Although Mark Whitt has participated in Beach Reach more than a dozen times, he doesn’t show any signs of burnout.
Quite the opposite.
Whitt, the Baptist Collegiate Ministry director at Middle Tennessee State University, said his passion for Beach Reach — a ministry in which BCM students travel to Florida to share the gospel with party-seeking spring breakers in Panama City Beach — is perhaps stronger now than ever before.
‘Never gets old’
“It never gets old seeing college students intentionally loving those around them and sharing the gospel,” said Whitt, who serves as Beach Reach coordinator. “There is nothing like seeing the very moment when a college student truly embraces his/her identity in Jesus and begins to understand what being His disciple is all about!”
Beach Reach, which started in the 1990s, takes place over a three-week stretch in March. Students and leaders generally serve one week and then a new group arrives the following week.
The ministry was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. It was relaunched last year — and is now booming like never before.
This year, more than 1,100 students participated (an increase of about 400 students from last year). Members of the group represented more than 20 colleges and universities.
The list included nine universities from Tennessee — Austin Peay State, Belmont, East Tennessee State, Middle Tennessee State, Tennessee Tech, the University of Tennessee (Knoxville), the University of Tennessee at Martin, the University of Memphis and Vanderbilt University. Those nine schools combined to send 260 participants to Beach Reach.
“Considering that this is only the second year since the relaunch, I don’t think any of us could have ever imagined we would be where we are,” Whitt said. “But there was so much positive feedback from Beach Reach 2022 that I think it resulted in more collegiate leaders deciding to bring their groups. And I believe that we are just seeing the beginning of the continued growth.”
The ministry offers a unique mission experience for students. The anchor point is a “free shuttle service” that the BCM leaders and students provide for the other spring breakers from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. each day.
This year, Beach Reach provided 18,920 shuttle rides in Panama City Beach. The ministry opened the door for 8,426 gospel conversations (most taking place during the van rides, with others occurring on the beach and around town), and led to 191 professions of faith.
“I was floored by the numbers this year,” Whitt said. “It was amazing to see how focused Beach Reachers were about having gospel conversations.”
Tiffany Hudson, BCM director at Vanderbilt, said Beach Reach is always one of the most anticipated events on the calendar. She said that was especially true this year.
“Beach Reach 2023 was everything I prayed it would be,” Hudson said. “I always put some pretty high expectations on this ministry — and God has never let me down.”
Not easy — but worth it
Each year, BCM leaders spend enormous amounts of time preparing and coordinating Beach Reach. But the long hours are a small price to pay, they say.
Jonathan Chapman, BCM director at ETSU, said this year’s Beach Reach seemed to have even more challenges than normal, but said the obstacles simply made the victories all the more rewarding.
“This year’s Beach Reach was very special,” Chapman said. “We always battle spiritual warfare, but this year seemed to be a much tougher battle than usual. Because of that, we saw many students come to Christ, want to get baptized, others craving discipleship, and many wanting to get back involved in their church. There is nothing better than seeing [someone come from] death to life!”
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was edited for length, brevity and written by David Dawson. It was originally published by Baptist & Reflector.
