Editor’s Note: This post is part three of our series on College Ministries and the Local Church examining the relationship between the two. You can read the previous posts here:
- Part 1: Reconciling the Local Church with Parachurch Ministry
- Part 2: College Ministry Was Never Meant to Replace the Local Church
Alright, here’s the deal: I’m going to get personal on this one because when I think about the relationship between campus ministries and the local church, I get fired up. Why? Because if it weren’t for the strong backing of over forty-five local Southern Baptist churches (not to mention the help we get from the Missouri Baptist Convention, which itself only exists by the grace of local churches), there wouldn’t be a Baptist campus ministry in my area.
"If it weren't for the strong backing of over forty-five local Southern Baptist churches (not to mention the help we get from the Missouri Baptist Convention, which itself only exists by the grace of local churches), there wouldn't be… Click To TweetWhy does that matter? Because through our local campus ministry alone, tens of thousands of lives have been impacted for Jesus in some way, shape, or form.
We’ve seen pastors and missionaries, elders and deacons, rise up from the ranks of students who showed up as freshmen with no idea whether they believed in Jesus or not.
We’ve seen hundreds of students take the gospel to six continents as short-term missionaries, and we’ve shared the gospel on foreign shores through international students who came to study here.
We’ve shared the gospel with thousands, counseled thousands more, and of course, seen salvation change lives for eternity.
We’ve done all of this and much more because local churches have a vision to see how impactful they can be when they band together to accomplish a task they could not manage alone.
“We’ve done all of this and much more because local churches have a vision to see how impactful they can be when they band together to accomplish a task they could not manage alone.”
Jon Smith
Let’s be honest for a minute. Most churches struggle when it comes to the transition between high school and adulthood. Unsure what to do with everyone from eighteen to thirty who isn’t married with children, the default is usually some type of “young singles” class, and the results are uneven at best. That isn’t a knock on anyone; it is simply an acknowledgment of the fact that this is a difficult phase to handle. That said, those same churches have the ability, when they work together, to reach out in the name of Jesus and impact not merely the young singles in their own church but thousands more on college campuses who they may never see on Sunday.
I love the local church. It’s where I first learned about Jesus, and it lights my fire when I see churches cooperating to accomplish the Great Commission. Southern Baptists do that better than anyone. Together we field thousands of missionaries in countries all over the world. We resource countless church plants every year. We fund our seminaries. We maintain one of the largest disaster relief efforts on the planet. We impact the next generation of leaders in and out of the church by working in unison to keep hundreds of campus ministries rolling every year.
Every campus ministry is different, but ours has the blessing of serving a weekly meal to college students. My favorite moment each week is the time I get to tell the local church volunteers who provide, prepare, and serve that meal all the things we see God doing as a result of their faithfulness.
As I close this out, I would ask you to pray for a girl I met recently at lunch because she wants to hear more about Jesus. Her parents aren’t believers, but her grandmother is, and she wants to know who she should believe. What an opportunity! And one that only came because local churches banded together to build a ministry they couldn’t sustain apart.
Thank you, Southern Baptist churches, for your prayers and your support! We wouldn’t exist without you.
