Want to get to know more people on campus and dig deeper into God’s Word? Northwestern’s Campus Ministry has been receiving feedback, sensing that students on campus have been yearning for depth and to know God better over the last few months. The Campus Ministry team has been praying, thinking and working on what is called “Inner Circle” since the beginning of the semester. Their official launch of this new movement took place a couple weeks ago.
“The ‘Inner Circle’ is an idea based on the life of Jesus,” junior Betsy Bolt said. “Though Jesus had a big community (his disciples), he had a few within that larger community that were his closest friends (Peter, James and John).”
The main goal is spiritual development and encouragement through deep friendships. While this goal is broad and vague, the ambiguity is quite intentional.
“We want the ‘Inner Circle’ to be organic and tailored to each relationship, hence why the definition is so broad,” Bolt said.
Bolt hopes that each pair or trio will be consistent and dedicated in not only intentionally living life together, but also in asking and wrestling through hard questions together. This tool is here for students to be spiritually challenged and encouraged with others who are either going through the same things or have been through different situations.
NW talks a lot about community, but in order to understand that community Bolt says “we’ve got to be intentional about choosing to connect with people.”
Community doesn’t just happen because we want it to. Campus Ministry’s hope is that “Inner Circle” will be a tangible and practical way to make this experience of community a real thing in students’ lives.
There are not very many steps to follow in order to get started. Grab a friend who wants to create a stronger bond while growing closer to Jesus, take a trip to Campus Ministry in Ramaker and sign up with one of the team members. Everything after signing up is left to the partner or partners. This movement is for students: Campus Ministry wants students to get out of it what they as individuals need.
For those who don’t attend a D-group but would like more information about “Inner Circle,” the Campus Ministry team made bookmarks outlining the movement with ideas and questions on how to get started. These bookmarks are located at the Campus Ministry area in Ramaker.
Junior Betsy Bolt, seniors Hope De Ruyter and Cole Mills, and Associate Dean of Christian Formation Barb Dewald can all be contacted to help connect those who are interested with others who also want to be involved.
Overall, the main goal of “Inner Circle” is to deepen relationships, but also to grow, support and truly know one another as friends grow together in Christ.
