Outreach service club returns to campus

This spring semester, a handful of staff and students came together to restart Outreach, a student-led service club focused on service and unaffiliated with other campus clubs.

Caleb Benjamin, president of Outreach, said he first heard about the club through family members who were involved during their time at Oklahoma Christian University.

“So I knew about Outreach because I have family members that when they were at college, they were a part of Outreach. And so I already kind of knew about it before I got here,” Benjamin said.

Ella Hinds, vice president of Outreach, shared a similar connection, saying she learned about the club through her parents.

“Outreach is a service oriented club aimed at encouraging small churches and just providing more service projects and opportunities on campus. It was the longest lasting club, until recently, when it died over covid,” Hinds said. “My parents were a part of it and Professor Jennifer Gray and Kent Hartman and it meant a lot to them when they were here. We wanted to get it back started on campus again.”

For Benjamin, the club’s sole focus on service is rooted in sharing the love of the Lord.

“We are really trying to just show God’s love to a lot of people that live around here. It’s really energizing when a group of young people show up to a congregation that’s probably older folks. It also gives them encouragement on the future of the church, and that’s a service for them to get encouraged that way. And that’s also just showing God’s love through encouraging the body of Christ,” Benjamin said. “And then service to me also looks like just something as simple as we were helping homeless people with food packets and something simple like that. Even though we may not be directly evangelizing to them, just the fact that they get food when it’s cold out and they’re hungry, that alone is service in that they’ve been blessed richly through that, and they see the love of Christ hopefully through that action, and so that’s part of service, right there.”

“And it’s really not about us, the people who are doing it, like it’s not about what I get out of what we’re doing with Outreach. It’s really about what the people we’re helping get out of Outreach,” Benjamin said. “That’s really the idea of service is that we’re focused on the people we’re actually working for, the people that we’re actually doing things for. The service is not about me, it’s about the people we’re reaching.”

Looking ahead, Benjamin said the club has several initiatives planned for the near future.

“Something that we’ve been talking about doing is stuff with nursing homes. We’ve been working on trying to get an opportunity on Valentine’s Day to take flowers to some of the nursing homes, maybe talk to them, maybe in the future, also sing with them or just visit with them,” Benjamin said. “And then we’ve also been focused on stuff like the second chances thrift store. We’ve already gone to help them, and we really want to keep doing more stuff with them.”

Hinds said she hopes Outreach positively impacts others beyond individual projects and fosters broader campus involvement.

“Specifically, I’m hoping it will provide some unity, also provide like an energy and focus toward others in bringing people in. We’re hoping to include some of the people who aren’t as involved in the community. So hopefully it kind of provides outreach into the community,” Hinds said.

Faculty sponsor Jeremy Beller sees Outreach as an opportunity for long-term growth and leadership development. Beller said he hopes the club encourages students to take initiative and build lasting connections through service.

“We want to see the students take the lead and be kind of creative and think of ways to engage others. We always like the idea of working with small churches, and it just blesses that church. And my hope is that students can see what impact they have, not just the impact they have on that church, but that church has on them in the process,” Beller said. “I’m hoping that students find some creative ways to engage beyond just kind of just a small term thing, or one and done sort of thing, but maybe building relationships that will continue, and not just a hit and miss sort of thing.”

“And I’d like to see Outreach begin a cycle of raising up the next group that’s going to keep this running. And so not just having a few people schedule a few events to get a few students engaged in, but that creating this, this organization that inspires other people to take part and engage so that they build a life of service that carries with them when they leave and inspire students starting their time here to be a part of it too,” Beller said.