SBOM, BCM help students get ready for college

The time between high school graduation and Christmas is challenging and fun — and potentially dangerous, Mike Nuss said.

Rising college freshmen “will set patterns, establish relationships, try out new freedoms and find out just how firm their foundation of faith really is — or isn’t,” said Nuss, director of the office of collegiate and student ministries for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM).

The beginning is critical, said Jerrod Brown, Baptist campus minister for the University of South Alabama in Mobile. “Freshmen are making life decisions and faith decisions that will affect a lifetime during the first few weeks of the semester.”

Transitioning students

And experts in transitioning students to college suggest that many Christian students will disconnect very early in their first semester of college.

“This lets us know that we the Church are missing opportunities to transition some of our students into lives as obedient and fruitful disciples,” Brown said. 

And that, he said, just isn’t a good situation.

Chris Mills agreed.

“Everyone’s heard stories of the students who have gone to college and made mistakes,” he said. “But we have also seen those students who have gone to college and really owned their faith and are making disciples on a college campus.”

That’s what Mills, student missions strategist for SBOM, said they’d like to see more of.

And that’s why Brown decided to be proactive in getting students ready for college and equipping churches to do the same thing.

Helpful resources

He recently helped develop a booklet called “A College Student’s Guide to Growing in College,” which provides students with five core ideas, related devotional Bible studies and practical next steps.

“The booklet also contains a Scripture reading and memorization plan that takes students through nine weeks of daily readings and focuses them on key verses to memorize,” Brown said. “This plan is designed to help students understand the gospel of Christ so that they can have a strong foundation as disciples and be able to defend their faith.”

‘Never too early’

It all started when Brown and former colleague Emily Hamilton (now serving with Etowah Baptist Association) “realized it was never too early” to begin to connect with students preparing to leave home.

“We discovered that we don’t need to wait until a student’s high school graduation to begin thinking about transitioning them to college — we need to begin much earlier than that,” Brown said. “I like to say that the successful transitioning of college students doesn’t begin at age 18. Successful transitioning begins at 8 and 12 and 16.”

That’s where churches come in, he said.

“We wanted to develop a booklet that we could begin to put into the hands of seniors during their final year of high school so that they could begin to walk toward this tremendous transition time with their church leaders and mentors,” Brown said.

They also wanted to make sure that transitioning students had something tangible to work through during that time.

The booklet “focuses on getting each student to be sure of their foundation in Christ; understanding the need for continuing growth as a disciple and in their relationship with God; and connecting with other believers as soon as they get to campus through local churches and Baptist Campus Ministries (BCM),” Brown said.

It’s a role BCM is happy to play, Nuss said.

“Baptist Campus Ministries and church collegiate ministries are ready to help students survive and thrive in college and beyond by connecting them to strong, Bible-based discipleship principles, mentoring relationships and personal accountability,” he said. “That influence can have a life-changing impact on today’s college freshman.”

Mills agreed.

“That’s why BCM exists — to reach and disciple students and encourage them to disciple others,” he said.

It requires intentionality, Brown said. Churches have to start early and commit to making sure students are ready when they graduate from high school.

And Brown’s staff is using “A College Student’s Guide to Growing in College” on campus to connect with incoming freshmen during summer orientations.

“This signals to the students the need to get ready for the transition and lets them know that the BCM and local churches exist to help them grow as a disciple while in college,” he said.

They are seeing that intentionality changes lives.

“We are seeing this approach make great impact,” he said. “We are already seeing some churches use these materials or others like it to move their seniors toward college. They are seeing students who head off to college ready and committed to live as fruitful disciples while in college.”

And they are seeing freshmen come to college with the mindset that it will be an opportunity to not only earn a degree but also grow in spiritual maturity, Brown said.

“They aren’t simply looking at the disciple life as a hobby, but as the life that is meant for every Christian,” he said. “We are seeing freshmen coming into college ready to live as disciples and ready to make an impact as disciple makers as they share their faith in Christ on campus. They aren’t walking away from the active disciple life but are going deeper in their commitment and fruitfulness as a disciple.”