In 2007, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina (CBFNC) stepped out in faith and committed to providing ministry to students on North Carolina college campuses at a time when many denominations were downsizing and defunding campus ministry. For 15 years, CBFNC’s collegiate ministry was led by Wanda Kidd, former campus minister at Western Carolina University. Today, CBFNC’s collegiate ministry encompasses a presence on campuses across the state, a staff of full and part-time campus ministers and interns, an annual retreat and spring break mission trip and a new vision for the future that expands beyond college campuses.
The First 15 Years
Historically, Baptist campus ministry in North Carolina had been funded by a much larger organization. When CBFNC stepped up to ensure a Baptist presence on our state’s campuses, we had to think strategically and creatively. Over the years, the ministry has included a variety of approaches:
- Consulting with churches to minister to college students.
- Supporting historically Baptist colleges and universities.
- Partnering with churches near state university campuses.
- Offering internships in mission settings and congregations (in partnership with CBF Global).
- Maintaining Cooperative Baptist Student Fellowship (CBSF) groups on college campuses.
Today, CBFNC’s collegiate ministry includes:
- Ministry with students connected to 21 campuses.
- Seven full and part-time campus personnel, plus interns.
- Collaborative ministries on five additional historically Baptist campuses.
About the same time Wanda determined when to retire, she encouraged CBFNC and its campus ministers to vision and dream about the future of collegiate ministry. At a planning retreat in April 2021 led by Chris Gambill from the Center for Congregational Health, Wanda, along with Larry Hovis, CBFNC executive coordinator, and the campus ministers, developed a vision for a broader, more diverse approach to reaching young adults not only on campuses, but wherever they may be.
An outline for a revamped CBFNC Young Adult Ministry was created with the vision statement: Everyone has a place to belong, an environment in which to grow and an opportunity to serve others in Christ.
Later that year, the vision was affirmed by CBFNC’s Coordinating Council.
Bringing a New Vision to Life
The first step in bringing this new vision for young adult ministry to life was to hire someone to lead it. Wanda retired at the end of March 2022. Not long after, CBFNC began searching for an associate executive coordinator (AEC) who would have overall responsibility for young adult ministry, including this existing collegiate ministry. The goal was to find someone to operationalize this vision by developing a structure, including curriculum and training resources, recruiting personnel (employees and volunteers) and securing funding necessary to make this vision a reality.
Thankfully that search process didn’t take too long. Andy Hale joined CBFNC in June 2022 as associate executive coordinator. Since then, he has had overall responsibility and oversight of CBFNC’s current collegiate ministry and is working to make the vision for a broader young adult ministry a reality.
When Wanda retired on March 31, 2022, David Stone assumed extra responsibilities for state-wide leadership beyond the region he serves. Over the past year, he has worked closely with Andy to support campus ministry colleagues and help discern next steps in expanding the ministry.
“David stepped into a leadership gap when Wanda retired and the search was underway for the position ultimately filled by Andy Hale,” noted Larry Hovis. “He has been an invaluable source of support for Andy during his first year on the CBFNC staff team. I’m grateful our leadership structure has evolved to allow David more time to devote to his campuses while retaining a state-wide role.”
“Campus ministry continues to drastically shift as a result of the pandemic and how students engage in campus activities. This has and will continue to require constant adaptation from those who minister to young adults, which in turn requires CBFNC to provide a greater system of supporting and equipping them,” said Andy Hale.
A New Leadership Structure
A year-long discernment process revealed the need to reorganize the campus ministry leadership structure. Three of CBFNC’s current campus ministers will now be joining Andy on a Campus Ministry Engagement Team, each as a campus ministries associate in addition to serving their respective campuses.
They are:
Caitie Jackson
Campus Ministries Associate & Charlotte Region Campus Minister
David Stone
Campus Ministries Associate & Western Region Campus Minister
Chris Towles
Campus Ministries Associate & Triad Region Campus Minister
CBFNC’s other campus ministers will continue to maintain their current campus ministry activities. The new engagement team will each have specific ministry-wide duties, such as coordinating and equipping internships; making congregational connections; planning and coordinating ministry-wide events; pursuing financial sustainability; and developing support systems for campus ministers.
“Andy is the leader of this team and has done a wonderful job of bringing a higher level of coordination, alignment and effectiveness to our campus ministry program. I’m grateful for the way he has hit the ground running and provided significant leadership and restructuring to this area as well as ministerial transitions and church engagement,” said Larry Hovis, CBFNC executive coordinator.
He adds, “Like so much of our work these days, even this shift may not be ‘permanent.’ But we believe this is the best leadership structure for campus ministry within our current approach.”
“CBFNC is blessed to have so many extraordinary people who are gifted and called to minister to the number one generation missing from many churches. Our goal is to learn from our campus ministers how to better equip congregations to connect with young adults in an authentic and transformative way,” said Andy.
Do you have students in your church headed to an NC campus in the fall or already there?
Help connect them with CBFNC campus ministers and campus ministry groups by completing our student info form.
Click here for the form.
About CBF of North Carolina
CBF of North Carolina (CBFNC) is a fellowship of individuals and churches partnering in ministry so that all people may know and believe that they and those around them are loved by God. As a trusted ministry partner to local churches, CBFNC is committed to serving Jesus Christ, preserving historic Baptist freedoms and calling out God’s gifts in Christians and churches to engage in ministry in our state and world. Based in Winston-Salem, CBFNC collaborates with the larger Cooperative Baptist Fellowship network. Learn more at cbfnc.org.