USU Christian club headed to Slovenia
While most college students are shooting tequila and doing their best to forget about homework, morality, and forsaking all resemblance of responsible behavior, Matt McFarland, a member of USU’s Christian club, FOCUS, will be spreading the word of God in Slovenia’s capital, Ljubljana.
McFarland, a junior majoring in mechanical engineering, will be accompanied by seven other members and one adviser in Slovenia. FOCUS, which stands for Fellowship of Christian University Students, will be in Europe for one week as they talk about Jesus with college students abroad.
“It’s not our job to change hearts, it’s God’s job,” said McFarland, referring to their goals for the trip.
Mass and rapid conversion to Christianity is not the driving force behind this micro-mission. Instead, McFarland and his associates are aiming merely for discipleship and to share their gospel with others.
Each participating member is responsible for covering their own expenses for the trip; however, when asked about their major contributors, McFarland said, “God is funding our trip.”
FOCUS members may find themselves compulsively drawing the simple outline of a fish on everything they own.
Why the fish and not the camel or the zebra? There is actually some history behind the fish as a symbol of Christianity, McFarland said. Around A.D. 100 Christians faced violent persecution in the Roman Empire. The fish was considered “graffiti, or propaganda of Christianity.” One method of safely identifying a fellow Christian in those days could be done by drawing half the fish in the sand, and if the other person completed the fish, they too were Christian. McFarland said the fish has maintained its symbolic value through time.
In the shadow of USU’s predominant LDS religion, FOCUS struggles to find a voice and representation on campus, Jenny Schnitzler, a senior majoring in history, said.
She said this is largely because FOCUS does not have the connections with ASUSU and campus officials that sometimes lend publicity powers and privileges to LDS organizations on campus. In this respect, FOCUS is somewhat clandestine in their existence on campus, though they boast about 45 active club members, Schnitzler said.
In describing FOCUS, Schnitzler said they are “not as structured as most religious groups, but we can be very intimate. It’s balanced.”
FOCUS is an interdenominational club, which means that it represents a number of Christian denominations. They meet in the Maranatha Baptist Church in Logan, but most members are Protestant. Mormons are welcome in FOCUS, however, they may have difficulty accepting some major doctrinal differences, Schnitzler said.
For example, FOCUS members consider themselves Christians, and therefore, they base their beliefs on the Bible. The Book of Mormon is supplemental to the Bible in the Mormon religion; however, many Christians believe the Bible is the only testament of Christ, and that no other source is necessary. For obvious reasons, this factor often deters Mormons from joining FOCUS, Schnitzler said.
“It’s easy for Mormons to be offended … but we are not out to convert, just to love,” Schnitzler said.
Despite rifts that some may have in religious tenets, the members of FOCUS offer friendship and inclusion to all, members of FOCUS say.
“[Within FOCUS] you will find someone with common interests,” Schnitzler said.
In describing the people in FOCUS, she says they are “outdoorsy, they like to meet people and hang out.”
FOCUS is an affiliate of Campus Crusade for Christ, and they share the motto, “Win, Build, Send.” By this, they mean to “win hearts, build them up, and send them out to spread the word.” To learn more about Campus Crusade, visit every student.com. For more information about FOCUS, contact Rob Gunn at 753-0280.
-vanessak@cc.usu.edu