By: Essence Buckman, senior writer
John Patterson, ’18, says: “I had the idea of forming a campus ministry that could provide students with an on-campus church experience.”
A new group, established alongside religious clubs like RUF and Campus Outreach, has been created on campus to add to the experience that these organizations bring.
The Connection is the name of this organization, and it is a football student-led ministry that was formed to provide a way for students to receive a church experience without leaving campus. The football team a desire to provide a ministry that allowed people to be able to sleep in and come worship casually with their classmates. Patterson says that he contacted Jireh Wilson, ’20, to help with his concept. Wilson took the idea and expanded upon it by doing “a lot of the leg work” in creating and starting the ministry.
Wilson and Patterson contacted Reverend Ronald Robinson or Rev. Ron, college Chaplain, and told him about their idea. Patterson says, “[Robinson] was very supportive from the beginning.”
The Connection is not officially charted through Campus Union, but they are organized under the Office of the Chaplain and the Halligan Center for Religious & Spiritual Life.
The Connection begins their Sunday service with prayer and good news of the week. Following that is praise and worship with lyrics on the screen for those who may not be familiar with the songs. After singing a few songs, they have a raffle and give out 20-dollar and 25-dollar gift cards that can be used at various locations. After the raffle, a sermon is given that is preceded by a short spoken-word video. The service ends with another song and announcements for the week. The service lasts for 50 minutes on average.
The Connection’s mission and existence is “to unify all college students through a relationship with Christ and each other.”
When it comes to benefiting the Wofford community as a whole, this organization believes that they can do so through building relationships with classmates and building relationships with God.
“The Connection’s name comes from the purpose of building connections between each other,” Patterson says. “Hopefully [we can empower one another] to encourage each other in our different walks of life.”
For anyone interested in attending, the Connection meets every Sunday in McMillan theater in Campus Life. The doors open at 11 a.m. and refreshments such as doughnuts and fruit are served. The service commences at 11:11 am and they try to have the attendants out by 12 p.m.
The Connection has a few social media outlets to keep others more aware of their organization and what plans they have coming up:
Instagram: Theconnectionministry
Twitter: TheWoConnection
