“Using stories to seek out more of who God is, what He’s doing in this world and how people are receiving Him.” So goes the visionary tagline of second year student Dylan Knibbe’s fresh online initiative, The Seeking Project. Sparked by persistent curiosity and a Californian rendezvous, The Seeking Project looks to honest and hopeful storytelling as a way of encountering God.
Knibbe’s venture began with an Instagram account. “Essentially, I go around and have conversations with people,” says Dylan. “At some point in the conversation things tend to focus on God and what He’s been doing in these people’s lives as well as what they’ve been learning about Him recently. I then share some of these stories.” Not yet a month old, The Seeking Project is as young as a social experiment can be. Its biblical foundation allows the Redeemer community to keep up with the thoughts and revelations of students, faculty and staff.
“God is not far from us, but yet it still takes millions — billions — of people to find Him. This is humbling.”
The idea for The Seeking Project came out of a visit to California over reading week. “I met a lot of very influential and inspirational people who were using social media in powerful ways to make change in this world,” Dylan. “I had a lot of thoughts and questions about how God fits into people’s lives.”
Acts 17:24-28 is cited in the description of The Seeking Project. In it, Paul is addressing the people of Athens who have many idols and altars, even in worship of the “unknown God”. The people of Athens recognized that even though they had a plethora of objects of worship established in their city, they were perhaps still missing out on other gods. “They were ignorant of the true God, but in a sense, they were seeking Him out,” says Dylan.
Paul points out that God has placed believers all across the world, across different times, so that we would seek Him and perhaps reach for Him and find Him. “To me, Acts 17:24-28 is a testament to just how big and how complex God is,” says Dylan. “He is not far from us, but yet it still takes millions — billions — of people to find Him. This is humbling. We may think that we have a vast understanding of who God is, but there’s even more than we can imagine. This is why we are called to seek Him. I think that this passage points out the importance of sharing testimonies and stories, and hearing what other people have to say about God.”
Dylan does not have any specific expectations about the project. His hope is that it sparks further discussion about what God is doing in the world. “It’s incredible to be able to look at the stories that people have shared already, and to know that I can look back on those later on,” he reflects. “I hope these stories can serve to be both an encouragement and a reminder.”
Eventually, Dylan will graduate from Redeemer and move on to a new chapter in his life. Regardless of whether he runs out of time for the project, he will never run out of opportunities. The ability to stop and talk to anyone about their relationship with God is ability that every believer holds. Perhaps someone will step up and take over Dylan’s leadership role, or perhaps Dylan will continue the project after leaving Redeemer. Either way, the existing testimonies will remain for people to look back on — and those are stories worth seeking out.