Pursuit: ‘Come as you are’

Students have come together to start Pursuit Ministries, a campus ministry created for weekly Christian prayer and worship.

Pursuit was created “by students, for students,” said Davis Johnston, a junior geomatics and surveying major from Eufaula. It meets every Thursday at 9:30 p.m. in Sorrell Chapel.

Johnston helped start the organization in April 2017, and Pursuit has seen more than 80 people a night regularly for worship services.

“We’re not affiliated with a church,” Johnston said. “It’s just another opportunity for students to come and worship.”

Johnston said that students who attend other churches or campus ministries are welcome to attend Pursuit.

Tyler Cleckler, a junior financial economics major from Clanton, helps with Pursuit.

“Another thing that differentiated it for me is that it’s totally student-led,” Cleckler said. “Everything is by students; there’s not adults or youth ministers that are over us.

“Everybody can get involved that comes here.”

Johnston said that Pursuit has pastors in Eufaula who hold the ministry accountable for finances.

Chase Haney, a junior global business marketing major from Eufaula, helped to start Pursuit and speaks at the Pursuit services.

“(Students) can come, and they don’t have to necessarily believe what we believe,” Haney said. “They don’t have to be Christians to come.”

According to Haney, the ministry is aimed to give an alternative to students who don’t want to go to parties.

“When I was a freshman, there were two things to do,” Haney said. “It was either go out to the bar to have fun, or sit in your dorm room and try to be a Christian and be absolutely bored.

“We’re trying to give them that option that Jesus loves them, and Jesus is so much better than what the world has to offer.”

Pursuit has started Pursuit Revival for middle school and high school students to come together, to worship and to hear Haney speak on biblical topics.

“We’re considered a campus ministry, but I don’t want (Pursuit) to be confined to just these walls or just confined to just this campus,” Haney said.

Pursuit Revival takes place in Eufaula, and Johnston said that people from the surrounding towns are welcome to come to the Revival.

“We’re bringing all of the college kids, as many that will come, from Pursuit that usually come here,” Haney said. “It’s basically just a Pursuit service back home.”

All students are welcome to come and try out the campus ministry.

“Come as you are, not as you should be,” Haney said.