September 4, 2000
Student Bible study draws others
___By George Henson
___Staff Writer
___BELTON--How do you turn a Bible study of five college students into a weekly gathering of 300 people, including many families?
___Prayer.
___Those involved in leadership of 7:14 Ministries are in complete agreement on that.
___"From the very beginning, we have made this ministry one built on prayer," said Jeff Mangum, director of the ministry at First Baptist Church of Belton. "We have asked God for his guidance and tried to follow his direction. There were times we probably didn't hear the way we should have, but we have always tried to base our ministry on prayer."
___The group of students from the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor looked to 2 Chronicles 7:14 as the basis for the ministry's name.
___The more intensely the group of students prayed, the more others wanted to come and pray, Mangum said. That number soon grew to the point where a college dorm room would not hold them. Now 300 gather each Thursday night at First Baptist Church.
___"It's totally out of our control," Mangum said. "God's in charge."
___7:14 Ministries is not built on the kind of loud, hard-driving music often associated with college ministries. "These are intimate, passionate worship nights," Mangum said.
___The official starting time is 8 p.m., but many gather more than an hour before the service to pray for what's to come.
___"It started off with just of a few of us gathering to pray before the worship services, but now so many are coming we break off into groups and pray," said Heath Peloquin, a vocational evangelist who preaches for the group each Thursday.
___That time before the worship service is the key to the ministry's growth, he said. "I really believe it's because we pray. That might seem like a weak answer, but that's what we do. We pray for people to come that are seeking and people that are hurting."
___Those coming are not the ones Mangum and his friends initially set out to reach.
___"We initially set out to try to get more college students involved in local church ministries, but about 30 percent of the people we are seeing are young married couples," he explained. "Most of them are not affiliated with a church, and that is our No. 1 pursuit--getting them into a church."
___Andy Davis, pastor of First Baptist Church, is enthusiastic about the ministry.
___"They are attempting to meet the needs of college students and young adults, and they are doing a great job," Davis said.
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