Stories of Grace

A snapshot from Winter Quarter, by Pastor Ashley 

It’s a pretty imperfect photo. I took it and the caption above from a student’s Facebook page. But It’s become one of my favorites. Here’s why.
 
This past winter quarter we took a risk. There was a group in our church, Bellevue CRC, that decided to share stories of grace from their personal lives. This sounded to us like a great idea, so we brought the idea to our student leadership team as something we might do with the GCF community. Pretty much every student leader shot it down.
 
We don't know each other well enough.
What if someone shares something that none of us are prepared to deal with?
The stories of students of color or international students might be too unrelatable.
What if not enough people are willing to share?

And the list of valid concerns went on and on…
 
But in a move Geoff and I are rarely making as pastors of this group, we went against the judgment of students. And we invited (read: very strongly encouraged) students to share their stories of God’s grace in their lives. And we committed to taking time to do this for five weeks.
 
We started with a discussion of how to listen and receive people's stories well. And then we prayed. And then God showed up…more powerfully than we’ve experienced in this group before, which is weird to write because, well, God has really worked in this ministry.
 
Over the course of five weeks, we heard the stories of fifteen individuals. And with each story told, sincerely and thoughtfully (most students took the time to write out their stories), God became bigger and bigger. And the people sharing became bigger and bigger as we heard about their struggles, their triumphs, their faith.
 
Mimi took this photo on the last night of sharing stories. Students surprised us with a formal thank-you. They invited our little family forward, gave us flowers and prayed for us.
 
You can’t see me in the photo but I’m up there and there are tears in my eyes. And there were tears in Geoff’s eyes, and Abraham’s and Dorothy’s and Mimi’s and even though Yixin has a big smile on her face, she was misty eyed too. We all were a little emotional. And it wasn’t because of the thank-you. It was because we all recognized what a big deal these weeks had been for this community.
 
In ministry with grad students, we spend a lot of time focusing on the mind but this quarter we brought the heart front and center.
 
And it was powerful because here were a bunch of academics telling other academics of the times when God showed up to heal them, rescue them, redirect them, speak to them, and convict them.
 
And in telling these stories, they often lost their words, and control of their tear ducts wavered. And it wasn’t weird or out of control...just tremendously beautiful, impactful and encouraging.
 
This photo, to me, captures, albeit imperfectly, what this group is becoming: more raw, more real, bigger in the best of ways. And it’s because God is active, moving among us, and we have new stories of his grace to tell all the time. Thanks be to God!