Bagels, Bible Study, & Navy ROTC Buddies
At the beginning of the spring semester, I was riding a spiritual high from the Acts2 Winter Conference. It was my last semester of college and I wanted to put myself in a situation where God could work through me. For me, that meant trying to reach out to the people that I am already in touch with, and in my case those people were the people in my Navy ROTC unit. So at the beginning of my very last semester, I email blasted the battalion about a midshipman Bible study and prayed that I might get a couple of people to sign up. To my surprise, about ten people joined the GroupMe right away. It seems like God was already at work!
I had planned for us to meet on Friday mornings in the library and was eagerly waiting for our first meeting. I showed up with a dozen bagels and a cup of coffee in hand, ready to embark on a reading of the Gospel of John. We had a group of about five or six and had a solid discussion on the first chapter. I anticipated that the group would only grow over the semester. Over the weeks that followed, attendance dwindled down to about three or four. Before long I had my first Bible study with no attendees. Then spring break rolled around, and with finals around the corner, it was a solid two on a good week.
What may look like a failed endeavor from the outside actually became many lessons and points of growth. This experience served as a lesson that the goal was not numbers, that despite having zero attendees, I could look up and know that the Lord was still pleased with me showing up. I also learned about my own shortcomings in trying to lead in ministry. I can be horrendously bad at sending out reminders and I found it easy to overbook my schedule and not make time to study the chapters before trying to lead a discussion on them. It was a great reminder that, like all things, being a good minister of the Gospel requires us to be diligent and to put in the work.
In spite of my shortcomings, I came away from the last week of Bible study feeling incredibly encouraged. It was just me and one fellow NROTC midshipmen, and we got to discuss how God had been working in both of our lives. My friend shared the ways in which God was working in her life, and she also shared how she intended to start a new Bible study among not only Navy ROTC, but with Army ROTC and Air Force ROTC as well. Sometimes we think answering the call to ministry means that we are going to show up and be Billy Graham, but since most of us are not, we should not be discouraged. God is pleased when you show up even when others don’t and he remains faithfully at work.
Navy Commissioning: John with friends and mentors from Campus Light
The author of this post is John L., newly graduated from Rutgers and student leader @ Campus Light 2025-2026.
If you have any questions about anything in this post, don’t hesitate to reach out!
