By Alexia Finney | Staff Writer
The lights were low, but the energy was high as worship filled the air from a sea of students lifting their hands and singing in unison at Waco Hall Monday night.
What began as a night of worship turned into a moment of calling. Students thought they were attending weekly worship at Vertical, but they found themselves face to face with University Chaplain Dr. Charles Ramsey and Compassion International Representative Meghan Foley as they introduced the Beyond Us Missions Conference — a week dedicated to reminding students that faith and good works don’t stop at Vertical.
“Every year, Baylor has a Missions Week, which is awesome,” Ramsey said. “But we’ve never had a conference where you could come and hear people share from their experiences … What’s going on in the world, where the greatest needs are, how you can serve and how you can use your major to serve other people.”
The Beyond Us Missions Conference is a part of Missions Week that brings together leaders from varying churches, missions groups and alumni to share testimonies and mentor students. Their goal is to provide guidance on how to connect academics and faith — something students struggle with as they discern their purpose postgrad.
The conference will last through Oct. 8 and is co-hosted by Mission Waco, local churches and nonprofits, Baylor spiritual life and Truett Seminary. Although Monday night’s event opened at Vertical, the rest of the week’s events will take place at First Baptist Church of Waco.
The conference’s workshops are designed around academic fields, ranging from medical missions to corporate business, human trafficking prevention and bible translation. Ramsey said each workshop encourages students to apply their skill sets to honor God. Ramsey said the Beyond Us Missions Conference expands what Missions Week has sought to do since the 1980s.
“I feel like so many Baylor students right now are excited about their faith,” Ramsey said. “They’re trying to figure out, ‘Where does this matter? How does this matter with my career and where I’m going?’ This week is directly tied to helping you find your purpose.”
Eric Bryant, Baylor alumnus and conference representative from Innovative Church Leaders, said his involvement in Missions Week has been a lifelong journey and seeing students step into student ministry brings his own Baylor journey full circle.
“I graduated from Baylor in 1993 and while I was here, my roommates and I adopted a child in Rwanda through Compassion,” Bryant said. “We would pay monthly for his school, books, clothes and food. I told my buddies I’d keep taking care of him after graduation, and now my wife and I are on our third sponsored child.”
Bryant said he plans to speak with students at the Beyond Us Missions Conference and offer insight into how they can balance work and faith-oriented service.
“It’s about being a good neighbor,” Bryant said. “At my church in Austin, we serve the homeless. That means something to the people we help, but it also moves nonbelievers who see the church helping. The church, being the hands and feet of Jesus, blesses those we serve and those watching.”
For students, hearing Bryant’s experiences provided a real-world example of how faith can be integrated into daily practice.
Foley said local churches create a worldwide impact that students don’t see on the same scale she does.
“We couldn’t care for 2.3 million children if the local church wasn’t there on the ground already,” Foley said. “They know the kids by name, they know their needs. It’s the local church that’s able to care for children living in extreme poverty.”
A more detailed schedule can be found on Baylor’s website.
