ReFrame has brought our community of students together and has opened up a space for dialogue about Christianity.
I run a Christian residence hall of 40 students on the campus of the University of British Columbia, and surprisingly I found it was hard for the students—Christians themselves—to have conversations with each other about Jesus. People were tentative to speak up about their faith. It was not a natural part of the culture. That’s where ReFrame came in. Every Tuesday night, we had about a quarter of the community come to one of the student lounges to watch the film and then discuss it together for 30 minutes. It was a really simple format and required very little preparation on my part as the leader, since the leader guide really sets you up well. What happened was just shocking to me.
Conversation was sometimes a little slow-going, but in all, the curriculum and subject matter helped students open up about their questions, doubts, and current experiences living amidst a huge secular college campus. We even saw a couple of students who didn’t consider themselves Christians draw nearer to Christ!
ReFrame has helped us dialogue about issues of faith for the first time as a community. It launched discussions about why the subjects they are studying matter (engineering, law, physics, sciences, math, etc.); who we are as image bearers; how the Old Testament connects with the New Testament; the world as God’s temple; how Jesus is revealed through the lens of the OT, and more. The floodgates were opened on these topics and they started to understand more of who they were as human beings according to the Bible.
Because ReFrame is geared to people in the workplace, parts of the curriculum weren’t entirely designed for students, but I found it quite easy to replace “situations in a secular workplace” with “situations in a secular college.” It has been deeply satisfying as a leader to host honest conversations about faith and eternal matters, and to see the students who are under my care grow in the faith and their understanding of who Jesus is.
Carson Leith
Residential Dean
Carey Centre, University of British Columbia
