Relationships at the center of collegiate ministry, leader says

Written by Chris Turner

Linda Osborne hasn’t met a person she isn’t willing to engage in conversation, especially if college students are involved. She likes to talk. But ask her about her vision for collegiate ministry and ideas come quickly and to the point: Partnership. Networking. Equipping. Strengthening. Reaching. Connecting.

Before taking her role as national collegiate ministry leader for LifeWay, Osborne gained 21 years of campus ministry experience serving at Arkansas State University, Florida State University, and Louisiana Tech University. The Winona, Miss., native plans to draw from her experience and her vast network of collegiate ministers to bring focus to LifeWay’s effort to assist in the mission of reaching college students with the gospel and helping them grow in their faith. Osborne took a brief break from a busy Collegiate Week at Glorieta Aug. 6-10 to discuss her ministry philosophy and the future of collegiate ministry.

Q: How would you describe your ministry philosophy?
LO: In a single word: relationship. College students want relationships. They want to talk and they want to be in community with others. This was a significant finding in a study done by LifeWay Research earlier this year titled, “Young adults falling away from church.” Relationships open the door for campus ministers and church ministers to have spiritual influence in their lives. Students will talk about anything and ministers need to be a part of the conversation. Relationships pave the way for sharing the gospel with them and providing godly counsel.

Q: You’ve also talked about relationships among leaders themselves. How does that philosophy extend to what you’d like to see LifeWay accomplish in relation to churches and campuses?
LO: One of the great joys I have in this position is getting to work with college ministers and BCM [Baptist Collegiate Ministry] directors across the country, many of whom have been good friends for years. We are all aware of the needs on college campuses. We do have BCMs on 839 campuses and work with 42 Baptist state conventions that minister to more than 279,000 students. However, there are more than 18.7 million college students on campuses across the United States. There is a lot of work to do. Most of those don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus. I believe having a relationship with leaders across campuses, conventions and churches is going to be critical if we are going to have an impact for Christ.

Q: What will LifeWay’s role be in these relationships?
LO: Years ago the Southern Baptist Convention gave LifeWay the responsibility of collegiate ministry. Last year a number of state collegiate directors met with President Rainer, and asked him if LifeWay could make collegiate ministry more of a priority. He responded in a very positive way. One of the positive changes was to put collegiate ministry in our network partnerships department. This is a perfect fit. It gives us a chance to build relationships with state convention leaders, ministers, the International Mission Board, North American Mission Board, and a host of others. We all realize that if we are going to make a dent in that 18-plus million, it is going to take all of us working together to do more than we can do as individual entities and my goal is for LifeWay to offer leadership in helping bring this about.

Q: What type of impact do you think this week makes in their lives?
LO: I believe it makes a huge difference. Consider, Collegiate Week is just one aspect of what we believe will be a comprehensive equipping approach to collegiate ministry, but it is a very important aspect. We have students here from campuses across the country, most of them secular. I’ve already heard a number of comments from them about how this week is spiritual preparation for going back into challenging circumstances, in many cases where there is hostility toward Christianity. Here they get solid biblical teaching during our large group times and more specialized training during small group sessions in areas like apologetics, evangelism and missions. It helps to equip them for their personal ministries. The really cool thing is that they literally have a chance to reach the nations for Christ right on their campuses with so many international students coming from every corner of the world.

Q: What role does the local church have in your vision for collegiate ministry?
LO: Campus ministry is not the church. While BCM is an important arm of the church, the church is the Bride of Christ and ultimately that is where students need to connect. It is important that we help them make that transition. The LifeWay Research study that released in August showed that 70 percent of teenagers who say they attended church regularly in high school drop out of church between the ages of 18 and 22. That is an alarming figure. We’ve got to help them make that transition and to not walk away from their faith. However, it is important for local churches to embrace their role in ministering to college students. Unfortunately too many churches that are not in “college towns” don’t see themselves as college churches, but if your church has a single student who has gone off to college, then you are a college church and there are lots of ways that church can support the student.