I wrote the following piece for my Introduction to Anthropology course in December. Looking back, I was searching for two things: my identity and my place on Princeton's campus. The focus of this brief narrative is fellowship and how my religious experiences helped me to find fellowship amongst friends.
“I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
the Maker of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord”’ – Apostle’s Creed
As an incoming freshman transitioning into a new environment, I had difficulty making sense of my good fortune. I was concerned with the question of why fate would afford me with an opportunity to study one of the top universities in the world. Growing up, my parents taught me to believe in Jesus and God’s role in determining my destiny. During my first year at Princeton, I had two religious experiences within the Christian tradition that influenced my orientation as a Princeton student and helped me to make sense of my fate.
During my childhood, my parents constantly informed me that my destiny was determined by God. My mother and father, both of whom were raised in the black Baptist tradition, did not advocate the concept of predestination, but rather the idea that God “does all things for a reason.” I interpreted my parents’ words visually as God’s hand would gently push me in one direction or another— getting accepted into Princeton University in 2007 was a big push! As I entered college, I still accepted the idea of God ensuring that all things are logical by His judgment; however, due to the increased importance of critical thinking as decreed by my new college environment, I cultivated a desire to learn why God wanted to bless me. On one September night in my our freshmen hallway, I relayed my thoughts to my friend and he suggested that I come to one of the weekly Bible studies of the Baptist Student Fellowship (BSF), one of the University’s various campus ministries. I accepted his invitation and came to the very next Bible study the following week.
Attending my first BSF meeting was a unique experience. For me, this meeting was not as much a transformative religious experience (as I will later describe), as it was an interesting social experience. For starters, although my parents instilled in me a belief in God and Jesus, they never took me to church on a regular basis, nor did I attend Sunday school. In other words, I did not consider myself to be a “practicing Christian,” as determined by regular church attendance. Conversely, all the other BSF attendees had weekly attended church in their hometowns and had a fair amount of familiarity with the Bible. As we sat around in a circle with studying scripture, I felt as though I actually belonged outside of the circle as an outsider. As we studied various scripture in the Old Testament, I had difficulty reading the actual language in the text due to its older diction and other stylistic features. Overall, my first BSF meeting did not help me to understand my “reason for being” at Princeton, but I did enjoy the company of the people.
It was due to my appreciation of the BSF community that I continued to attend Bible study on a regular basis. The various lessons taught within the hour-long meetings reinforced my parents’ notion as I learned about how God communicated his will to the Bible’s central centrals. Within each story, God had a specific goal or purpose for each character such as Moses leading the Hebrews out of slavery or the wise insights of King Solomon. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that my life had been guided in accordance to God’s will and that He would reveal to me my purpose in due time.
Following this discovery, I began to explore another idea central to Christianity: fellowship. The first time I felt as though I was in fellowship with other Christians was during my initial visit to the Nassau Christian Center (NCC). On each Sundays at 9:45 am, NCC, a local church across located on Nassau Street across from Rockefeller College, held a campus service in which worshippers from the local Princeton community and college students from Princeton, Rider, and Westminster College would congregate for praise and worship. I attended NCC because one of my close friends invited me and upon entering the sanctuary, I was delighted to see my more of my friends and classmates. I was fascinating by the notion that I was already welcomed into a “Christian network” by virtue of my pre-existing relationships with my friends and other people with whom I lived and studied.
One of the key rituals performed during the service was the recitation of the Apostle’s Creed. At my first service, the lector introduced the Apostle’s Creed as “a statement of faith” that is recited by Christians all around the world. He informed us that by reciting the creed, each of us would be in fellowship with the global Christian community. As I read the Apostle’s Creed (I believe in God, the Father Almighty) off of the image projected onto the church, I thought about the implications of my actions – I was in fellowship with Christians all around the world! I wondered if my series of actions - attending Bible study, going to church, and reciting the creed – made me a Christian.
After the service, all the worshippers would meet downstairs in the dining hall to take communion. It was at this first communion that I simultaneously had my first religious experience. Before we took communion, one of the assistant ministers explained to us the purpose of communion is to provide absolution to those who believe in Christ. The symbolic action of partaking in the bread, flesh of Christ, and the wine (in reality grape juice), blood of Christ would grant us forgiveness for all of our sins. I found the concept of communion to be powerful and mystical, but yet at the same time basic and accessible even to me, a person who is just discovering his faith. I still considered myself a relative outsider to the Christian community as I had only recently started to make a conscious effort to learn about God and the Bible, but I still could be forgiven for all of the bad things I may have done over the course of my week or even my lifetime. Communion seemed to be one of those deals too good to pass up and when I finally did partake in the elements of Christ, I felt cleansed and renewed – I was transformed and considered myself to be a Christian. This symbolic ritual was made even more significant by the very notion that I was performing it in fellowship with the members of the NCC congregation, which included other Princeton students. In this moment, we transcended our social connections into connections on a spiritual level.
Later in my freshman year I had another powerful and insightful religious experience from which I learned about the power of Christian fellowship. During intercession, I decided to attend a community service trip in my hometown of Washington D.C. with a group of students representing the Student Volunteers Council (SVC). In the course of the trip, we volunteer at a variety of sites and performed several types of service activities. On one day of the trip, our group volunteered to clean the home of an elderly widow. The woman was living in a dire situation as she was impoverished, had no other relatives available to help her out, and was on the verge of eviction from her rented house. I started out cleaning the kitchen and moved into the living room. The woman’s living room was covered in old papers, many of which were outdated bills or other official documents. As I momentarily looked up, I noticed that the room was decorated with several verses of scripture and images of Jesus. I also saw a plaque that commemorated the woman’s longtime service to her church congregation.
At the end of the day, the woman came into the living room to thank our group for our hard work. She referred to our presence as a “blessing” and encouraged us to stay in touch with her. Just as we were about to leave, the woman recited the Apostle’s Creed! At this moment I was taken aback with surprise because I did not expect her recite these words; but then, once I recognized the words, I recited the creed with her. Despite our different origins and societal positions, we were in fellowship with each other and spiritualized the moment. It was the fulfillment of the lector’s words that I heard the first time I recited the Apostle’s creed: I was in fellowship with another Christian from a completely different world. Furthermore, this simple act of service turned into a religious experience and epiphany for me because I realized that I was following the teachings of Jesus and his mandate to serve. Despite the fact that I had performed community service since high school, this was the first time I identified the importance of service to my spiritual identity as a Christian: I was serving in order to emulate Jesus’ example - the teacher’s example.
In the beginning of my freshman year, I thought that studying the Bible would lead to simple answers; however, I was wrong. My Bible studies lead composed the beginning of my continuing spiritual journey, in which I am a member of a Christian community that whose fellowship extends numerous types of boundaries.
