April 29, 2002

BIG TIME BIBLE STUDY:
College Bible studies booming
___By George Henson
___Staff Writer
___COLLEGE STATION--While college students often seek small classes, on campuses across the state they're turning out in droves for large-scale mid-week Bible studies.
___The largest of these Bible studies is Breakaway Ministries at Texas A&M University in College Station. Every Tuesday night, more than 4,000 college students gather in Reed Arena for the study led by Greg Matte, who founded the ministry in his apartment in 1989.
___"Students are needing a reality," he said. "The world presents them with a false reality; Jesus provides a true reality. The world says life is found i

IN COLLEGE STATION, hundreds of Texas A&M students flock to weekly Bible studies in Reed Arena. The sessions include worship bands and praise songs (left) as well as biblical teaching and connections with resources such as CDS and books (right). A primary goal of this ministry, and others like it across the state, is to connect the students with local churches. A display (center) at the College Station study offers a variety of information about area churches.

n money, life is found in your occupation, life is found in your relationships with others. That's false. Jesus says, 'I am the life' and a relationship with him is the only one that is going to bring these students the kind of life they're seeking."
___Another large Texas Bible study is Paradigm Ministry at Texas Tech University. Jon Randles, who leads the Lubbock ministry, agrees that students are looking for a rock-solid faith.
___"There is so much uncertainty in the technological world, the economic world, the moral world, the sociological world, the family world that these kids are looking for something they can hold on to," he said. "Something that's real. Something that is not going to change."
___At these Bible studies, students apparently are finding what they're looking for. In recent years, the mid-week Bible studies have exploded in attendance.
___Breakaway Ministries has grown from about a dozen people to 4,000. Paradigm, which meets at First Baptist Church of Lubbock, has grown in five years to more than 700 students meeting each Thursday night. Grace Bible Study in Abilene reaches about 1,200 students each Tuesday night at the Abilene Convention Center.
___The College Station and Lubbock meetings are similar in that both provide music that appeals to college-age adults and both deal with topics that are geared to a college audience. At College Station, the format is more traditional with music and then a message.
___But at Lubbock, the singing after the message usually lasts longer than the music before.
___"That's the way it was in the early church," Randles explained. "It's after the conviction of the word that worship is best. What we have in Baptist churches is a camp-meeting style. They sang songs about Jesus to get the lost people in the crowd softened up for the preacher.
___"Once you've gotten right with God, that's when worship is best. Then you can sing 'All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name' with power," he said.
___Quality music is crucial to the success of these collegiate Bible studies, he said. "The No. 1 thing is great music. It's got to be edgy music, not necessarily hard, but it's got to be quality."
___That means not just the tunes but the lyrics as well, he added. "It's not choruses over hymns, but songs about my relationship with God and not just about God."
___The preaching and teaching leadership is equally crucial, however, he asserted.
___"The leadership has to relational; they can turn on their televisions or computers and get good preaching and teaching without ever leaving home. If you want kids to come, you've got to be relational."
___The teaching also must engage the participants, he continued. Today's college students "don't grow by listening, they learn by using their ears, their eyes, their hands," Randles said. "No one sings to us; we don't have any solos. It's interactive. People don't want to come and listen, but to participate so the stage extends to the back door."
___Students are looking for teaching with meat in it, he added. "Teaching has to be edgy, hard-bodied discipleship."
___"It used to be that kids were so hungry for mysticism all you had to do was sing, but now every high school youth group has a good praise band on Sunday morning. Now they want more; they want doctrine. That's why you're beginning to see hymn-quality theology coming into choruses," Randles said.
___Matte agreed that A&M students want to go deeper in their faith as well. More than 700 recently attended a missions conference there.
___The students in American universities represent an essential group for Christianity to penetrate, he added. "Only about 1 percent of the world's population goes to college, so we consider these students the 'powerful percent,' that percent that can really have an impact on the future."
___While the teaching and worship offered at the mid-week Bible studies are important, the ultimate goal must be to incorporate students into local churches, all the Bible study leaders agreed.
___While the Lubbock Bibl

STUDENTS come and listen intently, seeking spiritual depth, leaders report.

e study is a ministry of First Baptist Church there, the church keeps a low profile. Bible study leaders do attempt to funnel students to church, but not necessarily to First Baptist.
___"One weakness of these Bible studies is that they can be a life unto themselves, but Christ gave us the church," Randles explained. "These Bible studies don't meet all the needs of a church. If they don't plug into a church, they won't learn about Sunday School, missions and all the other things they're going to need to know to be the prepared to be good churchmen and women.
___"Our job is to push them to the local church. We tell them, 'We've had our high-energy worship and discipleship time together, now let's go out and be loyal and faithful members of our individual churches."
___John Strappazon, minister to university students at First Baptist Church in Lubbock, said the mid-week Bible study has strengthened his church's Sunday morning ministries.
___"We've seen lots of growth in what we do on Sundays since we started what we do on Thursdays," he said. "I think a big part of that is their meeting here during the week makes the building that much more friendly and less intimidating and they are that much more likely to come."
___The Texas A&M ministry is not directly tied to any single church, but plugging students into local churches is a priority, Matte said. A team of students serving as disciplers helps students find local church homes.
___Trent Henderson, who is teacher for Touchstone Ministries at Baylor University, said the churches in the Waco area are beginning to do such a good job of ministering to students that the need for his mid-week study is lessening.
___"When this ministry first began, there was a definite need for a real and relevant Bible study, and there wasn't really anyplace for them to find that," Henderson said. "But now in the last two years, the churches are doing a much better job, and we're excited to see that.
___"We've always told them, 'Touchstone is not your church and is not designed to be a church.' If they join a local church, that's a success for us, not a failure. We are not in competition with the churches, but hopefully an asset to them."
___Henderson believes churches doing a better job of meeting students' needs is the major cause of a drop in attendance at the Waco Bible study from nearly 1,000 a week last year to about 100 this year.
___"Nearly every student we've talked to who used to come and doesn't now has told us the same thing: 'I haven't been to Touchstone in a while because I've been so involved with my church.' We tell them, 'Great. Hope we don't see you back.'"
___The mid-week Bible studies also are an asset to the Baptist Student Ministries office on the surrounding campuses, according to Bruce McGowan, director of the Center for Collegiate Ministry at the Baptist General Convention of Texas said.
___"It's important that the BSM work closely with these ministries because they give the BSM access to a much broader range of students," he said.
___However, areas with strong mid-week Bible studies may change the focus of the local BSM, McGowan said. "It may mean that the BSM doesn't need a large worship service, but can invest itself more in small group Bible studies, evangelism and mission projects."
___In essence, it takes a variety of ministries to make sure Texas' college students have a well-rounded spiritual diet.
__

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