“We are sifting our campus trying to find where God is working,” said Josh Richards, associate director at the University of Southern Mississippi Baptist Student Union. He spoke these words minutes before a team of college students took to the campus of over 13,000.
The initiative is promoted as “Two by Two.” Twice a week, BSU students set foot on campus in groups of two to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ across one of Mississippi’s largest collegiate campuses.
Based on the verse in Luke 10, Two by Two is an important piece to the weekly rhythms of ministry with the university’s BSU.
“After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go.” Luke 10:1
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Finding God at work
“We’re trying to find who God is at work in by simply going up to them, asking them if they’re willing to have a spiritual conversation with us,” Richards said.
“I think a lot of times we come back,” he noted, “and we’re surprised at how easy it is that people are not as confrontational as we thought when it comes to having a spiritual conversation.”
Before students depart two by two, the whole group gathers for a brief chat and prayer to prepare them for the next hour. Given the time restraints between class schedules and lunch for students around campus, most groups try to have one or two extended conversations during the focused time of sharing.
USM senior Karlee Walden shared how God opened the door mid-semester to an incredible conversation during her Two by Two walk.
“I was out with somebody that day and we had gotten rejected a couple of times and everything, but the last person we talked to was open to me asking her about her spiritual beliefs and stuff,” Walden said. “She said that she was Catholic and that it was kind of just something that she almost inherited from her parents.”
The student was not interested at first, Walden explained, but was open to meeting again another day.
“The next Monday we met and I got to share the gospel again and go more in depth,” Walden said. “She ended up praying to receive Christ and saying that she wanted to start that relationship with God!”
“A lot of people have different methods that they enjoy doing,” explained Samuel Borland, a BSU student at USM. “Sometimes it’s just asking if there’s any way you can pray for them, because regardless of what their spiritual beliefs are, most people enjoy having someone think about them and care for them and listen to their problems.”
More than a slogan
God is allowing the students involved in the BSU to grow in their burden to see classmates and fellow students come to have a relationship with Jesus.
“The BSU challenges students to know Christ and make Him known. That’s the slogan,” said Walden. “But it has been such a vital part of my own walk. I’ve grown in getting to know people and caring about them because Christ cares for me.”
Both Josh Richards and Kris Walters, director at the USM BSU, desire each student to know how to share their faith before graduating into their careers. Beyond anything else in ministry, they are making evangelism the most important piece of their ministry strategy.
“I think the more you do it, the easier it is to recognize when the Holy Spirit is really working on somebody,” Richards said. “I think that’s the reason we do it, is so we can become more in tune with how He’s working.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Tanner Cade and originally published by the Baptist Record.
