Revived Southwestern collegiate ministry program impacts campus ministries

On college campuses across the nation, students can find Baptist Student Ministries. While it may go by a different name in different parts of the country, the organization, established as the Baptist Collegiate Ministry over 100 years ago in 1919, has branches on over 700 campuses across the United States.

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary is helping those ministering on college campuses through the recently revived collegiate ministry concentration.

Gary Stidham, the previous BSM director at the University of Texas at Arlington for 21 years, has overseen the collegiate ministry concentration at Southwestern since it began again in 2024 and hopes that through it, the seminary will equip ministers to spread the Gospel to the younger generations found on college campuses.

“God changed my life through campus ministry when I was a student,” Stidham said, saying that led to a call to ministry that he at first assumed was to missions. “… But when I finished my MDiv at Southwestern, I still had lots of relationships with collegiate ministry, and so they asked me to consider being a campus director. And the Lord opened the door for my wife and I to do it and we haven’t left since. We recognized real quickly that being on campus was a mission field.”

He gained an appreciation for what a college ministry offers which leans heavily into what he seeks to further with the revived program he leads at Southwestern.

“We like to say, if all a campus ministry does is the same things a great local church does, which is fellowship, discipleship, preaching, worship, we might as well close our doors,” Stidham said. “But what no single local church can do is to be on campus seven days a week as a witness for Christ. So, evangelism is part and parcel to healthy campus ministry.”

He spoke on what brought him to Southwestern and how he came to be the one recreating a once inactive collegiate ministry program.

Max Barnett, an adjunct Stidham described as “kind of a legend in campus ministry,” had taught for 40 years, including at Southwestern. However, when Barnett retired, eventually the classes went inactive. Stidham had a conversation with Chris Shirley, dean of the Jack D. Terry School of Educational Ministries, about plans for the future. Shirley mentioned that the Terry School wanted to bring the concentration back.

“One thing led to another, and he invited me to help revitalize the concentration and teach those classes,” Stidham stated.

“The collegiate ministry classes are immensely practical, so you’re going to get best practice methodology,” he said. “In addition to myself, we bring in top national practitioners to do guest lectures. So, people like Paul Wooster, who’s the national collegiate director for NAMB, he does a couple hours in every one of our classes. Depending on the class, I’ll bring in three or four high level experts to do zoom lectures.”

He said these guest speakers are often current ministers themselves who bring a sneak peek of what college ministry looks like, not just theories of the subject.

Stidham said his favorite thing about teaching has been the actual demographic of students that tends to take the course.

“Almost every student who’s enrolled in our class has been a current practitioner, so they’re not typically full-time students,” Stidham said. “They’re most often people who are working in collegiate ministry, so their hunger to learn has been off the charts high and they’re able to immediately turn around and use what they learn in their context.”

He concluded, “…It’s a blast, because they’re very hungry, because they’re on the front lines, and they want as much ammunition as they can to do Great Commission work.”

Ben Muir, a Southwestern alumnus, has been director of the UTA BSM since 2016, returning to serve there after being a part of it himself while a student. He credits Southwestern as being a huge help to his ministry, even during the time when the collegiate ministry focus was not available.

Alumnus Ben Muir serves as director of the Baptist Student Ministry at UTA.

“A couple years ago, as I was transitioning to my position here, I was thinking about what’s the big picture?” Muir said. “What’s the life of a Christian about?”

He came to the conclusion of, “It’s to know God fully, love God fervently, and follow God faithfully,” adding that involves the believer’s head, heart and hands. “… And I really feel like my master’s at Southwestern helped me do all those things.”

Muir attended Southwestern virtually from 2017 to 2022, pursuing his master’s part-time as he worked at the college ministry. He was drawn to Southwestern through people he knew that had gone there. In addition to this, he praised Southwestern’s online infrastructure as he wanted to attend virtually, and he said the seminary offered a great virtual experience even pre-COVID.

Muir credits one of his professors for having a tremendous impact on his entire faith and the trajectory of how he would want to minister himself.

“Malcolm Yarnell really just transformed my view of God, because he’s probably the most brilliant theologian I’ve ever read or spent any time with,” Muir said, adding he learned of what it looks like to truly love and follow God. “But he also visibly, evidently, loves God. I can say without a doubt that that transformed my seminary experience and just I love God more.”

The collegiate ministry concentration can be taken as part of a degree program or Advanced Certificate in Collegiate Ministry.

More information can be found here.