By Grace Thornton
The Alabama Baptist
Thomas Fletcher said he knew something was different about First Baptist Church, Livingston, from the Sunday he preached in view of a call.
“They told me I was going to meet with the deacons, the staff and the search committee — and also the college students,” Fletcher said.
It was then he learned that the small church, in Bigbee Baptist Association, located about a mile from the University of West Alabama (UWA), gets about a third of its congregation from college students.
Rebuilding
“We average 100 on Sundays, and probably 30 of those are college students,” said Fletcher, who became the church’s pastor in September 2017. “We lean heavily on them to help lead the church.”
It hasn’t always been that way though, Fletcher said. The church doesn’t have a college minister, and the year before Fletcher arrived, a lot of the college ministry’s leaders graduated.
That’s what it was like when Stephanie Metzler came back for her sophomore year at UWA.
“It was a rebuilding year for us,” said Metzler, now a senior.
Brady Gaither agreed. When he first showed up at First, Livingston, only five college students were attending. Metzler was one of them.
“We knew we needed a revival around here,” he said. “So we started praying and God really began to work.”
The church’s college committee gave Metzler, Gaither and other student leaders the keys to the church and offered them the freedom to dream.
“That committee has had such great dedication to the college ministry and really believed in what they do,” Fletcher said.
And with the committee’s support and blessing the students prayed for weeks about what to do.
They changed the name of their college ministry to The Awakening, named after the Great Awakening, the revival that swept through the country in the 1730s and 1740s.
Metzler said they wanted to see that kind of fresh wind sweep their town.
“We see our generation at the point where it’s got head knowledge of the gospel but not heart knowledge,” she said. “We feel like there’s a lot of people in our generation who are asleep to the power of the gospel. We want to see our small town wake up.”
So they prayed some more.
And the first Wednesday they kicked off The Awakening, 80 students showed up. Now they run about 100 on Wednesday nights for a meal cooked by church members followed by worship.
They also host an English class for international students. Gaither said he loves the diversity of the group.
“We have college students from all denominations and ethnicities,” he said. “We tell them, ‘We’re just here to tell you what Jesus is all about.’ We just want people to know the gospel, understand what they believe and back those beliefs up by reading the Bible.”
Gaither and others sometimes preach on Sundays. They help with worship and they teach the church’s Sunday School classes. And they help with missions projects, both around Livingston and overseas.
“They headed up our Operation Christmas Child this year and packed 700 boxes and took them to the collection site,” Fletcher said. “They’re integral to our church.”
And Fletcher said he doesn’t mind giving those students a place to grow, then sending them out.
“We don’t anticipate more than 3 out of 100 to stay after they graduate, but you can really impact a lot of different places by how they become hungry for the Word and ministry and reaching lost souls for Christ,” Fletcher said.
Try new things
Metzler said if a church is looking to grow its college ministry, it should be willing to try new things — but not be discouraged as they continue to be faithful where they are.
“There are seasons of growth and seasons of digging before the planting even comes, or before a harvest ever comes,” she said. “At First Baptist we had people who were faithful when there were only a few of us. That’s just how ministry is. Stay faithful.”
For more information visit facebook.com/TheAwakeningLivingston.
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