There are plenty of tips that college alumni and older students greet incoming, new-to-college students with, including where to eat, how to study, and maybe even what classes to take. Above all of these, however, is one of the most repeated and consistently given pieces of advice to incoming freshmen: join a club.
"Have you signed up for any clubs?" "What clubs were you thinking of joining this year?" "Have you ever thought about leading a club on [insert hobby or topic of interest here]?"
The constant pestering from the older waves of students can be annoying, but I do agree with my fellow undergrads: join a club! But before I hop on the join-a-club bandwagon, I want to emphasize the why. It's great how much colleges around the world emphasize finding extra-curricular activities to join, but I think many gloss over why finding a club or two is so important. From personal experience, I think the main takeaway from the join-a-club hype comes from one thing: our sincere, human desire to be apart of community.
In the book of Acts, Luke writes about just how much he and the other disciples (the people who chose to believe in and follow Jesus Christ and His teachings) spent time together. He recounts of how "they broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts" (Acts 2:26b, NIV). Even in Luke's previous book, in which he detailed the life of Jesus, he often recorded countless stories of Christ participating in community and fellowship (consistent companionship among fellow Jesus followers).
If even Jesus, the Son our Creator, participated in community, wouldn't it be wise to follow in His example? Reading more from that sentence from Acts, we find that those initial disciples were "praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people" (Acts 2:27a, NIV). Doing life together (sharing meals, possessions, and even encouragement) brought the disciples closer not just to themselves, but to God, too! Being in a consistently meeting and loving community pushed themselves to think passed just what they needed or desired, but kept their hearts focused on God, who provided for them and brought favor to their group from those around them.
This week, as many of us find ourselves entering a new school with new classmates and dorm neighbors, let us strive it replicate the community of the initial disciples of Jesus. Invite your neighbors out to dinner at the dining hall, form a study group with some classmates. Invite people into your own, probably super small, dorm room to eat snacks and get to know each other.
These small but consistent invitations for building community are where God can work tremendous favor and wonders. Pretty soon, you'll be able to connect people across social groups, from all over campus, spread an honest, love-filled representation of the Gospel, and eventually find your own fellowship of disciples, where, like the original disciples' community, "the Lord was adding to their number every day those who were being saved" (Acts 2:27b, NIV).
