REACH - A College Ministry Podcast of Acts 2 Network

S2:41 | CPIs (Church Plant Interns): Giving Your First Year After Graduation to God’s Mission (ft. 2025 CPIs)

In this episode of the REACH podcast, we sit down with CPIs (Church Plant Interns) who chose to give their first year after graduation not to career or grad school, but to helping plant new churches in college towns. We trace the storyof our CPI program from its beginnings in 2014 at UC Santa Barbara through the “Great Scattering” to the recent teams at UIUC, MSU, and IU, where they witnessed salvations, baptisms, and countless behind‑the‑scenes stories of God at work. Along the way, we talk about calling, life on a church plant team, learning under pastors, and how a CPI year can clarify life purpose and set a long‑term trajectory for missions and ministry. Whether you’re in our network or just curious from the outside, this conversation offers an honest, faith‑building glimpse into what it’s really like to spend that precarious first post‑grad year on high‑stakes gospel mission as a CPI.

S2:40 | Rekindling a Pioneering Heart Through Evangelism Road Trips

In this episode of the REACH podcast, Manny unpacks the power of ERTs—evangelism road trips—as a way to step back onto campus, recover a heart for lost students, and see beyond the “big cities” of college ministry to the manycampuses and affinity groups still untouched by the gospel. Drawing from Joshua’s “land yet to be taken,” the pioneering spirit of Lewis and Clark, and fresh stories from recent visits to more than 30 campuses, he challenges to see data about unreached colleges as real students with real stories andeternal destinies. Using the G-SHOES framework this episode offers practical handles for planning your next ERT and invites you to go the “last 200 miles” so that more students can hear and respond to the good news of Jesus.

S2:39 | How the 'Simple Church' Is Reaching Canada's Campuses (ft. Robin and Laura Wallar of Lift Church)

Robin and Laura Waller of Lift Church share how a desperate first-year prayer for a church at McMaster University became a multiplying movement of “simple churches” now spread across nine campuses in Southern Ontario, with eyes on McGill and French Canada. They unpack how their house-based simple churches function as the core unit of discipleship and mission, why every real member is embedded in one, and how this structure lets them raise up student leaders who can plant new works in just a few years. Robin and Laura also get candid about co-leading as a married couple, raising kids as co-laborers in a student neighborhood, limiting screens to cultivate deep connection, and the bittersweet cost of continually sending their best to pioneer new campuses in one of the most secular regions of the world.

S2:38 | House Church as a Leadership Factory: Students Owning, Leading, and Being Raised up as Kingdom Workers - Part 2 (ft. Andrew and Violet Siegand)

In this second episode on Sunday house church, Pastor Manny and Sunny sit down with Andrew and Violet Siegand from Kairos 1 at the University of Maryland. They walk us through what actually happens on a Sunday night in their home—from circles of students on the floor playing games and sharing a home-cooked meal to an Acts 2–style time in Scripture and discussion led and shaped by student leaders. We explore how this non-traditional model trades polished programs and production stress for an organic, family-like environment where students linger, serve, and grow as co-builders of the community through shared space, and life-on-life discipleship.

S2:37 | Rethinking Sundays: Why House Church Fits the Needs of Next Gen Campus Ministry - Part 1 (ft. Alex and Kristen Song)

In this episode of the REACH podcast, we explore how Alex and Kristen Song at the University of Maryland are reimagining the traditional Sunday service for a new generation of college students. Drawing from the history of seeker-sensitive mega churches and the organic Jesus Movement, we trace how the church’s attractional service model flourished in past decades but no longer fits an age marked by mistrust of institutions and a hunger for relational, interactive discipleship. Alex and Kristen unpack what happens in the room on Sundays, why a familial environment with shared meals, kids in the mix, and extended life-on-life discipleship resonates so deeply with mostly freshman students, and how this has led to clear salvation and Lordship decisions as they raise up future student leaders.