Posted April 21, 2006
By Jarrod Lynn, Brown ‘05
“LORD, I believe. Help my unbelief,”...“Jesus is legit: dying for ignorant people takes [guts],”...“God is dead.”
PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND - These lines reflect a mere sample of the many words written on note cards stapled to a wooden cross on Good Friday 2006 at Brown University. With a desire to refocus the campus’s attention to the real reason for the resurrection season, the students of College Hill For Christ (CHC, http://www.collegehillforchrist.com/) built a seven-foot tall wooden cross, made with 4x4 pressure-treated wood, and placed it in the middle of the Main Green—the nucleus of the university campus.
To the right of the cross stood a table with note cards, pens, and instructions. The instructions simply informed the reader that this cross represented what Jesus Christ did over two thousand years ago and if s/he would like to write something about it, s/he was welcome to.
To the left of the cross stood another table with free Bibles, free copies of The Case For Christ, and flyers for the “Investigating Christianity” discussion group taking place later that evening. About thirty feet away from the cross and tables sat one CHC member (students alternated every hour due to class schedules), who was not only present for security purposes, but also available for discussion if someone wanted to converse more about the cross, Christianity, or some other related topic.
This passive approach to actively engage students’ curiosity concerning the cross apparently worked quite well. Several CHC students recounted many spiritual conversations with other Brown students as a result of this imposing wooden structure at the center of campus. Moreover, the timing of the event was ideal for maximum exposure. Many students were outside due to the beautiful weather and numerous campus tours took place as pre-frosh explored their potential new home.
By the end of the day, almost the entire cross was covered with note cards, and students were still pausing at the cross to read students’ responses or write one of their own. Some students quoted scripture, such as John 17:3, “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” Others simply expressed their gratitude for what Jesus has done, while still others confessed sin in their own words. In all instances, the responses were real and unadulterated. Perhaps the anonymity allowed for such candidness, since names were not required nor suggested to be placed on the note cards.
An example of genuineness was given by one student who wrote, “Sometimes I think I know who Christ is—everything makes so much sense, but other times I realize that it is just impossible for me to understand who God is, or the ‘why’ of any of it.”
At least one student’s honest response seems to have resonated well with the original intent of the outreach:
“Where have I been that this can be reduced to a single day?”
While many note cards reflected sincere responses from stu-dents of some form of Christian faith, others revealed their ostensible opposition to Christianity. One student expressed his/her “beef” with Christianity on three note cards (rather than using one note card like everyone else), objecting to the religion’s validity based on the actions of people who identify themselves as “Christian.”
Along the same lines, another student wrote how “Jesus had it right. Why do so many ‘Christians’ get it wrong? While opening hearts to Christ, minds are closed to indifference, wars are waged in his name, and people are scourged because the Bible is read literally. Do we think that this is what HE would want?”
Similarly, one student asked Jesus to “stop this war in Iraq and elsewhere,” while another student asked for more prayer regarding this “young generation of USA.”
An outreach like this is unprecedented in CHC’s history. Although in some years the Easter holiday coincided with Brown University’s Spring Break, there have been ample opportunities to capitalize on this religious holiday which have not been realized—until this year. Several weeks prior to this Easter event, over a dozen students gathered at the Judson House, Christian Union’s ministry center at Brown, for the monthly open-leadership planning meeting. There ideas are discussed, debated, designed and eventually delegated to whosoever desires to execute them.
That day, all students agreed that some form of campus-wide outreach for Easter should be done. They brainstormed strategies that would be thought-provoking and relevant. Most agreed that the wooden cross on the Main Green would be stimulating, appropriate and might afford CHC an opportunity to gather a random sample—reflective of the general population—of the spiritual climate currently on campus, helping them to facilitate future discussions of faith.
Tuesday evening prior to Good Friday, the construction of the cross occurred at the Judson House by a Men’s Life Group led by Timothy Havens, a Campus Crusade 2nd-year intern. After the setup of the cross and tables early Friday morning on April 16th, about fifteen CHC students gathered near the cross before their morning classes to praise God in song and music for providing this opportunity, as well as to pray for God’s blessing over this step of faith.
Following the Easter outreach, the wooden structure was relocated to the front porch of the Judson House, where it remained for several weeks fostering continued conversation about the connotation of the cross.
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