Being a part of something in college, such as a campus ministry, is so important. Getting involved is probably the number one piece of advice anyone could give you when entering college. When I was in college, I decided to get involved with Christian Campus House. This was probably one of the best decisions I ever could have made. The problem, because there always is one, was hearing all the negative misconceptions others had of CCH (Christian Campus House).

Because I was such a social person, I decided to have friends within the ministry and outside. This allowed me the opportunity to hear about CCH from other people's perspectives. I heard the good and the bad, but a lot of times the bad were a lot of generic misconceptions. Here they are:

1. We Have Our Lives All Together

This is probably the most common misconception I have heard. Just because we know Jesus and have joy in our lives, doesn't mean our lives are simple and we have it all together. My friend Lucy Sare wrote about this recently and if you want to know more on the subject, feel free to read her article. I'll leave the link at the bottom of this article. But, CCH doesn't have it all together and we would be the first people to tell you. We are just like anybody else in college. The only difference is that we are trying to follow Jesus. This gives us a sense of joy and the help of someone far greater than ourselves.

2. We Are Judging You

We aren't judging you, and we are sorry that we give off that impression. That is not our goal, even in the slightest. Sometimes it is just difficult to know the limit of welcoming that one should bombard someone new with and sometimes we just don't notice. We are humans and sometimes we get lost in our own lives. This doesn't mean that we don't want to get to know you. Feel free to approach anyone! They would love to talk to you!

3. We Are Family

Now, this one is absolutely true. We are a family! It's wonderful. The only thing different about this family is that we want to grow! We want you to join our family. It is not at all exclusive. We love you just as much as we love each other. Please join our family.

4. We Are Full of Cliques

This is an interesting thing. As stated above, we are a family. We all love each other dearly and consider ourselves brothers and sisters in Christ. This doesn't mean that there aren't people that we are closer to. The people that we are closer to, we will hang out with more. That happens anywhere, but that doesn't mean that we don't like the other people within CCH and outside of CCH.

5. We Only Read The Bible

This is quite funny. We spend our time doing lots of other things than reading the Bible. Yes, we like to read the Bible and we usually spend time reading it everyday, but we also do other things. We LOVE to have fun. We LOVE to spend time with anyone. We LOVE to play cards. In fact, sometimes I think we play euchre more than we read the Bible. We participate in random, crazy, spontaneous activities and LOVE life.

6. We Don't Like You

This is probably the biggest lie anyone could tell you. We generally like everyone. There is not one person that I think dislikes the people at Trine. We love to meet new people and love to welcome them into CCH. If you don't believe me, you could talk to Lexi Jacobs. She threw herself into events in the middle of the year and I don't think she was disappointed and she's not the only one. WE LOVE YOU already! We have a desire to get to know you! Jesus asks us to!

7. We All Believe the Exact Same Thing

No, we didn't all come from the same background. We all have slightly different views on all things Christianity. Some people are Catholic, Baptist, or Lutheran, others grew up non-denominational, some didn't grow up with a faith. That's not important to us. What is important is having a group of people that we can lean on that follows Jesus just as we do. You can come from any walk of life. It's fine by us!

8. We Are Perfect

This concept kind of goes back to number one, but I can't believe the amount of people that called me perfect in my time at Trine. Just because I don't get drunk, do drugs, cuss, or other common things you see on campus, doesn't mean I don't sin. We just sin differently. And even though it's easy to compare sins and think that you are much worse than the girl sitting next to you, all sins are equal in God's eyes! We sin, just like you. We deal with temptations and really, we aren't all that different.

9. We All Don't Drink

Drinking is a weird subject for Christians because there are many different views on it. Some people are willing to drink in moderation and go to places that serve alcohol, attend parties, and drink on occasion. Others stand by the understanding that they do not want to participate in drinking at all. I think it all depends on your view of what the Bible has to say, but many of us are willing to drink an alcoholic drink on occasion and in moderation. Just ask, I'm sure they would be willing to share their stance and their reasons behind it!

10. Jesus Tells Us We Can't Have Fun

Oh my my my. I can definitely say we have fun!!!!! God gives us rules, he doesn't say we can't enjoy life. In fact, sometimes I think we have more fun. As mentioned before, we do crazy, random, spontaneous things. Don't underestimate the power of wandering minds. Whether it's trips to sunset slush, taking random drives to Auburn, worshipping around a fire, going to concerts, or watching movies while it rains, we enjoy ourselves immensely. Fun is what we do. Laughs are our habit. Random is our word.

I encourage you, figure out that these are misconceptions on your own. Although I no longer attend Trine, I'm sure anyone there would be willing to talk to you about any of these things. CCH is not a place you aren't allowed to go!!! They will love you and accept you how you are! I know they loved and accepted me, just as I was and am! And if you don't go to Trine, I'm sure your campus ministry feels the same!

Lucy's Article: https://www.theodysseyonline.com/im-christian-and-...