Credit: Photo: Matt Boggs | The Sentinel
James Sears, Staff Writer
A campus organization set up a tent on the Campus Green to host a 36-hour prayer and praise event Nov. 4 through Nov. 5.
The event featured prayer and live music for visitors hosted by FOCUS, a Christian organization.
FOCUS consisted of two parts: FOCUS Pray and FOCUS United. Both parts were held on the Campus Green and in the Carmichael Student Center respectively. This semester marks the first time FOCUS Pray was held on the Campus Green.
Inside the tent was a small stage and chairs. Live music was performed by members of KSU’s campus ministries and between sets, prayer topics such as “The Body of Christ,” were covered by different ministries.
“It’s literally an hour of worship and an hour of prayer nonstop,” FOCUS coordinator Arvin Ross said. “A campus ministry’s team will come in and worship for an hour and pray for an hour. Then another campus ministry team will come and it’s a nonstop flow.”
Visitors were also welcomed to pray on the stage. Future mechanical engineering major Caleb Krohn was one such participant.
“FOCUS is an opportunity for a collective group of people to pray and, therefore, affect change,” Krohn said.
FOCUS Pray went on for 36 hours and its portion ended Nov. 5 at 5 p.m. and at 7 p.m., FOCUS United continued the event indoors in the University Rooms. A buffet was provided by Moe’s Southwest Grill to visitors.
Besides prayer and live music, Both Pray and United had an area that let visitors write and display prayers. There was also a worship painting area where people could create paintings. The paintings were displayed throughout the FOCUS event. Sophomore drawing and painting major Cara Young spoke of painting as an active worship.
“Even before FOCUS, I’m inspired by everything around me,” Young said. “Art is used as a vehicle of expression, worship and feelings of the time.”
Credit: Photo: Matt Boggs | The Sentinel
FOCUS is affiliated with Campus Renewal Ministries, an organization dedicated to constructing missional societies on college campuses. Kris Gamble, one of the founders of FOCUS, said “FOCUS” stands for Family Of Christian University Students.
“FOCUS is an initiative to bring together the different campus ministries and Christians on campus,” Gamble said.
Gamble said he came up with the idea for FOCUS in 2006 during his freshman year. Gamble said he noticed that ministries seemed reluctant to acknowledge other ministries.
“I struggled to find out which ministries were on campus,” Gamble said. “When I found one, the ministries were reluctant to tell me about other ministries on campus because they didn’t know the pastor.” Gamble said he and the ministry leaders met to address the divide and the concept of FOCUS solidified.
The first FOCUS event was held in fall of 2011 and has been held once a semester since. FOCUS was previously held for only a few hours. Gamble said the fellowship felt it was not enough time for worship and extended it to as long as 48 hours, but the time has since been reduced. Since FOCUS’ inception, Gamble said it has grown from 6 ministries participating to 14 ministries participating.
Visitors praise FOCUS for promoting unity among Christians. Bobby Hinsdale, the chapter director of the student organization, Ratio Christi, said FOCUS provides unity without uniformity.
“I think FOCUS is particularly helpful for students that are searching for community,” said Hinsdale. “It’s a good way to see how the different Christian ministries on campus collaborate together to make Jesus known. And if students are looking for a ministry to call home, they are encouraged to get plugged into one.”
Although FOCUS is mainly targeted towards a Christian demographic, Gamble said non-Christian religions were welcome to participate. “We’ve had atheists and we’ve had a Muslim; it is an all-is-welcome event.” Gamble said.
