A Chi Alpha Story from the University of Wisconsin Madison
Abigail Sawczak, campus minister, UW Madison, and New Culture Church
It’s amazing what God can do with a simple yes. I grew up in Northwest Indiana and, from a young age, felt drawn to missions and ministry. Yet when it came time for me to graduate from North Central University with my degree in Pastoral Studies, I had no clue what I wanted to do next. All I knew was that I wanted to help people far from Jesus draw close to Him again. During this season I heard about Madison, Wisconsin, and a team going there to re pioneer a Chi Alpha. I knew very little about Chi Alpha, but when I heard about how many students were at the university that didn’t know Jesus and how unreached the city was, I knew that’s where I wanted to be. So, at 21, I packed up my car, signed a lease without visiting, and moved in August 2016 just weeks before school started. I didn’t have the experience or qualifications. All I had was my yes. I have learned so much about campus ministry through attending the Chi Alpha’s annual Reach the University Institute and the Great Lakes regional student and staff gatherings.
After just one year on campus, I knew that this was what I wanted to give my life to. Every year it got better. Hundreds of students were coming through our doors and many decided to follow Jesus, get baptized, and follow Him all the days of their lives. Since re pioneering in 2016, students have started bible studies in their workplace, lead family members to the Lord, and even go into ministry themselves. However, saying yes to help re pioneer at UW Madison was the first of many yeses I would be saying.
UW Madison Chi Alpha (Abigail center)
In 2018, I planted New Culture Church to continue to reach the downtown and university community in Madison. New culture has created a space for nontraditional students, such as grad or PhD students, to plugin, as well as help students fall in love with the local church. Proximity to the campus was important, so I commit us to having the church close enough for students to walk or take campus transportation. We started the church in one of the biggest nightclubs in Madison and signed a lease for two large spaces, one for The Sanctuary and the other for a community/ student center next to campus.
In 2020, during a global pandemic, we pioneered at Edgewood College, and even through following all the COVID guidelines, we have seen the group grow every semester. Finally, in 2021, in partnership with our church plant, we opened “The Living Room”, a community/ student center. We opened this past fall, after raising $50,000 to renovate and getting the place ready to open to the community. We have hosted worship nights, prayer groups, small groups, international student events, and we open the student center daily so students can study during the week.
If you would have told me that five years in, we would be on two campuses, have a church plant, and a large gathering place for students, I wouldn’t have believed you. Or, I wouldn’t have said yes. The story of Chi Alpha Madison is a story that only Jesus can write. And it has been the honor of my life to continue to say yes to that story. One person, one place at a time. I can’t wait to see what He will do in the next five years and the people He will use to do it.
Chi Alpha Worship and Teaching Service at University of Wisconsin Madison
John Konkel is a Chi Alpha campus pastor at the University of Minnesota. When he started in 2005, he walked by frat row and God placed a burden on his heart. Was anyone reaching out to these guys?
He asked, “How does a campus minister (chaplain) get invited into frat houses, which have a stereotypical reputation for not being havens of morality?” John felt God impressed him to grab a toilet bowl brush, some cleaning supplies, and start making phone calls and knocking on frat house doors.
“I started by just cleaning toilets,” John says. “Then I grabbed a Chi Alpha student, and we spent the summer cleaning frat houses free; we’d vacuum, wash dishes, clean toilets, and while we were at it, we’d build relationships with those guys.”
“I wanted to pitch the idea of having a chaplain to a lot of the fraternities on our campus, but I needed an invitation to attend the yearly frat council meeting,” John said. He started by calling frat presidents, and one of them responded. The frat president wasn’t walking with the Lord, but something had been stirring in his heart to read the Bible. He thought having a chaplain for his frat would be a good idea. He took the idea to his chapter, and they voted on it. They agreed it was a great idea! That was 2007.
“For the next 15 years, every year, I’m permitted to attend the frat council meeting and pitch to all the frats the idea of having a chaplain,” John says. “What I’ve found is that after I make that pitch, especially the last three years, students have contacted me as they’re dealing with things like anxiety, depression, addictions, suicidal thoughts, alcohol — underneath it all is a hunger for Jesus!”
John shares that two years ago, he led 16 frat members to the Lord. Last year, in a unique COVID year, he led 20 to the Lord. This year, he’s already seen 38 frat guys make commitments to the Lord as their Savior in just the first semester!
“I could speak at a chapter last week, my last chapter for the semester,” John says. “This frat has a yearly initiation process and now that includes a spiritual direction night that I’ve been able to lead in the last two years!”
“There are few subcultures on the college campus larger or more impactful than fraternities and athletes,” John says. “On the weekends, a huge chunk of what student life looks like is tied up in sporting events or Greek parties. What if God comes and breathes life into these subcultures? That can transform a university!”
Since reaching out to fraternities by cleaning toilets, John says he has now become the chaplain for many of the fraternities on campus. He can freely walk into a meeting where he is known and recognized. And as a fraternity chaplain, they permitted him to engage other fraternities that don’t have a chaplain.
“What’s really great is that recently I had a frat president contact me after a meeting,” John says. “He wanted to start a Bible study, just him and me. After a while, I encouraged him to invite other frat brothers, and now we have eight guys coming. And when that president transitioned out of leadership, the new president joined our group.”
“Imagine,” John muses, “frats taking leadership in leading campuses to Christ — it’s almost like planting an indigenous church.”
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Ryan Foster, is the primary Chi Alpha campus minister at the University of Minnesota, leading the typical Chi Alpha model with undergraduates and small groups, while John Konkel (in the article above) works in partnership with Chi Alpha and focuses on Greek life and athletes.
This is a condensed version of a full article that appeared in the AG News, January 3, 2022, “Chi Alpha Chaplain Leads Dozens of Frat Members to Christ,” by Dan Van Veen.
As a senior in college, James Damude walked the campus of Northwood University, Midland, MI, with the XA campus pastor. The campus pastor asked James, “what do you see when you look at all these students?” James paused, allowing the Holy Spirit to work in him, and said, “I see spiritually dead people.” It was on that cold crisp fall day in Michigan, James heard the Holy Spirit call him to campus ministry.
That next year he entered an XA internship with campus minister, Scott Miller, on the campus of Boston University. For 18 months, he learned how to take the calling and actualize it on the campus. James returned to NU in 2001 and directed campus ministry until 2010. In 2011-2012 he served with AG World Missions in Jaipur, India on a campus missions assignment. After he returned stateside, he launched a XA ministry at Saginaw Valley State University, Saginaw, MI, and served the next four years. For 15 years, his calling was to bring the life-changing gospel of Jesus Christ to college students all over the world.
The transition from XA to US Army chaplaincy was much like his transition from a full-time student to a campus minister. It started with him hearing from the Holy Spirit and then working hard. Over a Thanksgiving dinner, my uncle talked about his chaplain while he served in the Gulf War. James learned about the influence the chaplain had in soldiers’ lives. That night, the Holy Spirit was speaking again. James researched chaplaincy, saw the path was difficult but worthwhile to pursue.
The US Army holds the position of chaplain in high regard, as they are the Shepherd of a soldier’s spiritual life. It comes as no surprise; the requirements are immense. They require applicants to be ordained ministers, complete an MDiv have substantial ministry experience, pass a physical fitness test, and receive approval by the endorsing denomination. For James, that process was nine years in the making.
Now as a US Army Chaplain, it is his great honor to continue to serve the Lord, my country, my soldiers. Titles have changed from campus minister to chaplain, but the calling remains the same!
Chaplain (CPT) Jasmin R. LuckUS Air Force*
Jasmin 27, is a recently commissioned U.S. Air Force endorsed chaplain and ordained Assemblies of God minister. She credits her training in XA with setting her course. Jasmin, a captain, stationed at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan, planning to build a spiritual community among the airmen at Kadena.
Military personnel at foreign bases often can’t just visit the local church of their denominational choice down the street. “Whatever spiritual community is on base is where they go and that’s why it’s so crucial to have strong spiritual communities overseas,” Jasmin says. “There are worship services held at churches off base, but often people look first to chapels where they can be around like-minded believers in similar seasons of life.”
Jasmin understands the value of having a strong spiritual community away from home. As a college student at Arizona State University, she too wondered if there was more to life than the party culture that surrounded her on campus.
“I knew that I was called to ministry at age 12, but I didn’t have a strong foundation in my faith until I went to college,” she says. Jasmin gained the spiritual foundation she needed through ASU XA chapter.
“XA not only gave me the grounding that I needed in my faith but also as a minister,” Jasmin says. Through XA, Jasmin received formative discipleship and training that solidified her calling to ministry. While active in XA, she took part in two transformational missions trips (XA Expeditions) to Greece and Macedonia.
Chaplain candidates must pursue their MDiv, work toward ordination in their church, and receive military training during their time in the program.
Jasmin enrolled in the chaplaincy candidate program and applied to the MDiv program at AG Theological Seminary. She gained acceptance into both programs in 2015 and finished in the top 5 percent of her class, which contained 235 chaplains candidates.
“I received a lot of training and experience in the chaplain candidate program that included assignments in Guam, England, and South Korea. The training helped me see the need on our overseas bases,” says Jasmin. Kadena Air Base is her first active duty assignment. One of her goals is to build a strong gospel and contemporary worship community, especially among the younger troops. Jasmin believes she has the coolest job ever.
Chaplain (Major) Russell H. Trubey—US Air Reserves
Russ Trubey
Russ Trubey’s XA story began in a roundabout way when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990. He was 21 years old, and in the Army, stationed at Ft. Sheridan, IL, about 30 minutes north of Chicago. Rusty was less than one month from getting out of the Army, and that day couldn’t come soon enough. He had no clue what he wanted to do with his life. The one thing he knew was he wanted out of the Army. Apparently, however, trumpet players (Russ played the trumpet in the Army band.) were needed. “Stop-loss policy” involuntarily put his exit from the Army on hold. He wondered if his band and trumpet playing were critical to national security.
In the providence and grace of God, the Holy Spirit brought people into my life who helped me understand and respond to His leading. It became crystal clear. The full-time ministry was my calling, but its shape would be a process. When he left the Army, he enrolled in Southeastern University, Lakeland, FL. from 1991 to 1995. It convinced him of two things – he wanted to reach young people and didn’t want to do it in a church.
After graduation and an internship, he met Mario Solari, the XA missionary at Florida State University, Tallahassee. After exposure to XA, he was hooked. XA was his path, and so he embarked on the daring journey of faith and finances as a campus missionary intern with campus minister, Gary Paschal at Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, TX,1996-1997. He spent 16 years directing XA at the University of South Florida, Tampa, and West Virginia University, Morgantown. It was a rewarding ministry, but Russ felt his time with XA was ending. The Army needed chaplains.
He wondered if there was something to his calling to ministry that began when he was a soldier. Again, it was clear. He knew what God wanted him to do. He completed all the education and requirements necessary and became a chaplain in 2012. Because he was a Reserve Chaplain, he still needed a “civilian” ministry. The calling to help Soldiers and Veterans was primary, and so in 2015, He became a chaplain with the Department of Veterans Affairs.
His passion was to carry the stories of those on the front lines of faith who struggle with life’s greatest questions. XA helped prepare me for this unique ministry of bringing hope of Christ to those who have borne the battle.
*Originally an AG News article “Building a Bedrock of Faith,” about Jasmin Luck by Ally Henny, June 14, 2021, appeared: https://news.ag.org/en/News/Building-a-Bedrock-of-Faith
