Cru is a weekly event where believers and non-believers can gather together to worship God and hear from Christian speakers, according to co-president Vanessa Hiebner. Hiebner said the goal of Cru is to share the Gospel with students on campus and be a welcoming place where any person can further their relationship with God while building relationships with other like-minded people.

“We want to personally invite people to come to Cru and share the Gospel with them,” Hiebner said. “We don’t want it to be a Cru movement on campus; we want it to be a Gospel movement.”

Cru meets every Thursday at Wayne State College in Gardner auditorium at 7:30 p.m. The meeting begins with worship, provided by WSC students that make up the worship band. Then, a speaker from the community comes and delivers the lesson. Hiebner said before the weekly meeting begins, Cru has a prayer meeting at 6:30 p.m. Following the weekly meeting, Cru has “Afters”—a time to build fellowship.

“I go to Cru because I like being able to connect with God while also connecting with the people around me,” Carrigan Okerlund, a WSC junior, said.

“I go to Cru because I want to get to know other students that are Christians and want to build my personal relationship with God,” Seth Ostrander, another WSC student, said.

Hiebner said Cru is not solely a weekly meeting. The club has many different gatherings during the week. Cru offers men’s, women’s or co-ed Bible studies on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Cru also offers men’s nights and women’s nights on Friday evenings. Cru also has discipleship meetings, where two people meet together to talk about their lives and make a one-on-one bond with each other. Discipleship partners an older student with a younger student so the older student can help guide the younger student in their walk with Christ.

The club also puts on many outreach events for all WSC students, according to Hiebner. At the beginning of the school year, they have the root beer kegger. Cru barn dances happen almost every month, and often have dress-up themes, like a costume night for Halloween and an ugly sweater contest for Christmas.

Cru has a state gathering one weekend each fall called Cru Fall Getaway, and a regional event in the winter called Cru Winter Conference. Cru also has committees students can be involved in. The committees are: outreach, welcome, social media/advertising and prayer.

Cru is run by a nine-person servant team instead of an executive board.

The club is an international organization that focuses on bringing the Gospel to campuses all over the world, so another way members can get involved with Cru is to go on a summer mission trip in the United States and abroad.

Hiebner said Cru hopes to have more events for students to attend in the future. One event they are planning is a fall festival at the Willow Bowl for a weekly meeting there and fall-themed activities.