One of the greatest missional opportunities available to Kentucky Baptists can be found on the more than 100 college campuses that dot the landscape of our Commonwealth.
More than 260,000 students descend on those grounds every semester with the vast majority, possibly as high as 95%, not being connected to a local church during their college years.
When a college student is reached with the gospel, connected to a local church and discipled well, most of them will then live out their lives following Christ and leading others to do the same.
Kentucky Baptists can make a dent in lostness by cooperating to reach students with the gospel. Here are five ways:
1. Partner with your local campus ministry: Each year students from all over the world participate in Baptist Campus Ministry on our eight major college campuses in the state, plus several other Kentucky colleges and universities. In fact, there are more than 35 BCMs across the state partnering with local churches and associations to reach and disciple college students. Last year your BCM leaders trained nearly 1,000 college students to share the gospel, and those students went on to have thousands of gospel conversations with other students on their campuses. When your church partners with your local Baptist Campus Ministry you are impacting lostness in Kentucky.
2. Open your church to welcome college students: One Kentucky Baptist church located near a college campus sees many students join their morning worship services each Sunday during the school semesters. To encourage these students to join a small group, the church has created a place for them by preparing lunch every Sunday and then leading them in a small group Bible discussion. This is one way churches can welcome students into their ministry and impact the lives of those who will be in their communities during their college years. It starts with a church deciding it wants to care for and minister to the college students within its reach.
3. Pray for lostness on college campuses: Last year the KBC Evangelism Team produced a prayer resource helping Kentucky Baptists focus our prayers on impacting lostness in the Commonwealth. The prayer focus for August urged us to “Pray for BCM students to be bold in living on mission”. The second prayer prompt was to “Pray for churches to partner in engaging their local community & technical college campuses through Baptist Campus Ministry.” While not every church can start a BCM ministry on a local campus, every church can pray for the work we are doing together to reach students and raise future leaders.
4. Encourage those who labor on our campuses: Kentucky Baptist Campus Ministry is a leadership development factory. I meet men and women on a regular basis who have devoted their lives to Christian ministry leadership in local churches and denominational life who were given their first leadership opportunities in a Baptist Campus Ministry setting. As college students someone trusted them to preach the gospel, lead worship, train in evangelism, be on a leadership team and much more. Those experiences proved to be the soil God used to grow them into a ministry leadership calling. We need more of this in Kentucky.
5. Partner with your association to reach the campus in your community: While there are eight full-time KBC Campus Ministers serving eight of our largest universities, there remain more than 100 college campuses and community and technical colleges in the state that need ministry. Local churches and associations are stepping into these spaces and need the assistance of sister churches. Consider partnering to reach one of these campuses with the gospel.
During my own time in college, I was not walking with God. How different my college years would have been had I connected with the local BCM, then BSU, on my college campus.
While I was not part of Kentucky Baptist Campus Ministry, I love supporting that work today through the Cooperative Program. If your church gives to missions through the Cooperative Program, then you are already partnering with tens of thousands of Kentucky Baptists to reach college students with the gospel.
Thank you for your gospel partnership and may God be pleased to use Kentucky Baptists, working Together for the Mission, to reach Kentucky and the world for Christ.
Dr. Todd Gray 