According to Pew Research Center, Millennials are least affiliated with a religion than members of Generation X, and twice as unaffiliated as Baby Boomers.

“Our generation has seen much hypocrisy present in Christianity in general,” said Marc Persing, founder and president of Hope Worldwide Campus Club. “and this has become a major turn off.”

Hope Worldwide Campus Club is a Christian based, non-profit club that was founded spring semester 2017 to serve the poor and to love God. The club was created to emulate HOPE Worldwide, an international charity.

“Our campus needs hope and our community needs hope,” said Persing, a philosophy major. “We believe [hope] comes through Jesus and his example.”

What makes this club stand out is their ‘Hope Street Team.’ Every Saturday afternoon, the club comes together to cook meals and bring them to the homeless at Newark Penn Station.

A gripe many people have with religion is how they are not doing humanity any good by simply going to church or by praying. HWCC is working towards changing this stigma.

“I joined because this club talks about God,” said Randy Adjetey, a club member. “We bring unity and people come together to see who we are as Christians.”

“I get to talk about God with other people,” said Jordan Jones, a club member.  “We do community service and I feel like I’m doing a service with this life I’ve been given.”

At the meeting, with 20 members present, there was a session of ‘Bible Talk.’ This is when a member of the club leads the discussion about a section of the Bible. During the meeting on February 13, faith in action was discussed in reference to James 2:17.

The Bible Talk began with everyone introducing themselves and saying what they wanted to improve about themselves. The answers ranged from quitting bad habits, learning to be patient and controlling anger.

An impactful opinion brought up during the discussion about morality was that people can be good without having faith. According to the Bible, faith isn’t about perfection,  faith is about humanity as a whole. This is impactful because a group of religious people recognizing that they are not the only compass, when it comes to morality and ethics, will make outsiders more apt to joining and listening to what HWCC has to say.

“This club brought me outside of my comfort zone,” said Charles Del Valle, a junior communications major and the public relations chair for the club. “Now when I come to WPU, I feel like I have another family to go to with club Hope.”

The meeting came to a close with Persing leading the group in prayer, thanking God for the opportunity to be with like-minded people and the ability to help the community.

Regardless of your religious beliefs, or lack thereof, HWCC is welcoming to anyone and everyone can gain something from attending a meeting and apply the topics discussed to their everyday lives. Those interested in attending a meeting can email Persing at [email protected]