To God be the glory! We are overwhelmed by the work God is doing in and through our church. In early August, 50 of our student leaders gathered with our Salt Co. staff to pray and prepare to engage students and invite them to follow Jesus. They spent countless hours on campus building relationships with students, inviting them to fun events, and boldly sharing the Gospel.

Our Salt Co. Kickoff had more than 450 students in attendance, and 51 students indicated that they put their faith in Jesus that evening! These aren’t just numbers. These are names. These are stories. These are lives being changed by Jesus.

Since then, our staff has been faithfully following up with students. We have already seen many take their next steps of faith, including students being baptized and learning what it means to follow Jesus.

Sunday mornings in August have been a joy! Students have been arriving in the backs of truck beds, greeted by men and women who have called this church home for more than 30 years. Every seat has been filled, with even our downstairs overflow space completely full. People from very different walks and stages of life are worshipping the same God, eager to take a deeper look at Jesus as we study through the book of Mark together.

There has been a contagious joy filling our church building and overflowing into connection groups on campus and throughout the city. We have seen many people come to know Jesus, with 7 individuals taking their next step of faith through baptism.

Destiny, one of the girls who was baptized, first started coming to Calvary Commons at our launch last year. She told me: “Accepting Jesus has really helped me through my dark times. I am a very different person from last year to this year. I wouldn’t even recognize myself.”

In a city full of people who have known a lot about Jesus, we are seeing people come to truly know and follow Jesus. Thank you for partnering with us to help make the name of Jesus non-ignorable in Knoxville and the University of Tennessee, to the ends of the earth!