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Helps from the Past There was a time long long ago, when at the national level the Southern Baptist Denomination demonstrated its care and concern for college students by having a strong Department of Student Ministry at what was then called the Sunday School Board. Materials were published based on their helpfulness to students not on a financial bottom line. A large staff of dedicated, workers were financed and encouraged to travel the country and develop materials to help even the smallest BSU as nearly all college ministry units were known then. (This is my understanding of what happened.) Times changed and across the convention. The cry went up that every thing should be aligned in connection with what directly supported local churches. BSU did not fit that model since it only supported young people not church organizations. The department of student ministry came under pressure to make its publications pay their own way, but college students did not have the funds to purchase the materials at the quality level of their needs, the material flow dried up and most of the workers were let go. Today help for beginning collegiate ministers comes mainly from the state level. That works well in some areas but others can not afford the state staff to provide the help needed. In the months ahead Student.org will be updating and reproducing some of the old materials where we believe we can do so without violating copyrights. In some case like Nell Magee's excellent book "An International Student Asks - What Do Christians Believe?" they are already available here because Nell who owns the copyright has given her permission for it to be made available free. One of the major steps forward was the adoption at the national level and the recommendation to the local level of 11 objectives that if implemented would provide a balanced program for the total spiritual and church related development of the students in the collegiate ministry programs. While other college groups captured headlines with their emphasis in some single area like evangelism or small group Bible studies Baptist groups sought then and I believe still should seek to provide a balanced approach to the total development of their students. Using the eleven objective provided here will guarantee at least a minimum balanced program. The set of action plans related to the objectives are based on the work of a group of campus ministers in Georgia. I have updated and revised them in some cases heavily to bring them more in line with the present. The action plans were not then and are not now intended to be exhaustive but are rather suggestive. They will be found to be particularly helpful to part-time and volunteer campus ministers who often have little training for the work they are graciously undertaking. I hope those new to collegiate ministry whether on campus or in the church will find these helpful. Click here to go to the 11 objectives. Dick Houston Webmaster@student.org |