Steven Rowland
Jennifer Hudgens
WRD 110
10/13/15
CSF
CSF or Christian Student Fellowship is a great community for anyone looking for a place to find friends. It is a welcoming environment full of great people who are always willing to talk to anyone. CSF is centered around Christianity and tries to get people of the faith to join together and form a community, but at the same time they allow anyone to come to their events no matter what beliefs they hold.
The picture above was taken before all the chaos of the CSF water balloon fight. The water balloon fight is something the organization hosts every year on the Johnson Center field during K Week, and is arguably the biggest event out of all K Week. The fight attracts thousands of students to come out and have a great time pegging each other with the hundreds of thousands balloons. It is so big because every year they break their own record for the biggest water balloon fight in the world. The CSF workers and volunteers spend countless hours setting up this epic event in hopes of getting the organizations name out. The balloon fight is just one of many awesome events CSF hosts over the year. What makes CSF events so special is that everyone is invited and can expect to have a great time and meet many nice people. Doing works like this gives the fellowship a great reputation as an organization that puts a large amount of concern into students having a fun time. Although this event isn’t a time where they try to preach about God, CSF is able to grasp the attention of students and show that they are an organization that loves students and is willing to go to great efforts to show it.
This next picture was taken at CSF’s fall retreat. Fall retreat was a weekend event where students who signed up went to a camp in Ohio for a weekend. The weekend was mainly a religious event, but, just like any of their events, everyone was invited. The picture was taken during one of the night sermons where hundreds of students are crowded together to come and worship God. It was an amazing night that summed up an incredible weekend. It was the perfect environment for Christians to come together and grow in their faith. The fall retreat is one of the multiple retreats CSF offers, others include trips to Gatlinburg and Owensboro. They host these retreats so that students have a chance to get off campus, which helps them forget all about school and other issues related to it. As a result, the people who go are more open minded when they lose these worries. The retreats are a great place to make new, lasting relationships with people who have similar views and values as you. The events are set up so students can meet as many people as possible in hopes they find some that are compatible with them. Some of the events included a massive scavenger hunt, a dodge ball tournament, and many other group oriented events. The retreats was truly an awesome event that brought the community of CSF much closer.
The next picture was taken in CSF’s actual building during shift groups. Every Monday night CSF hosts shift groups where they have small groups for freshman and cooks them a meal. It is an excellent way to meet other freshman. It’s also great because if you go, you get a free, home cooked meal and who wouldn’t want that? Shift groups are one of the two religious centered events CSF does every week. The other is Synergy, which is basically a sermon and worship service that is available for all grades. The building isn’t only for religious events though, it is also where midnight pancakes occurs among other events CSF hosts. One thing a majority of students know CSF for, is midnight pancakes which happen every Friday night. The CSF staff gives out free pancakes to anyone that comes by the building and also provides them a place to hangout for the night. They do this to give students an alternative to partying. For other students who have nothing else to do, midnight pancakes gives them an opportunity to meet new people. The organization is always willing to host events where students can come together and have fun. Like all their other events everyone is invited and they never reject anyone from entering.
The first secondary source I chose was an article from the Kentucky Kernel. The Kentucky Kernel is the official newspaper of the University of Kentucky. In the article it talks about a winter dance party that CSF hosted last year. The writer talks about how the party was supposed to be cancelled due to a snow storm that happened, but when students showed up CSF followed through for them. At the party they had plenty of entertainment set up even for those who didn’t want to dance. The writer received quotes from worker who talked about many of CSF’s views. One being how they throw parties for students so they have fun and meet new people, but also to show Christian events don’t have to be boring (Schmitz 1). Another talks about CSF’s welcoming policy of allowing their parties to be available for everyone (Schmitz). A quote from foreign exchange student Marym Silva from Brazil expresses one of CSF’s biggest goals when she says” CSF is really good for international students, it’s a great to get to know people” (Schmitz 1). Even for non-international people it is a perfect place to meet people. The article shows that even in a non-religious centered event, the Christian Fellowship can still show God’s love to students by the way the treat students.
The other secondary source was a post from Bob Russell’s website. Bob Russell is an incredibly well known preacher who preached at one of the biggest churches in America for decades. In this post he wrote about how he visited UK’s campus to preach at CSF and instantly fell in love with the organization. Russell later goes on about reasons why he loved it, he brings up the great band and the students worshipping whole-heartedly. He then touches on how all the students seemed so eager to learn about God. CSF wants to be an environment where Christians are able to be open about their faith and too learn more from more experienced Christians. That is exactly what Russell saw from it when he visited. Even as a massive fan of the University of Louisville he ended up loving UK for CSF’s great devotion to their religious beliefs. This is best shown when Russell says “I went to UK an avid UL basketball fan and left an avid UL basketball fan. But I’m now a huge fan of the Christian Student Fellowship at UK” (1). If CSF is impressing such high figures in Christianity it must being doing something right.
Word Count: 1160
Work Cited
Schmitz, Penny. "CSF Celebrates Season with Dance." The Kentucky Kernel. 25 Jan. 2015. Web. 13 Oct. 2015.< http://kykernel.com/2015/01/25/christian-student-fellowship-celebrates-season-with-dance/>.
Russell, Bob. "I LOVE UK!!" I LOVE UK!! Web. 13 Oct. 2015. <http://www.bobrussell.org/i-love-uk-2/>.
