For the first time, the South Carolina Baptist Convention has a full-time campus minister at a historically black university. Lance Wright, 27, a Louisiana native, is launching a South Carolina Baptist College Ministry at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg.
Lance Wright, center, is the SCBC’s new campus minister at South Carolina State University.The appointment has brought together the Orangeburg-Calhoun Association and its churches, as well as churches from other denominations, as prayer and advisory partners in support of the campus ministry.
Ken Owens, director, collegiate ministry group, SCBC, said the full-time state position is funded through a reassignment of his group’s personnel budget and not through new budget dollars. He said a Baptist campus ministry presence at South Carolina State University brings to life what God put on his heart in 2001.
“As I started my work with the state convention, I felt there was a group of students who were under-served with intentional, dedicated Christian ministry,” Owens said. “That group was students attending historically black colleges and universities. Significant state and world leaders have come out of South Carolina State over the years. There needed to be a campus ministry dedicated to building disciples and working with area churches to reach the campus.”
About a year ago, Owens contacted Mark Robinson, collegiate ministry director at the Louisiana Baptist Convention. Robinson told Owens about the convention’s BCM at Grambling State University and its campus minister, Reginald Alford.
At this year’s National Collegiate Summit in Nashville, Owens was able to talk with Alford, who was a speaker at the summit. Alford shared what God was doing at Grambling State, and Owens said, “That’s what we want to see God do at South Carolina State.”
When asked about possible campus ministry candidates for South Carolina State, Alford recommended Lance Wright, a former Grambling football player, who was attending New Orleans Baptist Seminary. Wright joined the SCBC staff just as fall classes were about to begin at South Carolina State.
Wright, of West Monroe, La., followed his father to Grambling, attending the university on a football scholarship as a center. During his freshman year, Wright said God used Antoine Smith, a starting linebacker and Fellowship of Christian Athletes leader, as a “disciple-maker” in his life.
Smith “came along beside me and poured his life into my life,” Wright said. “He bridged gaps with guys on the team and poured out the Word. By my sophomore year, I was at a crossroads. I was not in church, but felt I should be there. My roommate, Randy Allison, was a preacher and he began having conversations with me. God was knocking me on the head with these young men who loved me.
“One night after a church service, I encountered God. I knew I wasn’t a true believer and that I had never really converted. I was in tears. Randy asked me, ‘Is it time for you to trust Jesus as your Lord and Savior?’ I did, and I knew that I knew that I was in the hands of God.”
At South Carolina State, Wright has an office provided by the university. He has an advisory team created through Orangeburg-Calhoun Association but supported by other denominational leaders in Orangeburg.”We are working through building key relationships with students and student leaders, building up team chemistry to reach the campus for the glory of God,” Wright said.
Wright and his wife Kelly live in Orangeburg. – SCBC