Initiative engages students in sharing the gospel

ARLINGTON—Through Engage24, every student involved in Baptist Student Ministries was encouraged on a single day to engage one person in a conversation about Jesus.

Morgan McAree, a junior at the University of Texas at Arlington, shared her faith for the first time. It made a huge difference in her life and in the life of a fellow student, she noted.

Prior to Engage24, McAree never considered herself an evangelist. In fact, she felt timid talking about spiritual matters. But last summer, she increasingly sensed God prompting her to make her faith known.

Learning to share

When the BSM at UTA offered a class on world religions, she signed up to learn more about the faith of others, but she still was unsure about sharing her faith. She started attending the classes and began arriving early to meet with BSM leaders to learn more about evangelism.

Several times during the semester, she and her friend, Ricky Ho, a BSM campus missionary, went out to share the gospel. Each time, she sat and listened while he took the lead in telling others about Jesus.

“I was still unsure that I knew enough to actually tell anyone else about salvation,” McAree said. “But God was working on my heart, and he showed me that he had already given me the words and prepared the way.”

Armed with Scripture, prayers and excitement, McAree set out on the UTA campus recently to join with her friends in the BSM for Engage24.

The BSM set up a table in the middle of campus and handed out 50 dozen donuts to students as they passed by on the way to class, hoping to start spiritual conversations.

Assurance of salvation

McAree met a girl named Van that morning and talked to her about what it means to have assurance of salvation in Christ.

“She thought it was all about works and what we did to make us a good person. But as I shared with her about God’s grace, she got so excited,” McAree said. “I prayed with her to receive Christ, and the second we finished, she jumped up and hugged me.”

McAree considered the experience life-changing.

“I am considering mission work now,” she said. “I told the Lord, ‘If this is what you want from me, I will go wherever, do whatever.’ This is definitely him working in my life.”

Six students on the UTA campus accepted Christ as Lord and Savior that day, and McAree was one of thousands of college students who shared their faith as part of Engage24, an initiative launched last year by the Baptist College Network.

Nationwide outreach

Nationwide, at least 158 students made professions of faith in Christ during Engage24. More than 1,640 students participated in at least 4,630 spiritual conversations.

“We are still working on the best way to collect reports, so we feel confident that there are even more out there that we do not know of,” said Christi Matthews, associate BSM director at University of Texas at Arlington, who serves on the Baptist Collegiate Network evangelism committee.

“It’s so important that Christian college students learn how to share their faith during their college years. While Engage24 is intensely focused on a single day of evangelism, our mission is to promote a lifestyle of evangelism and engagement with the gospel.”

Texas BSMs hosted a variety of events, each with the goal of reaching out to students on campus. From coffee and conversations to concerts and skits, each BSM found ways to reach out to their campus, empowering student leaders to share their faith with their classmates.

Kilgore College

As they began planning for the day at Kilgore College, a freshman suggested to BSM Director Shelly Webb students could perform an evangelism skit in the Student Center to share the gospel. The student who made the suggestion quickly created a plan, assigned roles and organized practices.

“Our ministry is small, and to have a student with leadership ability, drive and excitement step forward to lead was really great,” Webb said. As a result, at least 40 students on campus saw the skit performed during the day.

“Many times, the students involved in the skit are the ones most changed. That day, one of our students began to talk to her friend about Christ, and she recommitted her life to him,” she said.  

At H20 Church, a college church in Bowling Green, Ohio, Engage24 resulted in 55 professions of faith in Christ.

“On Engage24 we challenged students to share wherever they were and with someone around them,” said Rob Warren, pastor and campus director of H20 Church.

“We saw around five people become Christians on the day of Engage24. The Sunday after Engage24, which was our ‘Invite Sunday,’ where students invited people during Engage24, we had around 30 people come to Jesus at our morning service and around 15 to 20 in our evening service. Our baptism is coming up, and after our first interest meeting, we have about 30 signed up.” 

Christian college students boldly shared their faith on their campuses through Engage24, Matthews said.

“Stories like this have been coming in from all of the country,” she said. “Williams Baptist College joined with Fellowship of Christian Athletes to intentionally impact athletes on their campus, which resulted in 11 professions of faith.  One student from University of South Florida was able to share Christ with Hindus, Muslims, Jews, atheists and agnostics—all in one day.”

The Baptist College Network has scheduled Oct. 14, 2014, as the next Engage24. For more information, visit www.Engage24.org.