I was privileged to serve as the president of the Association of Southern Baptist Campus Ministers (ASBCM) in 1987-88. ASBCM was a professional organization that met for two days each year prior to the Southern Baptist Convention. I recently ran across a copy of the speech I gave at the end of my term at the closing banquet in 1988. Dick Houston, former Baptist Campus Minister in Georgia, had put all of the ASBCM journals on line shortly before his death. A copy of my talk was printed in one of the journals.
It is surprising and not surprising that some of the issues are still issues. For your benefit, I am just printing a portion of my comments under each of the points.
SIX THINGS I WANT TO SAY
After a year as President of the Association of Southern Baptist Campus Ministers, I felt like there were six things that came through to me that needed saying and that I hope others will pick up on and respond to.
1. Baptists don't realize how good of a thing they have in BSU.
I received a fund raising letter recently from a non-denominational student ministry claiming to be the largest Christ student ministry. They reported being on 700 college campuses with 28,000 students involved. That does not even come close to the 1,042 campuses and number of students being reached with a BSU ministry.......Put simply, Baptists are reaching and touching more college students on more college campuses than anybody else. Should we do more? yes, but let's do a better job of telling our story to Baptists and never hang our head when compared to anyone else.
2. Baptist Student Ministers need national involvement and communication with each other.
One reason I started going to ASBCM meetings was to be involved with people who had a different perspective from mine.....In these days of shrinking budgets and other frustrations, it is easy for us to draw in and just get with those who are in similar situations to ours and see things just like we do......The current proposal for a National Workshop once every ten years is inadequate....the more infrequently these meetings are held, the more unlikely it is that Directors from different parts of the country can develop and maintain on-going relationships.
3. Realize there is no one way to do student ministry and BSU.
Different situations call for different strategies just as different budgets and staff resources call for different approaches....This also means realizing that there is no "Top Ten Directors" list. I often hear speculations about who the "Top five" or "Top Ten" are.....But, I want to say that the best Student Ministers might be on some campus no one ever heard of....and that they hold it together is a miracle every semester.
4. We have lost our sharp focus nationally on campus ministry to students.
Unless the national strategy changes, I fear that Southern Baptists' ministry to students will be splintered and will decline. Let me state my credentials: I am a church person. I go on Wednesday night and I go to Training Union. My wife and I were at Wednesday night church supper on our Anniversary. All BSU Directors I know are church people.....Many churches are hearing today's emphasis as that it is better for everybody to do their own thing than to cooperate in one strong ministry. (This was in regard to some national leaders saying BSU Directors were not active church people and that it was better to focus more on church college ministries and less on BSU.)
5. BSU can model communication between Baptists who are at different points.
I have students out of churches who identify themselves as moderate and fundamentalist churches. It should be that way. Some of the students know nothing about the labels; others use them and don't understand them. In BSU, they talk and learn from each other in both formal and informal situations. I really believe that our Student Ministries can help break down some of the walls that are developing in Baptist life as we help future Baptist leaders talk to each other. (This was early in the days of the Baptist battles over being "moderate" or "conservative" and dividing into two groups.)
6. Life calling emphasis has helped Baptist Student Ministry.
Baptist Student Ministry has benefitted immensely from our emphasis on Student Ministry being a life calling from the Lord--not just something you do until you can get your own church......If we are going to ask people to stay a lifetime, we must have the salaries to go with it. BSU Directors kids have to pay to go to college too.....If we want mature professionals, and we say we do, then we need to pay for mature professionals.
As you can see, one change has been the terminology from Student Ministry meaning College Ministry and obviously, the change some years ago to a wider variety of names from Baptist Student Union (BSU) to Baptist Collegiate Ministry (BCM), Baptist Student Ministry (BSM), etc. I think I still stand by everything I said. If you got this far, thanks for reading the "blast from the past". Love to hear any comments or feedback.
Arliss Dickerson's book, ALMOST EVERYTHING ABOUT COLLEGE MINISTRY, is available at Amazon.com.
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