The Carolina Baptist Collegiate Ministry (BCM) has seen a remarkable response from students since school began in mid-August. As of this publication in late October, BCM reports 287 decisions have been made for Christ, including 79 confirmed salvations, translating into an average of 35 students responding in some way each week. Experiencing this level of response in such a short amount of time has left Director Adam Venters basking in the miracle of it all and with a heart of gratitude.
“I am so grateful for the investment that CMBA churches have made in BCM. We are clearly seeing how their support and the faithfulness of leaders who have come before me are impacting what we are experiencing. Some things happening now have as much to do with the last 100 years of faithful investment in this university as they do with how our current team is ministering,” he says.
Citing a “wave of spiritual openness” taking place on college campuses across the country, Venters acknowledges that other campus ministries aren’t seeing the same level of response as BCM, which has doubled numerically and added a second later service on Tuesday nights. “I think some of this is a result of a long investment of CMBA churches on USC’s campus [which was originally founded in 1922]. God moves in different times and ways, but through consistent and historical investment in a particular place, this presence has been maintained.”
The stories of redemption and life change are literally pouring out from the BCM building and back onto campus.
Brianna is a senior and visited BCM for the first time this semester with her roommate. Admittedly, she did not live her previous college years for the Lord, but now she “wants to do everything I can for Him this year.” BCM Associate Director Rachel Walton says Brianna has signed up for every missions opportunity possible for the remainder of the school year and has applied to serve this summer after graduation.
Venters has begun discipling one young man who became a believer several weeks ago and has very little knowledge of what it means to follow Christ. After teaching him what it means to read the Bible, attend church regularly, and address his sin struggles, Venters said the student’s face lit up when he mentioned sharing his new faith with others.
“He said, ‘I’m actually doing really good at this right now! I’m working on growing and I don’t know all the stuff, but I’m bringing people on Tuesday nights,’” Venters recalls. “His friends came to BCM, and they both chose to follow Jesus, too. This young man has already led two friends to the Lord!”
Then there is the student who, as a result of an 11-minute faith conversation last school year, decided to give his life to Jesus. In the time since, he has grown in his faith, participated in mission trips, and has begun to lead Bible studies for the BCM band. Another small group that he leads has doubled in size because members are bringing their friends who don’t know Jesus.
A student leader welcomed a 22-year-old student to BCM one night who had just bought a new Bible, his very first, and told the student leader of his interest in Christianity, but that hadn’t ever been to church. The student leader sat and talked with him between BCM services and led him to the Lord that same night. When Venters met with this student for follow up, he took time to introduce him to the Bible.
Once they found the Scripture and read it out loud, the student said, “So when people say Matthew 22:7, that’s like a book, chapter, and verse number. Like an identification marker. That makes so much sense!” Venters wants CMBA churches to know that there are “literally people that don’t know anything about God who are coming to BCM services and giving their lives to the Lord.”
BCM has seen powerful movements from God before. In fact, Venters admits thinking the campus ministry likely wouldn’t experience a year greater than the last – which saw more than 200 students make decisions for Christ, including 102 salvations. But the numbers BCM has already seen in eight weeks this fall have exceeded last year’s totals.
Venters likes Richard Owen Roberts’ definition of “revival,” which is “‘an extraordinary movement of the Holy Spirit producing extraordinary results.’ God has taken the ‘ordinary’ parts of our services and ministry and has thrown gas on them. There’s nothing we’re doing now that we weren’t doing in years before, and there’s nothing that I’m doing that previous leaders weren’t doing. It’s just God. It’s extra-ordinary. The movement of God within our ministry has been extraordinary, and the testimonies coming out of it are crazy.”
BCM uses response cards during each service to capture decisions that staff use to track data and make follow-up text contacts within the first 12 hours after a worship service. Venters and Walton have 67 BCM student leaders who commit to growing through a series of discipleship-intensive personal goals each school year as part of their service. Student leaders actively share the gospel and disciple new believers, and their impacts are surely part of the revival BCM is currently experiencing.
According to Venters, BCM’s partnership with CMBA churches is another critical element of this campus movement. The meals CMBA churches provide between Tuesday night services draw many students to participate and serve as an opportunity to introduce local churches to these students. He is “really grateful for the churches that have invested in BCM and partnered in different ways, helping us to continue to do campus evangelism and outreach at a high level.”