When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, a lot of things changed — and one of them was the Baptist Campus Ministries at the University of West Alabama.
It stopped meeting, and it never bounced back.
“When I came here, there was nothing,” said Logan McCoy, who became UWA’s Baptist Campus Minister in 2022. “I didn’t inherit students, programs, items, anything. We were starting from scratch.”
But these days they have about 30 students meeting for Bible study each week, and they have been a part of missions efforts over Christmas and spring break. They also have some students committed to serve as summer missionaries.
McCoy said when he and his wife, Jordan, first moved to Livingston, it was a challenge at first to figure out how to best serve the campus, the students and the community.
“The first year was a lot of learning,” he said. “But as we learned and observed what was happening already, we realized there was a lot of room for ministry here.”
Making connections
They connected first with the athletic teams, and eventually McCoy became the football team’s chaplain.
“What began as a lot of sports ministry and a lot of outreach to them and the general population of the students quickly became our normal Bible study time where we would gather together in our student union building and have Bible study,” he said.
The first year they averaged 10 people. This year they’re up to 30.
“We’ve been focusing on pushing students out of their comfort zone in where they are spiritually and how they are trying to reach their campus,” McCoy said. “Through really focused efforts in evangelism and discipleship, we have seen a tremendous growth in ministry as far as outreach on campus.”
Gospel appointments
They’ve done cookouts and made pancakes for students, and they’ve used a process called gospel appointments to help students who are already believers to engage others.
“With gospel appointments, one student sets up a meeting with another student and lets them know, ‘Hey, when we meet I want to talk about spiritual things or your church background.’ It gets all of the awkwardness out of the way on the front end — you don’t have to figure out how to transition the conversation,” McCoy said.
Then when they meet for coffee or lunch, they talk about spiritual things, and ultimately the student shares the gospel.
“We follow up with them and give them books to go through together,” he said. “The student can be the one to help them start growing as a Christian. It’s a really cool thing.”
Strong support
McCoy said he’s grateful for the support of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions as he’s led the effort to restart the BCM at UWA.
“I couldn’t begin to explain how much they’ve helped us and supported us,” he said.
Ben Edfeldt, director of the SBOM office of collegiate and student ministries, said over the past two years, they’re seeing God open doors to pockets of students at UWA.
“From athletes to international students, students are beginning understand what it means to engage their classmates and teammates with the gospel, disciple others to follow Jesus more closely and be sent to the nations with the gospel,” he said. “We’ve seen substantial growth from the UWA BCM, and I’m grateful for the impact Logan McCoy is making across the whole campus.”
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