In an effort to help Greek-affiliated students develop a space for the Christian gospel, Campus Crusade for Christ has partnered with Grace Bible Church to provide a Bible study for sorority and fraternity chaplains.
Through the partnership, Grace Bible Church representatives meet with representatives from various sororities.
Hannah Swain, communication senior and co-chaplain of Delta Delta Delta, said it is a time for everyone to come together for fellowship and to give updates on the Bible studies they conduct within their own chapters.
“Chapters may be going through different Bible studies than others, so we break up into groups based on what Bible study our chapter is studying for the semester,” Swain said. “During our time in smaller groups, we talk through the study for the week and prepare Bible study leaders on how to lead a small group.”
Daniel Dillard, Cru staff member, said both organizations have a shared desire to accomplish the same goal.
“That goal is for every Greek to have an opportunity to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, to have gospel-centered communities in each house on campus,” Dillard said. “We hope to see students leading students, and we hope that this will last for a lifetime.”
The chaplains meet each of the first three Sundays of the month, and the meeting on the fourth Sunday is open to all Greek students and serves to train future student leaders in fraternity and sorority ministries. The training is held at a sorority house and changes based on house availability.
Marci Corry is the wife of Grace Bible Church college pastor Trey Corry and one of the leaders of the study. She has been mentoring sorority women for many years, she said.
Corry said participating sororities are represented at the weekly meeting by two to 15 Bible study leaders who take the message and skills learned at the meetings to their individual sororities. In this sense, Corry said more than 700 women in Greek bible studies are affected by the partnership.
Cameron Bodell, Class of 2014 and Cru intern, said fraternities are also represented and roughly 45 men are part of Greek Bible studies through Cru.
Bodell said this is the first year Cru has had such a partnership.
“We will learn more from this group than we would have on our own,” Bodell said. “Our mutual encouragement for one another affirms our calling from Jesus to impact our fraternities or sororities.”
Sarah Holmes, Class of 2014 and Cru intern, said the ultimate goal of the partnership is to provide unity among believers in the Greek system while also preparing them to go out and share Jesus with members in their chapters.
“The benefit to the unity of believers in the Greek system is to bring encouragement and ideas to the table,” Holmes said. “Encouragement from chapters who for the first time are seeing people in their chapters want to sign up for a Bible study and then also ideas from those chapters who have seen different types of Bible studies succeed and also fail.”