By Josh Siatkowski | Staff Writer
With over 1,000 students in the organization, Baylor’s Baptist Student Ministries is now getting a space to fit its growing involvement — the ministry broke ground on a new 12,000-square-foot facility.
Though BSM has been housed in a single room in the Bobo Spiritual Life Center since the 1970s, the new facility on 4th Street and Daugherty Avenue will provide ample space for BSM’s staff and various ministries. The new building will be fitted with a 400-person capacity event room, offices for staff, a prayer room, a common area with ping-pong tables and a For Keeps coffee shop.
For BSM Director Will Bowden, the new building is a culmination of years of “grassroots” growth.
“God has been stirring up a movement among Baylor students for the past seven to 10 years,” Bowden said. “The movement has grown grassroots without a building or structure, but we’ve gotten to a point where these students have organization and structure, and the building will help support that structure and help take the movement from Baylor to nationwide.”
Baylor’s BSM is one of the oldest student organizations on campus. Founded in 1919 as the Baptist Student Union, the group is one of 130 Texas Baptist Student Ministries, and it’s grown into a diverse array of ministries. Pathway, a student-led discipleship group for freshmen, is the largest, including over 700 first-year students led by 173 older students.
Despite being known for Pathway, BSM has a number of other ministries, including a cross-cultural ministry, a downtown Waco outreach program, a pair of satellite organizations at McLennan Community College and Texas State Technical College and a number of other groups.
Bedford graduate student Thomas Haak and Midland junior Bryson Baylor, now in leadership roles at BSM, both got their starts in Pathway. They stayed on board in their respective roles due to the sustainability of the programs.
“What’s really special about BSM and all of its ministries is discipleship making,” Baylor said. “You show up, and you learn how to be a disciple who then makes disciples, who then make disciples.”
This creation of disciples, however, has led BSM to outgrow what Haak called a “ten-foot by ten-foot room” in the Bobo Spiritual Life Center.
“We’ve grown and served more than we can fit,” Haak said.
“[The building] will actually give my staff a desk,” Bowden said. “We haven’t had a place to put our books or a place to plan.”
But now, with a “home base” to work from, there’s a place for staff and students to form community and grow the ministry.
“It’s really important to meet up at places on campus where you can show other people who aren’t part of BSM the gospel,” Baylor said. “But it’s also important to have a place where you can be with other believers.”
The new building was made possible with the help of Baylor and the Texas Baptists’ General Convention’s Missions Foundation. Baylor leased the land on 4th Street and Daughtrey to BSM, while the fundraising was led by the Missions Foundation, according to Bowden.
The official groundbreaking ceremony took place on Sept. 10, which was attended by Baylor administrators President Linda Livingstone and University Chaplain Charles Ramsey, along with Texas Baptists Missions Foundation President Jerry Carlisle and Executive Director Julio Guarneri.
According to Haak, construction is set to be completed in fall 2026. In the meantime, BSM is still accepting donations to support the new ministry.
