Tim and Melissa Kern

In high school, I became a Jesus follower. I joined Young Life and was encouraged by the leader, John Hartle, to grow in my faith. John’s roommate was Brady Bobbink. So, when I graduated, John passed me off to Brady, who put me into his XA leadership training group at Western Washington University.

            I spent the next 5 years living in residence halls learning to share the gospel where I lived. I studied history and poly sci in preparation to be a high school teacher and coach. But God had other ideas.

            Brady asked me to pray about becoming a campus minister. After praying over the next year, I knew how the Lord wanted me to serve Him. I grew a passionate love for Scripture under Brady’s teachings. I also grew a love for missions, and got to lead a XA student missions team to reach First Nations people in British Columbia.

            My calling to XA was immediately tested by being offered a job as the assistant to the JV coach for the basketball team. Jesus had already directed me to train to be a campus minister where I could coach university students how to serve Him.

            There were four interns my year, and I was privileged to be mentored by Greg Smith (Brady’s first intern). Greg had graduated from Regent College and set about to give me a seminary education. He challenged me to study the entire New Testament and teach an 8-week class on it.

            My favorite training was when another intern (Reid Johnson) and I went door to door in Highland Hall, sharing the gospel. Two men became Christ followers, and I led a weekly bible study for them. Reid pioneered the XA ministry at the University of British Columbia, and I pioneered the XA ministry at the University of Missouri at Columbia. Jerry Thomas, a fellow XA, accompanied me.

            After a year of being on staff at Christian Chapel Assembly and establishing a XA group of a dozen students, Jerry and I moved back to Washington to marry our sweethearts.

            Next, Jerry went to make disciples in the workplace, while Carol and I took over the XA group at Central Washington University. We’ve been there since 1981. It’s been so satisfying watching students become disciples who make more disciples (Mt. 28:18-20; 2 Cor. 5:14-21).

            Obeying Jesus is where it is at. Being a XA campus minister is a front row seat, watching Him change and direct students’ lives to transform our world. He gets glory by the alumni serving Him in their local churches; making disciples in the marketplace and around the world.

It’s great knowing that this same story is repeated all over XA Nation as students come to university, become active in XA, find Jesus, and are trained to obey the Great Commission in the power of the Holy Spirit.

James Madison University

Although he uttered a “sinner’s prayer” as a Baptist youth because he feared going to hell over unconfessed transgressions, Joshua Moran rarely attended church. Parties where he got drunk and swore a lot turned out to be more frequent gathering places. But soon after he began attending college, his life turned around.

“Chi Alpha found me at the University of Virginia (UVA),” Josh says. “I felt the Holy Spirit in a way I did not have the vocabulary for at the time.” His grandmother Wanda Sears bought him a leather-bound study Bible, he joined a Chi Alpha small group on the campus in Charlottesville, and he ceased imbibing and cursing.

The self-confident Josh had lofty goals. He wanted to become a lawyer, be elected senator, and then run the free world. His Chi Alpha involvement altered his goals to other means of persuasion. He switched his major to religious studies and graduated in 2007. He responded to the Chi Alpha student missions challenge to “give a year and pray about a lifetime. The following year, Josh and Katie

Summers became the first UVA Chi Alpha Campus Missionaries-in-Training (CMIT), the nationally recognized internship program. Josh and Katie married in 2009.

“During the Chi Alpha CMIT program, I grew in ways I could never have imagined,” says Josh, 36. “It was one of the most formative years of my life in learning as I was repeatedly challenged to be a disciple-maker. I knew I wanted to do Chi Alpha forever.”

Twelve years into their UVA ministry, the Josh and Katie sensed a calling to launch a Chi Alpha ministry at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. 

The Morans, who are both ordained AG ministers and U.S. missionaries, started the ministry on campus in 2019 and shared responsibilities. The COVID-19 pandemic hit that first school year, forcing the Morans to be creative in their outreach efforts. Gatherings had to be held outside, with participants wearing masks and staying 10 feet apart.

Josh anticipates a time of growth at JMU’s Chi Alpha in 2021-22.

“This could be our first normal year,” he says. “We will have unrestricted social events for the first time. But small groups will still be the heartbeat of who we are.”

Katie grew up in the AG and always wanted to be a part of Chi Alpha. Josh says in their first two years at JMU she discipled the majority of the staff and led the bulk of the meetings. He says the Church shouldn’t lag behind the business world when it comes to promoting women leaders.

“For years, the Assemblies of God has said we are pro-women in ministry, but that is not always the reality,” Josh says. “The task is too great for half the population to remain on the sidelines. This is biblical; we need all hands on deck”

Since 2017, in addition to the campus, Josh has served as Chi Alpha director of the Potomac Ministry Network. 

This article was written by John W. Kennedy titled “Lifetime Leaders” in the AG News  and has been condensed for this website.