Ever wondered what goes on during the weekly Baptist Campus Ministries on college campuses?
It may be a lot different than you imagined.
RELATED: Check out more stories on Baptist Campus Ministries.
Southern Heights Baptist Church pastor Shane Maples and Associate Pastor Sebastion Koger visited the BCM at the University of Kentucky recently with preconceived notions, but what they came away with was eye-opening.
“Our fear was it was going to be semi-charismatic, that it was going to be very shallow (spiritually), and that was not the case,” Koger said. “It blew us away.”
The Southern Heights pastors came at the invitation from Daniel Johnson, the BCM director in Lexington. He invites pastors of partnering churches often to come and see for themselves what is happening.
“Obviously, we are created by churches for churches to reach the world for Christ,” Johnson said, reciting the mission statement of the Kentucky Baptist Convention. “I try to reach out to different pastors, or different pastors reach out to me, to see what it looks like to partner. I invited them to come and experience ministry with us.”
Heart for the lost
Southern Heights pastors came into a well-organized meeting and were immediately part of a panel discussion. What they found were mature college students who had a heart for the lost.
“We ended with the benediction and the Great Commission,” Johnson said. “We are theologically sound. College students have a little more energy as they saw coming into the building. He got to experience that. The youth minister (from Southern Heights) came back and did evangelism with us the very next week.”
Koger said when they entered the room the students were mulling around and dancing to loud Christian music while giving each other high-fives.
But what he also saw was a community of Christians who “wanted to be there,” he said.
“That kind of took us off guard,” Koger said. “They had a genuine passion for Christ with every conversation. We had the meal beforehand and they were talking about their calling in ministry and potential gospel conversations. Our first impression was these kids have a genuine interest in what’s going on.”
‘Seeing the work going on … was a shock’
The Lexington BCM has a regular evening meeting on Tuesdays and an evangelism meeting on Thursdays that is currently being led by three freshmen.
“That’s our DNA: evangelism, discipleship and to mobilize students to missions and create leaders for the church,” Johnson said. “We’re excited for all three of those freshmen. Two are going to be serving at Crossings (Camps) and the other as an intern with his local church youth group.”
Koger said other churches need to visit the BCM and see for themselves the work that is happening. “If you’re a Cooperative Program giving church, absolutely go and see where the money is being spent.”
“Seeing the work going on at BCM was a shock,” he said. “I expected UK to be a secular campus that was basically unreachable (with the gospel). When we went and saw what the BCM was doing, we see how far the KBC reached into the campus.”
Koger also praised Johnson for his leadership. “He has done an excellent job there. Definitely full of energy.”
The Cooperative Program supports efforts at eight regional campuses throughout Kentucky in Richmond, Lexington, Louisville, Bowling Green, Morehead, Murray, Frankfort and Northern Kentucky. They also have a presence at many community colleges and small colleges in the state.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Mark Maynard and originally published by Kentucky Today.
