More than a decade ago, Shannon Hughes struggled with something that she said has made her more prepared for campus ministry today — she thought she was failing at it.
“A lot of circumstances made it a challenging situation for me personally,” said Hughes, who at the time was serving with Auburn University’s Baptist Campus Ministries. “Also, I was probably making it tougher, because I needed to seek out some help, and also I was not relying on the Lord like I needed to.”
She was doing ministry in her own power. She struggled with anxiety and fear. She believed the lie that she was failing. And after a while, she burned out, she said.
“I lost sight of my calling, and the only thing I really knew to do at that point was walk away,” Hughes said.
New role
But now, as she starts in a new role as lead campus minister for Jacksonville State University, she said she believes her struggle with anxiety during that season has put her in an even better position to relate to a generation weighed down by mental health battles.
“What I didn’t know at the time but I’m seeing now is that I’m a better minister because I can sit with a student and say, ‘I’ve been where you are, and I’m here to help,’” Hughes said.
When she first walked away from campus ministry, she spent five years working in university administration at Auburn.
“During that time, I got refocused, and the Lord really redeemed that season and reminded me who I was and whose I was,” Hughes said. “He did that through opportunities including bivocational and volunteer church collegiate ministry. He renewed my calling and reminded me that He wasn’t finished with me and He still had a purpose for me in ministry.”
God’s timing
Even so, she still didn’t expect that He would call her back into campus ministry. And she definitely didn’t think it would be at Auburn.
“But the opportunity came around, and I sensed the Lord was leading me there,” Hughes said. “I didn’t know it at the time, but the Lord had a plan to redeem the choices of my past and the reasons I had walked away to do something only He could get the glory for.”
She jumped back in, saw God work and by December 2022, she was serving as interim lead campus minister.
“I learned in the next year and a half what it looked like to lead a campus ministry on my own,” Hughes said. “Had I not gone back to Auburn BCM, I wouldn’t have had a chance to learn that — I’d always been second chair.”
Before her first season at Auburn, she’d served on the BCM team at the University of South Alabama. She’d also served at Southeastern Louisiana University.
Helping students
In the fall of 2023, Hughes began to feel God calling her toward the lead role at JSU. She prayed for God to make it clear, and she said He sent her to the story of Gideon in Judges 6.
“Gideon had the same questions about his readiness as a leader. I knew all I needed to do was be obedient in this next step,” Hughes said. “I said, ‘OK, I’ll go in the strength I have, knowing You’re going to use me.’ He’s used the lessons I’ve learned through leaving ministry to make me better ready and able to help students struggling with their identity and mental health.”
She said God also used this second season at Auburn to show her that He redeems circumstances that might not seem purposeful at the time.
“I’m grateful I saw the Lord redeem the season away from ministry. I am a better, more grace-filled minister because of it,” Hughes said.
Next chapter
She said she’s also thankful for the opportunity to build on the legacy left behind by Gary Brittain, who recently retired after more than 33 years in the role at JSU.
“This next chapter at JSU, that same purpose will remain, to reach students with the gospel and disciple them to reach their campus and the world for Christ,” Hughes said. “I’m reminded to rely on the Lord who has authored this story already and is going to continue to author it.”
Ben Edfeldt, director of the office of collegiate and student ministry at the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions, said Hughes has “demonstrated a great capacity” to reach, equip and send students.
“Her work at Auburn and South Alabama has adequately prepared her to lead the BCM at Jacksonville State,” he said. “Gary Brittain and campus ministers before him have created a great legacy for the JSU BCM, and I expect Shannon to build on that legacy and help reach, equip and send more JSU students.”
The BCM there has the potential to have a tremendous impact on the state and the world, Edfeldt said, and he believes Hughes “is the person to lead the JSU BCM into its next dynamic season.”
For more information about BCM, visit bcmlink.org.
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