Campus Crusade for Christ: Roosevelt University

By Karissa Martin

The afternoon light shining through the arched window of Roosevelt University’s Michigan Lobby reflected off the cards splayed across the round, wooden table last Thursday.

Upbeat, elevator music played in the background, and cars and buses sped past outside. The ding of the elevator sounded amidst the chatter of students and faculty in the lobby.

The cards on the table held images including a spider on its web, a girl staring dejectedly at a weight scale, a path lined with autumn trees, and a young woman curled up on a bench writing in a notebook.

            “What pictures describe your life right now?” said Logan Hensley, 22, a staff member of Campus Crusade for Christ, now called Cru, for Roosevelt University’s chapter, and undergraduate student at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago.

            Hensley said that this is one of his ice breaking techniques when meeting with current or potential members of Cru. This game is called Soularium, and Hensley said that it is used to get students to open up and talk about personal aspects of their lives, which is especially important when trying to get to know students interested in joining Cru.

            “Campus Crusade for Christ is a worldwide, interdenominational Christian evangelism and discipleship organization, founded by Bill and Vonette Bright in 1951,” said Karen Dye, a Cru spokesperson.

            According to Dye, the organization is active in 191 countries and is comprised of 29 different ministries, including groups for students, athletes, military, and business leaders.

            Cru has “the vision of creating spiritual movements everywhere, so that everyone knows someone who truly follows Jesus,” said Dye.

            Roosevelt’s chapter of Cru was only created in the fall semester of 2011, said Hensley, so, with only seven members, it is very small. Gerardo Ramirez, 23, the president and founder of Roosevelt’s chapter of Cru, said that he wanted to start something different at the school since there weren’t any Christian-based organizations.

“The goal of the Roosevelt University chapter is to make an impact with Christian values on campus,” said Ramirez, “and also for students to gain interest in Bible study.”

            Hensley, who generally leads the discussions, began the meeting of the day with an opening prayer and addressed the group with the question, “When you hear the word of God, what do you think about?”

            “Righteousness,” said Patrick Givens, 21, an information technology student at Roosevelt.

            The intimate discussion continued as Hensley drew attention to particular passages in the Bible, and the small group of students shared their thoughts on the word.

            “We’re just starting off so, of course, we don’t have a huge student base yet,” said Hensley. “We’re just starting to connect with new students.”

            Hensley’s wife, Jessika Hensley, 22, also a staff member of Cru and student at Moody, said that they are using small events to try to inform more people about the group.

“We just did an outreach last Thursday, and we got some more contacts from that, so just following up with them,” she said.

They were giving out free Starbucks coffee to students, but the Hensleys said that no one seemed to want to take any. They said that they want to give truly free stuff—no strings attached—but students seem to think that they are obligated to do something if they take these items.

Hensley said that Roosevelt’s chapter of Cru is currently focused on recruiting more members and reaching out to more students through these free gift events and questionnaires, even with the difficulty of Roosevelt having many commuter students.

Jessika Hensley said that Chicago Cru, which includes other schools in the area such as Columbia and DePaul, hosts more events. She said that they have three or four big events a year, including boat cruises and days at the park in order to create a sense of community between the schools.

The Hensleys said that they plan to continue to try to create this same sense of community in Roosevelt’s chapter and host more events to create a safe space for people to talk spiritually and to bring in more members.

“Future plans may include hosting a worship night where all Roosevelt students and hopefully other students from around the area can gather and pray together and maybe even host a Bible study,” said Ramirez.

The group spoke optimistically about the potential for Roosevelt’s chapter of Cru for the future.

The discussion of the many facets of the word of God came to a close after more than an hour of discussion.

“There will be a time when you’re not going to have all the answers to life,” said Hensley in one of his closing statements, “but as we stay connected to the word and connected to God we’re going to clearly know how to live our lives.”

Hensley asked for prayer requests and said a closing prayer, closed his Bible and concluded another weekly meeting of Cru. The other members grabbed their bags, notes and Bibles and stuffed them in their bags as they prepared to join the throng of students exiting through the revolving doors out into the receding evening sunlight.