JEFFERSON CITY – This summer, 86 college students are serving as interns through the Summer Missions program, funded by the MBC. For ten weeks, collegiate interns are paired with a mentor through a local church or ministry to assist with a variety of work while receiving an inside look at their mentor’s life and ministry. The program is a beautiful expression of partnership between local churches, college students, and ministries. Seventeen of the interns are working with MBCollegiate … [Read more...]
MBCollegiate ministries challenge students to take initiative and share their faith
JEFFERSON CITY – The Missouri Baptist Convention’s collegiate ministries – called MBCollegiate – have a threefold goal: make disciples, pursue missions, and develop leaders. With the COVID-19 crisis, many of their mission opportunities have been cancelled, but that hasn’t stopped their ministries from continuing to make disciples and develop leaders. Across the state, students are stepping up and taking initiative in their faith and on their campuses – even if from a distance. Levi … [Read more...]
WMU’s prayer, service the backbone of the Missouri State BSU ministry
SPRINGFIELD – If it weren’t for the WMU, the BSU ministry at Missouri State University might not even exist. “I don’t think BSU would be around without them getting their churches to rally around,” says Campus Missionary Chris Wilson, who has led the BSU at his alma mater since 2010. “When I was a student at MSU in the 90’s, they were there, the same ladies,” Wilson says. “They’ve provided that support for a long time.” The integral role of Baptist women in the BSU goes right back to its … [Read more...]
College ministries, campus missionaries find creative ways to serve students
BLAND – If desperation is the mother of invention, then pandemic may well be the mother of creativity. Loving and serving others is more complicated in a post-coronavirus world, but it’s far from impossible: it just takes some imagination. MBCollegiate campus missionaries have been finding creative ways to serve students and their communities despite the disruption and challenges of this season. Some campus missionaries brought smiles to faces with small but meaningful gestures that let … [Read more...]
BSU reaches out to international students amid pandemic lockdown
TRENTON – Not all is doom and gloom with quarantined life during COVID-19. For Campus Missionary Christina Boatright at North Central Missouri College (NCMC), the pandemic has opened doors she never saw coming. When the coronavirus hit and classes moved online, “it was a big adjustment,” Boatright says. Students living on campus had a one-day warning to move out of the dorms at staggered times. Despite having her broken hand in a splint, Boatright helped four students move out, none of … [Read more...]
BSU students at University of Central Mo. develop ear guards for medical workers
WARRENSBURG – When Matthew Argotsinger and Cameron Rogers started college at University of Central Missouri (UCM) two years ago, neither of them foresaw using their degree in Design & Drafting Technology (CADD) to provide comfort for frontline pandemic healthcare workers. But in a world drastically altered in a matter of weeks by the novel coronavirus, that’s exactly what they’re doing. Both Argotsinger and Rogers, student leaders with the BSU at UCM, discovered their passion for the … [Read more...]
Missouri college students are called, sent as gospel ambassadors at 2020 MBCollegiate Conference
COLUMBIA – Nearly 200 college students from Missouri campuses gathered at Woodcrest Chapel, Feb. 21-23, to be called and sent on mission wherever God is asking them to go. Through worship led by modern hymnist Matt Papa and teaching by several different speakers at main sessions and breakouts, the students were challenged to see themselves as ambassadors of Jesus everywhere they go – to their classes, to their families, to their communities, and to the nations. This call changed the way … [Read more...]
Missouri Baptist collegiate missionaries shift ministry strategies in light of COVID-19
JEFFERSON CITY – As the novel coronavirus closes schools and college campuses, MBCollegiate’s Campus Missionaries must change strategies to continue ministering to students. Now, more than ever, college students need the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ to provide peace, comfort, and hope in life as they know it drastically changes for the foreseeable future. The Pathway surveyed the campus missionaries to hear what is happening on their campus, how they are going about ministry in the … [Read more...]
BSU celebrates baptism of Truman State student
KIRKSVILLE – The Truman State University’s Baptist Student Union (BSU) celebrated the baptism of a new sister in Christ at Hamilton Street Baptist Church, Jan. 5, where campus missionary Greg Xander and some of his students attend. Ashley’s journey to Christ began two years ago during her freshman year. Shortly after winter break, she came to the BSU’s Thursday night worship gathering. After she’d been coming for a few weeks, Xander asked if she went to church. She said she considered the … [Read more...]
Truman State BSU adopts cheerleaders
KIRKSVILLE – It all started with a fundraising car wash one Saturday in July. Missouri Baptist Convention collegiate campus missionary Greg Xander and his wife stopped to have their car washed by a group of cheerleaders from Truman State University, where he does college ministry. Through talking with the coach while waiting for their car, they learned that the cheerleading team doesn’t receive funding from the university. The cheerleaders were back at school for the next week-and-a-half … [Read more...]
Priceless: Decades after decision to save premature twins, Marrs family advocates for life
KANSAS CITY – Matt Marrs and his youth group were stopping at a restaurant in Dallas on the way back from a mission trip to Houston when a waitress handed him a life-changing message: “Your wife is in labor.” That message would send any dad-to-be in a flurry to the nearest airport. For Matt, it also sent a rush of alarm through him. His wife, Kerry, was carrying twins. Her due date was still over 14 weeks away. Matt caught the first flight back to Kansas City, where the doctors revealed … [Read more...]
Collegiate groups join together to foster ministry at UMKC
KANSAS CITY – “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” With over 15,000 students on the liberal, urban campus of the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC), the harvest is too plentiful for any one church or ministry to reach. That’s why from March 9-13, two college ministries, a local church, and the Collegiate Impact network partnered together on an MB Collegiate Spring Break Trip to bring more laborers to UMKC. Eight students from the BSU at Southeast Missouri State … [Read more...]