A record 1,033 college students traveled to Myrtle Beach Jan. 29-31 for the annual state student conference to learn how to focus on their walk with Christ.
For at least six students who made professions of faith, the conference was a new focus altogether as the start of their walk with Christ.
One of those students from Francis Marion University in Florence approached his campus minister at the opening session of the conference, just after the band played but before the evening’s speaker had begun. “I think God had really been working in his heart a lot prior to the conference, but here he was, at the very beginning of it, pulling me aside and saying, ‘I need to talk to you right now,’ ” said the campus minister, Kendal Danford. “He didn’t even want to wait until the end of the service; he was ready to commit to Jesus already.”
Another student from Francis Marion University went to the conference but attended very few events, Danford said. “He was just dealing with a lot of things, and on Saturday one of our other students went up to this guy’s room and just talked with him, counseled with him, and ended up leading him to the Lord.”
Conference leaders recorded a total of 56 decisions, including re-dedications and commitments to missions service and vocational ministry.
Scott Smith, campus minister at Lander University, said, “The Monday after Converge, students came by all day long to talk about some decision they had made. One student felt she needed to commit her life to Christ. So on Monday afternoon after Converge, I had the opportunity to share with a young sophomore her decision to become a lifetime follower of Christ.”
One student who had attended a Baptist Collegiate Ministry (BCM) event at the University of South Carolina last fall, but not returned, contacted Tim Stewart, the campus minister there, the week after Converge. “He came by the center to study, stayed for worship that evening, and afterwards was complimenting me on the weekend,” Stewart said. “I was puzzled; then he explained he’d been to Converge with a group from his home church, had a tremendous weekend, made several decisions about focusing on the Lord, and now wanted to be more connected to BCM.
“Great connection between church, BCM, and Converge,” Stewart added.
Students from 26 Baptist Campus Ministry groups and 31 church-based groups attended. Some may have been fleeing the snow and ice storm headed for their schools that weekend, but they arrived to a cold, windy, rainy Grand Strand.
“I am amazed that during a time when people are traveling and spending less, and on a weekend with wintry weather in our state, we would have our largest attendance at a collegiate conference in our state,” said Ken Owens, state BCM director. “In addition, our students gave a record offering to mission work in South Asia and in Haiti. God is definitely doing something special in this generation of college students. It’s our prayer that Converge will be a platform from which students involved in our churches and BCMs will launch out to impact the world with the gospel.”
Nick Stevenson, collegiate minister at Charleston Baptist Church, said, “I prefer to take students to Converge [over other similar events] because it’s cost-effective, it has close proximity but is far enough away to make it seem like a trip, there is enough free time and small-group time to build relationships with and among the students, it’s very well-organized – and, most importantly, I always see God use it to impact our students.”
” ‘Making a difference’ is one of the key questions today’s college students are asking,” said Linda Osborne, national BCM director at LifeWay Christian Resources, and speaker at the Friday night session of the conference. “They want to know how to make their life count, how to make a difference in the world. And this is true both of Christian and non-Christian students. It can be a great point of contact for churches.”
“What students focus on as they pursue this varies from one generation of students to another,” she added.
“In the ’80s it was a focus on discipleship and Bible study, in the ’90s it was a focus on authentic worship, and in this last decade it’s been a focus on missions and, most recently, social justice issues – world hunger relief, human trafficking.” She paused, then added, “Sometimes it seems the riskier the cause, the more appeal it has.”
Jackie Flake, a former campus minister who’s now planting Cross Community Church in Fort Smith, Ark., exhorted students to take on the personal cause of “ceasing to practice Jim Crow spirituality.”
“Too many people relegate Jesus to the back of the bus,” he said. “They segregate their walk with Jesus from the rest of their lives.”
Ben Stuart, director of Breakaway Ministries at Texas A&M University, spoke to students about Jesus’ role in destroying “the works of the devil,” citing 1 John 1. “What you think about is what you care about, and what you care about is what you will pursue,” he explained. “Get your thoughts in the right place, and your heart and your feet will follow.”
Carrie Michal Mullinax, a sophomore from Anderson University, said, “What I really liked about Ben Stuart was he asked us to pray that we’d understand the message, and then he asked us to pray for him before he delivered the message, and I thought that was crucial. I’d never heard a speaker do that before.”
In addition to the four general sessions, students chose from eight breakout seminars, with topics ranging from relationships, to spiritual disciplines, to missions opportunities. – SCBC