One hallmark that sets JBU apart is the focus on students’ spiritual growth. Through both formal and informal programs, students have incredible opportunities to grow in their faith at JBU.
“We are tending to a culture of spiritual growth,” said Frank Huebert, JBU director of service and outreach ministries. “Our job is not to make the growth happen, but we want to create an environment where growth can happen. Our campus programs are the trellis where the growth, like a vine, has a place to grab onto.”
Some of the foundational programs through the Office of Christian Formation are the chapel program and The Gathering, Growth Groups, student ministries, student trips and retreats, the Student Ministry Leadership Team (SMLT), worship leaders and chaplain interns.
“A lot of the work we’re doing around campus is not very flashy — it’s the basics,” said Keith Jagger, university chaplain and dean of Christian formation. “We want students to know how to have a nourishing encounter with the Lord in prayer, to value corporate worship and to have the courage to engage others in conversations about the Gospel.”
CHAPLAIN Interns
When senior kinesiology major Olivia Schwarz was a freshman, she happened upon Jagger and a group of students eating lunch in the cafeteria. She was alone and asked if she could join. They welcomed her, and she soon realized she had joined a meeting of potential student chaplain interns, students committed to living out their faith intentionally, fostering belonging among their peers and encouraging spiritual conversations among their natural friendship groups across campus.
Schwarz had applied to be a member of SMLT, but as a collegiate volleyball player, she didn’t have time for the commitment. That lunch in the cafeteria set her on a course to become a chaplain intern.
Schwarz said her biggest area of growth at JBU has been related to her identity in Christ.
“Going into freshman year, I found all my identity in sports. As a chaplain intern, I began to see the heart of Jesus, and I wanted to give more and extend more,” Schwarz said. “This group taught me that my identity is not in volleyball or other external things that I thought would bring meaning. The presence of the Lord is where I find my identity, and that changed the trajectory of what I wanted at JBU. I was able to step away from volleyball — which was such a wild thing. I was able to trust him more — that he has a plan, and I don’t have to grasp at these external things.”
STUDENT MINISTRY Leadership Team
JBU senior Dani Gonzalez almost didn’t return to JBU after her freshman year. She didn’t have a strong community at JBU at first, and she thought she might transfer to a university closer to her hometown in Colorado. Hannah Lehfeldt ’25 was a senior on the Student Ministry Leadership Team, and she told Gonzalez she should apply to be on SMLT.
“SMLT was the thing that made me come back to JBU,” Gonzalez said. “Frank Huebert texted me that summer to check on me because he knew that I wasn’t wanting to come back. He encouraged me to come back and see what the Lord had for me, and I’m so glad I trusted the Lord in that because it has been amazing.”
Gonzalez said that when she came back to SMLT, everything shifted for her. The group of 11 leaders who help run campus ministries, retreats, trips and community engagement became her family.
Gonzalez led one of the 50 campus Growth Groups (small group Bible studies), and she served as the chaplain for Hutcheson Hall.
“I watched Anna Lang [the residence director] and the work she did in Hutch to pour into her RAs so that they could pour into their residents,” Gonzalez said. “I was so encouraged by her, and I admire her a lot. Anna taught me a lot about what it means to be a good leader.”
Gonzalez is pursuing a double degree in psychology and Christian ministry formation and said the campus ministry programs gave her the push she needed to get involved, grow spiritually and be encouraged in her faith at JBU.
CAUSE Student Ministries
Senior biology major and rugby player Owen Johnson never intended to be a CAUSE ministry leader. But when one of his rugby teammates, Krystian Bradley ’23, invited him to tutor elementary kids in Watts, Oklahoma, Johnson decided to join him. When Bradley graduated, Johnson took over the leadership of the ministry.
The ministry is one of 11 ministries under CAUSE (Christ’s Ambassadors Unite for Service and Evangelism). The student-led, community-facing ministry organization has been active on the JBU campus for more than 50 years.
The tutoring program meets weekly in Watts, a small town just 10 minutes from campus with a poverty rate three times the national average, to tutor between 10 and 15 elementary students. The JBU tutors help with homework, teach a short lesson and take the kids outside to play.
“We are trying to build relationships with these kids and be someone they can rely on,” Johnson said. “We all drive our own cars, and they can see us pulling in. The kids all come running up the hill to meet us.”
In addition to leading the Watts ministry, Johnson is also the president of the JBU rugby club.
“A lot of the guys I’ve looked up to as spiritual leaders on campus have been from the rugby club,” Johnson said. “I really looked up to Matthew Will and Krystian Bradley.
“The college rugby space isn’t usually one where Christ is glorified, but at JBU it’s a spot where we as brothers in Christ who really care about each other are able to play for Christ, and it’s a great ministry opportunity.”
As a senior, Johnson continues to lead the ministry and the rugby club while also applying to medical schools and praying for God’s direction about what’s next after graduation.
MINISTRY Trips
Hannah Sanderford ’25 had more than a little culture shock when she came to JBU. She was a missionary kid (MK) who had lived in Ukraine with her parents since she was 3 years old. She came to JBU asking the question, “What is this place?!” But when she attended her first chapel at The Gathering, she knew JBU was where God wanted her to be. She joined a freshman Growth Group and began to settle into campus life in the U.S.
Sanderford was shocked to learn about the invasion of Ukraine during her second semester at JBU.
“That was a strange time. I really wanted to go back to Europe,” she said. “I was asking God, ‘What am I doing here?’”
Sanderford said the student ministry trips she participated in really helped her process what was happening in Ukraine. She traveled to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and to the border in El Paso, Texas, her freshman year. During a semester in Northern Ireland as a sophomore, she spent a lot of time learning about what reconciliation can look like.
After returning to JBU, Sanderford began working in the international office, and she participated in the student ministries spring break trip to Dallas, Texas.
All of these experiences led Sanderford to start and lead a “Citizens of Heaven” Growth Group for freshman MK girls.
“At the time, I was terrified,” Sanderford said. “But it was really great to have the Missionaries in Residence there to add some maturity and experience. It was a community of people leaning on each other for answers.”
After spending the summer of her junior year doing an internship in India, Sanderford traveled to South Korea with her mom to serve with The Navigators outside the Fourth Lausanne Conference, a gathering of over 5,000 believers representing more than 200 nations. She visited the Demilitarized Zone while she was there.
“Throughout those four years, I went on all of these trips, and all of them were conflict-related,” Sanderford said. “I learned, ‘God, you are working, even when there is all this fear, hurt and pain across the world.’ That was such a joy and encouragement to see. He is working, and I am a part of it.”
Senior Daniela Gomez was a Walton Scholar from Mexico who also went on a student ministry trip every year while she was at JBU. She went to Kentucky, Chicago, El Paso and Tulsa with JBU student ministries.
“I believe every single trip was a turning point for me,” Gomez said. “I can see everything I’ve learned, and now I’m asking, ‘Lord, what do you want me to do with all this to bring you glory?’”
Gomez said another important part of her spiritual growth at JBU was joining Siloam Springs Bible Church during her sophomore year. She was baptized the following year.
“My baptism was me saying, ‘This is me, Lord, following you, not because of my parents or other people expecting me to do something,’” Gomez said. “About a month later, I felt a very strong call to get involved in student ministry leadership on campus. I saw the SMLT opening, and I applied. It was one of my highlights — yes, being able to pour into people more intentionally — but also being able to see a full-circle moment, to see how the Lord used so many people to bring me to the place I was my senior year.”
HANDSTANDS for Jesus
While JBU student ministries and the formal spiritual programs provide a great framework for student spiritual growth, much of the growth that happens is outside of formal programs, Huebert said.
Mentoring by professors, spiritual conversations that happen inside and outside the classroom, involvement in local churches, and engaging in organic, student-led events like “16-minute worship” — spontaneous worship times that pop up around campus with dozens of students participating — are just a few of the informal ways that student spiritual growth happens.
Even something as simple as handstands can be a ministry opportunity on campus.
Huebert said there was a group of SMLT students who went to support a team member at a soccer game. The students started doing cartwheels and handstands, and they decided to start a group to work on handstands together. The group grew to about 15-20 students, and they met all through winter and spring.
“It wasn’t just about the handstands. They spent time together, prayed together, encouraged and built up each other,” Huebert said. “They were sharing life together. It was such a silly college thing, but really it was beautiful.”
“One of the things that I really appreciate about JBU is that there’s a shared responsibility for the spiritual care of students across campus —not just the three people in the Office of Christian Formation. Whether it’s in the classroom or work-study environment, students are being cared for in that way,” Huebert said.
Jagger agrees. He said he hopes that when students leave JBU, they are deeply grounded in their relationship with God and the practices that sustain their faith.
“In any generation, we’ll have some students struggling with questions of faith and God’s character, and some who are overconfident in their traditions. But in large part, we’ve got a group of students who trust the Lord,” he said,
“These students are confident in His goodness, and even though they may not have it all figured out, they have an unflinching discipleship. You walk through campus and see their Bibles flipped open between classes. It’s a resilient discipleship that is really fun to watch.”
