The power of Christ to make a difference in students’ lives was movingly illustrated recently when students and other young adults shared their experience with God in the Avondale College Church. About a dozen participants had written on a large piece of cardboard a problem they had faced in their lives, and on the other side the difference God had made. One by one they walked onto the platform, showed the problem, then reversed the cardboard to reveal the change.

Here is a sampling of what they wrote:

• A puppet of Satan/ free in Jesus
• Lost and searching/ found direction in Jesus
• No hope in life/ Jesus is my hope
• Lukewarm and lost in depression/ transformed by Christ’s love
• Committed to partying/ Committed to serving
• In turmoil/ @ peace
  

  Pr Mark Craig, Associate Pastor of the Avondale College Church, prays as young adults witness to the change God has brought to their lives.

Festival of faith

Students on both campuses have experienced powerful spiritual renewal during special Festival of Faith weeks in 2010. On the Sydney campus Pr Gilda Dholah-Roddy, a department director for the SDA Church in Sydney, spoke on the theme of “soul food”. As a tangible response, students now run a regular mid-week prayer fellowship in the Sydney Adventist Hospital chapel. “Students here are quite open with their faith,” said student spiritual leader Mareta Fong. “The Festival of Faith meetings gave them opportunity to share some of their faith journey.”

On the Lake Macquarie campus, Pastor Stuart Tyner of La Sierra University Church, USA led students during first semester into a deeper understanding of and response to God’s grace. The second semester Festival of Faith produced a powerful series entitled “The house that bears His name” by 2006 Avondale graduate Joanne Darby, resulting in 180 student responses, including nine requests for baptism and more than thirty requests for Bible studies. Chaplains and residence directors on both campuses are involved in Bible studies with students.

Community building feeds spiritual growth

Friendship, community events, service opportunities and empowering students to lead are keys to community building and spiritual growth in Avondale’s residence halls.

Students respond to active spirituality experienced in relation to other dimensions of living. “Join it, do it, plan it, believe it, give it” – these statements are part of the “Live It” theme for the women’s residences, applied in five key dimensions of living: community, health, education, spirituality and service. Each floor has a worship led by the student residence assistant responsible for that floor. In addition to corporate worships, students have initiated regular prayer fellowships on two days per week and Bible studies for both male and female students on two other days each week. Each floor of the women’s residences arranges social activities, and the residence director, Deirdre Hough, regularly invites students to her home for social fellowship.

Small group worship and mateship are keys to spiritual development in the men’s residence. Small groups meet for prayer and fellowship each Wednesday, and on Monday evenings the residents of each floor pray together, eat together and share their experience with one another. Each new student is paired with a more experienced student in a “buddy” system to provide friendship, guidance and support. “I haven’t seen people that care as much as you,” wrote one student on leaving the residence. “The people I have become friends with are for life.”

About four hundred students regularly attend the Friday evening service, many remaining for drinks and fellowship afterwards. The student organisation Student Associated Ministries, working for the spiritual growth of fellow students, runs corporate worship each Tuesday evening. Several times per semester students particularly enjoy special worship programs in a social context (e.g. around a bonfire) organised by residence directors and student assistants. The College Church runs a café during the week to connect with day students. Each campus also provides support for international students.

Service and spirituality

Generation Y responds to Christianity expressed in service. Each Friday afternoon students on the Lake Macquarie campus participate in the “Pick a Street” program – picking a street, knocking on doors until they find a person needing practical help, and then staying to do the job. The program opens opportunities for spiritual conversations, creates community goodwill, and strengthens connections between the student participants.

Most years more than a hundred students volunteer a week of their time to StormCo community service programs, which will be assisted in 2011 with a recently awarded $5000 Commonwealth Government Volunteer Grant. Students from both campuses also volunteer each year for overseas service programs. In 2010 nine nursing students went to Atoifi Hospital in the Solomon Islands and six students ran evangelistic programs in Zimbabwe. Nursing students also support the Fox Valley Church in Wahroonga.

Student leadership

The leadership of enthusiastic and capable student residence assistants is one of the most important factors in building community and spirituality. The residence directors and student residence assistants vision and plan together in preparation for the academic year.  New residence assistants are trained in leadership, mentoring, connecting with generation Y, building community and spirituality, dealing with problem situations, legal and administrative issues, and care of the physical facilities. Such things help build functional residence environments congenial to student development.

Pastoral care

The spiritual role models provided by staff are among the most important influences on student spirituality. The Christian friendship, pastoral care and guidance of committed staff complement the Christian Studies units taken by all students. These factors, together with the leadership of church pastors, chaplains, residence directors and other student services staff on both campuses, combine to build a positive spiritual atmosphere at Avondale.