City Lights 2007!

CityLights is always an excellent experience for students that changes the way they see God at work in the world. Too often we see Christians who aren't willing to step outside their own comfort zones or beyond their dreams of a comfortable life to help those less fortunate than them. CityLights takes students from around the country and transplants them into the heart of the inner city in St. Louis where New City Fellowship (a local church that partners with us) places them in workgroups where they will not only get a chance to serve those around them but also be challenged in their ideas of justice, diversity and faith.
Since we started CityLights nearly 40 students have relocated to St. Louis to continue working / living amongst those in the inner city who they developed relationships with during their Spring Break. For SLU, many students felt challenged to reach out to people that SLU generally tries to keep away from their campus: the poor, the widowed, the abused, the addicts etc... Students at SLU are continuing to think about how to spread their new found heart for the city & for those less fortunate than themselves to others around campus who generally think of projects like CityLights as a gold star on their resume.

On a more personal note, at CityLights, I had the opportunity to lead worship with over 20 students from different cultural, ethnic and musical backgrounds. On a more personal note it became more clear to me how God has grown me in the past couple years as it was much easier to coordinate this large group of students and keep a fun, energetic atmosphere than it had been for me before. Many people at CityLights were blessed by the worship team I directed - staff commented that most of the transformational work they saw being done in their students was done during the times of worship we led. One student even commented that "this was the best worship I'd ever experienced, thank you!".