Beck's Bench Episode 30, 09.03.24 | Spiritual Life at Samford

Greetings Samford and welcome back to  campus. The 2024-25 academic year is underway and exciting new journeys are  starting for Samford students. Whether you're one of our more than 57,000 alumni  worldwide, or you're brand new to Samford, you know our faith in God is at the core  of our Christ-centered educational mission. It's at the root of who we are and that's  our focus on this episode of Beck's Bench. Well we are super excited today to have Bobby  Gatlin, our campus pastor, and Sadie Huyoung, a junior from Brentwood, Tennessee, with us today  on Beck's Bench. Welcome to both of you, happy new year I guess? Here we go. Happy new year. Bobby  you lead our campus, our spiritual life programs, and one of the things I've heard you say many  times is that you want to encourage our campus not just to "talk the talk but to walk the walk", what  does that mean to you and what kind of difference does that make here at Samford? Yeah, so it's  a big deal to us that we want to make sure that the faith at Samford is not just something that we  know about that we talk about, but it's something that's actually lived out in our lives, and it's  when I first came I thought it the the environment looks good it feels good, but where do we actually  see faith coming alive in individual lives, and is it an act? Is it a is it make believe? Do we  just project an image of Christianity? Or is there something really in the depths of who we are that  that is on display in our actions, in our behaviors in our talk and so it's just that reminder that  we need to be doing it, not just believing it not just saying it, but actually living it out in our  lives. Yeah, thanks. So Sadie, you are very active on campus, a junior education major, and you've  just come off a busy summer as an orientation leader, that was so fun to work on with you. Talk  to me a little bit about how the spiritual life emphasis, this idea of being a Christ centered  campus has impacted you as a person, as a student, and just your overall experience here at Samford.  While coming in as a freshman I was really nervous um there's just a lot to take in I had never moved  away from home. I think just the community and of itself but also the space that's been created  for me, is what makes Samford really special, is that space is created from the top down. I  mean from you to them to the people around me, my peers, I think that conversation is always  being had of how can we look more like Christ, how can we invite him into our daily lives,  and that's been what's made it really special for me is it's not just when we're  in convo, it's not just when we're at church, it's being led by the spirit and that's been  really cool for me. It's beautiful I'm so happy for you that you've had that experience. Bobby,  Tuesday mornings, ten o'clock, Wright Center. There's a lot of activities that the Office of Spiritual  Life sponsors, beyond that moment, but say a little bit about that moment. Ten- o'clock, the  Wright Center, what are we trying to create in that space for students? How do you approach that  time? Yeah, it happens fast too it's in between class schedules so we only have about 45 or 50  minutes. The hope is to have a service where students can unplug, can unwind for just a moment  Tuesday mornings, to have that exciting kind of college level worship experience. We're led by  college students, so it's peers that are on stage, that are volunteering to be part of this worship  team. And each week one of our staff or someone that we've invited in maybe it's local ministry  leaders, sometimes it's from around the nation, around the world, you yourself speak at times at  least once a semester up in front of the students to really to encourage, to challenge, to lift  us up, to focus us back on the truth from God's word so that we re-center at least once a week.  We know that students can go to church services and off-campus ministries, but this is where we  collect together. We just want to make it as good as we can. Yeah, what an encouraging moment of  our week, right? How many places can you just stop what you're doing kind of the middle of the  week, and be encouraged through corporate worship, it really is an amazing site to see. Sadie,   this fall we have a lot of new students on campus. We have a big freshman class that's just arrived,  we have some transfer students. What advice would you give to a new student? Particularly in  the area of taking advantage of all Samford has to offer in spiritual life. I don't want  to sound cliche but put yourself out there. It's definitely the time to be comfortable in the  uncomfortable. Someone told me that my freshman year and it's hard for sure. I would say don't  let your mind be limited to what the Lord can do, I think be expectant and be excited but also  rest in the fact that it's going to work out. You freshman year you're going to feel that weight of,  I need to be involved, I need to get plugged in, but also rest in the fact that the Lord has that  worked. That's such good advice, Bobby and I need to follow advice too. That's wonderful. Yeah it's  hard, it's not easy. I'm not good at it myself, but I'm working on it. So Bobby, you look  remarkably well rested for somebody who just hosted the Freshmen Retreat, an opportunity for  our first-year students to, together en masse, retreat and have kind of a spiritual life   centering weekend together. Say a little bit about that event. So the retreat itself is  intended to give the student, the freshman, a little more time to connect with each other,  to meet friends, to start on the right foot when you think about coming and having the Samford  experience of a Christ centered institution, what does that look like? Let's go away and  have really just an overnight experience, but I think the magic in the sauce for us is  that we've invited all those leaders that could be there with those students to to meet them  to do conversations with them, small group conversations, late night conversations, the idea  was to present as many incredible Samford students in front of them that are a step or two ahead of  the freshman, to give them someone to emulate, someone to look up to and to live their Samford  story after. And so it's a great experience, almost it feels like all of the freshman class  that goes, almost everyone who can go, I think goes. Pretty much. Yeah. But it's an incredible  weekend. They come together for one incredible time just to have that worship environment, to  have the fun and the excitement of being outdoors and playing together, and all the fun  things you can do there at the retreat center, so we had a great weekend. Well I just want to thank  both of you for the roles that you each play and the spiritual vitality of our campus. Bobby, thank  you for your leadership. Sadie, thank you for all the ways you lead as well on this campus, I  know we all share gratitude for being a part of a community and a part of a campus that elevates  the lordship of Jesus Christ. We celebrate that today and we depend on his faithfulness  throughout the academic year to sustain us, so thank you so much for joining us today. Thanks  for having us. Thank you. Well, that's a wrap, I'm Beck Taylor, until next time. God bless you,  God bless Samford, and as always go Bulldogs.