Auburn BCM one example of how Baptist campus groups reach students

As students transition from high school youth groups to university campuses and church involvement many times begins to dwindle, Baptist Campus Ministries (BCM) are stepping in.

Stephen Thompson, senior Baptist campus minister at Auburn University, sees a common thread between students involved in church: They’ve built relationships with other students who are connected to church.

Many of those relationships are forged through Auburn’s Baptist Campus Ministry.

“Students are more likely to follow the example of their closest relationships,” Thompson said. “Students coming from churched and nonchurched families have said to me they don’t know where they would be had they not involved themselves in BCM and met other like-minded friends.”

Thompson and other BCM leaders at Auburn are working to see fewer college students drop out of church by connecting them to the BCM even before they reach the time for their high school graduation.

Student leaders from the BCM help with associational youth events, and they even staff and host youth DiscipleNow weekends.

Youth groups also are invited to participate in BCM worship events.

Auburn is among the universities that host CampusConnect events, where high school juniors and seniors, parents and youth leaders connect with college students and college ministry leaders.

During welcome week every fall semester at Auburn, the BCM hosts a church fair.

Local church ministries set up displays and offer giveaways to students.

Then, throughout the year, local church ministers are encouraged to take part in BCM functions, such as weekly discipleship groups followed by church fairs, where students can learn about local churches with which to be involved.

“We constantly stress the importance of a local church relationship with our students and make it clear that BCM is not a church and not intended to take the place of church,” Thompson said.

He urges all students to plant themselves in a church ministry where they live, rather than skipping church or returning home on the weekends for church.

“While they will never find a church ‘just like home,’ they will discover, if they take the time to look, local folks who love them just like the folks back home.” (TAB)