The Office of Spiritual Life’s Dating Week began on Monday, premiering the series in Moody Coliseum with a sermon from vice president for Student Life, Ryan Richardson. 

The name and theme of the series have shifted this year to align with the Spiritual Life’s Fall 2025 theme: Witness. 

“The heart and the hope remain the same to be in crucial conversation and provide resources for students in an encouraging way,” Campus Minister Avory Rosenquist said. 

Following the Witness theme, Richardson spoke from Acts nine. He highlighted the imperfect nature of God’s chosen instruments and emphasized the flawed narrative of Apostle Paul. 

In previous years, the series had different names; however, this fall, Spiritual Life debuted the reformed version as Dating Week. The name changes are made to align the week to match the theme, so Dating Week is based on Witness.   

In 2023, there was Holy Sexuality Week, but Rosenquist said Dating Week has an entirely different approach.  

The goal of the week is to foster conversations about Christ-centered relationships. The week consists of presentations, resource fairs and breakout sessions hosted across campus. 

“In the same way, we have Missions week and SGA Week, and we kind of highlight these concepts that students are navigating,” Rosenquist said. “We wanted this to just be another week where we provided elevated experiences that students could get involved in.” 

Monday afternoon kept the ball rolling with a resource fair, where vendors provided Dunce Coffee, Abithrift, dirty soda, crafts and book and T-shirt giveaways. 

“We had a kickoff with resources and vendors where people could come to mingle and enjoy each other’s company,” Rosenquist said.  

Rosenquist said the theme of the night was, “Everyone is willing to receive a Christ-like love. Are you willing to give it?” She said the goal was to encourage students to revisit the question as they navigate dating.  

The following day, Dating Week featured Fight the New Drug, an American nonprofit, secular and non-legislative anti-pornography organization. The organization offered a presentation aimed at unpacking the impacts of pornography on the brain and relationships. 

Rosenquist said the issue is widespread among many Christians, and so they wanted to include it as a vital part of the week. 

“One, it’s important to admit, and second, you are not alone,” Rosenquist said. “Come learn about this so you can make empowered decisions.” 

Along with providing safe spaces for learning and discussions, Spiritual Life also involves its campus partners.  

“This is when our campus partners come into play, like the counseling center and SOAR are fabulous,” Rosenquist said. “We can’t do this alone, so partnering with other departments that have resources, I think, creates that safe environment.” 

Wednesday night provided an hour of breakout sessions followed by another hour of Q&A with faculty and staff.  Students were encouraged to ask questions that the faculty and staff could answer based on personal experience.

“We believe that dating is, or intimate relationships specifically, can be a big part of a college experience or this age group,” Rosenquist said. “We wanted to make sure we provided the space for dialogue and resources for students that were interested.” 

Rosenquist said that with these resources, Spiritual Life hopes to educate students on the Christian walk and provide a safe space for those discussions.

“The hope is that Nathan and I are involved enough campus ministers that are accessible enough to where students would trust when we say come, that we are providing an event safe to come to,” Rosenquist said. 

At the end of the week, students will be released into fall break with a long weekend before coming back to finish off the semester.  

Rosenquist said that, along with hoping students have faith in their foundation, they take away valuable lessons from the week: de-stigmatizing these conversations, realizing there are trusted adults who can walk alongside them in that, and having some kind of spiritual growth from those conversations. 

“I just think Nathan and I love students and want to create spaces that are formative to them and really value when people come down to our office and ask questions and hang out,” Rosenquist said. “We’re here for them.”