NASHVILLE, Tenn.—Students from Baptist Student Ministry programs at three Texas schools spent spring break evangelizing and teaching evangelism on six college campuses in Nashville, Tenn.
The students from the University of North Texas, Texas Woman’s University and Tyler Junior College presented the gospel to 184 people and led 10 new believers to profess faith in Christ.
Before the trip, UNT students learned an evangelism approach called “3 Questions, 3 Circles and 3 Responses,” a simple method to present the gospel by drawing diagrams on a sheet of paper. Then the UNT students equipped their peers by teaching them.
“The training was given about 90 percent by our UNT students,” said Stephanie Gates, BSM director at UNT and trip organizer. “They trained other Texas students, as well as students from two of the Tennessee colleges.”
Gates explained that the evangelism training involves asking someone if they need prayer. If the questioner has a chance to pray with them, he or she then can ask if the person is close to God. That opens the door to draw the three circles and present the gospel. The final question allows the person an opportunity to accept Christ as Savior.
Once the students were trained, they spent the rest of their time visiting six Nashville college campuses and applying their evangelism tools.
Gaining confidence in sharing their faith
Sean Beach, a junior from TWU, said before spring break, he never had been comfortable presenting the gospel to anyone.
“I went to Beach Reach, but I just froze up,” he said. “From then, I probably shared the gospel with one other person the whole time I’ve been in college. I’m an introvert, so it’s something that’s just not easy for me. But on this trip, I shared the gospel with like 30 or 40 people, and I wasn’t even afraid. I just felt that God was with me that whole trip.”
Beach and another student with whom he was paired presented the gospel to students at Cumberland College and Middle Tennessee State University.
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“We just walked around the campus, and sometimes went to the dining hall where we asked students if they needed prayer,” he explained. “I was shocked at the response because 95 percent said, ‘Yeah.’ Then we shared the gospel. Usually, we’d pray with them right then and there and most of them would say, ‘Yeah, that’s fine.’”
Now Beach hopes to apply his newfound comfort in telling other people how to enter a relationship with Christ.
“I think it’s something I can keep doing,” he said.
Gates explained that one of the long-term goals of the trip was to help students realize they could share the gospel and then be able to return home and continue evangelizing.
Another goal was to ensure that students who heard the gospel presentations received some type of follow-up.
“We collected the names and contact information from the students who either made a decision to accept Christ or showed an interest in learning more, so that the local Baptist Collegiate Ministry could follow up with them,” Gates said.
Gates said the Nashville Baptist students were excited to see students come to their campus to work alongside them and provide contact information for follow-up.
“Not only were we helping connect with students who wanted to learn more, but I am hoping we were able to cast vision and excitement of how these things can happen even when we are not here,” Gates said.
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