*NOTE: Throughout this blog, please keep in mind that I'm in no way bashing Chi Alpha. There are so many good things about this campus ministry. There really are. But there are also a few issues, just like any other organization.
A lot of people don't know that Matthew and I are no longer attending Chi Alpha, and those who do know are wondering why. I figured it would be easiest to just do one big explanation here.
There are basically two reasons why we have chosen to leave campus ministry. The first of the reasons is that Matthew and I are ready to be seen as a young married couple, rather than those college kids who got hitched. I'm sure not everyone sees us that way, but we can tell there is a difference in the way we are treated. We understand that we may have different desires and different wants than most college students, but that doesn't mean we we don't want to hang out or have friends.
The second reason that we are no longer attending Chi Alpha is because we believe there is a clique problem. This is very common in almost every organization. There are about 40 people who always hang out on a regular basis and the rest of the organization is just left outside. There are about 200 people that regularly attend Monday service. Yet, only 40 are the "main" people of XA. These forty people will post pictures and tweet using the hashtag of "#community", which is a Chi Alpha thing. But I believe that hashtag can only be used if everyone is actually being included, which I believe isn't happening. For example, I was friends with someone in Chi Alpha. We became good friends really fast. Now, I haven't talked to that person in weeks and that person is suddenly very close friends with a couple others. I'm beyond the roller coaster of fair weather "friends".
My biggest problem with this is that there is leadership within Chi Alpha who knows that this is an issue, and yet are doing nothing about it. In fact, it's sometimes the leadership who show the most exclusiveness.
As I said at the beginning, I'm not trying to bash Chi Alpha. There really are many good things: service, small groups, etc. The sanctioned events are absolutely wonderful. The people as individuals are very nice as well. I believe that this campus ministry has good intentions, but I also believe that the organization has some work to do.
Matthew and I will be searching for a church here in Springfield in the mean time. This Sunday we will be trying the Courageous Church. I've heard some good things about it. If any of you have some good suggestions, just let me know! We really want to find something that we can get really involved in.
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