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In a Covid semester, meeting for a weekly large group worship service doesn't make much sense. Small Groups are going to be the way students build community, do life together, and grow deeper relationships with the Lord. Make sure you get signed up for a group!  It's not too late to sign up for a time to pray THIS Thursday as a part of CSF's 24 Hour Prayer Day! Here's a prayer guide you can use to help shape your prayers tomorrow!  24 Hour CSF Prayer Guide
Friends, thank you for being willing to pray for us as we head into the fall semester. You give us courage and strength. You can use this guide to aid you in praying during your time slot, or feel free to do without and pray what the Holy Spirit puts on your heart! We would love to hear how God moves you to pray for us on Thursday! God, let Christian Student Fellowship’s events and time on campus in the next two weeks allow them to connect with many students who are open and hungry for life with You. Establish the work of their hands for them. New Students: - For spiritual hunger as they come to campus - For a desire and effort to seek out a faith community - For lonely and afraid students to meet and connect with followers of Jesus For CSF Returning Students: - For creativity to use their gifts to build up the Body of Christ and to reach the lost on campus - For vision to see their classes and dorms/apartments as places to show hospitality and build community - For an invitational and bold spirit For CSF Staff: - For energy and open handedness in adjusting to an unknown fall schedule - For wisdom in reaching out to students during COVID-19 - For divine appointments on campus and opportunities to share the Gospel - For staff unity and growth in partnership and friendship - For health within our marriages, families, and communities in the season ahead For the University of Illinois Springfield and Lincoln Land Community College: - For grace and wisdom for the new UIS chancellor (Karen Whitney) and other administrative staff and advisors as they lead their schools through a challenging season - For peace and ingenuity for the UIS and LLCC faculty/staff as they are adjusting to new modes of teaching and working - For Christian faculty and staff to be rooted in Jesus and to be a non-anxious presence on campus  We've been waiting ALL SUMMER for you to arrive!
Even in the middle of a pandemic, we believe that God has prepared things in advance for this semester! There are things for you to experience, people for you to meet, and ways for you to grow in your relationship with God. Even now. Jump in. Check CSF out. Go to the "New Students" tab above and fill out a connection card. You'll find us eating nachos, throwing jello, and hanging out on the Quad. Follow us on Instagram: @uiscsf and you'll have the inside scoop. See you soon!  THANK YOU to everyone for helping launch CSF into a new school year! We’ve met and EXCEEDED our goal! Gifts are still coming in which just pushes us even further into the semester. We are praising God for His provision and looking forward to seeing what HE will do this fall! #csflaunch
 Today we're raising funds to launch CSF into a new school year at UIS/LLCC! Follow the fun at Facebook and give at www.uiscsf.org/launch-day to help us meet our goal of $12,000!
This Summer, students have TWO different options for connecting with the CSF community for weekly Bible study! It's been a great way to stay connected with friends, and also for new students to get to know some people before the Fall semester gets here. We just have a couple of weeks remaining, so jump in this week!! MONDAYS: We meet at 7pm at Washington Park, near the Botanical Gardens. Bring a blanket or lawn chair and we'll have a socially-distanced bible study! THURSDAYS: We meet online in a Zoom call, led. by Abigail Way! You can join from anywhere, and no masks are required :) CSF Family,
In my life, one of the greatest challenges has been living out James 1:19 - My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak... Too many times, I've spoken without listening first. We at CSF want to be people who prayerfully listen first - especially to our black friends, students, alumni and leaders. We desire to be quick to listen, to take a posture of learning and understanding before adding our voices. When speaking, we want to be sure that our speaking won’t reflect a cultural moment of popular opinion, but true words mixed with sustained action. That our understanding won’t end with words but as James 3:13 says, will lead to a “good life." One or even a series of posts aren’t enough. Individual and systemic racism are long standing, deep seated issues in our nation and culture - impacting it in deep and terrible ways. While the news and other media outlets at times illuminate this, our conversations with black students on campus have long imprinted this in our minds. Theologically, the conflict between this historic and current reality of racism and a Christian ethic for ministry is significant. We don’t believe that we point students to just any god, but to the God of the Old and New Testament. The God who Genesis 1:27 says, “...created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” The God who John 3:16 says "so loved the world” that He sent His Son to die for them. We simply must identify and address racism in our midst in order to help ensure that each student that connects with CSF clearly hears and experiences these truths of scripture. That’s easier said than done. I’m grateful for the voices of friends, neighbors, coworkers, community members and national leaders that have already been providing insight into this. We’re listening to these. We’re also leaning into a few previous commitments: to pray for solutions, to teach on this issue, to bring it up in discipleship relationships and to always strive to make things better in this area. But I want to be clear: we aren’t interested in taking this journey only while it’s on everyone’s minds. Hopefully George Floyd’s death is a watershed moment in our nation’s history and hearts. But even if not, God’s passion and love for His people doesn’t wane based on culture, social media, news coverage, or any other factors. So we want to be diligent to pray, learn, grow and ultimately live with this same love. We’re praying for His grace to do so and ask that you’d pray for us in CSF to as well. -David and the CSF Staff |
Christian Student Fellowshipis a place for students at the University of Illinois Springfield who are on a spiritual journey. Whether you're just starting out or you've been headed this way for awhile, we want to help you find your way back to God! |
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