PHILADELPHIA (BRN) – Once again Drexel University has invited a new freshmen class to be part of our campus community. We do this each year through an entire week of events before classes start designed to help new students orient to the campus and the city. A large portion of the week-long programming is provided by university departments and student organizations.

Christian student organizations take significant advantage of this week.  Baptist Campus Ministries (BCM) is featured prominently. My goal throughout the week is three-fold 1) meet as many different students as possible 2) make sure the new Christian students know how they can connect to the Christian communities that exist on campus and 3) give local area congregations an opportunity to connect with the new students.

Drexel invited 2350 new freshman to campus this year (which is significantly lower than anticipated) and over the course of Welcome Week BCM connected with over 700 of them! That is almost 30% of the entire incoming class!

Game Night and Outdoor Games in the Park 

 There is a pause in the week’s schedule. The first Sunday evening, after students have spent a weekend moving in, before the campus gears up with constant activity Monday morning, there is a moment without much happening. In that strategic time, we host a game night.

This has become our best attended event throughout my 20-year history of working at Drexel. It relies on the fact that games are fun, new freshmen are excited, and not much else is happening. We had the privilege of hosting at least 10% of the new class in the James E. Marks Intercultural Center (the JEMIC) on the first weekend of their Drexel experience. We host many of our Bible studies, fellowship gatherings and worship events in the JEMIC throughout the year.

New students are so much more likely to join us when they have been to the location before. Having so many new students in the space on one of their first nights on campus is a significant win for the ministry. During the evening, I stop the games for about five minutes and give a formal welcome to Drexel, to the JEMIC, to participating in the Christian events on campus throughout the week, and a brief presentation of the heart of Christianity with an offer to talk about it more in-depth with anyone who is interested.

I’m not sure why but each of the last two years a room full of 200 new Drexel students only there to play games applauded my five-minute interruption. (Thanks to a BRN Evangelism Grant we were able to provide food to alongside the games to enhance this experience.)

We had planned a similar event on Tuesday through the Graduate Christian Fellowship (GCF). But what was initially designed to be outdoor games in Drexel Park became indoor games in the student center due to inclement weather. I have to praise the partnership with Drexel University and their events services team. They go above and beyond to accommodate our events even in unpredictable circumstances. It is awesome to serve the Baptist Churches at a secular institution that appreciates our presence on campus.

Although the event was open for any new students to attend, we were hoping to intentionally connect with graduate students and international students. (Thanks to a BRN Evangelism Grant we were able to provide food alongside the games to enhance this experience.)

Through these two events we connected with an additional 545 new Drexel students outside of those that attended a specifically Christian event on campus. These two events are intentionally designed to accomplish our first goal of meeting as many new students as possible.

 Spiritual Conversations

Twice during Welcome Week, on Thursday and Saturday immediately preceding two of our most exciting events (Campus Wide Worship and FIND-A-CHURCH) we set up a table at Mario the Magnificent (our Dragon statue on campus) on the corner of 33rd and Market.

For several hours each day we use the evangelism tool Soularium to engage students in spiritual conversations and Gospel presentations. Strategically positioned between the residential and academic portions of campus and right next to a trolley station, 33rd and Market is a corner with substantial and consistent foot traffic.

On Thursday, we had significant help from Cru Bridges (a Christian ministry that focuses on connecting with international students). We also had a returning Drexel student from one of our BRN churches (Story Fellowship) join us and use Soularium to share their faith on their campus for the first time. Over the course of 4 hours, we had over 100 conversations with many leading to explicit presentations of the Gospel.

On Saturday, the traffic was a little bit lighter, and honestly our energy levels were significantly less, we had fewer conversations. But on Saturday we had two returning Christian students join us. One of the students was from another of our BRN churches (Philadelphia Mission Baptist Church).

Both returning students used Soularium for the first time to share their faith on campus. Over the course of the 4 hours on Saturday we had about 30 conversations but many were longer and more significant with more leading to Gospel presentations. (Thanks to a BRN Evangelism grant we were able to purchase several cases of water that passed out for free in order to slow pedestrians down and to get them to look up and notice our Soularium table.)

Campus Wide Worship

Campus Wide Worship (CWW) is my favorite night of the year. It has become a Drexel tradition. On Thursday evening the Christian Student Organizations gather together for worship. This year we had 10 organizations participate (Drexel Cru, Drexel Students for Christ, Newman Catholic Community, With Every Heart, Asian Baptist Student Koinonia, Story College Fellowship, Graduate Christian Fellowship, Every Nation Campus, Open Door Christian Community, Crosswalk Fellowship).

Cole a student leader for Asian Baptist Student Fellowship and part of our BRN church Philadelphia Mission Baptist Church gave his testimony about how finding Christian community on campus and at church helped him to see God at Drexel. Then Bennet and Esteban students involved in Story College Fellowship and another BRN church Story Church shared a wonderfully interactive presentation of the Gospel.

Not only was the Gospel shared with a crowd of 125 new students, but it was shared by students from our BRN churches. I want to publicly praise God for the work both Philadelphia Mission Baptist Church and Story College Church are doing with students from Drexel University!

Many Drexel students share my excitement and enthusiasm for CWW. It is often listed as their favorite event while at Drexel. The goal is to show new students a great picture of the different Christian communities that exist on campus through student organizations. It also highlights that even though we spend most of our time doing things independently of each other, we are all part of the same Kingdom and serve the same King Jesus.

This is not only a great to the incoming students, but it has also been a testimony to the entire Drexel community, especially the administration who coordinate Welcome Week events. Jesus is getting glory at Drexel because of how the Christian groups work together during CWW. (A BRN evangelism grant allowed us to create and print promotional material for this event that was distributed at all the other events.) 

FIND-A-CHURCH

I want new students to know what Christian communities are available on campus through our student organizations. I also want them to know what Christian congregations are present throughout the city. CWW is designed to highlight the student organizations. FIND-A-CHURCH (FAC) highlights the local congregations. This year we listed 21 different congregations in the Philadelphia area.

Twelve of these participated in person in the FAC dinner (Bethany House of Worship, Citylight Church, First Love Church, Grace Covenant Church, Metro Church, PEACE & POWER Christian Fellowship, Philadelphia Mission Baptist Church, Redemption City Church, St. Agatha & St. James, Story College Church, and Tenth Presbyterian Church.) Several of these churches are part of the Baptist Resource Network. It was great to hear testimonies from students on how they found their church and the impact it has had on their lives.

Two specifically talked about how the church they found at Drexel was how they came to know Christ in a personal way.  It was a common refrain that FAC in previous years was how they found the church that they are now representing at FAC. We had about 40 people attend the event and 645 new students and 578 returning students received the list. (Thanks to a BRN Evangelism Grant we were able to provide a dinner for those who attended this event.)

Have an outreach event you would like to host, but could use a little help when it comes to the cost? Apply for a BRN Evangelism Grant today by visiting brnunited.org/grant!