Nearby college students reason enough

Collegians can bless church with time, talent and freedom, SBTC consultant says.

“If a church is located in an area where college students live and exist, that’s reason enough” to begin ministering to those students, said Kevin Ueckert, collegiate ministry consultant for the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. Ueckert compares college students’ value for a church to that of senior adults, because their lack of time constraints and ability to serve provide great potential service in a congregation.

“College students have a great deal of freedom and not nearly as much responsibility as many segments of the church,” Ueckert said. “They create incredible servants in the body. And they can bless the life of a church almost like no other group.”

This has been the experience at Gardendale Baptist Church of Corpus Christi, where the SBTC aided in beginning a collegiate ministry over the last two years. Shortly after being called to the church, the church’s pastor, Micah Davidson, began to be burdened to reach out to the 10,000 college students in the Bay Area. Through what Davidson said was “a series of events that only God could orchestrate,” he connected with Ueckert and shared his vision to reach college students in the Corpus Christi area.

“We agreed it needed to be done,” Davidson said, “and we also agreed it would take a special person to pull it off. Over the next several months we began to pray for a leader to emerge who would spearhead the strategy.”

One of the SBTC’s available resources, an intern program, provides leaders for such endeavors. Through equipping, encouragement, and financial support, the SBTC partners with churches to facilitate the start of collegiate ministries. While the convention often locates these interns, it can also help train someone commissioned by the church itself.

The solution to Gardendale’s own search for a collegiate leader was Greg Darley, a recent graduate of Clemson University in South Carolina. Despite participating in a Fellowship of Christian Athletes ministry that served as many as 1,200 students weekly, Darley found himself yearning to minister to students through a church.

“The SBTC has been a huge part in my coming to Gardendale and Corpus Christi,” Darley said. “They are helping financially to have me here, but more important than that are the people ? to help me. There are some other pastors and college ministers that are available when I need advice or have questions.”

This networking, which Darley described as “an indispensable asset,” is another important benefit the SBTC provides for both new and established church collegiate ministries. “One of the things that we are trying to do,” Ueckert said, “is develop a good network, connecting churches with churches that are reaching students.” In particular, he said, he wants to connect various church leaders who have a passion for university ministry. “We really want to create a network of pastors, so that pastors who want to reach students can talk to pastors whose churches are reaching students.”

This emphasis on connecting senior pastors comes from Ueckert’s belief that they are vital in creating a successful church ministry to collegians. “I think the first key ingredient is a pastor who believes in reaching students. I don’t know of any church that’s effective in reaching college students that doesn’t have a pastor who believes in reaching college students.” By connecting pastors of churches ministering in this way with pastors who would like grow their own student impact, the SBTC establishes a powerful network for encouragement, training, and cooperation.

Likewise, even well established ministries can benefit from the support of the SBTC’s help in networking, Ueckert said. “I don’t know of a single ministry that exists in our state that doesn’t in some way need to be sharpened, and there’s probably somebody else in the state that’s doing something that could sharpen them. And we want to help facilitate some of that.”

Beyond the internship program and networking, the SBTC also provides many training opportunities.

“We do have seminars and workshops that we can provide on-site that can be led and taught by those who know college ministry,” Ueckert said. Or, if a church has simple questions, consulting can be provided. The SBTC can “help people know what to do and how to do it, one way or the other,” he noted.

In May, the SBTC will host its first collegiate workers workshop, called “Collegiate Ministry Link,” to aid networking among those congregations that are interested in reaching students or already ministering to collegians.

The workshop will be at T Bar M Ranch in New Braunfels, and free accommodations and meals will be provided to participants (with some restrictions). Through sessions by experienced colle