Morgan Robertson November 11, 2013 English 1101-025 Discourse Community Ethnography The discourse community I decided to observe

was CBF (Campus Bible Fellowship). I am an insider to this group, and have been involved since the second week of school. CBF meets every Wednesday from 7pm to 9pm. This meeting starts off with dinner and is followed by announcements, games/skits, prayer requests and a message. We meet in the Student Union in room 340 B and C. We usually have around fifty to sixty people each week, which makes us one of the largest student organizations on campus. In this ethnography I am going to be convincing outsiders of the value of Campus Bible Fellowship. My Topic of Inquiry question I am going to try and figure out is: How does everyone keep their composure and act like nothing is ever wrong with them? I observed this group on Wednesday October 30th and Wednesday November 6th for two hours each. From observing this group I have learned that I have another family to go to while I am away at school. CBF is very ordinary because how many others group feed their students each week? Everyone is so close and friendly and gets along which I feel like is very unusual for society today. During my observation on Wednesday October 30th we had a costume party. We met in the Lucas Room in the Cone Center. We had music and a short message and then played games. We had finger foods like chicken nuggets, popcorn and churros. People came dressed as

fisherman, pirates, Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, and many more. No one every sits in the same spot. We also move tables and try and meet new people, since we are like a family. Campus Bible Fellowship offers many ways to get involved. Saturday November 2nd they went out and visited shut-ins and then went to a corn maze. We also have game nights, concerts every Saturday, bike trips, retreats and Christmas parties. The officers try and have something every other weekend because if students do not go home they want them to feel at home and have something to do. It is also a good break from the stress of school work and end of semester finals. I am thankful I have found my home away from home. While observing Campus Bible Fellowship I took notes on how people act, talk and present themselves. When you walk in the doors it is such a loving atmosphere. There is always someone waiting at the door to greet you and ask how you are. It makes you feel welcomed and loved. When observing the conversations, the main thing people talked about were how you are, how your week has been, I will be praying for you and is there anything I can do. It is a genuinely uplifting atmosphere. For example one of the officers came up to me and said How are you? How has your week been? I hope you have a good rest of the week. This made me feel loved and like someone actually cared. I was very stressed out that day but after she talked to me I felt better. Everyone in the group says they always look forward to Wednesday because it gets you away from stress and into encouragement. In most student organizations the officers may come across stuck-up because they are in control and have the power. However, in Campus Bible Fellowship if the officers did not talk you would not be able to figure out who the officers were because they come across the same as everyone else. Jeff Abernathy is the one who gives the messages. He is from a church called Northside Baptist which is not far from the campus. He and his wife are very involved in Campus Bible Fellowship from Wednesday nights to events on

the weekends. They open up their house for game nights. They both are very welcoming and treat you like their own kids. They are the parent figures so it really makes you feel like you are a big family. Being a part of this organization is very important because without it I would go through the week with no break from school work and would also be down in the dumps with the amount of school work I have to get down. I am grateful I found this organization because they are very similar to my church at home. They believe in going out and serving others which is very important to me. Even on Wednesdays, members going around asking if there is anything they can do for you. Something that small is important and brightens their day. Campus Bible Fellowship plays a major role on campus because we are able to reach out and help others. Most people in the world see a dark place that is going in the wrong direction. However the members of Campus Bible Fellowship we try and we light in the world and believe we can make a difference in someones life by smiling or asking how they are. For my interview, I asked one of the officers, Ashley Johnson questions about her experience in CBF. The first question I asked her was what is the hardest thing you have had to do while in CBF? Her response has The hardest most recently would have to be this semester as an officer (treasurer to be exact) of CBF. We have a lot of other students, who are not officers help out (not naming certain people). One of them was a girl and is our special event helper and for a while she was coming to our weekly officers meeting, it ended up that she was overstepping some of the officers and we basically had to vote on whether or not she, and the other students who helped out, should come to weekly officers meetings. As a close friend of hers it was hard to put my other position and the well-being of the officers and CBF. I ended up voting that she only come to officer meeting when a special event is being planned. It was hard to see her upset about the decision, but it was what CBF needed.

The next question was what obligation do you have to CBF? She said I am the treasurer, so that means my formal obligation is to keep our balance in check, make sure we keep ourselves on budget for special events, and to handle the money for events and other things, such as tshirts. My informal obligation to CBF is to help other students feel comfortable with us and like a family and to help spread the word of Christ to other students. The third question was what is a fear that you have had to overcome while in CBF? When I first started coming to CBF (January 2011), I had this fear of people judging me. I would sit in the back and literally talk to only Cori Owens, Kim and Jeff. So I had to overcome and realize that CBF is a very welcoming place and that I am accepted. In the fall I decided to connect with CBFers and now I thank God that I did that because some of my closet friends are in CBF. The fourth question I asked was how has being a part of this group changes who you are today. CBF has made my college experience. I was not being a great Christian the first semester of my freshman year (Fall 2010) and CBF made me realize that just accepting Christ is not good enough. I need to live for Him. CBF is the thing I will cherish most when I look back at college, it has made me such a better person and someone I think God is proud of. For the fifth question I asked if you had not joined CBF, where do you think you would be today. I would be lost. I would be doing a lot of sinful things and not well with my faith. I would not be in my relationship with my boyfriend, I would be a lot more grumpy, and I would probably be doing things that right now I would ashamed to even speak of. For the sixth question I asked who inspired you as a mentor and why? Kim Abernathy has been my mentor. I dont think any other person at CBF made me feel more loved then her. She is honest, trustworthy, and hilarious! She NEVER wanted to go to Africa for mission work and God accepted that challenge and sent her and Jeff there and she fully accepted that. I love

that, I love that she lets God control her live. I complain a lot about school (I think we all do) and she just laughs at us and is like this just at the beginning and I love that. She never softens things, she keeps it real. For the final question I asked her was have you ever felt like culture was trying to pull you away from CBF? Absolutely! I literally had NO ONE when I first started going to CBF. All of my friends would ask me to go to dinner or do something Wednesday nights and it was extremely tough for me to continue to go to CBF. The typical college lifestyle does not involve continuing your faith, and I think its hard to turn away from the typical way and be different. Now there is nothing to keep me away for a CBF meeting. If someone asks me to do something on Wednesday night, I ask them to come to CBF instead.