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'Finding Community in Christ' is Creason's chapel address

by Simon Baker, student news writer, Office of University Communications

Campbellsville, KY (09/15/2022) — Trent Creason, Campbellsville University's campus minister, invited two football players on stage to share the message of passing through barriers in life and throughout college at Campbellsville University recently in Ransdell Chapel.

Creason read from Luke 5:18-25, the story of how Christ not only noticed a paralyzed man but healed him as well. The ideas of community, practicing hospitality toward others and being transformed by Christ was the main focal points of his address.

He further said how like the friends of the paralyzed man, made time for him, people should "make room in your mind, make room in your heart and make room in your life for other people."

Creason said the paralyzed man, found in Luke, was "healed and transformed all in the name of community." Despite the man being "paralyzed, looked on with judgment, his friends acted in community" by getting him the help he needed to Jesus, Creason said.

Creason linked the Biblical story found in Luke 5:18-25 to possible struggles that may be found during college. He said there are "a lot of barriers" but emphasized the acts of "hearing one another and helping one another."

Creason brought two football players on stage with him to make the point about going around barriers in life. Creason said, "The game of football has a lot to do with barriers and things that stand in our way right now."

He asked the students to "think about what it is that's standing in your way of making in your life to actually hear people and to help people and to have community."

Creason said, "You're going to have a choice whether you experience real community on that team or something else because there's going to be barriers that are bigger than the guys you are going up against. There's going to be barriers in your life." He told them to actually hear the people around you and to help the people around you.

Creason challenged students to write down the name of someone in their dorm and challenged staff to "write down the name of someone in your neighborhood or in your office" and to find a way to hear them, to listen to them, hear their heart -- what they are going through."

He said maybe you hear that this person is really struggling or maybe they're a little homesick and maybe you say let's go get some dinner or maybe just the simple thing of saying 'can I pray for you?'"

Creason focused on the last set of verses found in Luke 5 where Christ told the paralyzed man, "I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home."

Creason said "a lot more happened than just Jesus' healing someone." He correlated verse 25, to showing "us what real hospitality is and how it tells us that Jesus is able to forgive sin and how we are able to have community with God" because of Christs' actions on the cross.

Creason said, "The promise of this passage is there is a God who set the example of what hospitality is, who opened the door wide, and in a world that's pretty broken, in a world that's pretty divided, in a world that's pretty frustrated, a world that doesn't listen to each other, a world that really doesn't want to help one another and definitely is in need of healing -- your opportunity at Campbellsville is to experience real community."

Campbellsville University is a widely acclaimed Kentucky-based Christian university that has enrolled up to 12,000 students yearly. The university offers over 100 programs of study including doctoral, masters, bachelors, associate and certification programs. The website for complete information is www.campbellsville.edu.

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Trent Creason, campus minister at Campbellsville University, asked what is standing in our way of hearing and helping people in our community. (Campbellsville University Photo by Michael Hodges)

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