As college students return to campus this fall, young adults from the inaugural Go Collective cohort are looking back on a summer leveraged for the kingdom. Through strategic mission placements from Los Angeles to Halifax, these N.C. Baptists saw God move in coffee shops, city centers and everyday relationships, shaping their perspectives on missions.

A group of North Carolina Baptist college students are returning to their campuses, starting this semester with new perspectives on faith, ministry and missions.

Last fall, N.C. Baptists launched the inaugural cohort of the Go Collective (GoCo), a ministry designed to empower local N.C. Baptist churches to equip and send college students on strategic missions. Combining online gatherings, independent reading, mentorship from local leaders and weekend equipping retreats, the yearlong pipeline culminates in a summer mission project through entities like GenSend, the International Mission Board or local church partnerships.

This summer, students were sent to nine locations across North America and abroad. Now they’re celebrating a season marked by deepened faith and gospel impact.

For Anu Onipede, a psychology major at Wingate University and student leader at Provision Church in Monroe, the journey to Los Angeles began with GoCo’s cross-cultural evangelism training. With support and preparation from her church family and mentor, she served six weeks with Abiding Church through GenSend LA.

For almost two months, she served on the welcome team and participated in community outreach events and evangelism. The experience, she said, showed her that God is always with her.

“He’s in everything, and He’s working everywhere, in ways that are so small,” Onipede said. “I realized just how big God is. He’s in every little detail and every corner.”

As she prepares to graduate, Onipede said her time on the field reshaped her future outlook and gave her peace about her next steps.

“The God who created the universe and the nations and the heavens, the God who’s in control, who created me, is with me,” she said. “I don’t have to worry because He’s planned it all out. Being here and being in the Word, I learned and was able to see how big God is.”

Relational ministry in third spaces

In Halifax, Nova Scotia, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary student Aaron Mattinson saw the power of faithful, relational evangelism firsthand. Mattinson connected with GoCo through his college pastor at Mount Vernon Baptist Church in Raleigh and N.C. Baptist college ministry strategist Alex Hugo. He was eager to leverage his summer break for the kingdom.

Mattinson and his teammate, James, were paired up for evangelism in downtown Halifax. They prayed for opportunities to have meaningful conversations with people. At a local coffee shop, they struck up a conversation with two baristas. While chatting, they related the meaning of one of the barista’s tattoos to the book of Ecclesiastes. It planted a seed that grew through consistent visits. 

The two returned to the shop regularly, catching up with the baristas. 

“We didn’t always have spiritual conversations. Sometimes we just talked about what they liked or what was going on in their life,” Mattinson said. “We could see the Lord working because every time we went in, they were a little friendlier, and that bond was built in a natural way.”

Eventually, one asked a direct question about Christianity, giving Mattinson an opportunity to clearly share the gospel message. Before Mattinson left Halifax, he and James gifted both men copies of C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity. James lives in Halifax and plans to continue pouring into their new friendships.

“I grew a lot in my understanding of what sharing the gospel can look like,” Mattinson said, noting that the experience also sparked a new heart for church planting. 

“In the past, I tended to think of sharing the gospel as mostly being a one-off conversation with a stranger, but this trip really shaped my understanding of how the gospel can and ought to be shared relationally.”

Applications for this fall’s Go Collective cohort are now open. College students, pastors and church leaders can learn more and apply today at ncbaptist.org/goco. 

Students have another opportunity to discover what it looks like to fully live on mission with God through the upcoming Call Conference on Sept. 25-27. The weekend retreat invites college students and young adults to consider what it means to surrender everything to follow Christ. Register at ncbaptist.org/callcon.

By Liz Tablazon, N.C. Baptist Contributing Writer