Baptist Collegiate Ministries Offers Opportunities for Connection through Faith 

Breanna Tillie

A great deal of young adults who have taken advantage of the opportunity to participate in the college experience often relate to having an itching desire for success. This goes far beyond academics and future career aspirations. College students desire success in their social lives as they yearn for a place of belonging and connection. Along with success in their personal growth, and finally finding the passion that sets off the spark that they never knew lived inside of them. 

The Baptist Collegiate Ministries (BCM) is one organization on campus dedicated to serving students in fulfilling the need for community with a solid foundation of Christian faith and spiritual engagement. 

“The purpose of BCM is to show the love of God on campus and share the name of Jesus to the students on campus,” said Emily Grisset, president of BCM at the University of West Georgia. “We want to make His name known.”

The next upcoming major event that the BCM will be participating in is the Confluence conference for college students throughout Georgia at Eagle’s Landing First Baptist Church from Sept. 20 to Sept. 22.

“Confluence is when BCM’s from all over Georgia meet at a weekend conference,” said Grisset. “There are breakout sessions and a guest speaker that comes to discuss a topic. It’s a great way to not only get to know your BCM better, but get to know the other BCM’s better too.” 

BCM also partners with a ministry called The Great Exchange, offering BCM students an opportunity to have meaningful conversations about faith with other students on campus. Although the idea of doing so may seem intimidating, Grisset said that it does get easier. 

“Until you do it, you’re going to feel nervous. But the more you do it, you’ll become more comfortable with it,” said Grisset. “When I first started going, I was so shy. But now I can go up and talk to pretty much anyone and I actually get excited to go to The Great Exchange now.” 

You definitely get shut down a few times, but most people are actually willing to have conversations. There were definitely more people willing to have conversations than I thought,” continued Grisset.

BCM students will also have the opportunity to go on missions trips, which make it possible for students to provide community aid and spiritual service for places near and far. 

“Our fall break mission trip will be helping out at a church plant in Dalton, Ga. We did that last year and it was really cool to see God working in that church,” said Grisset. “We’re still planning the Spring missions trip.”

However, the top priority of BCM is to encourage students to become plugged into a local church. 

“BCM is a college ministry, but the church will continue after college. It’s important to recognize that BCM is not a church and we should find local churches to serve,” said Grisset. “We see in scripture that we are supposed to be involved in the church. There are so many ways to do this. Being on the worship team, helping out in the children’s ministry, sitting at the front desk. There are plenty of ways to get involved in a local church.”