The Baptist Collegiate Ministry Network (BCNet) is a national network of committees composed of state, campus, and local church Southern Baptist leaders who resource student ministries on campus and in local churches throughout North America in the areas of evangelism, discipleship, missions, international student ministry, planting, and leadership development.
Brian Musser, Baptist Campus Minister at Drexel University, and Eric Reiber, Director of New Life Student Fellowship (BCM) at Penn State University have been serving on BCNet for the past year and will continue to serve for the next two years. The Network provides national strategy on how we reach college students … and these local campus ministers are contributing in a big way to how Southern Baptists do just that.
BCNet is composed of eight committees: Campus-Based Ministry, Church-Based Ministry, Multiplication, Leadership, Evangelism, Discipleship, Missions, and International Student Ministry. Reiber serves as the chair of the Campus-Based Ministry Committee and Brian Musser serves on the Multiplication Committee.
Reiber serves with the Campus-Based group with BCNet. The group focuses on equipping ministers in their first five years on campus. There are three initiatives that will be the focus this year. The first is to help ministers prepare students for transitions, both in preparation for life following college as well as equipping ministers with how to build an alumni network for a ministry. Secondly, there will be a series of videos to show the impact BCM has had on the work of Southern Baptists across the world. Finally, we are part of implementing a new initiative called Campus2Campus. The goal is to promote partnerships and missions between ministries in the Bible belt with groups in what we call “the emerging region.”
Musser’s committee is tasked with the ambitious goal of multiplying our presence on college campuses so that there is a Gospel witness on every campus in the United States. Currently there is only a presence on 50% of those campuses. Reaching this goal will take the collaborative work of all the campus ministry organizations; however, Baptist Campus Ministries has a unique piece to bring to this puzzle. If we were to mobilize our local church congregations to impact the colleges and universities in their backyard, this daunting task would be accomplished quickly. One of the initiatives of the BCNet multiplication committee is to create an easy to follow resource to help our local Baptist churches engage their neighborhood campuses for the first time with an on-campus Gospel presence.
Out of BCNet have come some incredible campus initiatives that include Engage24 (a national 24-hour day of prayer on college campuses), Forgotten 50 (a movement focused on reaching the fifty college and university campuses in North America with the least access to the gospel), Welcoming the Nations (an intentional ministry to international students) and partners with EveryCampus (a collaborative initiative seeking God for revival by making gospel communities on every campus a possibility).
Another wonderful outreach effort that was promoted because of BCNet, is something called Soularium. Soularium is a visual, spiritual survey – a series of 50 original photographic images and five simple questions – to help engage students on college campuses regarding their spiritual beliefs and get to know them better, that lead to meaningful conversations about life and God and provide the opportunity to enter gospel conversations with them. BCNet worked hard to get this evangelism tool into the hands of as many student workers as possible.
Also of note, both Musser and Reiber have written articles for BCNet that can be found at https://collegeministry.com/resources/ministry-articles. Click on “11 Keys to Thriving as an Introverted Evangelist” and “4 People You Need to Meet on Your Campus” to read what they have contributed.
These campus ministers, serving students right in your neighborhood, are key contributors to this national effort, developing strategies and initiatives that best reach our college campuses. Please pray for them as they seek to reach the next generation with the gospel of Jesus Christ, and for their campuses – that students, faculty, and administration would be open to and receptive of the work they, and all our PA/SJ campus ministers do, every day.
Please visit https://collegeministry.com for additional information and to learn more about the work of BCNet and how critically important collegiate ministry is across our nation.
