Pastor Phil Nelson and a few volunteers from Lakeland Baptist Church, Carbondale, Illinois, would like to pay you $5 and then you can ask two questions about anything and they will answer.
They make this offer regularly on the campus of Southern Illinois University (SIU).
The group takes about five or six camp chairs, a satchel of Bibles, a sandwich board sign, making the $5 offer and they wait for students to drop by on the campus quad area.
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Students stop by, wondering what this is about and Nelson encourages them to ask a question. He gives them the $5 and maybe a bottle of water or a candy bar. They ask any hardball question they can and he and the volunteers will answer them. Often he invites them to sit in a camp chair and they look up the Bible’s answer together. Sometimes there are multiple students sitting there and it becomes an impromptu Bible study.
Nelson has been using this method on campus since 2022.
He used to go on the quad with a large cross and do what would be called “street preaching.” But he has found this more low-key approach to be more productive. “Offering them a five dollar bill is a little incentive, enough for a cup of coffee.”
Sometimes the students are curious if they will really pay them. They always do and sometimes a bottle of water and a candy bar are offered as well.
On campus
The pastor has been involved in campus ministry in many ways since he enrolled as a student at SIU in the mid 1970s. He was raised in Des Moines, Iowa, the son of a Methodist minister and he said he really didn’t know Jesus although he had been in church a lot as a child. His parents made him attend until his teenage years when he took a job on Sundays in order not to have to go to church. He said “I thought church was boring.”
But he did enjoy school and excelled in speech and debate. He chose SIU instead of the local university in central Iowa because he knew a lot of his buddies would be at Iowa State and there would be a lot of partying.
Due to a mix-up in housing registration at SIU he found himself in Carbondale with no dormitory room. So he found that there were dorm rooms available to rent at the SIU Baptist Student Union building. He was invited to the group meeting and within a few weeks he prayed to receive Christ. He was effectively discipled and mentored by BSU leaders there. And by the time he graduated he was leading mission trips and doing community evangelism projects. He often goes down to Mardi Gras in New Orleans in the winter to share Christ with the partying crowd.
After university graduation and then obtaining a master’s degree at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, he moved back to southern Illinois. He served in campus ministry for many years at SIU and then at the University of Illinois in Champaign. Later he was on the staff of the Illinois Baptist State Association as a campus evangelism trainer. For the past 20 years he’s been pastor of Lakeland Baptist in Carbondale. And he loves student ministry, especially leading the students to Christ.
In the past two semesters they have seen a revival of spiritual interest in the question and answer times on the campus quad. Nelson said they have prayed with 40 students in 2025, helping them receive Jesus as Savior and Lord. Two have been baptized at Lakeland Baptist, and they encourage many of them to connect with other area Baptist churches or back in their home church.
Conversations
When the group comes on the campus every week or two they set up a circle of chairs and the students line up to talk.
A student named Elijah asked this question earlier this fall: “How do I start a relationship with God?” And his second question was: “Am I supposed to get baptized?” Of course these were easy questions to answer. He received Christ.
Others are more difficult.
Handling tough questions
Last spring, a freshman student came over to ask her questions. “How is it that people can profess to know Jesus and yet live such immoral lives?” She followed up with “Why do they come to church and praise the Lord, and show no sign of repentance or contrition?”
“We talked at length about this,” the pastor said. “It became apparent to this young lady that she had never trusted Christ. She had attended church but had never turned from her own sin and received Christ. She was very concerned about her own sinful state before God. I asked her if she was willing to believe in Christ, and she said she was.”
The university officials have usually been okay with the impromptu Bible studies on the campus grounds, but recently some professors and administrators have tried to block the effort.
Drawing support
Nelson believes there is a right for he and the volunteers to practice free speech on the public university campus. But recently they complied with an order to move to a more remote location near the library that the university has declared to be a “free speech area.” But the students have continued to come by and ask questions. And they are still praying to receive Jesus.
There are some supporters who fund the expenses of this ministry, providing money and refreshments. One lady recently dropped off some funds and she was the mother of a student who prayed and was baptized in the Lakeland church.
Nelson said he is willing to travel to any church that has a campus nearby and show volunteers how to do a question and answer ministry. Pastor Nelson can be reached at: 618-201-9204 or pastorphil@lakelandcarbondale.com.
Editorial note: A version of this article was originally published by the Illinois Baptist. It has been updated and is published here with permission.
