Support Raising: Two Benefits and Two Pitfalls
The words hit my ears like a foreign language. I had just been told that in order to go into college ministry I would need to “raise support” for part of my salary. “Raise support?” I knew what it was in general – I had done fundraising many times for short-term mission trips. But raising […]
Church Spotlight: FBC Jackson College Ministry
First Baptist Church Jackson is a 178-year-old downtown church that has maintained an active college ministry for the past 35 years. Centrally located in the metro Jackson area, there are over 30,000 college students attending school within a 20-mile radius of FBC Jackson. The church reaches several small private colleges, one larger state university, and several […]
4 Common Reasons for a Broken College Ministry
I am currently attempting to do a writing project entitled, “Fixing a Broken College Ministry.” I have received lots of great input, questions, and interest. One obvious question is, “How did it get broken?” or “What will it take to fix it?” Knowing why a college ministry is broken is part of deciding what is […]
Campus Ministry Spotlight: Tarleton State University
Our campus ministry spotlight for this quarter is Tarleton State University, a D2 school (13,000 students) in the small town of Stephenville, TX (20,000 people). Tarleton is known as the poor man’s party school. Traditionally, Tarleton has been a regional school, attracting students from the surrounding communities. However, in recent years, the school has begun to […]
Connecting with Parents of College Students
One of the most successful ways the Baptist Collegiate Ministry at LSU is reaching freshmen is by mailing a Parents Survey to the parents of each student whose name and contract information we secure. We secure the names of incoming freshmen that will be attending LSU in a variety of ways as collegiate ministers across […]
Reaching Greeks on the College Campus
“Oh my gosh, thank you guys so much! This is awesome!” As a college or campus minister this is how you pray that every meeting with university staff would end. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t…but either way you still ask God to provide opportunities to pioneer the Gospel into the foreign land in […]
Mentoring in Collegiate Ministry–Dr. Chuck Lawless and Chris James
If you missed Collegiate Week, you will definitely want to check out this great video of one of the leader sessions where Dr. Chuck Lawless and Chris James shared about their experiences with mentoring. Dr. Chuck Lawless is Dean and Vice-President of Graduate Studies and Ministry Centers at Southeastern Seminary in Wake Forest, NC, where he […]
Update from BCNet Evangelism Team
The BCNet Evangelism Team exists to motivate Christian college students to share their faith on their campuses, resource students and collegiate ministry leaders for evangelism, and coordinate national evangelistic initiatives in which campus ministries and churches can participate. Those serving on the team include: Doug Adams — College Pastor at Spotswood Baptist Church, Fredericksburg, […]
Hanging with a Few Hundred of My Closest Friends
As the time approached for our recent National Collegiate Summit in Nashville, I saw several posts on FB by campus ministers using the title phrase above to describe how they were approaching the event. I must confess I was among that group. It’s a trite phrase, seriously overused, but it still points to an important […]
Three Types of Group Questions
If you’ve spent even a short amount of time leading or participating in a small group Bible study, then you know the anxiety a bad question can produce. Ask a question that’s too challenging to answer or too off topic, and one of the most unbearably awkward times of silence will descend upon your group […]