Foundation supports campus ministries across New England |
University students make friends and explore Christian faith
It was not about the food! Molly Peele and two others stood outside on a cold and windy day last February at Johnson & Wales University (JWU) to distribute gift bags of basic food staples including Ramen noodles and M&M candy. Their two-part message was something that any university student would want to hear during the COVID-19 lockdown: “We are thinking about you!” Along with the edibles was an invitation to a weekly Thursday Bible study group where students could set academic pursuits aside for an evening and discuss everyday concerns and eternal challenges.
Molly came to Providence, Rhode Island, because her home church, Concord Baptist Church, Chattanooga, Tennessee, had been prayerfully and financially supporting Grace Harbor Church, a “Gospel-centered and Word-driven” congregation near downtown Providence, and the ministry of its Christian Student Fellowship at JWU.
She visited the city where Puritan minister and theologian Roger Williams had started the Rhode Island colony and was a founder of Baptist faith in America, to work for one week with Grace Harbor’s outreach to children and adults. As a result of those conversations, she began to consider moving to Providence to simply join the church and be a witness for Jesus in everyday life. “My plan was to continue teaching high school math, but through various circumstances God paved the way to work full time in campus ministry.”
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(Left to right) Molly Peele. Molly with Johnson & Wales students.
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Molly noted that she gets “excited about listening to God’s Word and coming alongside others to understand Scripture in its context. Then we let the text shape our thinking of God, the world, and ourselves, and affect our hearts and actions.”
The “transient lifestyle of students,” she observed, “can be a challenge for college ministry. We only have a short time to develop trust in relationships that lead to opportunities for discipleship and evangelism.” Molly and the other JWU campus ministers with whom she serves urge students to make a “faithful commitment to a local church for the present and in the future.” Campus ministry, she added, “is only for a season, but the local church is for their whole lives.”
One comment by a JWU student online says that the campus ministry “molded me and provided me with the wisdom and guidance to navigate the heartaches, as a Christian in college.”
Students are open to conversations about faith and spirituality
Nearly 300 miles north of Providence in the Burlington, Vermont, area, Shaun and Monica Stotyn live happy lives. “My days are spent doing what I love.” You can often find Shaun, a native of Edmonton, Alberta, drinking coffee or sharing a meal with a student or a group at the University of Vermont, Champlain College, or Saint Michael's College. It’s all about building relationships for the campus pastor and director of The Vine Campus Ministry.
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(Top) Shaun Stotyn (left) meets with a student on the University of Vermont campus. (Below) Shaun and Monica Stotyn
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Shaun said Christian faith has always been a part of his life; he grew up in a Bible-preaching church, decided to follow Jesus Christ at age 7, and was baptized at 14. Despite the early start in matters of faith, “I didn't really begin to own my faith until college.” He attended and graduated from Champlain College, a small school in Burlington that did not have a campus ministry. Christian outreach on a university campus “wasn’t on my radar until I met another believer in my dorm who told me about a campus ministry at the University of Vermont. I thought it would be worth checking out so I went with her to check it out.”
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He was attracted to campus-based Christian service from that first meeting. Despite owning a web development business, Shaun knew that God was leading him to invest his life with university students. “It brings me much joy every time I talk to a student about Jesus and it happens more often than people might realize. I have found that students are open to conversations about faith and spirituality, but it must be a conversation not a monologue,” noted Shaun, who also is the worship pastor at Daybreak Community Church, Colchester.
Taking the time to listen to students and to understand them often earns reciprocation. Then, with reference to John 4:35, Shaun predicted, “We will see the fields really are white for the harvest, even on a college campus, even more than we can handle alone.”
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A Word from the
Executive Director
Dr. Terry W. Dorsett
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Developing students in the church and for the world
New England is home to many world-class institutions of higher education. World leaders send their children here to be educated and many of our nation’s leaders are educated in New England, including US presidents, Supreme Court justices, and Fortune 500 CEOs.
Considering the significant impact that New England colleges and universities have on our nation and world, it is imperative that New England Baptists share the Gospel with the students in our midst. While many will not respond positively, everyone will be impacted when they hear and understand God’s Word. Students are exposed to a Christian worldview when they encounter a campus ministry or attend a church. Without a campus ministry or a nearby church, students may not hear the Gospel at their institutions of higher learning.
That’s why the Baptist Convention of New England makes collegiate ministry a top priority. That’s why every July I dedicate my birthday month to raising funds, prayer, and awareness of collegiate ministry in New England. Over the years, friends and family have given $29,000 as a result of my July appeals for collegiate ministry.
This year I am asking the Lord to help me raise $6,500, which would be a record. You can be part of this effort by donating HERE or by mailing a check to the BFNE office and marking it for Collegiate Ministry. Help us reach college and university students for Christ and train them to be faithful leaders in the church and for the world. Students can take the Gospel to places you and I may never visit.
Dr. Terry W. Dorsett
Executive Director
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“If we can win the university today, we will win the world tomorrow.”
––Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ (now Cru)
Source: Bill Bright, Come Help Change the World (1979) and campusministry.org/article /college-students-the-most-powerful-percent-on-the-planet.
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