Dr. Jack’s afterwards.
CFW will host several events each day throughout the week. For more information visit http://www.obu.edu/cfw.
By: Barrett Gay
