Super Summer helps students grasp God’s greatness
JEFFERSON CITY – The Missouri Baptist Convention’s (MBC) Super Summer event held over two consecutive weeks in June at Hannibal-LaGrange College (HLG) and Southwest Baptist University (SBU) resulted in 29 professions of faith in Christ, 48 recommitments to Christ and eight calls to ministry.
Angela Carson, MBC student ministries associate, was moved by the spirit throughout the HLG portion of the event.
“I think it was a very intimate atmosphere,” Carson said. “I think that because there were a smaller number of students at Hannibal LaGrange than Southwest Baptist University, it created an atmosphere of closeness during our time of worship. I definitely felt God’s presence there all week and saw him moving in the lives of the students in a very real way.”
MBC Student Ministries Director Matt Kearns was encouraged by those participating in Super Summer for the first time. There was an approximately 30 percent increase in student attendance and a 50 percent increase in leader attendance.
Carson said there were four aspects that the students looked at during the week—the greatness of God, the holiness of God, the love of God, and the mission of God. Carson talked about the leadership aspect of Super Summer.
“Well before any of the youth pastors left Super Summer we put a follow-up packet in their hands,” Carson explained. “They are the ones who go home with students and we will not be there personally to follow up on every decision that the students made on Thursday night. So they sat down and came up with a plan for when they went home about how they are going to walk with God and how they are going to reach their friends.”
Carson noted the importance of the students taking their mission home with them.
“I feel the students had their eyes opened to how huge and how great God is,” Carson said. “The impact of God’s love is even greater as we realize how amazing that He is and through all of that, we hope that souls really grasp the mission of God and go from Super Summer to being on mission with God.”
Future plans for the MBC student ministry team include the “YOU: 2” events set for five Missouri cities. The events will cost $10 per person and will be from 2-8 p.m.
The Student Ministries team wanted to emphasize that the YOU: 2 events are for everyone and will be a place where students who may never have heard the Gospel have fun and hear about Jesus. For more information on YOU: 2 and questions, visit www.mostudentz.com or email Kearns at mkearns@mobaptist.org. (John Inman is a junior journalism major at Lincoln University and is working as a summer intern for The Pathway.)