Student Preacher Thomas Shroder Presents Chapel Message March 6

March 7, 2019

Student preacher Thomas Shroder delivered the chapel message Wednesday, March 6, in Raley Chapel’s Potter Auditorium. His message focused on Ephesians 1:15-23 and he emphasized our personal relationships with God. Shroder was selected by the Hobbs College of Theology and Ministry to serve as this year’s student preacher, an annual spring semester event on Bison Hill.

Shroder opened his message with a personal testimony of how he came to Christ through one of his close friends. He spoke about how following Christ requires taking the focus away from yourself.

“Don’t be so self-centered that you miss out on what God is doing in other people’s lives,” he said.

Shroder then focused on how to have a personal relationship with Christ and talked about how God is a relational God. He reminded the audience that God desires to have a deep relationship with us and that God doesn’t just want us to know about Him.

“Your hope in Christ is a worthy thing to cling to, your inheritance is coming,” he said. “God wants to work in and through you to change the lives of other people.”

He then challenged students to not give in to temptations of this world and to not make material things our “gods.” Rather, he said we should look to our Heavenly Father as our God and strive to be more like Him daily.

“You will not find anything that compares to the joy you will find through a relationship with Christ anywhere else but at the foot of the cross,” he said.

Shroder is a member of the Bison baseball team and an interdisciplinary major with emphases in pastoral ministry, apologetics and economics. A native of Tucson, Arizona, he plans to spend this summer as a camp manager at Sky Ranch in Texas and then follow the Lord’s calling to be a pastor.