Restart of Salt and Light Campus Ministry
By Brent Davis, PhD
Our university is in the city of Signal Hill; it is hard to hide a city on a hill. As the name implies, the Puva tribe of native Americans would signal other natives on Santa Catalina Island from this hill (https://www.cityofsignalhill.org/218/History-of-Signal-Hill). If you want people to see your light, standing on a hill is a great way to do it — putting it under a basket not so much. That is why Jesus told his disciples that they were the light of the world; they should be like a city on a hill so that their good deeds would be visible to all (Matthew 5: 14-16). We are not to display our good works for our glory but for God’s, who enables us to do them to show His love for all people.
Along with the metaphor of light, Jesus told his disciples they were salt. Nowadays, salt is cheap, and we eat too much salt, but in the first century it was very precious — Roman soldiers were paid in salt. They were literally worth their salt. Salt represented the covenant between God and Israel (Leviticus 2:13; II Chronicles 13: 5). From these two images, comes the name of our campus ministry: Salt and Light.
The goal of campus ministry is to help our students be disciples of Jesus, to be salt and light. A disciple of Jesus is someone who has accepted Him as Savior and obeys His commands. Although, a student may not be a disciple, campus ministry will still seek to support him/her spiritually. Our lights, as disciples, shine brighter as we engage in personal and interpersonal spiritual disciplines. Some of the interpersonal disciplines we engage in at Salt and Light are large group fellowship meetings to worship God and small groups to share more personally and study more in depth. Students are also encouraged to contact the Salt and Light office for prayer and one-on-one discipleship.
Salt and Light was started a few years ago by Dr. Mok Chong and some shining students like Maria Shearing, who is now a teacher at AUHS. During the pandemic there were some meetings on zoom, but the first in-person meeting since the pandemic was in early June.
If you would like to be salt and light to the world, be sure to join the next meeting of Salt and Light on July 11 at 12 pm in the chapel or contact me.