Georgia Baptists are blessed with three very fine colleges, Shorter College in Rome, Truett-McConnell College in Cleveland, and Brewton-Parker College in Mount Vernon/Ailey. At these colleges, we have very fine presidents who are profoundly committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and are devoted to providing excellence in academic education in a Christian environment.

Frequently, my wife, daughters, and I reflect upon our college years with fond remembrance. Each of us had the privilege of attending a Baptist university. We are thankful for the support that our churches give to Christian higher education.

We pray that all of our colleges will consistently give faithful witness of the Lord Jesus Christ for all who walk through their hallways. What we need today are churches in our Convention that will be supportive of Baptist higher education by encouraging their students to attend our colleges. At our Georgia Baptist schools, your student will have the privilege of being a part of a smaller student body with a greater professor-to-student ratio than they would encounter in larger universities. This adds up to more personal attention to your student by both professors and administrators.

We seek to have on our campuses a spiritual life environment that is a complement to the experience of our students in their home church. While college is different from attending a church, we certainly want the students to have opportunities for worship and ministry through chapel, mission projects, and relationships with other Christian students that will enhance their education both academically and spiritually.

A week ago, I attended the Board of Trustees meeting for Truett-McConnell College. Sitting with the board, I was profoundly impressed with the spiritual devotion and commitment to the college that I saw in each one of the trustees. I was thankful for the Interim President, Dr. Mike Simoneaux, and the other staff members that were involved in the trustee meeting.

One of the trustees made an appeal during the course of that meeting for contributions from the board to the college. Over $40,000 was raised among the trustees in just a few minutes. I sincerely appreciate that kind of devotion by Georgia Baptist church members who serve as trustees on our college boards.

Dr. Rick Statham, pastor of Salem Baptist Church in McDonough, Georgia, made a suggestion in the meeting that I thought was outstanding. He suggested that I might use my column in The Christian Index to encourage our churches to put a link on their website to our three Baptist college websites. In this way, you will be able to give an opportunity to those viewing your church website to “click” on our Baptist colleges to learn of the many offerings and opportunities available to your student at a Georgia Baptist school.

This is something that all of our churches can do. It will not hurt, but rather will enhance your church website to provide a link to our Georgia Baptist colleges. Through this link, your students will have an opportunity to learn more about Georgia Baptist colleges and through their searching will perhaps be led of the Lord to attend one of our schools. I thought this was a great idea and wanted to pass it on to you.

Georgia Baptists, let us all be faithful to pray for our college presidents, Dr. Harold Newman at Shorter, Dr. David Smith at Brewton-Parker, and Dr. Mike Simoneaux at Truett-McConnell. Pray that God will give them unique wisdom and vision as they lead our fine colleges out into the future.