Reaping Benefits of Prayer
As a home-schooled, over-achiever, Lauren Dueck came to the University of Chicago with high expectations, including expectations for Christian fellowship. Her parents impressed upon her the importance of connecting with a campus ministry right away.
She found InterVarsity the first day and stuck with InterVarsity because of the Bible studies. As a literature major she fell in love with InterVarsity’s in-depth style of manuscript Bible study. “It was like I was reading Scripture for the first time,” she said.
She was flattered to be asked to lead the Bible study the second quarter of her first year on campus. She led a small group again the following year and was small group coordinator for the chapter her third year. That was a trying year though; the chapter shrunk to 25 students.
Reversing Momentum Through Prayer
“Everything was in shambles,” she said. At chapter camp at Cedar Campus that summer to prepare for her fourth year, Lauren — the incoming president — and the rest of the leaders saw that their chapter’s future was hanging in the balance. Realizing that they would be making empty plans unless the chapter got back on track, they spent a lot of time in prayer. They prayed for a large freshman class and for the chapter to renew its vision for the campus.
When fall came, 30 freshmen joined the chapter, an increase of 28 over the previous year. Their large group meetings were revitalized, and they saw God moving like never before. “We hadn’t seen anyone become a Christian on campus for 10 years, and that year we had seven people become Christians,” she said.
Although the fellowship did well, Lauren had a tough year. Her parent’s marriage fell apart in front of her while she was home in January. “It was devastating,” she said. “I almost didn’t come back to school. I dropped everything except my classes and InterVarsity.”
Coming on Staff
In the midst of this difficult time, and while she started applying for graduate school and fellowships, she felt God speaking to her, through several divine appointments, about how much she loved the campus and her fellow students. So she gave up on the fellowships, concentrated on her studies and chapter activities, and applied to join InterVarsity staff. She graduated with Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Slavic languages and literature. Two hours after she collected her diploma and shook the president’s hand, she was on her way back to Cedar Campus to begin her job as a staff worker, working with the same student team she had been a part of the past three years.
Her first year on staff at the University of Chicago, the chapter continued to thrive. The number of converts continued to grow. New outreaches began with black students and Greek students. Asked about her strategy for staff work, Lauren offered the analogy of the Whac-a-Mole arcade game, “without the bashing on the head part.”
Watching Where God’s Moving
“I feel like mostly God just does stuff around me, and he gives me the grace to see where he’s moving,” she said. “Maybe that’s the gift. I see where he’s moving and I go there.”
InterVarsity’s chapter at the University of Chicago has tripled in size over the past two years that Lauren has been on staff there. A news crew from CBN was on campus in late 2010 to do a report on campus ministry. Yet Lauren would be the last person to take the credit.
“During my academic career, I worked hard and reaped the benefits,” she said. “That’s clearly not what has happened during the last two years, when I have felt the least capable of any point in my life. God has cultivated in me the recognition that this is really his working and that my job is just to show up.”
Lauren has met and talked with many of the campus staff workers who have preceded her and heard their stories about ministry at the University of Chicago. “It was such hard ground for so many years,” one told her. There was often little fruit to show for long hours of prayer and planning that went into the campus ministry. Now God has opened the gate and those prayers are being answered abundantly.