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It’s virtually impossible for students to live on campus beyond their first year at the U. of California–Davis. Gathering a dorm Bible study becomes a little more difficult when none of your leaders can live there or know anyone who does. The cry of most of our dorm group leaders in the past has been, "It’s hard to keep going back there when we don’t live there. After all, we don’t really belong in the dorms." This year we started thinking differently about our dorm ministry. We decided that we wanted to become "bonded belongers" in the dorms where we were going to lead groups. (Mark Phifer-Houseman helped us think in these terms though a paper he wrote while at seminary. See an edited version, "Bonding with Freshmen," in Student Leadership journal, Fall 1996, page 5). We thought if we spent enough time with the freshmen early on in the year—in their world—bonding would happen (like that of a mother and a newborn), and it might even seem like something was wrong if we didn’t show up in the dorms regularly. So we set off to become bonded belongers in the very dorm communities we didn’t live in.

First, our team of 16 leaders (12 students, two full-time InterVarsity staff and two campus volunteer staff) made a solid commitment together. We made a team promise to be in the dorms at least three times a week for the first month of school. It was a promise that was hard to keep, but as one leader, Shirley Sho, expressed, "I felt support because I was not doing this alone; we were in this together. That made it easier to keep going back." Dorm move-in day was the kickoff for that commitment. That day was exciting: Fresh young faces followed by friends and family hauling microwaves, boxes, hangers, maybe a carpet, definitely a computer, and a 12-pack of diet coke coupled with some homemade cookies from home. We were there to help in whatever way we could. We also had a "servant evangelism" team present for dorm move-in. They were giving away carpets and sodas, assisting mom and dad in setting up computers and helping to move furniture. The servant team served us too, because their service was a witness that opened many doors (literally) for us to step into. We all prayed that day for at least one connection with a student that would give us a reason to be hanging around the dorm the rest of the year. That day really didn’t look much different from past dorm move-in days, but something felt different. We had committed ourselves to regularly be in the lives of the people we were meeting. We were motivated to keep going back.

High Hopes
We sensed that this year was going to be different. We hoped that God would do something through us and in us. We believed that this year was going to be about more than just gathering the Christians for Bible studies. We were right. In fact, very few of us even met Christians the first week—scary when you’re hoping to have a Bible study. The first week each leader made at least one personal connection which gave them a reason to come back to visit and start meeting other students. We would eventually become a part of the new communities that were forming in each dorm.

We’ve seen some remarkable things happen this year so far. No longer are our Bible studies "just those Christians," but rather they have become communities made up of believers and seekers. One Bible study was made up primarily of first-year students who were seekers. Today, three of those students are believers!

All along, we had prayed that freshmen would become Christians, but the way it happened wasn’t in our plan. It’s been exciting and energizing to witness seekers come to know Jesus. And the dorm residents who are Christians are seeing more of an incarnational model of ministry in the lives of their group leaders. As a result, they are reaching out to their friends more than we’ve seen in the past. This has helped me see the power of modeling a lifestyle of natural witness. One frosh prayed with her Bible study leader, telling Jesus that she wanted to graduate with friends who would become Christians this year. Now that’s vision! We have a sense that God is doing something different with this class of first-year students.

Paying the Cost
Becoming a bonded belonger has not been easy; it has meant sacrificing time with peers in the fellowship, sometimes studying a little less, and risking rejection. But losing our lives for the sake of the gospel has given us more life than we anticipated. I’m on InterVarsity staff, so I’m a little older, but that doesn’t seem to matter to these students. On my birthday, the Bible study I lead in the dorm threw me a surprise party, and Christians weren’t the only ones there. It was a reminder to me that bonding has indeed happened. It’s been completely worth it to be there alongside our Bible studies, modeling incarnational ministry and building witnessing communities that have built trust with the rest of the dorm community. I think each frosh leader at UCD would agree with what I’m hearing: "Our commitment to become radically bonded belongers with the freshmen this year has been exceedingly worth it."