A Window Into Discipleship & Worship

Campus House is grateful to welcome Bryan and Morgan Zinn to our ministry team this year! Bryan serves as the Pastor of Teaching & Equipping, developing curriculum and leading Align (our mid-week gathering) and other discipleship initiatives. As our Worship Leader & Artist in Residence, Morgan coordinates Sunday worship and invests in student worship leaders. We asked the Zinns’ to share more about how they came to know Jesus and become part of the Campus House community.

Q.Can you tell the Campus House community a bit of your backstory?

Bryan: I was born and raised in the metro-Detroit area of Michigan as the first of three kids. Church was a regular part of our lives for as long as I could remember. Reflecting on my childhood, the most formative communities were my home church and the Christian summer camp I would attend and serve at. I am so deeply grateful for the friends and mentors I had in my childhood to help shape me and point me to Christ. Morgan and I met at Spring Arbor University while serving a local youth group, and our lives together since have been marked by a desire to serve and pursue Christ together. Shortly after we got married we moved to Kentucky so that I could attend Asbury Theological Seminary. While the education itself was valuable, the life that we had serving in a local church plant became the context for significant growth and discernment for both of us. Before arriving at Campus House, Morgan and I were living at the Christian camp that I grew up attending. I served as the Discipleship and Events Manager there, helping to run a gap-year experience for college-age students. Coming to Campus House has allowed me to continue my passion for teaching and discipleship while also being able to serve vocationally alongside my wife. One of the most joyful parts of our time here so far has been watching Morgan step into the gifts that God has given her and lead humbly and powerfully.

Morgan: I was born in Northern Michigan and grew up in a Christian home.  I have a lot of memories of my family gathering around a piano and singing worship songs and hymns to the Lord together, which started a passion for the Lord and worship music in my heart at a young age. Songwriting became my favorite way to meet with Jesus. I studied Music and Songwriting at Spring Arbor University, where I met Bryan. We love being a part of the transformational work of Jesus in young people’s lives and are grateful to now get to serve on staff here at Campus House.

Q. How did God draw your hearts to campus ministry, in particular?

Bryan: When I was at Spring Arbor University, I had wise and caring mentors that spoke into my life and helped to guide me through those formative years. When I graduated, I wasn’t entirely sure what God would call me to or equip me for, but I knew that I wanted to be able to give back to students in the same way that I had been blessed. God took that passion and has placed me in contexts where I have been able to work alongside college students in various forms.

Morgan: What brought us to Campus House was actually a thread of relationships we made over the last few years with individuals who have served in different capacities at CH and Greyhouse. In 2018, I played a small show in the Ristretto Room through Purdue students’ homework assignment of booking musicians for their class. After the show, I lost my car keys and couldn’t make the 3.5 hour trek back home. Ali Wisthuff generously opened her home to me that night, which began a friendship that eventually lead us to apply for positions at Campus House. We also met Ralph McCoy while playing the Sunflower Festival, who then booked us to perform at Starry Night in 2019. Through another friend, we played a house show in Indianapolis and opened for Levi Schrumpf, Rob and Lea’s son. It was through all of these connections that we were led to move here! We love the people and are so grateful to be a part of this community.

Q. What excites you most about this school year and season of “building together” as a church community?

Bryan: I love this season of “building together” because there are so many opportunities for students and families to experience the vibrant life of the Church as it was intended. We weren’t called to consume but to participate in the work that God is doing to build His Kingdom here. “Building together” gives us all an opportunity to be aware of the ways God is calling us to love and serve our contexts, regardless of our season of life or age.

Morgan: It is very exciting to be a part of a ministry that values prayer and discernment with the Lord. I love getting to dream and help shape this Jesus-centered community that plants Jesus-centered communities and figuring out ways to partner in that aim with the students and community members who are gifted in leading worship. I am grateful for the spiritual healing and growth that has taken place in so many students’ and families’ lives this semester already, but I’m looking forward to seeing that grow even more as we dive deeper into His Word and live in obedience to who and what He is calling us to.

Q. What is a frequent prayer you pray for the students and community members in our midst?

Bryan: At the end of the third chapter of Ephesians, Paul prays that the churches around Ephesus would be “filled with all the fullness of God.” Even before we moved to Lafayette and before we started studying Ephesians as a community, this powerful prayer from Paul has been my prayer for my own life and the for this community. What more can you ask for except to be filled with all the fullness of God!?

Morgan: A prayer I have been praying over students and community members lately has been a prayer of asking for Jesus to comfort and be their Prince of Peace. There is so much brokenness and heaviness and pain that we carry, but Jesus says that His burden is light. I’m praying that His burden that is light would rest upon their shoulders, that they may walk unhindered and run the race set before them.

Q. Whats your regular Greyhouse order?

Bryan: Honestly, my usual order is black coffee with no particular preference on the roast. If I am feeling adventurous (or extra tired), I will order a Dirty Masala Chai or a Cortado.

Morgan: Although I like to drink the many different creative and traditional drinks Greyhouse has to offer, I regularly order a vanilla or caramel latte.

 

Connect with Bryan and Morgan and welcome them to Campus House via their email addresses on our staff page.

Would you be willing to meet the need on campus?

Your gifts create opportunities for Purdue students to grow as disciples during their time on campus and beyond. Will you support Campus House to help equip them to follow Jesus for all of life?