“Students are hungry and responding to the gospel,” said Donnie Brown, director of spiritual life at Wayland Baptist University in Plainview, Texas.
“We’re not doing anything different from what we’ve always done. This is a movement of God.”
“God is doing something here at Wayland,” affirmed JR Dunn, Baptist Student Ministries director. “Students are praying and showing their faith.”
Brown said he began to recognize God moving during the fall semester, when students began to approach him to talk about spiritual life on campus.
“We began talking about what they could do to help us change the spiritual climate on campus. I challenged them to pray. I challenged the students and myself.”
God began to reveal what needed to be done as the spring semester began, Brown noted.
Unexpected response
“I sent an email to all students asking if any of them would be interested in serving on a chapel prayer team.” The response was greater than expected, he said.
The spiritual life director and team used an application and personal interview process to determine how many of those who expressed interest were serious.
“We wanted to make sure they were believers. Then, we wanted to make sure that each of them had a daily prayer life of their own,” he said.
Brown had expected a handful of students to have a genuine interest and heart for praying for fellow students, but God surprised him with more than a dozen students truly concerned about changing the spiritual climate of the campus. Instead of one chapel prayer team, two were created.
“Through expectant prayers and softened hearts, God has left his fingerprints on this campus, yet the work is not finished,” Brown said.
Getting serious about prayer
“It is never finished until all of his children get to know Him as a Father,” said Adriana Armstrong, a junior from Maricopa, Ariz., who along with other students started coming early to chapel and praying over the auditorium.
“They would pray all the way through,” Brown said.
A designated time was incorporated into each chapel service, with team members spreading across the front of Harral Auditorium, where students could come for prayer.
“We had never done anything like that before,” Brown noted.
“I didn’t know how the students were going to respond. You do that in a church, and all you get is crickets — nobody. So, the first time we offered it, we just told them the prayer team was here.”
God provided more than Brown and the prayer teams were expecting.
“People came,” he said. “I just thought, OK, Lord, I see. Little faith Donnie, here we go, and He was saying, ‘I got you.’”
Brown said God continued to move week after week.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Phillip Hamilton and originally published by Baptist Standard.
