University Bible Fellowship (UBF) is an international Bible-based organization that has a chapter that meets on the Shippensburg University campus weekly.

UBF was started in the 1960s on a college campus in Korea. Today, UBF has more than 70 chapters in the U.S. and many in multiple countries in South America, Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. The SU chapter of UBF was started in the 1980s.

UBF exists to, “follow Jesus according to His world mission command and make disciples of all nations based on what scripture tells us,” according to Chris Sherrill. Sherrill is the UBF club president at SU. Sherrill also said, “We focus on campus evangelism all over the world, encouraging students to meet Jesus personally and become disciples.”

Daniel Lee an SU economics professor is the faculty adviser for UBF. Lee said in response to the group’s purpose, “Studying the Bible and following its teachings is the most important aspect of the UBF ministry. It’s our middle name.”

The UBF at SU meets two times every week. On Sundays at 11 a.m. UBF meets in the Cora L. Grove Spiritual Center. Then a small group of UBF students meet on Wednesday s at 7p.m. in CUB Room 104.

Sherrill said the meetings on Sunday mornings are “a traditional Christian worship service.” The Sunday worship services include praise music and hymns, prayer, scripture reading, a message, tithe/offerings and a time for announcements. The weekly messages are based on whichever book of the Bible the group is studying that semester. After every Sunday service the group eats lunch together.

On Wednesday nights, a small group of UBF students meet in the CUB for a relaxed, Bible study-type meeting. These meetings begin with the group singing a worship song. The group then spends the majority of their time together doing a character study on a Biblical figure. They then end their meeting by sharing prayer requests and breaking into pairs to pray for the requests of the other group members.

Each week the group does a character study on the life of a Biblical figure who is not very prominent. They look at the life of that character to see what lessons they can learn from that character’s life.

“The purpose of the character study is to discuss the lesser-known men and women of the Bible and see how God used them or impacted their life,” Sherrill said.

To conduct the character study, the group reads various verses from the Bible that are about different aspects of that characters life. After reading the Bible verses, the group discusses the character traits and life of that person. They also look at and discuss how that character’s weaknesses and strengths are similar to their own.

On Saturday, April 27, the UBF had a dedication service for its new University Bible Fellowship House. The UBF bought the house, located at 6 Hot Point Avenue in Shippensburg to help expand its outreach. Group members turned the main floor of the house into a gathering space for meetings and Bible studies. The second floor of the house is to be available to house male UBF students.

UBF is open to all students. The group is always looking for and excited to have more students join them in their fellowship meetings.

“Everyone is welcome to join and experience what the Bible has to offer,” Sherrill said.

The SU chapter of UBF will hold its last Wednesday night meeting for the spring 2013 semester on May 1. The final meeting will begin at 7p.m. in CUB 104. Group members will be ending the semester with a pizza party and Bible-related games. Students are encouraged to come and see what UBF is all about, meet current members of the group and consider joining the group.

UBF will continue to meet in the Spiritual Center on most Sundays after the semester ends. On Sundays that the university closes the Spiritual Center there will not be a Sunday morning service.

Any students not going home for the summer are welcome to join the group for its Sunday morning worship services at 11a.m.

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