Community Life

Transcript

Okay, let’s meet Brooke and Mark, both in their first year at The Institute for G.O.D. and from Tennessee. Here community life is not just a department on campus, it’s the curriculum within the curriculum. From housing to meals, chapel and events, community life is intentionally organized with the goal of developing lifelong friendships for all students. Tell us more, guys.

– Yeah, thanks Alex. After high school, all I knew was that I wanted to learn the Bible and more of what God had planned for my life.

– I already had a college degree and no intentions of going back to school, but after experiencing the Bible teaching and community life at The Institute, I knew I had to apply.

– [Brooke] When I showed up at school, we didn’t start classes right away. Instead, we spent an entire week getting to know each other at a pool party on the lake, at the Nashville Sounds baseball game. It’s times like these that help me feel more at ease so I could enjoy being a student.

– [Mark] Being a student is unique here because student life is weaved into the fabric of community life. Faculty, staff, alumni, and even their families all live in our neighborhood. It’s like a village. Our dorms are actual homes and there’s a K through 12 school, churches, recreational activities, and a lot of opportunities to love your neighbor, all within walking distance.

– Weekly chapel services with worship and speakers, worship nights, late night events, we get consistent quality times together, working together, learning together.

– [Mark] Eating together, praying together.

– [Brooke] Living together.

– [Mark] Serving together.

– [Brooke] All of it creates solid relationships because we are in each other’s lives, seeing the ups and downs, genuinely making lasting friendships.

– An on campus coffee shop, garden, meals created by the team from Califarmia, one of Nashville’s most popular food trucks, we eat well too. They even put on special events like the Hot One’s wings competition and master chef.

– [Brooke] Healing friendships, personal and spiritual growth have all come as a result of my experience of the community at The Institute.

– Friendships I’ve made here are gonna last a lifetime because they’re built on God’s Word.

– [Brooke] Hey guys, how are you?

– It is so good.

– [Brooke] Is it good?

– Yeah, so good.

– , Mark. You and Brooke have some really special friendships here. It’s amazing how this school started with some best friends in California wanting to serve God and serve the poor and is now a movement of friends in five regions of the world doing that very thing, cheers.