Tide 4 Christ has provided so many amazing opportunities to serve God with like-minded people and fellowship together while doing so. Although being in college is stressful at times, this group does a great job of focusing spiritually by simply being accountable for one another. There are so many ways to get involved and to better connect with the group.
In a typical week, we have Bible class and worship together on Sunday mornings, usually following a fellowship with friends out to eat somewhere and splitting up that evening to attend Life Groups. Our Life Groups are led by four different guys from T4C and each one is discussing a different and challenging topic from the Bible. These groups are designed to be informal, open conversations about God’s Word and allows us to further grow together on our spiritual journey. On Tuesday nights, we are blessed with a free meal from members at Central or restaurants around Tuscaloosa, which we are extremely thankful for. This time has especially been valuable in giving the opportunity to form relationships with different people, and a way to invite a friend to church. After our time of fellowship together, we hear a devotional led by Will Sharp. This past semester, Will’s common theme was “one word,” so each week we dove into a different keyword to see what God says about them. For example, we discussed the church, fellowship, worries, baptism, creation, etc. On Wednesday nights we are able to have split girls and guys classes, led by either an adult in the congregation or one of the college students. This has been really beneficial in our growth as leaders and serve God the way we are called to.
Another incredible thing available to us each semester is a retreat. Although we weren’t able to go on a beach trip or to the lake, we were able to have it here in Tuscaloosa with J Hall as a guest speaker. He shared with us the significance of connecting with the church, God, and each other. During the retreat, we were able to have fun doing things like mini golf and axe throwing, but we also used this time to truly strengthen our faith. A new type of fellowship that has been implemented this year is “Midnight with the Master.” This is a time for us to come to the church building at around 9 or 10 p.m. and let go of all of our stresses of the long week or day and open up God’s Word. Throughout the spring semester, we completed a study of the book of Hebrews. This led to many great conversations of examining our lives as Christians and what we are called to be on this earth.
Our group is full of people with different backgrounds and knowledge, but we are able to share a common goal in Christ which is incredibly encouraging. This fellowship we have with one another is not only important in this life, but eternally as God made us to be encouragers for each other. 
Peyton Reed is from Madison, Alabama and majoring in Computer Science
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