Today we’d like to introduce you to Ted Godwin-Stremler.
Hi Ted, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Most college students are experiencing real independence from home for the first time. This is scary for parents, and students. We help with that transition. And here we are on the doorstep of the University of North Texas (UNT) and Texas Women’s University (TWU) in Denton Texas.
New Rev began in 2017 with our unique college ministry idea to house students together in a Christian community. 70% of Christian high school students who attend college will lose their faith during their college years. That’s really scary for parents and it should be. Lowering this number is one of the goals for New Rev. Our students encourage and support each other in faith while living in community and attending college. They also have a lot of good clean fun together.
Our other goal is leadership formation, teaching our college graduates to see themselves as leaders who bring the presence of God into their life’s work, no matter their career. At New Rev we encourage students to become people of faith who attract others to belief, faith, and hope in God. It’s the Biblical concept of the priesthood of all believers in action.
New Rev’s mission statement is ‘forming leaders actively engaged as Christ’s presence in the world,’ or as we say, “Empowering tomorrow’s leaders today.” We do this through formation. We operate on principles rather than rules or curriculum. The community experiences a lot of fun, food and fellowship while applying leadership skills, developing lifelong friendships, and finding purpose. The business outcome makes New Rev a safe, fun, supportive place for college students to live and grow. Also, our students have an average GPA of 3.9.
Andrea and I started this ministry by housing students in our home. Since then, we have gradually expanded New Rev into three leased houses near UNT where we house 12 students. Every Sunday evening during the school term we feed all the students together as a large community and we have a Bible study or special speaker. The dinners are rarely pizza or burgers. We provide real sit-down dinners. The students really look forward to the food. Many non-resident students join us for the Sunday evening dinners. Then during the week each house meets for the purpose of care, faith development, education, and prayer.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Every business worth pursuing has struggles, especially at the beginning. Gaining legal status, establishing the program, building networks, finding backing, insurance, and financial support, take time and effort. In many ways New Rev had a smooth slow start and in many other ways there were and are struggles. We are still a new non-profit business. We are always looking ahead to find a way forward to sustainability and growth. Flexibility is important yet faith and hope are critical.
Helping people from very diverse backgrounds and upbringings live together in community is challenging. Along the way we learned a lot from other organizations and books and from experience. We developed guiding practices that everyone in the community can use to enhance their experience for a happy life together. Now we have 5 practices: Love Truth, Live Faithfully, Respond Gratefully, Practice Hospitality and Engage with Curiosity. These practices help us center our interpersonal relationships within the community and thus lower the struggles and increase the fun factor.
New Rev does operate as a business in that the student residents pay rent. New Rev provides property management for the houses in addition to fellowship, Bible Studies, and Christian leadership development. The properties are high quality and in safe neighborhoods. We need more properties as we generally turn 10 to 15 students away every year because we just don’t have enough room, especially for women. Ideally we would like an entire apartment building. Yes, we know how to dream big.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Our founder and leader has a well-established history in Christian ministry. Reverend Doctor Andrea Godwin-Stremler serves as the ministry CEO. She is a minister in the Reformed Church in America (RCA) where she has actively worked at every level of the denomination through her current 40 years of service. I have the privilege of being married to Andrea, 42 years now, and serve as the Chief Of Operations & Logistics (COOL) for New Rev. I’m a retired Army Chaplain (Colonel) with 35 years of ministry experience. Throughout our careers Andrea and I worked with people from every religion and Christian denomination. This gives us the founding skills needed to set up an organization that is multi-denominational and can attend to local, national and international students.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
The board of directors is very active. They provide encouragement, support, and the right amount of pushing to keep the ministry focused and moving forward. We also benefit from denominational oversight of the RCA. While the ministry is open to all students, the senior leaders are overseen by this well-established national and international historic denomination. I think this is comforting to parents and students. New Rev is not a stand-alone one-horse ministry. But at the same time, it is a “Mom and Pop” kind of local business.
The ministry also benefits from the students. Each house has a house leader to help with tasks and community living. We are also blessed to have two student leaders who assist with ministry work, planning, and encouragement.
Our greatest help comes through lots of prayers. We are a faith-based community after all and our faith in God helps us the most in carrying the ministry forward. We have over 300 prayer partners. That’s a lot of incentive, hope, and encouragement to keep the business moving forward.
Pricing:
- Students pay rent for living in the community housing. A shared room us typically $500 a month and private rooms are a little more. Students also share utility expenses for each house.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://newrev.us
- Instagram: newrevelationsdenton
- Facebook: New Revelations Collegiate Mission, also New Rev
- LinkedIn: New Revelations Collegiate Mission
