Spiritual Life

 

Messiah is an academic institution profoundly committed to worshipping God as a community.

 

Unlike many other Christian colleges, Messiah embraces students from a wide variety of Christian faith traditions. In fact, we believe that learning from each other is part of what it means to be an authentic faith community.

 

There's another way we're different from some other Christian colleges, and that is that every Messiah College professor and employee signs a statement of faith as an indication of her or his commitment to the mission of the College.

 

We see ourselves as partners in your spiritual journey and are committed to helping and challenging you to know how God is revealed through scripture, to be a follower of Christ, and to do whatever mission, vocation, or service God has called you to. All while encouraging you to have a rich, vibrant, academically challenging, and yes, even fun, college experience!

 

Our professors are not only accomplished scholars but also practicing Christians who teach their areas of expertise and serve as role models for in integrating a life of faith with intellectual pursuits.

 

Because they know your college years are a significant time of learning, exploration, and experience that is likely to significantly shape your identity, our faculty challenge you to apply your Christian values in ways that are academically rigorous and personally meaningful.

 

Some opportunities to grow in faith and fellowship at Messiah College include:

• Chapel services – I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind, also. Mary Stewart VanLeeuwen, resident scholar at Eastern University’s Hestenes Center for Christian Women in Leadership — just one of many Common Chapel speakers who exemplify a union of intellectual and spiritual leadership.
  
  
• Powerhouse – Join in this weekly student-led praise service that is both popular and powerful.
  
  
• Issachar’s Loft – Are we as Christians critiquing and giving right direction to our culture, or are we simply buying into the world around us? Join this weekly Bible study and fellowship at Issachar’s Loft on the edge of campus to listen, learn, and advocate.
  
  
• Koinonia – Small groups that come together through Bible study, prayer, worship, service, and a commitment to each other’s well-being.

 

Grounded in a culture of worship, exposed to compelling realities, and privileged with the capabilities to ease some of the burden, you trust that you can make a difference and that you should. You develop a sense of calling. Your life becomes part of something larger — an opportunity to do good work in God’s world.