By James El-Mallakh–

Under a bright and blue Friday sky, tables are set in front of the Red Barn and the smell of burgers and charcoal is wafting on a brisk noon wind. So begins another opportunity for students to munch on some free food, spurred by the opportunity from Baptist Campus Ministries to open up some one-on-one dialogue during their Ask a Christian Day cookout.

“This is basically a way to engage campus and to just let them know there are Christians on campus and that we’re not closed off from them,” said junior biology major Ellie Cecil, while sporting a name tag that read “Ellie (and I’m a Christian).”

“If [students] have questions about what Christianity is or what it means to follow Jesus, then we are here and we want to talk to you about it. We want to answer your questions if you don’t understand or you don’t know or you have qualms and questions.”

A collection of representatives from the BCM sat at tables; each representative sported a name tag identifying who they are and affirming their Christian identity with the phrase: “and I’m a Christian.” The outdoor soiree started an hour before noon and, by lunch time, had accumulated a fair student gathering.

“God’s grace, that’s how we’re saved. God is looking at us and going, ‘you have sinned and you are naturally bad and you can’t fix that but I love you so much that I will fix that’,” said Allan Amburn, a junior major of economics and finance and member of the BCM. Amburn stood behind a table and engaged passersby on subjects surrounding Christianity. He continued his discussion with two students who were listening to him.

“I’ll come out and live the perfect life that you can’t live and I’ll die the death that you have no hope of escaping, that way you can have life and you can have a relationship with me. And that’s how we’re saved, that’s what the Bible says. And to me it’s so awesome because… you have Christianity that says grace, it’s by grace. You can’t do it but he did it,” said Amburn.

Alison Schnurr, a freshman nursing major ageed. Schnurr stood with Joseph Duke, a sophomore in exercise science. Both were engaged in the conversation with Amburn.

“When you have grace, your life is changed,” said Amburn. “I do good works not to save myself but to glorify him who saved me.”

“That’s basically how I feel. I know I don’t believe the Bible word for word just because a lot of the things seem almost redundant and, on top of that, it’s just a lot to really believe in. I know you have to have faith, but it’s just things that some things are basically impossible,” said Duke.

Amburn continued to engage Duke and Schnurr on the relationship that they can maintain with God. The whole conversation staid respectful and tolerant even as it waded into areas that can be controversial.
“I like that he came about it from a different perspective and wasn’t like, ‘you’re going to hell if you’re from a different religion’,” said Schnurr after talking with Amburn.

She also said her perspectives changed a little bit after talking with Amburn. “I just like how he says that grace changes things, not just working. I do believe that in all of the religions you can receive salvation but [Amburn] says that its grace, not work and I’ve never really heard that before.”

"We're not trying to convert people, we're not trying to say, 'Hey, you're wrong and this is why,'" said biology major Paul Gong

Maintaining a respectful tone is a theme at this event and the representatives from the BCM maintained that they weren’t trying to convert people to Christianity:

“At this event, we’re not trying to convert people; we’re not trying to say, ‘Hey, you’re wrong and this is why.’ Mainly, we’re just trying to tell people and raise awareness that this is what Christianity is and this is what Christ did for you,” said Paul Gong, a biology major and BCM representative. According to his name tag, he’s a Christian.

This is not the first such event that the BCM has held. For the last two years, they held a “Lunch with God” in which participants could write down questions that they would ask God and the BCM would take those questions and answer them in an email using the most suitable Bible verses. This semester, the Ask a Christian cookout replaced Lunch with God.

Based on how well the cookout goes, the BCM may or may not continue it next year. Hopefully, for all hungry college students, they will.

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Photos: Eric Voet/The Louisville Cardinal