collegiate Archives - Baptist & Reflector

SUMMER INTERNS GAIN MINISTRY EXPERIENCE

October 25, 2018

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
lwilkey@tnbaptist.org

Cassidy Marcom, left, and Ashley Montgomery served as summer interns for Cumberland Baptist Association in Clarksville and ministered during the Bonnaroo Music Festival held earlier this year.

CLARKSVILLE — Sometimes missions volunteers meet people, share Christ and never see or hear from the individual again.

Two college students with Tennessee ties had the unique opportunity of not only sharing the gospel with someone, but doing personal follow up in a state thousands of miles from Tennessee.

During the summer Cassidy Marcom, a BCM student at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville and member of Excell Baptist Church, Clarksville (where her dad Terrell Marcom is pastor), served as a summer intern, along with Ashley Montgomery, a member of Living Hope Baptist Church in Clarksville and a student at the University of Kentucky, for Cumberland Baptist Association in Clarksville under director of missions Rick Stevens. [Read more…]

THE MISSION FIELD WITHIN THE MISSION FIELD

August 7, 2018

By Randy C. Davis
TBMB President & Executive Director

Aparna had no idea what to expect when she arrived in America and on the campus of East Tennessee State University. Johnson City couldn’t be more culturally different from her home in Northern India.

She didn’t know anybody when school started. One day she saw a group of people standing around and wandered over to see what was going on. It was the Pop-Tart Cart, a ministry of the ETSU Baptist Collegiate Ministry. Sure, it is a place to grab a pack of Pop-Tarts and a cup of coffee, but it is really a connecting point for BCMers to share the love of Jesus and the gospel with fellow students. One of them struck up a conversation with Aparna and invited her to the BCM. That invitation changed her life.

She made lots of new friends in the following weeks and frequently heard the gospel. It wasn’t long before she realized her need for a Savior and gave her life to Jesus. Awesome!

But the story gets better. [Read more…]

BCM IMPACT STRETCHES BEYOND CAMPUS

August 7, 2018

By David Dawson
Baptist and Reflector
ddawson@tnbaptist.org

click to enlarge

FRANKLIN — Bill Choate, the collegiate ministry specialist for the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, is a big-picture kind of guy, especially in regard to his view of the Baptist Collegiate Ministries.

Choate believes BCM is about so much more than simply being a place for college-aged Christians to socialize. He believes — and has seen — that the ministry is having a major impact for Christ in ways that stretch well beyond the confines of a college campus.

“Tennessee BCM is training leaders for the Kingdom,” said Choate. “And that’s what is so exciting to me. The multiplying impact of transforming our culture for Christ comes from discipling and training up young Christian leaders.” [Read more…]

BCM – REACHING THE NEXT GENERATION

August 7, 2018

BCM mobilizes believers, trains leaders, influences campuses

By Bill Choate
bchoate@tnbaptist.org

(Left to right): Hattie Zhang, Hannah Lee, Tori Qualls and Ashley Rivera get together for a selfie during a Baptist Collegiate Ministry event. The four students, all Vanderbilt graduates, are among the roughly 5,000 students in Tennessee who are impacted by BCM each year.

I looked across Mark Whitt’s desk at MTSU Baptist Collegiate Ministry office and asked, “What are the blue cards?” Mark, BCM Campus Minister, said all 750 were contact information cards from new students coming to MTSU.

They were gathered by Mark and student leaders over a summer of on-campus student orientation events.

Of the approximately 4,500 new students on campus at MTSU this fall, BCM already has touched and gathered contact information from 750. School hasn’t even started! [Read more…]

FORMER TBC STUDENT LEADER DIES

July 5, 2018

Baptist and Reflector

Former TBC student leader Glenn Yarbrough.

BRENTWOOD — Former Tennessee Baptist Convention student leader Glenn Yarbrough died June 29 at the age of 94.

The Illinois native served as the state director for Baptist Student Unions (now Baptist Campus Ministry) with the Executive Board of the Tennessee Baptist Convention (now Tennessee Baptist Mission Board) from 1969-87. [Read more…]

‘ADORATION’ AIMS FOR 1K CHURCHES

September 5, 2017

By David Dawson
Baptist and Reflector

Thomas Cook, a recent graduate of East Tennessee State University who was active in the Baptist Collegiate Ministry organization on campus, displays a poster for Adoration 2017, an effort he is leading to get 1,000 churches represented on the ETSU campus on Oct. 1. The event is designed to honor Jesus, unite churches, and restore Appalachia from prescription drug abuse.
— Photo by Lonnie Wilkey

JOHNSON CITY – When the Lord speaks to Thomas Cook’s heart, the conversation often involves a very big number.

First, it was a thousand dollars. Now, it’s a thousand churches.

Cook, a recent graduate of ETSU, is currently working on a project in which he is attempting to bring together representatives from 1,000 different churches for a night of worship and prayer. The event – called “Adoration 2017” – will be held at ETSU’s brand-new football stadium on Oct. 1.

“I knew it was the Holy Spirit leading me to do this, but I didn’t want to do it,” said Cook with a laugh during a recent interview at ETSU. [Read more…]

BCM, DISASTER RELIEF JOIN FOR MINISTRY

September 1, 2017

By Lonnie Wilkey & David Dawson
Baptist and Reflector

JOHNSON CITY — In the nearly three years Jonathan Chapman has served as Baptist Collegiate Ministry (BCM) director at East Tennessee State University he has worked hard to gain credibility among administration and staff.

Shortly after he arrived, he learned that some people even thought the BCM had closed. One administrator said “we didn’t know you were still around,” Chapman recalled.

Since that day the BCM “has been pouring” itself into the campus, Chapman said. [Read more…]

BCMs ASSIST IN TRANSITIONS TO COLLEGE

May 8, 2017

By Ben Maddox
Collegiate Ministry Specialist, Tennessee Tech University, Cookeville

Graduating from high school is an exciting moment for students! They have spent 13 years working toward this goal. The next step for many graduates is to head off to college. For these students, there is a great anticipation for this next chapter of life. Students look forward to making new friendships, memories, and academic adventures. For parents and youth ministers, this is a proud, yet somewhat nervous time of expectancy of wondering how their students will live their college lives. A common question for many is: Will my child grow in his or her faith in Jesus Christ during these college days? [Read more…]

WHY COLLEGIATE MINISTRY IS SO IMPORTANT

May 5, 2017

By Stacy Murphree
Collegiate Ministry Specialist, Austin Peay State University, Clarksville

Stacy Murphree

Currently there are more than 20 million college students in the United States. More than 345,000 of those attend college and universities here in our own state, creating a tremendous opportunity for Tennessee Baptists to reach this collegiate generation. In his book, Reaching the Campus Tribes, Benson Hines shares the necessity of viewing our college campuses and universities as missions fields in our own community. In reference to collegiate ministry, he elaborates on the great William Carey quote to say, “We should expect great things from the God who loves these college students even more than we do. And we should attempt great things for the God who has placed these missions fields before us.” Here are five reminders of the importance of attempting great things for God as we reach college students today. [Read more…]

THE LOCAL BCM: A MISSIONS FIELD NEAR YOU

May 3, 2017

Editor’s note: You can listen to Bill Choate discuss Baptist Collegiate Ministries during Episode 8 of Radio B&R, the official news podcast of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board. That podcast can be found at baptistandreflector.org/tag/radio-br. Also, check back on May 5 & 8 for additional columns on Baptist collegiate ministry.

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

Bill Choate

BRENTWOOD — The 2016-17 college year is drawing to an end for about 345,000 students attending colleges and universities in Tennessee this year.

Though each institution is different and the student bodies on each campus are unique and diverse, there are basically only two types of college students, observed Bill Choate, director of Baptist Collegiate Ministries for the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board.

While that seems “kind of simplistic,” Choate explained his rationale. [Read more…]

BCM mobilizes believers, trains leaders, influences campuses

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