On Thursday night, athletes at the University of Pittsburgh hosted an event called “Pitt for Jesus” to spread the Good News of Christ to others on campus. The event featured baptisms, live worship music, prayer, athlete testimonies and, of course, free food.
Various Pittsburgh ministries and the student-athlete-led movement Pitt Purpose teamed up to bring the campus community together under the banner of Jesus.
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“You’ve been looking, you’ve been searching, for fulfillment, for answers. We have it right here: it’s Jesus,” Life Church Pittsburgh pastor Adam Miller said in an Instagram post promoting the event. “He’s gonna meet with you this night.”
And God certainly did. According to Miller’s wife, Julie, more than 600 students attended the event, 65 of them received salvation in Christ, and 80 people were baptized, including Pitt baseball player Gavin Chillot and Pitt softball player Macy Hamilton.
“Watching God move in and through your favorite people is a feeling that will NEVER get old,” Julie posted on Instagram.
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Jake Overman, a redshirt senior tight end on Pitt’s football team, helped spearhead the effort to host the campus event honoring Christ. He shared a message from the stage Thursday night, and prayed over the athletes in attendance.
“Whether it’s on the court, whether it’s in the classroom, wherever it may be Lord, I just pray for a boldness to come over these athletes, Lord,” Overman said in one of the many videos Pitt Purpose shared on Instagram Stories in the hours after the event. “I thank You that You have positioned them in such a time as this, that You have given each and every single one of them a platform. And Lord, I just pray that it would be a platform that wouldn’t build them up, but would build You up. So Lord, we just pray and we declare right now that Pitt Athletics belongs to Jesus.”
(Instagram/@pittpurpose)
(Instagram/@pittpurpose)
(Instagram/@pittpurpose)
At the beginning of the year, Overman sensed God’s call to launch Pitt Purpose with the help of local pastors, and he’s been inspired by what he’s seen God do in the football program since then.
More than 45 football players have publicly declared their faith in Christ, and more and more are participating in Bible studies and prayer meetings. Many athletes at Pitt have begun to attend church, and some have even undergone the sacrament of baptism. Overman is excited that the movement is beginning to extend beyond the football program to other sports and to the campus as a whole.
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“We were seeing the move of God that was happening (on other campuses) and we really felt like God had a heart for the University of Pittsburgh and especially (the) athletics program,” Overman told the Christian Broadcast Network in June. “We saw that God was moving in a powerful way, so we wanted to start really like a movement.”
Overman, who wears an armband with a cross and an armband with a Bible verse for all to see during games, told CBN that Pitt’s campus seemed ready for revival.
“I think that the harvest here [at the school] and the soil here is good soil,” he said. “I think that is why we’re receiving so much openness to the Gospel. I think God’s been getting all of their hearts ready for it for many seasons, many years, and I think now is the time.”
Overman’s hope for what God could do doesn’t stop with Pitt’s athletic department, however.
“If God can touch a football team, then He could touch a campus. And if He could touch a campus, we think He could touch a city,” he said. “If you could touch a city we believe that He could touch a state. … If He could touch a state, He could touch a country.”
In a soon-to-be-released episode of Sports Spectrum’s “What’s Up” podcast, Overman revealed that he hasn’t always been eager to tell others about Jesus.
“It was time to step up, really, to step up in a new way on this team and lead this team not only on the field but off the field. I’ve always seen myself as a guy who’s done the right things and led my team on the field, but stepping out of my comfort zone and leading these guys towards God has been something that hasn’t always been my calling until early this year.
“I really felt a call of God that it was time. He wanted to move on this team.”
Overman’s idea to host a “Pitt for Jesus” event on campus began with a dream that he says was from God.
“‘You showed me it in a dream and if You want this to happen, then make it happen,'” he said on the podcast about a prayer he’d asked of God. “And then of course, He’s making it happen. That’s just the kind of God that He is.”
Overman and his 2-1 Panthers are off this weekend, but start ACC play on Sept. 27, hosting Louisville (2-0) at 12 p.m. ET.
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