About five years ago, Zane Miles began to really see the significance of Baptist Campus Ministries and what they do on college campuses around the state.

He had been discipling three guys in his youth group at First Baptist Church Guin, and when they graduated, two of them went to the University of North Alabama, and the other went to the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

“What I had been doing in those guys’ lives, once they got connected with the BCM, it really started to produce that fruit in their lives,” said Miles, who now serves as senior pastor of FBCG.

One of those guys — Nathan Kemble — became the BCM president at UNA, and now he’s FBCG’s student pastor.

“I was blessed to baptize him about six months before he left and went to UNA,” Miles said. “He was growing spiritually, but his spiritual maturity that took place while he was there was incredible.”

That’s why Miles said he would encourage every student minister in the state to get connected with the BCMs at the colleges where their graduating seniors are going.

“These campus ministers are incredible, solid, God-fearing, Jesus Christ-centered people who genuinely love the Lord and love seeing that next generation seek the Kingdom of God,” Miles said.

By connecting with them and encouraging students to continue growing in their faith through BCM, “you’re partnering with campus ministers and saying, ‘Hey, this is Kingdom work,’” Miles said.

Next steps

Matt Daniels, campus minister at UNA, said he values that partnership and earning the trust of student ministers.

“To connect with their student pastor and build that relationship of trust with the student pastor, it communicates to those students that, ‘Hey, this is something that I believe in,’” Daniels said.

He said for local church ministers like Miles to encourage their students to connect with BCMs is like passing the baton between relay runners. They’re in this together, he said.

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This article was originally published at TheAlabamaBaptist.org.