Wow! Students write
entire Gospel of John
on campus sidewalk
Credit: Courtesy of John Bierman
50 students from the University of Illinois spent nearly four hours writing the entire Gospel of John in chalk on the campus quad's sidewalks.
You might have heard of the incredible campus ministry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).
Now students from the university’s Newman Center came together to write out the entire Gospel of John by hand in chalk on the sidewalks of the campus quad, a stunning display that took three and a half hours to complete.
UIUC is the fifth largest public university in the U.S., with close to 60,000 enrolled students, and its Newman Center is the largest in the nation, with a residence hall that houses nearly 600 students.
Aleteia had the chance to catch up with Conor Bergan and John Bierman, the students who led the project. Both are juniors and are resident advisors at the Newman Center.
Some 50 students took part in the project, they said, writing in chalk from 8 to 11:30 pm on Monday, October 19.
“You don't spend 4 hours on your knees writing in chalk for something you are half-hearted about”
Bergan initially suggested the idea, with Bierman quickly jumping on board. Bergan explained what inspired him to write the Gospel of John on the quad sidewalks:
I thought, “This has the possibility of reaching so many people.” Our Newman Center is great at drawing people in who have some familiarity of the faith, but at a 60,000-person campus, many people will never interact with the Newman Center. They cannot be reached if nobody knows them.
He also simply hoped to inspire others, saying:
You don't spend 4 hours on your knees writing in chalk for something you are half-hearted about. The people who came out are on fire for Jesus, and this was a great way to evangelize just a short walk from our home.
He chose the Gospel of John because of its emphasis on the divinity of Jesus, mentioning his love for St. Thomas the Apostle's exclamation, “My Lord and my God,” in John 20:28.
Heavy foot traffic erased most of the “chalk Gospel” by Friday, he said, but added, “The reaction we got on Tuesday morning was worth all of it. It was the first time I have ever been happy to see people walk with their heads down.”
“We definitely saw the fruits”
Bierman explained what motivated the students to write out the entire Gospel of John in such a noticeable way:
If you're going to read one book of the Bible, I think you should read John. It's going to tell you the love story that God wrote into our lives, both on a large scale and on a very personal level.
We wanted to help people experience the love that we know here at Newman. We really just wanted to reach people, and this seemed like a unique and fun way to do that.
Then we definitely saw the fruits of that, both the day after, when we saw people read it, and when people came up to us while we were writing it too.
What kinds of reactions did the students get, both while they wrote it and in the days that followed? Bierman described many positive and curious responses:
We saw a lot of people just with their heads down, reading it as they're walking across the quad. A lot of people were genuinely impressed and shocked that we did it—that someone took the time to do that—and I think that's a seed planted.
A lot of people reached out and said, “Hey, that was really cool.” One person asked, “What's the Spark Notes of the Gospel?” And funnily enough, we were standing right by Chapter 3, so I pointed them to John 3:16.
Honestly, if it changed one life, or even just planted a seed that's going to grow, it was worth it.
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