Being Christian and being Greek

[Measi]

Originally posted by RACooper
Religion is an issue that is actively downplayed at UofT (for Greeks)... the approach that religion is personal is respected by most orgs. and besides it can just lead to further conflict or controversy on campus... something that is to be avoided if we want to stay around.
(snipped for length)

UofT students are generally aprehensive about these groups though, to many groups have been exposed as little better than cults in the past, while others are critized for placing their religious views (or political) before the school community.

I would be, too. I received a lot of pressure as an undergrad to join the Bible study for Greeks on my campus, and every time I said no, they pushed harder. (I'm Pagan, and therefore it did annoy me).

I *do* think that organized religious groups on campuses are a good thing-- as long as they don't try to pressure people into joining. College is a time where you're firming up many viewpoints on the world, and religion's an important part of them.

I would just recommend that if such a group will be started, that the members of it don't actively push for members. Hand out flyers, post announcements for meetings, etc, but be very careful about approaching people directly and asking them to join.

~ Mel.

[MysticCat]

Another thread on the subject

[KappaSigKGB]

An interesting encounter I had with Greek Christian groups. I was having dinner with all the guys in the dining room when 2 reps from Greek IV came in to give us a quick talk about why we should join. It all seemed like a great idea if you are into that kind of thing. Well I am one of the 3 jewish guys in the house, and one of us jokingly asked at the end of the speech, "so what should we do if we're jewish?" and the Greek IV rep semi-jokingly responded with "oh well, you're going to hell." So then there was kind of a mixture between laughter and ooohing. Now whether or not the guy was joking or not, I wasn't really ammused. And seeing as how I work at the student newspaper that publishes for 40000 people, having an article written about this would have been pretty damaging to them. However, I let it go, because i feel that ignorance is sometimes hard to change and I really didn't want the attention that would result. Anyway my point is, I think you're going to have an organization in the US which is based on religion it is important not to badger people to join, or worse off insult those not interested. I think we all can make a choice in what we believe, and can choose to find the clubs that embrace those beliefs.

[meheron]

Keep in mind that all I want to do is promote that we are going to have a greek bible study. The place that my organization uses (Christian Student Foundation) is on Frat row and across from the sorority suites. My idea right now is to go to each sorority chapter meeting and announce that we will have a study every Tuesday from 7-8 then say we will meet on the bottom floor of the sorority suites. As a group we will walk over to either the Christian Student Foundation's house or to my house which is next door. My announcement will be that if anyone is interested in getting to know more greek women on this campus and getting together to discuss the bible feel free to join us.....

NOW.... What I need are topic ideas? ANYONE

Someone told me "Serving others" since that is a big thing in the greek system.

But are their any other ideas

[AXOKatie]

Lesson on the good Samaritan = putting Philanthropy into our everyday lives, exclusive groups promoting inclusion by reaching out to others

Living your values = equating the values of your GLO to those that you live in your religion

The Prodigal Son = every chapter can relate to having a bonehead member who does nothing but screw up - why it's important to make efforts to keep welcoming and helping those members and teach the active members to accept their duties with humility

Patience and choices = members face choices about hazing, attendance, participation, gossip, etc. - just like the temptations that they face in their spiritual lives

It could be awesome if you could get other religious groups with Greeks together to do a group session on their own values and how as both Greeks and spiritual/religious people, they can support each other and promote tolerance

[emleepc]

It can be a difficult thing to organize a Bible study. My advice is to get your sisters involved(the women that are willing to help) and use the resources around you (i.e. religious org's on your campus). Seek out other greeks that may be a part of religious organizations to help you get started---they may have ideas that you haven't thought of.

Topics:
1. books---who wants to read their textbooks, much less add on another reading material of sorts.....this probably won't work.
2. Videos---check out local Christian bookstores, and local churches for material relevant to college students. Then if you find what you are looking for, most of the work is already done.
3. Find out what kinds of issues students are dealing with---stress, studying, time-management, etc. and plan your studies around that.

Hope this helps. Good luck to you!

[owlie33]

I am assuming that you checked out the Greek IV link that had Bible study ideas and didn't like any of them?

Another idea is the topic of FRIENDS. This is relevant to everyone, especially in college. The Bible has a lot to say about friendships, good and bad.

Here is an article that will give you a couple of passages for a starting point, as well as some cheap friendship building ideas:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/cl/2001/005/6.56.html

[PennyCarter]

I think you are approaching this in the right way. My chapter had a very active Bible study, but the greek community did not (though many chapters did have Bible studies and many Greeks were active in Baptist Student Union, RUF, and other religious organizations). We always used a book and went through it, but it is difficult if you don't have a core group of members because then hen someone attends they feel like they are behind or out of the loop. But if you used a book (or a couple of books) and made copies each week of the section that might help make it more open to anyone. I think some of the topics that have been mentioned are great, but I believe that any Biblical topics are fine...they don't have to always directly relate to Greek life...

[DaveSAE]

The group I co-lead in my chapter was pretty awesome. We called it IBC - Investigative Bible Conversation or Informal Bible Conversation depending on who you asked. We met every Sunday night for about an hour. Basically it worked like this - it was lead by a few guys who were pretty solid in their faith, and one man from Navigators who almost became a non-student initiate.

Members could come at their leisure and ask whatever questions they had. We basically sold it like this - there are a lot of important decisions we have to make in our lives. Your choice of faith is the most important of all of those - after all, what you choose or don't choose has eternal implications. Meanwhile, there is a lot of bad information out there about what the Bible has to say about certain issues. So come and ask any question you want - no issue is sacred here. We'll discuss it as brothers, but most importantly we'll open up the Bible and find out what it actually has to say. That way, you can at least make an educated decision whether or not to pursue Christianity.

We started with a few guys and just knocked on doors in our house 10 minutes beforehand inviting guys down. By the end of the semester we had 35 of our 48 man chapter attend at least once. One week we had 24 people show and we had to find a much bigger room :-)

The bonuses of it all were that conversation in the house turned from "who did who last night" to "so what do you think about this issue?" Politics, religion, issues that affect us - the meaningful stuff was common fare. It was a refreshing semester.

We also lead Bible studies that were mostly alpha-style discussions (basics of the faith), and hot topics like sex, addiction and depression. Those drew lots of great, deep conversation.

Hope that helps!

[KSUViolet06]

A couple of my sisters are working on starting an all Greek bible study here @ Kent!