Kent State has generally been a very conservative campus with very little room for religion to be brought in. However that hasn’t stopped Christians from coming to this campus and setting up groups so others could not feel alone on this campus. One of these people is Kent State senior Logan Knoebel. He grew up in a Christian household who really started to go to church more often when he was in high school. He got really “plugged in” as he said in his high school ministry, which is where he took his own personal step of faith and commitment. His commitment to the lord has not wavered though through his time here on campus as he is a member of Cru, which is an on-campus Christianity group. Logan is one of the student leaders for Cru and helps organize special events on campus, goes to these events and gets to know others trying to help them find their way when walking with the lord.

When talking with the lord on such a conservative campus Logan had talked about how it can be a very difficult thing to do, but at the same time that it can be  a very rewarding experience.

“Yeah, it’s really difficult but rewarding, I would say. It’s a very, like you said, a very liberal campus and there’s a lot of differing views and there’s a lot of strong views and so coming onto the campus and you know, trying to live a Christian life and promote those values and share the gospel with people, that can be challenging. But what I found is that people are surprisingly curious and a lot of times willing to, you know, have a conversation with you, just to get an idea.”

BY Logan Knoebel

 

While he said that a surprising amount of people were willing to talk about it, that doesn’t mean that a lot of people were going too. Later on when I talked to Logan he broke it down about people’s reaction when asked to talk about God or Jesus,

“Yeah, I mean, there’s people who don’t want anything to do with it. That’s something that you deal with wherever you are, but especially on this campus. I mean, I’ve gone you know, we call sharing where we go and just share our beliefs and ask people questions and see what they think and just very open conversations and, you know, just to get the dialogue going. And yeah, there’s probably 50% no, no thanks. That’s not me, you know, whatever. They walk away. Okay, that’s fine. There’s another, you know, 25% that are, oh, yeah, I’ll talk and then they’re not sure and they’re, well, I don’t think that they’ll get some good dialogue, but it’s, you know, they, they might disagree and share why they disagree. And there’s a 25% who might know nothing about it and are willing to talk about it or they are, you know, have a Christian background at some point. So I think there’s definitely a mixture but yeah, the majority is probably not interested.”

BY Logan Knoebel

But just because Logan is so committed to his faith, doesn’t mean he didn’t have his struggles. He talked about how it was hard for him to keep his faith a priority with his busy schedule sometimes, but with his tight group of individuals in Cru, they were able to help him find balance and help keep his faith,

“So I think like I said, there’s a lot of distractions. I think priorities come into play. So, for me, I struggled with keeping my faith as a priority. I still do with a busy schedule and just trying to make rent and trying to pursue my hobbies and trying to keep up with friends both in cru and outside of the faith and stuff like it’s demanding of your time and energy.” 

However if you think that all Cru does is get together and talk about the bible, you would be wrong, Logan is actually a part of a band for Cru that will play some Christian music that will play for all of them and lead the group in singing in worship. Along with that they have designated nights where they will be on campus, usually in tri towers, but they will also go outside and do things that are more social to get to know others in the group, plus others that are passing through.