When the big bus rolled into the parking lot for the first service Sunday morning, we knew that we were going to have an awesome kickoff for the new school year with the college ministry. Every seat but two was taken as over 45 students poured out of the bus and through the halls of the church, stopping off to get some caffeine before going into the 8:45 service.

Last year over 300 college students attended Heritage as we experienced explosive growth in the involvement of students from Young Life, Campus Crusade for Christ, and the Otterbein Christian Fellowship. Many of them attended our first college connection brunch of the school year under the tent in the courtyard on Sunday—35 students at the brunch indicated that they were attending Heritage for the first time. Many students who filled out a survey indicated an interest in serving the children’s, middle school, high school and prison ministries, as well as an interest in our Sunday morning equipping class studying the gospel of John.

Young people energize churches. We are so blessed to have hundreds of college students involved at Heritage. With over seventy students riding the bus from OSU last weekend and with the freshman who started classes last week just starting to hear about Heritage and the shuttle from OSU, we will be challenged to make room for a hundred more. All we can say is “WELCOME!”