The eight South Carolina college campuses served by full-time South Carolina Baptist Convention collegiate ministers reported 95 professions of faith during the 2012 fall semester. The number of professions of faith in the fall of 2011 was 78, and the total for the entire 2011-2012 campus year was 108.
“These conversions represent an amazing response to what God is doing on our South Carolina college campuses,” said Ken Owens, director of the SCBC collegiate ministry group. “This response is about God drawing people to himself.”
Owens said the numbers aren’t so much about what collegiate ministry is doing but what God is doing through the opportunities provided by collegiate ministry.
“The 95 conversions are from the eight campuses where we have full-time Baptist collegiate ministers,” Owens said. “We have volunteers working on other campuses; I’m sure the total number statewide exceeded 100.”
He said the revival is really about prayer.
“A few years ago, the Lord impressed on our Baptist collegiate staff the need to pray for spiritual awakening on our campuses,” Owens said. “This was not a manufactured prayer time. We prayed for and sought the Lord very authentically. We sought his guidance. We even invited churches to visit and prayerwalk our campuses. Our leadership conferences specifically prayed for our campuses, and we asked our students to pray specifically for lost people they knew. I believe we are seeing God’s response to the prayers of his people.”
Owens pointed to Engage 24, a national Baptist collegiate ministry day, that was on Oct. 11, 2012. It was a one-day event that challenged and encouraged students to “recognize someone in their lives who needs Jesus” and to be intentional about that conversation.
“We didn’t see a lot of immediate response to that day, but I believe it heightened an awareness to have conversations,” Owens said. “And the Lord has responded to those conversations.”
Kendal Danford, Baptist collegiate minister at Francis Marion University, said 30 students received Christ as Savior at his school during the fall semester, and prayer was central to it.
“We are passionate about students knowing the Lord, and while we offer some opportunities for them to hear about the Lord, we must emphasize that this really is a work of the Holy Spirit,” Danford said. “We just make ourselves available.”
“We had some movie nights, some outreach activities, events for new students, and these led to conversations with students who had a passion to talk about Jesus. The students, through small-group ministry, had learned to be intentional about sharing their faith, and that was the message they heard at weekly worship gatherings, too.
“It must be in the Lord’s timing,” Danford said, “and we must be ready to share.” – SCBC