Southern Baptist National College Ministry Leadership?

 The North American Mission Board (NAMB) announced Tuesday that Paul Worcester would become their National Director of Collegiate Evangelism.  Paul and his wife, Christy, started and lead the Baptist ministry at California State University at Chicot.  This announcement was greeted positively by Baptist Collegiate Ministers throughout the country who are familiar with Paul.  In the last couple of years, Paul has been used widely on a variety of programs teaching and explaining his approach to "Gospel Conversations" and teaching his students to share Christ on campus.

Immediately, the question was asked, "So collegiate ministry now comes out of NAMB instead of Lifeway?" The simple answer is No.

This question is a result of Lifeway Christian Resources, which had housed the Southern Baptist college ministry leadership office, announcing in June that they would cease this role as a part of a multi-million dollar budget cut. As a result, there have been on going discussions as to if and where there would be an SBC college ministry leadership office and person(s) provided and located.  ((You can see the original post about this at the bottom of my Blog page.)

NAMB for many years had put a great deal of money into college ministry paying the salary of as many as fifty (50) BCM campus ministers around the country in such strategic places as West Point, Princeton, etc. Plus, they had one or more consultants working nationally in collegiate evangelism.  Some years ago as NAMB shifted their focus to church planting, they reduced their support of college ministry salaries to less than ten (10) currently and had not had a national consultant or leader in this area.

In regard to the national overall leadership of SBC college ministry, State wide BCM leaders have been working with Dr. Ronnie Floyd, President of the SBC Executive Committee, (SBC's top person) to resolve the question of national leadership for college ministry and who would provide it.  It is complicated in that Lifeway was assigned that role by a vote of the Southern Baptist Convention and no one....not even Dr. Floyd...has the authority to place it somewhere else.  

Those BCM leaders, who are in discussions with Dr. Floyd, have praised his responsiveness to their concerns and his desire to help resolve the situation....and to his desire to prioritize college ministry in the most beneficial way.  Seemingly, as a result of Lifeways' decision to not fulfill this role, there will need to be a recommendation from the SBC Executive Committee to the entire Southern Baptist Convention and voted on at an annual meeting to make any formal changes.

So, Paul Worcester's being named to this role is not the overall national college ministry leadership role. In recent years, some have been critical of NAMB's step back in college ministry and so see this as a very positive step.  It is another partner in college ministry on the national level.  Paul is much appreciated in the SBC college ministry family and will be widely used as his ministry is already a model to many...and not just those in Baptist life.  Paul and Christy will continue to live in California at this point.  He is already reaching out to different BCM college ministry leaders to see how he can best benefit them and our witness to students throughout the country.

Arliss Dickerson's new book, ALMOST EVERYTHING ABOUT COLLEGE MINISTRY, is available at amazon.com.  Type in his name or the title.