Peering into any classrooms in NHS during AL could lead to the discovery of a new club. NHS has tens of different clubs created by students and faculty alike. One of the newest clubs, Hallway Ministries (HM), a Christian club started by sophomores Jake Jordan and Matthew Lingren and freshman Jon Osgood, stands resolute in its determination to help the common teenager grow in faith and life as a whole.

“Hallway Ministries is a place where people can come together, believers and nonbelievers, and they can come together in this room and talk about God,” Jordan said. “We’ll have lessons, and we can help [the students that attend] improve in their faith and they can help us improve in ours.”

French teacher Madame Tharp-Taylor facilitates the club by allowing the students to use her classroom during ALs.

“I just wanted them to have a space where they can come together during the school day and do this,” Tharp-Taylor said.

Mindful of the negative backlash that came as a response to the creation of the Student Secular Alliance (SSA) club months prior, HM is starting quietly with no publicity by NHS Announcements or flyers in the hall. Word of mouth brings new attendees to the club, where the creators attempt to bring God into school and prepare young Christians for God’s calling.

“We’re going to help [students] find [their] gifts and talents and then put [them] out there in the Kingdom of God,” Jordan said.

Freshman Chloe Kirby, an attendee of the club, finds the club beneficial in multiple ways.

“All of [the leaders] are very enlightening, and you can learn a lot and really improve your relationship with God,” Kirby said.

With the motto of the club being “God does not call the equipped, he equips the called,” according to Jordan, the leaders aim to “Help [students] find their gifts and talents and [teach them] how to utilize [their gifts and talents].”

Lesson range from Who Am I in Christ? to analyzing parables and Bible passages to debunking skewed views of Christianity and providing students with a better understanding of what Christianity really is. All their lessons connect Christianity to the real world and reveal how it applies to a student living 2000 years after the death of Christ, but the format of the club generally remains the same.

“We’ll prepare a lesson, and we’ll present it, and then we’ll discuss it as a group,” Lingren said.

Ultimately, all the ideas and lessons discussed relate back to the idea of “equipping” students.

“It’s all over the board, but we all try to connect it back to we’re His workmanship and [to] our mission statement: God doesn’t call the equipped, He equips the called,” Jordan said.