While attending the Cooperative Baptist
Fellowship General Assembly last week, I found myself talking to a former
campus ministry colleague. He commented,
“When are these folks going to realize that old campus ministers run this
group?”
I think we can agree that no one “runs” a
group of Baptists, but he reminded me of how influential campus ministry (or “Baptist
Student Union” or “Baptist Student Ministries” or “Baptist Collegiate
Ministries”) has been in Baptist life in the south in the last (almost) 100
years and its contribution to progressive Baptist life today.
One of the strongest influences of “student
work” has been in the realm of missions.
The student missionary movement of the last 1940s and early 1950s not
only expanded the number of field personnel sent out by Baptist entities, but
it also planted the seeds for short-term and volunteer mission activities that
are so central in the ministry of churches today.
Baptist campus ministry also had a strong
influence on social justice. College
student meetings were racially integrated long before many of our churches
opened their doors to African-Americans.
Women rose to places in leadership in campus organizations so
prominently that many conservative leaders felt threatened. In fact, women were the first “directors” of
many Baptist Student Union organizations and lost ground to men when the role
became more professionalized and had to fight to regain a role in the ministry.
As Baptists in the south began to choose up
sides in the 1980s, campus ministers often found themselves pulled in (at
least) two directions. Some left
denominational life over the tension and began to minister as chaplains,
pastoral counselors, or in community agencies. Some left to work with
progressive churches. Some just left the
ranks of the clergy.
Others became leaders in the moderate movement
of Baptists. I find many of them in
CBF-related churches across the nation. People like Tom Logue in Arkansas,
Bradley Pope in Mississippi, Bill Junker in Tennessee and others too numerous
to name became leaders in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. The tradition continues as Ronnie Brewer, a
former campus minister in Alabama, was called from the pastorate last year to
become coordinator of Alabama CBF.
One of the reasons that I enjoy attending the
CBF General Assembly each year is that I get to see some of my former campus
ministry colleagues. They have found a
home in the CBF family because they helped lay the foundation for it in their
ministries. I celebrate the contributions
they have made in pushing and pulling Baptists into a new era.
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