College can be one of the most transformative times in a person’s life, noted Mike Nuss, director of the office of collegiate and student ministries for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM).
“Life habits, patterns, relationships and faith practices are set during the formative college years,” he explained. “The first three or four weeks of a student’s college career can be a predictor of what college life will look like, study habits are formed and relationship patterns are set. A student who determines to establish good study practices during those first few days of class will generally stick with those habits.” Nuss added the same is true for personal relationships, attending church, campus ministry groups and eating and sleeping habits — they are all “pretty much set in those first few days/weeks of class.”
To help students in this major transition to college life, the SBOM’s office of collegiate and student ministries assists them in connecting with Baptist Campus Ministries (BCM) groups across Alabama and with local Baptist churches in or near their college community.
Helping to ‘unpack’
“BCM and church collegiate ministries can help students ‘unpack’ and grow their faith in light of new life experiences during college,” Nuss noted.
The collegiate and student ministries website, www.onemissionstudents.org/bcm, is one of several resources to connect students, parents and youth ministers directly with Alabama BCM groups.
“If students connect with BCM prior to arriving on campus, they will be able to receive information about events and activities designed to help them adjust to life on campus, meet friends and continue their faith journey as a college freshmen,” Nuss explained.
BCM at The University of Alabama (UA) is actively connecting with freshmen via Facebook and sending them weekly devotional readings and welcome event information as they prepare to move to campus.
Nate Young, senior BCM minister at UA, noted information is collected from incoming students who visit their Campus Ministries Association table during summer orientation sessions.
He added they will then contact students in a variety of ways, including through Facebook, email and Twitter.
“We go to a lot of effort to give ourselves as many chances to connect with incoming — and returning — students,” he noted. “We never ask or expect a student to come to everything but always encourage them to come to something.”
Young said while many students participating in the various BCM events come from a faith background, they have seen students come to Christ during these events.
Nuss noted that helping college-bound students understand practical implications for faith in the “new world” of college can be an important ministry opportunity for the church.
“Students encounter new freedoms, relationship parameters and challenges to their faith early in their college career,” he said. “Churches need to find ways to maintain contact with students, encourage students to connect with [BCM] on their campus and with a local church.”
He noted that high school students transitioning to college should be open to new friends, new ideas and especially be open to God’s will and direction for their future, “all while holding to their personal relationship with Christ and allowing His Word to be their ultimate guide for life as a college student.”
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