The first week of the semester at Howard Payne University was fairly slow, as students returned to campus and started all their classes. But our leadership team is fired up and ready to go. At our retreat, one of our visions for this semester was to get more involved outside of the Baptist Student Ministry. We want to make sure that more people know about our events and are invited.
Kim Lilley GarnerOur first event of the semester was student-led worship. It happens twice a month, and we have a group of students who regularly attend and enjoy it. We decided to make flyers with all the dates for student-led worship and distribute them throughout the resident halls and apartments. We scheduled a time and invited our students to join us. Seven students showed up, and we split up the campus housing, leaving flyers on every door.
It was a great time to meet new people and invite them to worship. I saw many girls in the dorms I had never met and hung out in several rooms. I saw many of the regular worshippers later at the service, and it was nice to catch up with them. But it also was encouraging to see many new faces. It was refreshing to try something new and know that it worked.
That night, one of our leadership students preached on following Jesus daily. It was a great service to start the semester. For me, it served as a great reminder of the cost of following Christ but also the gain. It was a great charge to our students and an encouragement to continue to grow and push—to follow God’s will in their lives. It was a great time of worship and fellowship for all.
Our student leaders also decided to schedule Prayer and Pancakes for the first weekend of school. We spent time making flyers and getting students signed up to help work the event. A lot of students sign up to help who are not on our leadership team and who don’t typically help with events.
The Prayer Pancakes event started at 5 p.m. Friday and lasted until 5 a.m. Saturday. In the BSM, we set up four stations of prayer and activities to guide prayer—for yourself, campus, community and the world. We served tons of pancakes, with close to 100 students attending. There were many students who are not part of the BSM who are looking for ways to get involved now. It was a great time of prayer, fellowship and—of course—food.
Kim Lilley Garner is serving with Go Now Missions as a campus ministry intern at Howard Payne University.
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