Cedarville Magazine, Spring 2019

GROUND preached to 400–700 students from the Scriptures, led worship, offered ministry opportunities, and solicited prayer requests and lifted those up on Wednesday nights, Sunday mornings, and Sunday evenings. “It gave students like me a chance to cut my teeth on spiritual leadership,” offered Scott Kennedy ’97, who currently serves as Lead Pastor for Parkside Church – Lake County, in Mentor, Ohio. Kennedy served from freshman to sophomore year with Ad7, mainly giving announcements and prayer updates, but also preaching several times. “It became a formative time for me; the upperclassmen became friends of mine,” shared Kennedy, who became a Christian at Cedarville his freshman year. “As a newer believer, just starting to grow, it helped me tremendously to learn from others who were older than me. Just working under a deadline and thinking at a level I had not thought at before. It was a great discipling experience for me.” Green, affectionately known as “PG” for Pastor Green, met with Ad7. “PG was a huge influence on me,” noted Kennedy, who turned to Christ after sustaining a traumatic head injury playing intramural soccer. He was in a coma for several days at a local hospital, and Green visited him there. “From the time I woke up from the coma in my hospital room, he told me how this was no accident, that God had a plan.” Green met with the Ad7 team like a senior pastor meeting with his staff, Kennedy explained. “There was just a lot of structure for me that was super helpful, especially early on,” he said. Several years later, Vice President for Christian Ministries Bob Rohm ’68 took over the leadership role with Ad7. Kennedy went on to become Junior Class Chaplain and then SGA Chaplain his senior year. Cedarville no longer offers Wednesday and Sunday services on campus, and students are actively engaging and ministering as part of local churches in Cedarville and BY CLEM BOYD HISTORICAL COMMITMENT Cedarville has a long history of student-chaplains, beginning in 1954. When Harold Green, the University’s first campus pastor, joined the staff in 1970, he formed the Advisory 12 team, which then became Advisory Seven (Ad7). Under Green’s supervision, Ad7 planned and organized services for what was equivalent to a student-led church. Meeting in chapel, then located in what is now the Apple Technology Resource Center, the Ad7 team