Cedarville Magazine, Spring 2019

surrounding communities. So, the focus of this mentoring and developing of students for peer spiritual leadership transitioned to student chaplains. When Jonathan Farrell ’03 was SGA Chaplain his senior year, encouragement, accountability, and care came from several people. “I had the privilege of meeting weekly with Pastor Rohm, every Thursday morning at 9,” Farrell said, who presently serves as senior pastor at Grace Church in Morton, Illinois. “In our time together, he cared for me personally. He’d pray with and encourage me. He would give me feedback on my messages, not a scorecard. He was affirming and helpful. Mark Hershey ’07, who served as SGA Chaplain his senior year, also received helpful counsel and insight from Rohm. “We talked more about personal things; it was a time of accountability,” he said. “We met on a weekly basis, checking in on how I was doing, discussing the pressure of the responsibilities.” One of the lasting lessons has been to rest in Christ and depend on Him. “It wasn’t about my abilities, or what I could or couldn’t do,” said Hershey, who currently serves as Pastor of Adult Ministries at Hope Community Church in Andover, Kansas. “God had called me, and He was going to work through me.” INTENTIONAL INVESTMENT The history of Cedarville student-chaplains is the story of intentional mentoring that goes beyond crafting of messages to the very heart of ministry, which begins with a cultivated devotion and honesty with Jesus and with fellow believers. Today’s student-chaplains are part of a Chaplains Council, whose goal is to help them not just speak well, but follow Jesus wholeheartedly. The freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior class chaplains — Justin Schlabach ’22, Joe Nealis ’21, Caleb Whicker ’20, and Ray Tiell ’19 respectively — along with SGA Chaplain Campbell Bortel ’19, meet weekly with Aaron Cook ’99, Director of Discipleship Ministries. They are joined on occasion by Jeremy Kimble, Assistant Professor of Theology, and Jon Wood, Vice President for Student Life and Christian Ministries. With the council, the chaplains have the opportunity to preview messages and receive feedback, debriefing after sermons are delivered. But more than anything, the chaplains have found the council a place to soak in the grace of God. “It’s just a blessing to have that time to come together as people who are doing the same thing on campus, sharing that same role, who know what the trenches of that ministry look like, and the spiritual warfare we face when preparing a sermon, then being able to encourage and support each other,” said Bortel. “Sometimes we talk about sermons that are coming up or have someone walk through what they’re going to be talking on, and we’re offering some feedback,” Bortel added. “But for the most part it’s what God’s doing in our lives right now, going around and sharing that to just encourage each other, that this is what’s fueling our outpouring, and we’re holding each other accountable to do that.” What they’ve formed is a band of spiritual brothers. “Aaron’s good at talking about life with us — let’s talk real here and get to know each other,” noted Schlabach. “Sometimes that’s lighter things, and sometimes deeper, but what hit me is Aaron saying that we want to pursue holiness. How are we growing in our time in the Word, so that can be an outflow of what we’re doing on campus, not just on stage or in our leadership roles, but in our everyday lives: in the classroom, on campus, and in our own spiritual lives as well.” “Aaron likes to say that he wants our private abiding to fuel our public adoration,” said Tiell. “That means almost every week we’re talking about what we’re learning in the Scriptures and in our private quiet times, what God’s teaching us, how we’re growing, and even how we’re struggling and how God is pulling us through that. That’s for us but also for the people we get to minister to. The deeper we know God, the deeper we can push people to know God.” “We seek to have a time there where we’re talking about our spiritual disciplines, sharing about what God is teaching us in the Word, sharing our stories of how God brought us to Christ, and how he’s growing us now, and then seek to push one another toward Christlikeness,” Cook affirmed. THREE-PRONGED APPROACH “This is an intentional partnership between Student Life and Christian Ministries and the School of Biblical and Theological Studies,” noted Wood. “It shows curricular and co-curricular cooperation in a really beautiful way. That’s unique to Cedarville.” For instance, all chaplains are encouraged to take Kimble’s first Text-Driven Preaching course, but SGA chaplains in