SBTC poised to help collegiate ministries

For some Texas churches, collegiate ministry has been a focus for decades. Other churches have never strategically sought to minister to college-age people. Regardless of a church’s collegiate ministry involvement, the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention is prepared to help them reach college-age students, says Lance Crowell, Church Ministries associate for collegiate and singles ministry.

Crowell points to Anderson Mill Baptist Church in Austin as one example of what God can do in a congregation with only a handful of college students and church members devoted to reaching them.

Steve and Karen Fullam began leading the church’s college ministry soon after joining the church four years ago. Both work full-time outside the church but lead a Sunday School class, Wednesday Bible study and other events for the church’s college students.

“I am very excited” about this ministry, Crowell said, “because I think [Anderson Mill] typifies who we’re trying to help. The average church in our convention is not the ‘mega-church’ that has a full-time staff person for collegiate ministry.”

He notes that while most churches have students available and in need of ministry, they often don’t believe they have enough resources?including staff members?to meet that need.

But the Fullams, Crowell said, expose the myth that paid staff or great resources are needed to serve college students in a congregational setting. Crowell said he believes it is possible for nearly every church “to meet the needs of college students in their church?and eventually beyond their church. The Fullams are an example of a great couple that has a heart for collegiate ministry. They’re not paid at all on staff, and yet they have that heartbeat.”

After having seen a college ministry begin in their own collegiate church in Colorado, the Fullams decided to help grow their new Texas church’s group as well. They believe students are at a critical time in their lives and that they have much to offer the church.

“College students are an often-untapped resource of energy and excitement for Christ,” Karen Fullam said. “Working with college students is an exciting opportunity to help train young people and see how the Lord can use them. We can’t be afraid to speak truth and hold students accountable; they need to hear it and they respond to the challenge. Also, students have so much energy they keep us tired. When our Wednesday Night Bible Study ends near our bedtime, the students are just getting started for the night.”
“But,” she continued, “seeing students ‘graduate’ to serving in other areas of the church, or embark on a Christ-centered marriage, or move away after having grown spiritually during their time with us is invaluable.”

Along the way in their journey of ministering to Austin college-age students, the Fullams said they have received great help from the SBTC?including Crowell, the first full-time convention staff member focused on college ministry.

One such instance of help came by surprise, when one of the Fullams’ pastors signed them up for a SBTC training event.

“Steve and I were so busy that we figured we had no time to sign up for the SBTC’s first collegiate ministers’ conference,” Karen remembered.

But after an associate pastor registered the couple, they decided to take the time to attend the two-day retreat at T-Bar-M Resort and Conference Center in New Braunfels.

“The retreat was such a blessing,” Karen said. “We could tell that the SBTC leadership had worked hard to make it a special time for revitalizing college ministry workers. Steve and I came away with so many new ideas?but more importantly, with new energy to invest in our students.”

The Fullams said that because they serve in a smaller college group, the makeup of the group changes often. This semester, for example, they have been able to reach many special-needs individuals in their congregation. And yet the group has grown numerically through the years, Steve said, “both with students who are in our ministry regularly and students we keep track of while they’re away at school [outside Austin].”

Crowell said that these two ministry possibilities?reaching students on an individual basis who are already attending the church and ministering to former “youth group” members?can be two fundamentals of even the smallest of churches’ collegiate ministry.

Crowell’s reply to a pastor who doubts what his church can do with only a handful of collegians is simply,
“You can change the world.”

Crowell said the important thing is being faithful with the students God has provided.

“If I have five students who come to my church and I can train them to be gospel-sharers, to be active on their campus, to begin investing on their campus, I’m going to be much more effective in ministering to that campus than I would be by myself,” he said.

He also contends that in a group of any size, one of the greatest joys is seeing students go on to become Christian leaders as they mature through life.

As for students who have graduated from a church’s youth group and gone elsewhere for college, Crowell urges churches to follow the Fullams’ example and consider these students still part of that church’s outreach to collegians.

“On several different fronts, I think it’s essential” that a “home church” stays involved in the lives of those students who go away to college, Crowell said. He suggests that the students’ original church encourage them to plug into another congregation while at school and then help them during the semester and nurture them when they return.

“It’s about having the mindset that these are students our church is sending off to wherever God has called them?to Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, wherever.”

Two groups of college-age people?those who are attending the church and students the church has cared for in the past?can become the building blocks for any church’s collegiate ministry, Crowell said.
Such ministry will vary some among churches too, Crowell said.

“How you go about it is as different as the town you’re in, the culture and makeup of your church, and the culture and makeup of your students,” he said. “All those things make it a dynamic process. Ministry is not cookie-cutter.” And Crowell said that many “college groups” even turn out to be simply “college-age” groups, with a variety of both students and others in this stage of life who are not attending school.
Crowell said he wishes to hear from churches, regardless of their level of collegiate ministry involvement, to offer them help and to measure the prevalence of such ministry in Texas Southern Baptist churches. Through consultation, connection with other ministries, events, and other means, he said that the convention is poised to help churches of any size implement or improve their ministry to the collegiate age group.