The beginning of a new school year means a chance for new opportunities. This is especially true for freshmen, many of whom are probably still looking for a church they can call home during their time here. Today, several of the smaller churches from around Searcy will have booths set up in the Student Center. <\/p>\n
Dan Williams, Vice President of Church Relations said he highly encourages anyone interested to attend the fair.<\/p>\n
“The challenge for students is that they know they’re here on a temporary basis and they know that whatever connections they make here will only be here for two, three or four years,” Williams said.<\/p>\n
As a result, many people might not consider church a worthy investment. However, Williams believes the opposite and encourages students not to minimize the importance of church. Williams said the church is meant to be a community of people striving for the same goal and that cannot happen if everyone is doing their own thing.<\/p>\n
According to Williams, there are several advantages to being plugged into a church during college. One advantage is being able to interact with a generation that is older and more mature. Williams said it allows students to find role models and mentors they can turn to for advice. Just like using a map during a road trip, they can guide students and lead them where they want to go. Another advantage is having a support group that can help in various mission efforts, whether it is monetarily or through other means.<\/p>\n
“They know you, they trust you, and they want to support you,” Williams said. “You’re part of the family.”<\/p>\n
Williams said he looks back on his personal experience with going to a specific church during college, with fond memories. He attended Refuge Church of Christ which, at that time, was just a small building in the country with a classroom. He said he was invited over for events like fish fries and various meals, and was also was given opportunities to preach and teach there.<\/p>\n
Williams advised freshmen to visit around and not to overlook the smaller churches. <\/p>\n
“There are advantages both ways,” Williams said. “With a larger church, you have more resources and programs. In a smaller congregation, you may have more opportunities to get more personally involved”<\/p>\n
While the church fair is a great starting point for freshmen, they are not the only ones who could benefit from it. Any upperclassmen who have not managed to find a church home are encouraged to attend as well. For many, they know they will graduate in a year and may not consider it worthwhile to start making connections in such a short time.<\/p>\n
“I would say they’re at the beginning of a new year and have an opportunity to be plugged in for the next seven or eight months,” Williams said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The event will take place from 8:30a.m. to noon on Friday Sept. 11 and 18 in the Student Center. <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The beginning of a new school year means a chance for new opportunities. This is especially true for freshmen, many of whom are probably still looking for a church they…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14600,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[136],"tags":[268],"class_list":["post-5577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-hurricane-florence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14600"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5577\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}