UT Student Finds Inner Faith: The Story of Russell Gaither

Senior Russell Gaither, a Latino American, is studying communications at the University of Tampa. After graduation, Gaither plans on going to work on the InterVarsity staff for college ministry. He will be going to different college campuses that do not have groups that know about Jesus, presenting the gospel and planting ministries on those campuses throughout the country. The Minaret had an opportunity to interview Gaither to find out about how he came to be interested in college ministry.

The Minaret: Where are you going to plant ministries on different campuses?

Gaither: Depends, I will probably plant either in Miami or here in Tampa. I’m sure I’ll plant here in Tampa at HCC (Hillsborough Community College). Community colleges are on the margins. Community colleges are usually the people that don’t have the opportunity to experience the four-year college experience because of different reasons. A lot of them [students] are minorities. Those are the people that need ministry and Jesus and we bring Jesus to them.

The Minaret: What exactly is InterVarsity?

Gaither: It is a group of students on campus that investigate who Jesus is. Once most people hit their college career, they forget their faith. They lose it. InterVarsity gives them the ability and opportunity to find out who Jesus really is. When most people actually look into Jesus, they fall in love with him. So, it gives people a chance to investigate him and then to follow him; gives everyone an equal share and opportunity.

The Minaret: What’s your story? How did you become interested in following the path of Jesus?

Gaither: Well, I grew up Christian, I lived the so-called ‘Christian life,’ going to church every Sunday and saying that I’m good. As I hit my freshmen year of college, I did the college thing, it was great, did my partying, had my fun, it was a good time. I started questioning [life], I woke up one morning completely drunk in my own throw-up, sat there in bed and questioned why I was drinking at all and what life is about. If life is about just living on this earth for 75-80 years, then it’s meaningless; then there’s nothing meaningful except living and perishing. I wanted to investigate life deeper and there are plenty of religions but there was only place that was calling me in for a relationship. I looked into Buddhism, which was looking for perfection, something I could never be. So, then I looked at Jesus in the first scripture, read about sinners and I was propelled into investigating him further. All in all, if there is such a thing as a God coming in, a God coming in human form, to not take all the sins of my issues but of the whole world, was kind of hard to fathom.

The Minaret: How did you get involved in InterVarsity and following the path of Jesus?

Gaither: Sophomore year I transferred to UT, saw a poster for InterVarsity that had weekly Bible studies. They had large weekly group meetings with about 40-50 people, a community of people investigating and asking questions together such as is this actually someone I should follow. The great thing about InterVarsity is that I found Muslims, Buddhists, all peoples [sic] in there questioning their religion. So, it gave everyone an opportunity to search and by the year’s end, people had converted and fallen in love with Jesus. InterVarsity turned into a passion that I wanted to do further after college. Lastly, because when you sit across from someone and share life with someone and give an opportunity to speak into their life, I wanted that as a career. I didn’t want to sit at a desk from 8-5. I want people to know the true Jesus. I want the misconceptions of Jesus on college campuses gone. I have a teacher here, Dr. Gurrie, who used to say it’s hard for me to sit in a bad speech, it’s gross, it’s disgusting, especially when teachers give PowerPoint presentations, they look at the PowerPoint and not at the class. So, I think I’m here to get rid of the misconceptions of who Jesus is.

The Minaret: May you talk about your soccer career at UT?

Gaither: When I came here to UT and I didn’t see eye-to-eye with the coach. I wasn’t playing to the best of my ability. The team wasn’t a community, it didn’t bring in the new players and so, there was a lot of tension there. There was no love. Soccer became more of a job here than it did just a beautiful game for me. At the same time, I was really investigating Jesus and the more I fell in love with Jesus, the more I started not to care about my game. I started using my team as a missionary opportunity, talking to players and just kind of talking about my faith. And so, my junior year, the coach called me in and basically released me from his team because I wasn’t holding up my end of the bargain as a player on the team…I was let go. It was actually kind of nice, which was shocking for me. I was upset for about a day but then I realized that it gave me more time to do mission and share my mission. I didn’t have to be at practice and instead, could be sitting at a table and sharing life [with] someone, which was more life giving than running a mile in five minutes.

The Minaret: May you talk about your overall thoughts on Jesus and your current life path?

Gaither: Overall, Jesus has become the dream come true that I never dreamed of. It became a dream come true that I never wanted to do. Soccer has been such a love. I still love it to this day; I’ll go out and compete against some of the players and we have a good time but it cannot replace my true love [Jesus]. The Minaret: May you talk about some of your creations in relation to Jesus on campus? Gaither: I wasn’t thinking that after four years of college that I would be doing mission work and following Jesus. That wasn’t on my mind when I was a freshmen. I wasn’t thinking about that at all, so basically, out of leaving soccer, I felt Jesus calling me back into the area that I loved so I created the Bible study for NCAA athletes, called ABS (Athletic Bible Study) and about 14 athletes are in it from every sport. ABS meets every Monday in the commuter lounge in Vaughn Center at 8 p.m. Also, I created the La Fe, Latino Fellowship, which meets every two weeks in the commuter lounge in Vaughn Center on Tuesday night at 8 p.m.

The Minaret: Any addition thoughts or comments that you would like to add?

Gaither: I think if you were trying to figure out who I was in just a few minutes, I am an extrovert that is really athletic so I take my athletic personality into mission when I’m playing soccer, weight lifting and when I talk about Jesus on campus. It’s great to see that InterVarsity is a bunch of normal people experiencing, falling in love and interacting with God. God is relateable. So, I think that as much as sports has been at the top of my list, it’s fallen second. You’d have to first find out that my love for Jesus is the thing that I’ll share first, that I put first, on top of everything.

For information about him, you can contact him at rgaither@spartans.ut.edu. Yasaman Sherbaf can be reached at ysherbaf@spartans.ut.edu.