For 27 years, Walla Walla University students have gathered in a large, colorful tent on campus to attend a student-run evangelistic series called InTents. This series of seven meetings is conducted by the Public Evangelism class taught by Pedrito Maynard-Reid, professor of biblical studies and missiology.

While where the tent is pitched on campus has changed from year to year, students remain eager to fill the seats.

“As I began to attend more meetings each year, I began to see the initial and long-term effects that campus evangelism has,” said Katie Wagner, senior theology major and one of the students responsible for this year’s event.

In planning and organizing the meetings, students develop valuable skills for the workplace and learn how to make ministry a central part of their lives. In addition to learning the value of hard work and creative thinking, Wagner said, “We are learning collaboration skills that will work in many places in and out of a church setting.”

This year’s InTents theme, It’s Your Call, highlighted how each speaker has been called to ministry by God. Each of the evening meetings was led by a student who shared their story of God’s call in their lives and equated it to a biblical character.

Wagner described the theme as “a statement of ownership and empowerment that acknowledges every person has a call of God in their life and that empowers each person to make a decision on how they will answer God’s call.”

The meetings began on the evening of May 6 and took place every weeknight. Additional InTents meetings were held during the campuswide CommUnity program on Tuesday morning and on Sabbath morning.

Posted July 18, 2019