Campus Crusade for Christ reaches out to campus

Campus Crusade for Christ is sponsoring The MAZE, coming to the University of South Dakota Feb. 16 at 8:00 p.m. Here is a glance at what CRU is.

Senior Zachary Cattell is a life group leader for the Olson residence hall in North Complex. Cattell said CRU is a movement of students who are in authentic relationships with Christ and are all about advancing the gospel to every student on campus.

Cattell said he spends time with students specifically from the Olson dorm once a week and studies the Bible with them.

Cattell is also involved with the action team, which is a group of students who have made a significant commitment to CRU by being involved for several years.

“We get together during certain times and study the Bible together and talk about how things are going,” Cattell said. “We also talk about how things are going in our lives and in our relationship with the Lord.”

Sophomore Bethany Hively is on the worship team and works with members through music.

Hively said because CRU is a non-denominational organization seeking after Christ specifically through community, CRU is all about loving each other in a non-judgmental place where everyone is accepting.

“Everyone needs Jesus,” Hively said. “CRU is an awesome way to introduce people to Christ in a non-threatening way and expose everyone to the relational type of ministry. It’s all about having a relationship with Jesus, not rules and regulations; although, that is part of the Bible and we believe that.”

Freshman Grant Lockner said the fact that CRU is largely lead and run by college students makes it relevant to students on campus.

“Most people back home are used to a church situation where 60 and 70-year-old people teach the class and they probably didn’t feel like they fit in very well with the group,” Lockner said. “CRU is a great way to connect with other fellow Christians and get to know them and have fellowship with them.”

CRU meets 8 p.m. on Thursdays in the Beacom School of Business on the first floor.

“At the meetings, it’s really all about the community environment,” Cattell said. “One of the main goals is to get everyone together to talk and spend some time together. We have live bands that usually play a couple of songs and then depending on the week we’ll have a couple different people who will speak and share their experiences from their lives or talk about something that they’ve been learning.”

Although CRU has scheduled times to meet, members also hang out outside of the meeting Hively said.

“We have times where we go out and see a movie together and different things like that,” Hively said. “We also have separate men’s times and women’s times where students can meet. Sometimes we’ll even have funny formals.”

Cattell said it is important for CRU to sponsor events such as The MAZE so students can go to events like this for free.

“We want to sponsor an event like this on campus to give the students another cool opportunity at USD,” Cattell said. “Normally it’ll cost $30 to $40 a ticket to go to a show like this, so CRU is really happy to be able to sponsor The MAZE.”

Hively said CRU does care about all of the students on campus.

“We’re not just this select group of people who are a clique or something like that,” Hively said. “That’s why it’s important for CRU to sponsor events like this. We’re speaking out for everyone on the entire campus.”

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