Why I Wrote GROWING A STUDENT MOVEMENT

In 2009, just months after our wedding, my wife Jordan and I left our jobs at a large local church in Indianapolis to begin the process of pioneering Chi Alpha (XA) at Indiana University. At the time it seemed like a big risk and a huge undertaking to leave that kind of security, but we knew for certain that we had discovered our calling as missionaries on the college campus. 

Derek and Jordan Britt

Jordan and I had a strong foundation theologically (I graduated from Southeastern University in Lakeland, FL with a degree in Pastoral Ministry). We also had a strong foundation missionally as we came into XA from a church with a huge heart for missions and a passion for evangelism. Much of what Chi Alpha valued felt familiar. But as we went deeper and deeper into the community we realized we had a lot to learn. 

It’s always a little awkward for staff coming into Chi Alpha without being Chi Alpha students and we definitely felt a bit like fish out of water at first. However, at every turn we felt the love of the community and in time it transformed us. Whether it was Jeff Alexander (our district director in Indiana fighting for us and loving us so well), Steve Lehmann (our area director in the Great Lakes who saw something in us that pushed him to pursue us from the very start), or Mario Solari (our CMIT director who took us in at a difficult time and showed us what a healthy Chi Alpha discipleship community looked like), every staff member we interacted with gave us a window into the loving community we hoped to eventually replicate at Indiana University. 

As we met students during our internship at Florida State and then at Purdue University as we started to raise funds for planting at Indiana University, we realized more and more how much had been missing from our lives before this point. These students were passionate about Jesus in a place where that seemed rare. Not only that, they talked about Jesus all the time, not just at an altar call or in a Bible study. As healthy as a community as we came from, I had never personally experienced that in the ministry that I led before Chi Alpha. 

When we pioneered Indiana University we set out to create a community as we had experienced. A place that didn’t just value services and weekend experiences, but one that was committed to every student being truly devoted to Jesus, committed to being a community that cares deeply for each other, and was committed to every student taking real responsibility for their campus. We had so much help over the years in creating that from amazing people that came alongside us and fought for students at Indiana University. Kenji Kuriyama, a Chi Alpha student from Louisiana and a godsend from Chi Alpha to us was a huge part of that, but also our early staff members like Luke and Nicole Furr and others who committed for the long haul and have been fighting with us since the beginning. In these last ten years, we’ve seen God use so many people to take us from discipling 15 students in small groups and at our weekly large group gathering in 2011 to a few hundred students in 2021.

This past August was ten years since we moved to Bloomington, we have two other family members now that are helping us reach the campus (Davis – 7, Jonas – 5) and we have an alumni base and a student community that embody the ideals we have learned from so many in XA over the years. 

In these last five years we have seen the fruit of what communities like that produce, namely missionaries and new ministries. We now have the privilege of being a campus missionary-in-training site where new workers just like us back in 2009 come to be trained. And we get to watch these missionaries set out from Bloomington, just like we did from Florida State, to pioneer new communities of real devotion, real community and responsibility across the Midwest. 

We are forever grateful for the impact of Chi Alpha on our lives and are honored that our story is a Chi Alpha story, even though we didn’t come from Chi Alpha. And we can’t wait to see what God does next. 

Derek Britt serves as the Chi Alpha director at Indiana University, and as the Chi Alpha director for the state of Indiana.

chialphaiu.com and xaindiana.org

What does a real estate office, fraternity house, and a church have in common?

They are all Chi Alpha properties. These places next to campus provide a welcoming space for students. Chi Alpha complexes provide a place for Bible studies, worship gatherings, outreach, housing, social events, and a place to study. These settings provide a context for building community and training. 

The latest XA facilities procured are all in the state of Texas at the University of North Texas /Texas Woman’s University, Denton; Texas A&M University, College Station; and Texas Tech University in Lubbock.

Matt and Allison Liberio are the campus missionaries at the UNT and TWU.

As the attendance numbers regularly approached or exceeded triple digits, space was an issue. XA had met at local AG churches in the area, but these places were not near the campus. In 2019, a team of XA staff outlined a four–year plan and one goal was to have a ministry facility near the campus. Matt explained that almost immediately, XA received significant financial gifts toward purchasing the building—$3,000, then $5,000 and $8,000 after he spoke at a church on a Wednesday night. Students worked extra jobs and extra hours and raised $7,000. 

A church within four blocks of UNT wedged between five large student housing complexes came onto the market. The church was a 1,800-square-foot property and 930 square-foot parsonage, on a 1.3-acre lot at a cost of $285,000. A donor contributed $200,000, and by then, XA had raised $70,000, so Matt made an offer of $250,000, expecting a counter offer. The owners accepted the offer and XA now owns property not only near the campus but in the heart of the student housing.

Eli and Mandy Stewart, campus missionaries at Texas A&M U

They restarted XA in 2016 with 10 small group leaders, and after five years they have 175 small group leaders, and 35 in the Campus Missionary-in-Training program. TAMU is the second-largest public university in the U.S. with an enrollment of 69,523 in 2019-20. This number represents almost 60% of the population of College Station (a major city within a city) and AG did not have a church until the XA planting team started a new church, Mountain Valley Fellowship. 

TAMU XA prayed and believed God for a half-million dollars to purchase and refurbish a 25 bedroom, 12,000 square foot fraternity house. By August 2021, they had raised $460, 000. They put $400,000 down with $20,000 closing costs and applied $80,000 to renovate. The building is already being used to train graduates to start university ministries, plant churches, and go into the world as missionaries. What was a former fraternity house they are calling the TAMU XA Discipleship School. The value is $1.8 million. 

Nick and Paige Hester, serve as campus missionaries at Texas Tech University. 

In 2019, XA purchased an 8,100 square foot building with plans to renovate, bringing the value of the property to $400,000. They were poised to begin renovation when a local credit union needing to expand called to see if XA will sell their recently purchased property. XA sold the property for $400.000. So XA had to find another building. They found a former Lutheran Church turned Real Estate training offices, which was newly remodeled with five offices, a sanctuary, board room, kitchen, five-bathroom, $30,000 worth of furniture included, and another 1/3 space available for other use. The entire process was miraculous. They closed on the first building, August 19, and on the new one, August 20. Not only do they have a fully furnished and completed training center — move-in ready — they cleared more than $90,000 on the sale. 

Besides the obvious context for creating community that builds up Christian student believers and attracts students that have never experienced Christianity, and ongoing discipleship, these XA centers offer training programs for the AGs, the Pentecostal movement and the Christian world community at large. The XA staff leaders and team members imagine XA graduates gainfully employed in diverse fields in the marketplace, as lay leaders and tithing members in the Church, and as called to vocational ministry and missions work.

Related stories: AG NEWS “From Drug Lair to Holy Home,“ by Deann Alford, August 20, 2021, AG NEWS “Chi Alpha Denton Sees Prayers Answered in a Miraculous Way,” by Dan Van Veen, May 25, 2021, and AG NEWS “Campus and City Church Launch” by Deann Alford, October 24, 2016 , and AG NEWS, “Atheist Turned Missionary,” by Rachel Dawn Hayes, September 1, 2016.