Carrie Feistner

Would you be able to serve others and lead a group while attending classes? Many religious groups rely on the willingness of students to volunteer and take a leadership position.

Senior Joy Pullman co-leads a freshman women’s Bible Study and an investigative Bible Study with Navigators. She became involved in leadership after a positive experience she had.

“I have two passions in life: one, to love and serve God and two, love and serve people,” Pullman said. “During my freshman and sophomore years, I saw how people invested in me and the growth that took place in my walk with God as a result of their work. The best way I can say thank you is to invest in the lives of young women, and that fulfills the passion of serving God and loving people.”

She has been a leader for three years and said she enjoys seeing what God can do in people’s lives.

“[The best part is] seeing God work,” she said. “I can imagine a lot what God can do in people’s lives, but God can do more than I can imagine. It’s a blessing seeing that; it gives me shivers.”

She can explain her responsibilities easily.

“My responsibilities are to seek the truth and God whole-heartedly, and teach others how to seek God,” she said.

Pullman said she doesn’t have any problems juggling leadership with class responsibilities, because she finds ways to incorporate them. She has learned a lot from being a student leader, she said.

“Everything I’ve learned about leading in Bible studies and events, and letting God lead my life, has laid a thicker foundation in my walk with God. That will always be there for me to fall back on,” she said.

Junior Michael Webber, who leads the freshman men’s Bible Study with Navigators, said he became a leader to help others grow in their faith.

“I just thought I grew a lot closer to Jesus studying the Bible and I wanted to help others to do that too,” he said.

He said he benefits from leading by watching others grow spiritually.

“I get to know some really cool guys and I get the honor of watching people grow closer to God,” he said. “I learn a lot about the Bible myself through helping others learn.”

Webber said he is able to be a student leader with good time management.

“I try to manage my time well so that I have plenty of time to prepare for a Bible Study and for classes,” he said.

Junior Luke Roorda is a Cru Team Leader for Campus Crusade for Christ (Cru). His responsibilities include lining up speakers, putting on games and events and helping with weekly meetings. He said he decided to lead over two years ago because he wanted to be involved.

“I really wanted to get involved in something and this is a really great thing to be involved in,” he said. “It’s an awesome ministry on campus that tries to get the good news of Jesus Christ out to the campus.”

There are benefits and a few challenges, he said.

“You get to be a servant while you lead, and be involved with other students. I get to meet a lot of new people and it’s just a lot of fun,” Roorda said. “Sometimes it’s tough getting organized, but most times it goes really smoothly.”

He said he is able to juggle both leadership and classes easily, and that leadership has rewarded him.

“It’s really great because you can work around your schedule. It’s something I enjoy to do, so it doesn’t seem like a chore,” he said. “[The experience] really gave me an awesome sense to be involved in a ministry and a great opportunity to meet other Christians on campus.”