Every fourth Tuesday of the month, Revival Today church hosts a young adult community night at Northfield Park in North Richland Hills with the hopes of bringing people together.
The church hosted an extra event March 31 just for TCC students on NE Campus. It had a DJ, free pizza and a raffle where multiple gift cards to places like Chipotle and McDonald’s as well as a $100 Visa gift card were given away.
Jakob Logan, one of the youth pastors and coordinators for the event, said the church’s youth program does this to build community and share its religion.
“I think it’s very important because in the word [of the Holy Bible] it teaches that there are spiritual aspects, and then there’s practical aspects of community, breaking bread together and hanging out,” he said. “Humans are relationship beings. They need a relationship to thrive. It’s a generation that is mainly online, mainly on their phones, not knowing people in person. This gets them in person.”
With each event, he said, the people who come get more comfortable with one another and build friendships. Logan said he wanted to come to TCC specifically because he understands that with a commuter school comes a lack of community, and he wants to help with that.
“Not that TCC doesn’t offer anything, but we wanted to offer something that people weren’t just going to class and being there for how long and not making one single connection with another person,” he said. “So that’s what we’re offering at TCC.”
NE dual credit student Nathan Brueland said he feels safe going to church-led events on campus.
“I really like getting to go out because since I’m 14, my parents don’t really let me go out but having it be like this church atmosphere, I don’t really have to be scared about what they’re doing, you know?” he said. “I can just go out here and be free, especially because most of it is free.”
At the event, Brueland played football with a group of friends he invited, including people who don’t go to TCC. He invites all to join, even those who are nervous.
“Honestly, if you just come, then you’re going to feel that fear slow away,” he said. “You just bask in this atmosphere, and you realize there is nothing to be scared about.”
Toward the end of the event, one of the youth pastors, Joshua Carignan, gave a quick sermon preaching about how everyone is welcome and that the church group has come to good with no strings attached.
“The Bible says that Jesus went about doing good. That’s what I’m trying to do. … There’s no catch,” he said. “You could give me a middle finger, I’d give you a piece of pizza and hope you win the Visa.”
At the end of his speech, Carignan gave a brief summary of his grandmother’s journey with God and how it changed the trajectory of his life. He said that on a phone call with his grandmother, she said she planned to overdose when Carignan’s dad was a baby but before she did she prayed and felt the love of God wash over her. It was that moment she realized she needed to go to church.
“She got down on her knees, not a church person. She lifted up her voice and she told me, through tears on the phone, she said ‘God, if you’re real, and I bet you’re not, I need you to save me, and I bet you won’t. I bet you don’t love me,’” Carignan said. “She told me 55 [years] after the fact, sobbing over the phone, she said, ‘Joshua, I felt the love of God fill that bathroom and take every weight in question off my shoulder.’”
Some in the audience felt compelled by his message.
For NE student Samuel Nelson, he said he felt moved by the message, and this pushed him to pray with Carignan at the end.
“You know, I felt compelled because I really needed to put my faith in God. I have had some depressing thoughts,” he said. “[The sermon] felt very inspiring. I loved how he brought his grandma as a testimony.”
NE student and $100 Visa gift card winner Zanden Galchutt said he also felt moved by the message and liked how personal it was.
“He didn’t use any broad stories. He used something very close, very personal,” he said. “It may not have been his own personal testimony, but he was a part of it, which means he can really connect and truly tell how God changed his whole families’ lives.”
Galchutt said he loves mission work and hopes to see more events like this on campus.
“Church events on campus? Man, I love them. I like seeing all the different churches come in. I like seeing what they put on,” he said. “But in the end, they’re all here to do the same thing, which is just read the gospel, spread the word, get Jesus planted in everyone’s lives so that everyone can be saved and live eternally.”
