The Lion’s Roar / Kelli Meynard
Avery Martin dances as The CREW, a Christian rap group, performs at LionNation Christian Invasion. The CREW performed as students walked around the room and greeted fellow students. 

Varying denominations and campus organizations joined for one night of community and fellowship. The event, LionNation Christian Invasion, was hosted by various organization who invited students and faculty to unite for a night of worship, speakers and more.

On Wednesday, Apr. 6 attendees gathered at St. Albert’s Catholic Church to celebrate being a child of God. There was an arrangement of food and a performance by Southeastern Alumni Rita West and John Finch. Junior general studies major Irene Marino and senior general studies major Derrick Faucheux coordinated this event to bring students together, no matter what background or organization they are from.

“I think that there are people on our campus that struggle with so much and there is this theory that’s evolved that we are all separated by Christian groups, Greek life and athletics,” said Faucheux. “We are all separated in our own thing and what this event does is that it brings us all together for one purpose, God. It breaks down those walls and these people can go back and tell their organizations what they experienced and they can start breaking down the walls themselves.”

Christian organizations want students to know that just because you are affiliated with Greek life does not mean you cannot also join a Christian group and have it be your second home. 

“We want people to realize there are a lot of people in sororities and fraternities that feel like they aren’t accepted in Christian organizations,” said Marino. “We put on this event to help people know that you can find a home here.” 

Last year Christian Mingle was held and it was only the Christian organizations that were invited; however, this year the organizations decided to welcome other university organizations. LionNation Christian Invasion is meant to bring students to faith and show them how life is better when people trust in God.

“I think that it is really important to have God in our lives and there are a lot of people out there who don’t have that,” Marino. “We put on this event to help bring people to faith and show people how important it is to have faith and that our lives can be so much better when we find faith.”

The Christian organizations have been looking to start a Christian Council so they can put on events like LionNation Christian Invasion in the future.

“We want to start a Christian council where a representative from each Christian organization meets once a month to discuss meeting times and to plan future Christian nights,” said Faucheux. “We eventually want to do a giant community service project where we can go and help local churches.”

Faucheux encourages students to be a part of the Christian groups at the university.

“A lot of these people don’t know about Christian organizations on campus so we really want to get everybody connected with an organization because by doing that they keep up their faith in college and a lot of people lose it,” said Faucheux.

The next event is going to be “All,” a Christian worship night hosted by the President of Lions for the Lamb, Zack Whitehead, in the Student Union. It will be held on Wednesday, Apr. 27.