Churches a home away from home for students

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It’s easy to have a little faith for many who live in the community.

Students looking for religious groups at Central Michigan University and off-campus will find plenty of choices, both traditional and not.

Without setting a foot off campus students can attend Wesley at CMU, 1400 S. Washington St., His House Christian Church, 211 W. Broomfield Road, St. Mary’s University Parish, 1405 S. Washington St. or Christ the King Lutheran Chapel, 1401 S. Washington St. Off campus there are even more choices available to students from any denomination.

Faith Community Church of Mount Pleasant is a non-denominational church trying to bring an inner-city ministry feel to town, said lead Pastor Travis Hall. About one-third of the 75 people who attend the church at 113 W. Broadway St. are students.

“I’m not interested in all the ‘religious’ stuff that goes outside of the Bible. I’m interested in a real relationship with God,” Hall said. “We’re not as concerned with the way people come in as the way they come out.”

One thing Hall stresses about himself and his church is that they are real, and there is no room for fake people in the type of ministry they are running. Their 10 a.m. Sunday and 7 p.m. Wednesday services draw a culturally diverse crowd for spiritual answers with an urban edge.

Cornerstone Church, 2214 S. Lincoln Road, also breaks out of the church mold, calling themselves a “coffee house church,” according to Pastor Chad Brown.

“We’re trying to reach a number of people groups, people tired of traditionalism, people that have questions about God,” Brown said. “Our philosophy is people’s lives are messy so church is going to be messy.”

The church focuses on reaching people through many different forms of media, from secular movies to pop music, at their 9:15 and 11 a.m. services, Brown said. About 120 people come to Cornerstone on an average Sunday.

At 10:45 a.m., students can attend Central Michigan Free Methodist Church, 6012 S. Mission Road.

“We have a cross section of different age kinds of folks, we’ve got people who are retired, we’ve got young families, we’ve got kids here,” said Pastor Jason Leininger. “We seek to be true to the ancient confessions and work that out in contemporary life.”

Leininger said many Mount Pleasant churches are similar at the core ,but there’s a different feel for each one — like ice cream with different flavors.