God made His presence known this week on the IWU campus, and it was amazing. Students came together for Summit: a three-day, conference-like event put on by the Office of the Chapel. Twice a day for each day of Summit, the student body gathered in the chapel to worship God and hear a message from His word. Pastor Kyle Ray, an engineer turned pastor from Kentwood Community Church near Grand Rapids, MI, was this year’s speaker, and God used him in a special way to reach this community.
With Jeremiah 1:4-10 as the theme passage, Pastor Kyle challenged us to be listening for God’s call in our lives, because God has called each and every one of us for a special purpose. We need to lay down our excuses and be on fire for Christ and His Kingdom. On the last night, we were called, once again, to be world changers; not just in the future, but right now—on IWU’s campus and in the Marion community.
Not only did God move through the speaker, but also through the worship time. Hundreds of students poured out their hearts to God in song, praising Him. I can’t begin to describe it; it was awe-inspiring and some saw it as a glimpse of Heaven. At the end, Dr. Jim Lo (the Dean of the Chapel) reminded us that Summit was not about the singing or the preaching—although those were wonderful—it was about what Jesus did; all glory goes to Him.
Below are comments students made through social media in response to Summit:
• Raleigh Macon @Rawls_Mac- “Words cannot express the awe I’m in with God right now. Seeing how He’s working in people’s lives has renewed my own faith. #iwusummit2014”
• Taylor Showley @tshowl- “I stand in awe at all God did this week. Thank you Lord…..thank you. #IWUSummit2014 @IWUChapel”
• Shayna Furney @shaynapaige2013- “#IWUsummit2014 wow. @IndWes is such a blessing. We are so privileged to live and breathe in this #ChristCentered atmosphere everyday.”
• Austin Frederick @Austin1405- “World changers ask two questions: why? And why not? IWUSummit2014 @IWUChapel”
• Matthew Hagelin @MattHagelin- “Hearing hundreds of voices joining together to simply say glory to God is a very powerful sound #viewofheaven #iwusummit2014”
• Cyle Warner @CChistian16- “God, you are so good!! Thank you so much for making your presence known to me. I am no longer in control!”
God has done great things on this campus in the past and I look forward to seeing what He will do in the next few months to come!
– Hannah, Student Contributor