This an adaptation from Lynn E. May's "The Baptist Student Union in Retrospect" which was originally printed in the BAPTIST STUDENT in 1961 published by the Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention (Now Lifeway Christian Resources).
By 1924 the number of local Baptist Student Unions had grown to the extent that the students requested state rather than regional conferences. Thirteen state meetings were planned for that fall. All followed the theme, "Make Christ Campus Commander." These conferences reached 2,453 students. At fourteen state conventions in 1925, the students endorsed a plan for conducting a Student Evangelistic Week in the spring of 1926 and out of the 3,000 enrolled, 646 made commitments to do personal soul-winning.
In 1923 many Southern Baptist Churches began to observe "Student Night" in recognition of their college students. The idea caught on and "Student Night at Christmas" became an annual event. In the fall of 1924, "Join the Church Day" became an annual event.
In 1927 Mr. Leavell prepared a book of techniques, The Baptist Student Union. In 1928, the Southern Baptist Convention, in the midst of a financial crisis, directed the transfer of the work to the Sunday School Board with them to accept all financial obligations for the work and to be recognized as the official agency for student activities of the Southern Baptist Convention. Headquarters was moved to Nashville on October 1, 1928 and the Department of Student Work was born.
In 1926 Southern Baptists were providing for the entire student movement a total of only 30 workers. Only three conventions had employed state secretaries and nine (9) supported campus secretaries. By 1929 the total number of full-time secretaries had risen to thirty-four (34). They reported a total of forty-seven (47) in in 1936.
In spite of the depression, 1,864 students went to Atlanta in October of 1930 for the second All-Southern Baptist Student Conference. During this conference the Student Department officially launched "The Master's Minority." The Master's Minority Covenant called for personal commitment regarding: (1) Salvation, (2) Worldliness Out, (3) Bible Study, (4) Prayer and Meditation, (5) Church Loyalty, (6) Sabbath Observance, and (8) Christian Witnessing. Students were thrilled with this and carried it back to their campuses and the movement grew rapidly and transformed lives and campuses across the country. Students chose prayermates and established prayer groups.
Fifteen years after Mr. Leavell began his work, the Baptist Student Union was functioning on 70 percent of the campuses of the South and reaching 60,000 students. State Conventions began to purchase or construct buildings on or adjacent to serve as student centers.
The program of student summer missions apparently had it beginnings in Mississippi in 1931. By 1932 all states were promoting such a program. They gave special emphasis to Youth Revivals conducted by student teams. It expanded in scope to college student teams leading Vacation Bible Schools throughout their states. In 1949 twenty-five students served outside the United States as Summer Missionaries.
Throughout the rapid growth of the BSU, four principles, laid down in the early years, have guided its development.
1. BSU work was frankly denominational. It was BAPTIST student work. No interdenominational activity could substitute for it.
2. Emphasis was place on STUDENT INITIATIVE. Students shared in organizing, planning, and promoting the work.
3. BSU was to magnify the local church.
4. BSU was to offer students nothing but the best because they deserve and demand the best.
In the 1940's the staff at the Student Department began to grow. There were positions added to do training on campuses and one particular staffer was to direct work among student nurses. Religious Focus Week (REW) became a part where a team of speakers would spend a week on a campus speaking, leading seminars, speaking in classrooms, etc.
Frank Leavell died December 7, 1949. Dr. G. Kearnie Keegan, pastor of Temple Baptist Church in Los Angeles succeeded Leavell in 1950.
In the 1960's an orientation program for high school students was initiated and "Off to College Day" in churches was born to help churches prepare students for college and promote BSU to them. Also in the 50's the growing number of International students studying in the U. S. led to the development of intentional and specialized ministry to them.
NEXT: "The History and Where We are Now"
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