5 minute read
Breaking Away From Traditions
How college students find their faith away from home
Written by: Heather Scurti Illustrated by: Korah Robinson
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It’s Sunday. You’re sitting in the same place you always sit as the music begins. Hundreds of people are singing, praying and worshiping God. You feel like you should be one of them, like you should be connecting, like you should be doing what your parents taught you to do. But you’re not.
You’re waiting for the hour to pass. You’re struggling to engage. You feel alone, embarrassed and out of place. You want so badly to make your parents proud, despite knowing this is not the church for you.
As college students affiliated with the church, we hear it all the time. It’s OK to doubt. It’s OK to question. It’s OK not to know everything. But what happens when those questions and doubts cause us to break traditions, cut ties and create a new path?
Miguel Iniesta, senior theology and fi lm double major at California Baptist University, has experienced these doubts firsthand.
Iniesta grew up in a Mexican-American ultra-conservative community in Compton, Calif.
Within the religion, members were required to adhere to strict rules such as wearing suits, no piercings and no tattoos.
“It’s legalism in a whole other way,” Iniesta says.
About 11 years old, he found himself questioning his faith after his oldest brother was ex-communicated from the congregation for a sin he committed.
“When they ex-communicated him, the elders of the congregation told us, ‘You can’t talk to him. You can’t have any relationship with him. He can’t live with you guys,’” Iniesta says.“So, my dad kicked him out and he was homeless for a while. A lot of that just didn’t make sense to me. Why we would practice this? It didn’t seem to connect with what Jesus is teaching.”
After years of doubt, 18-year-old Iniesta made the decision to move out and ultimately leave the religion behind. With reluctance to get involved in any organized church, he began to travel a lot with bands as a photographer and videographer.
While touring in Texas, he crossed paths with Jared Burt, senior pastor at Taylor’s Valley Baptist Church. Burt took it upon himself to disciple Iniesta, teach him about Christ and gradually introduce him to his church.
“Jared was patient and gracious with me,” Iniesta says. “He encouraged me to fact-check him in what he was telling me about the Bible and about who Jesus is.”
Iniesta says he felt called to stay in Texas and pursue his renewed faith. He started attending church and a small group regularly. As his love for God grew, he felt it was time to recommit. In 2013, he was baptized at Dorcas Wills Memorial Baptist Church in Trinity, Texas.
Despite his past challenges, Iniesta says he is now a devote Christian. In addition to his discipleship at CBU, he’s part of the community at Redeemer Baptist Church in Riverside — a community he considers to be his family.
“I haven’t talked to (my family) in maybe six years now, so when I say my church Redeemer is my family, I literally mean they’re my family,” Iniesta says. “They’re all I’ve got. They’re my people. They’re literally my family because they’re all that I have.”
Similar to Iniesta, Joshua Ventenilla, junior biomedical science major, was raised into a religion from which he later found himself disconnecting.
Ventenilla was born and raised in the Catholic church where he attended catechism classes, took part in youth groups and was later confi rmed. During these experiences, his faith began to grow.
The friends he made in youth groups played a big role in his faith. But as time passed, they all eventually graduated and moved on to college. Ventenilla, being the youngest, watched as the people he once looked up to began to give into sin. "It disheartened me a little bit to see them fall into the world,” says Ventenilla. “At a point in my life, I thought they were the most holy people ever. I thought these people are instruments of God and always will be. And to see them fall into drugs, fall into premarital sex, addiction and even suicide, it made me (feel) lost. It made me feel like I was in limbo... in my faith in God, (and) in general.”
After graduation, he felt called to attend CBU. Ventenilla explored several churches during his first two years as a student. However, after finding a Christian fellowship with which he connected, he was still concerned with what his family would think of him transitioning away from Catholicism.
It wasn’t until the death of Colden Davis, his friend and former student, that he decided to recommit to his faith and pursue the church of his choosing.
“It was easy for me to make decisions in my spiritual faith after (Colden’s death),” he says.
In March 2019, Ventenilla was baptized at Fellowship Monrovia Church and continues to serve God through the discipleship program on campus.
Mike Lovato, CBU alumnus and adult ministries pastor at Magnolia Church in Riverside, has seen his share of young adults discovering their faith, much like Iniesta and Ventenilla.
Throughout his 14 years of ministry, Lovato has worked with people of various ages, denominations and backgrounds, but spends most of his time with college-aged adults — some of which are struggling to find themselves. "There are a lot of identity struggles — trying to figure out who they are, what their life is going to be about and whether it is going to really matter,” Lovato says.
He encourages young adults struggling to find the right church to make it a priority to find a place and get involved.
“There is no such thing as a perfect church — every church has issues,” Lovato says. “Church is family, just like every family has issues, every church has something that’s going to be a struggle for somebody. So, I tell them first to know that it’s not perfect but then also to pick a place and land.” ◆
