A group of BCM students from East Tennessee State University stands in front of a decorated van — one of several vehicles used for the “free shuttle rides ministry” — during Beach Reach 2024.
In recent years, campus ministers at Baptist Campus Ministries across Tennessee have placed greater emphasis on participating in Beach Reach over the spring break holiday. Beach Reach is a unique ministry in Panama City Beach, Fla., that utilizes simple acts of kindness to share the gospel with thousands of spring breakers.
As Ashlyn Trice, BCM associate campus minister at the University of Memphis, shared, “Beach Reach provides students with the “opportunity to overcome their weaknesses, grow in their strengths, and to develop a deeper love for Jesus through their meaningful interactions with the people that they encounter.”
Campus ministers are always seeking effective ways to mobilize students for Kingdom work in the U.S. and around the world. Beach Reach has become one of the key ministries that BCM partners with during the spring semester. Eleven campuses were well represented at Beach Reach this spring with over 350 students and staff attending.
Ben Maddox, campus minister at Tennessee Tech BCM, has taken college students to Beach Reach 12 different times over the years. He has seen firsthand how God uses the ministry to help college students push beyond the fear of sharing the gospel.
As Maddox explained, “For some students, Beach Reach is the first place where they have shared the gospel with someone else. For others, Beach Reach is the first place where they have led someone to faith in Christ. And for some of our seasoned students, this is the first time they have been able to come alongside of other believers to model and develop other believers to share the gospel.”
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Tennessee BCMs had the largest representation among the groups attending Beach Reach 2024, with a total of 353 students and leaders. As Samm Hawes, BCM associate campus minister at UT Knoxville, reflected, “God is at work amongst these college students as He knits them together as the body for His kingdom. It’s so great to see so many students across different universities work together for His great commission.”
Through their attendance this year, Tennessee BCM campus ministers collectively placed their hands in the middle on this vital ministry to the current generation of college students. Stacy Murphree, BCM campus minister at Austin Peay State University expressed this thought well when she said that she loved seeing “the burden for the lost among their generation that students develop through Beach Reach. They are literally sharing the gospel with other college students all week long. They see a lot of brokenness and needs among their generation and walk away more burdened to share and more burdened for their own campus.”
Not all the campus ministers who mobilized students were veterans of Beach Reach. Damon Billings, BCM campus minister at Walters State, and Jeffrey Martin, BCM campus missionary at UT Chattanooga, brought groups to Beach Reach for the first time. Their impression of the ministry was encouraging and insightful. According to Billings, one great benefit of going to Beach Reach was that “my students no longer saw people as good or bad, as us or them. They are on the path to seeing everyone they meet as someone loved by God and in need of the transformative power of the gospel.” Martin said he “really appreciates how it shows students that many people are open to hearing about and talking about the gospel if approached in the right way with a loving heart.”
A group of BCM students from Austin Peay State University, in Clarksville, gathers in a huddle for a time of prayer on the beach.
During their week, Billings and Martin witnessed what Jeff Jones, campus minister at the University of Memphis, calls “a platform and a laboratory that gives students an opportunity to see prayer at work in the lives of people far from God.”
One of Jones’ biggest takeaways from Beach Reach is that “It helps us all identify that God is at work around us, and we can join Him in His work easily and with boldness and confidence.”
According to Mark Whitt, campus minister at MTSU, the power of prayer is a high priority for the ministry.
“I am always awed by the power of prayer at Beach Reach — it’s truly the backbone for everything that happens,” said Whitt. “This year, I understood to an even greater degree that prayer truly is ‘the first work’ of what we do.”
While the ministry of Beach Reach is focused in Pamana City Beach, a special and distinct quality of the ministry is how it has a tremendous impact on college campuses back in Tennessee.
Jonathan Chapman, BCM campus minister at East Tennessee State University, appreciates how Beach Reach focuses on evangelistic training and gospel fervor. “I love how it is all about advancing The Kingdom,” Chapman explained.
Over the last four years of mobilizing students to go to Beach Reach, Chapman has experienced a higher level of evangelism upon returning back to campus.
As he details, students “catch a fire for missions. Our summer missions, semester missions, and journeyman interest goes up a lot after Beach Reach.”
Tiffany Hudson, BCM campus minister at Vanderbilt University, is thankful for the impact Beach Reach has on the spiritual maturity and BCM leadership interest of her students.
“Year after year, Beach Reach grows new leaders for our ministry,” said Hudson. “Each year I have taken students to Beach Reach that were marginally involved in BCM or maybe not at all, but upon returning they are invested in the ministry and even interested in leadership opportunities through BCM.”
Over my 21 years at UT Martin BCM, I have not come across anything like Beach Reach when it comes to effective face-to-face evangelism. The approach of Beach Reach builds a foundation of trust between our students and spring breakers.
I’ve found Beach Reach to be a valuable way to mobilize our BCM students to meet the physical needs of spring breakers in a genuine, compassionate way to share the free gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ. Beach Reach is truly a one-of-a-kind ministry. B&R
