By Shelby Peck | Copy Editor
While Baylor displays through its mission statement its aim to educate all students for “worldwide leadership and service” through “academic excellence and Christian commitment,” one program in particular is cultivating the next generation of leaders to proclaim the name of Jesus and share His love globally.
The Ministry Guidance Program, which director Dr. Dennis Horton described as the largest in the country, assists ministry students with almost any need they will encounter as undergraduates: scholarships, graduate school applications, connections to churches and hands-on opportunities to explore potential careers in ministry.
“[Ministry Guidance] keeps that involvement in ministry as well as studying and learning together — and not just trying to do one without the other, but really keeping those two things together so that we can honor God with our minds as well as whatever other ministry we’re doing,” Horton said.
The program guides students pursuing any vocational ministry, whether pastoral ministry, music ministry, counseling ministry or countless other avenues. As they near the end of their undergraduate careers at Baylor, three senior ministry students share how their callings and faith have been shaped through their education.
Sara Hanna | Health Care Ministry
“When I think about purpose in life, and why I was created, and who I’m supposed to be, the only thing I can think about is the Lord and how everything comes from Him and everything goes back to Him,” San Antonio senior Sara Hanna said.
After observing the natural gifts of herself and those around her, Hanna said she believes God has called her to a “baseline” of compassion in whatever profession she pursues.
“I feel like the Lord had said, ‘Sara, I’ve called you to listen, and I’ve called you to be compassionate with people,’ because that’s how Jesus loved people,” Hanna said. “He’s compassionate and He spoke with them and He listened to them when there were hard things going on.”
Hanna said her family has always held roles in ministry, and seeing the transformation of the gospel through her parents’ work firsthand has compelled her to display compassion vocationally. At first, she thought her path was in the medical field, but now she has landed in the Robbins College to pursue a career in speech-language pathology.
“Speech pathology is an avenue where you can help a lot of different ages of people — elderly, children — and also just help overall with communication,” Hanna said. “I don’t have to tell you the importance of communication. It’s a vital thing of life. To get to help somebody improve and grow in confidence in themselves and their communication with people is a gift.”
Hanna said her advice to anyone interested in becoming a ministry student is that while religion classes are a growth experience, they allow a greater perspective of God’s creativity and how people can be gifted in countless ways.
“Keep an open mind,” Hanna said. “Look at the people that are serving the Lord faithfully, and try to get to know them deeply and learn how they implement the Lord into different areas of their life.”
Jacob Duffer | Pastoral Ministry
“I don’t know what it was, but during that time, I just felt very strong conviction: ‘OK, I should probably go up there,’” Cedar Park senior Jacob Duffer said. “I think that was the Holy Spirit sort of directing my life.”
Throughout high school, Duffer became heavily involved in his church. During his junior year, he attended a summer camp where the pastor extended an invitation for those who felt called to ministry to come to the front of the room and receive prayer.
“Growing up, my grandparents were both involved in ministry, and so there’s just a lot of different things leading up to that moment where God was sort of placing on my heart, ‘OK, I have prepared you to do ministry,’” Duffer said.
Duffer said what makes Baylor faculty so exceptional is their open commitment to faith and its role in the classroom, and he was “blindsided” by the intentional faith-centered conversations initiated by his professors.
“I see these professors that I’ve had, the way they live their lives in a way that honors God, the way that they approach their work and their job in a way that honors God — it’s like, ‘Man, I want to do that when I get older,’” Duffer said.
Duffer said what he’s learned in Waco has prepared him to put his faith into practice vocationally, even in a different setting.
“All those experiences [were] sort of a direction in my path and realizing … there are people outside of the Bible Belt that really need the gospel,” Duffer said. “The strong need for believers outside of our Baylor bubble, the Dallas bubble after college is just so evident. I think God will continue … to form and point me in the direction He wants me to go.”
Cullen Slattery | Camp Ministry
“I just remember looking at him, ‘Yeah, whatever you do, I want to do that when I’m old,’” Greenwood Village, Colo., senior Cullen Slattery said.
Slattery’s exposure to ministry came at an early age when he became involved with KLIFE, a national youth ministry. He observed the “exuding joy” in his director and realized he was interested in a relational ministry role.
During his junior year at Baylor, Slattery said his call to full-time ministry became more clear through prayer and petition, and in a time of hardship and loss, “the Lord revealed His grace and mercy.”
“Through that period of time, I was able to learn a lot more about the gospel because … I opened up my Bible of my own volition and learned about Jesus’ sacrifice for me, and that really just sparked this joy,” Slattery said.
Slattery said his advice to any student considering a path in ministry is to not take Baylor’s two mandatory religion classes, Christian Scriptures and Christian Heritage, for granted.
“Within the religion department, we have amazing faculty that not only care about the subjects that they teach but also care about each and every student within their classes, and so I think we can easily pass that up as a normal experience,” Slattery said. “But if you look at any other school, you don’t get that opportunity. And so I don’t think we should live in ignorance of the amazing school that we go to.”
