"Five Loaves and Two Fish" — Growing a BCM Chapter at Indiana State

Friday afternoons for most people are a prized weekly time spent with friends or family or looking forward to the weekend. Fridays are a joy for me too. But before the fun and powerful Friday afternoons my chapter experiences now at Indiana State University (ISU), God had to move in some unexpected ways. 

In the fall of 2022, I asked my friend Chris to invest weekly chunks of time to try and rebuild an InterVarsity chapter and a Black Campus Ministries (BCM) small group with me at Indiana State University (ISU). I wanted ISU to not just have a space for students to encounter Jesus, but I also saw a need for Black students to have a space to come together too. 

Before he graduated from ISU in 2019, Chris had been a critical student leader in an era when we had a strong multi-ethnic fellowship taking root. However, he was often one of only a couple of Black students in any given InterVarsity meeting, and he’d also dreamt back then of starting a weekly Bible study specifically for Black students like him. So his ‘yes’ to help plant BCM as an alumnus was especially sweet, and this new partnership felt like a chance for Chris and me to reengage old dreams, prayers, and efforts.  

Together, we prayer walked the campus and approached students with invitations to study the Bible weekly. We then hosted large group gatherings and had discipleship conversations with the students God brought along. We also did our best to revive a floundering Instagram page to drum up new followers and make new contacts. And after a little while, Chris was able to start a weekly Bible study for Black students. We thought the dreams God had given us were quickly coming true. 

Multiply It Into Something Greater

I wish I could say that Chris and I saw the fruit of our labor immediately. I wish I could say God filled our meeting rooms with an increasing flow of students. Instead, despite our efforts, only a few students attended our chapter events and only a couple attended the BCM small group Chris was leading. 

By spring break that year, we had to cancel all our weekly meetings as attendance kept dwindling. 

In May of 2023, Chris got married and moved to New York City. And by August, there were only 10 students involved with InterVarsity as a whole at ISU, including two Black students. Even as a white man, I was still passionate about making space for Black students on campus to explore Jesus. But at that point, my goal became less about building a BCM ministry and more about keeping the general chapter alive. Plus, I knew I wouldn’t be the best person to lead and sustain a group of students who weren’t from the same background as me. 

This season was discouraging. I questioned my competency and calling as a campus minister and wondered if the investment at ISU was worth it. But then, God began moving in ways I didn’t expect. 

First, a weeklong social media intensive showed promising results with close to 50 new students following our chapter Instagram account and over 30 new messages from students we hadn’t met. 

Of these, many Black freshmen women in particular responded and actively shared prayer requests with us. I cast vision to them about the type of community we longed to build on campus for Black students and invited them to come meet us in the first few days on campus. 

I prayed that God would continue to take “five loaves and two fish” and multiply it into something greater. 

Why We Created This Space

One of the students who had been around since the beginning, Morgan, was a junior I’d met with weekly for two years. She was excited about other Black students finally coming but was unsure that there was enough interest for there to be a BCM Bible study again. She also was hesitant to want to lead it herself. But Morgan was the only potential student we had for the BCM space. So, in the meantime, and despite how I didn’t fit into the boxes of relating to them and their experiences, I helped launch the Black women’s small group. 

Even though she wasn’t technically leading at first, Morgan still agreed to take steps in leadership by being faithful and helping facilitate the community of the group. 

For the first Friday meeting, Zion, a freshman we met through Instagram, and two other students showed up. Zion immediately showed leadership potential too when we saw that she brought two of her friends she invited to Bible study with her the next two weeks. By the fifth week, six women attended the Bible study and began moving past the surface level and towards having deep conversations. 

During one Bible study, some of the women began sharing particularly vulnerably. In response, I said, “Wow. Thanks so much for trusting us with everything you just shared. Being able to share like this is why we created this space. At the same time, can you imagine how much deeper you might have shared if the facilitator of this group wasn’t a 35-year-old white man?” 

The women agreed. Then, I shared what it would look like for this group to support itself without my direct involvement and told them that students leading students is the beating heart of InterVarsity. 

By the last few weeks of the semester, I stopped attending the group and Morgan and Zion began leading it, helping more women feel comfortable to share with each other and explore Jesus together in this space. They grew as each of the women took risks and strengthened their walks with Jesus. Zion continued bringing friends all semester, and one of them recommitted her life to Jesus and brought 10 more friends to Bible study. 

In August 2023, Morgan introduced me to her friend, a young man named LeJuan. While Morgan and Zion were leading the women’s small group, God was slowly preparing LeJuan for the next stage of his divine plan for ISU. A year later, LeJuan gathered a group of students for the first Black men’s small group at ISU in at least 20 years! Since then, God has grown the group to be in the double digits!  

God's Unexpected Ways

Even though Chris graduated from ISU way back in May 2019 and saw very little tangible ministry fruit from his prayers and efforts, God continued to move to make the dream he had given him a reality. He continued the work long after Chris left ISU. And in ways only he could, God multiplied the loaves and fish we brought: not in our expected ways, in our expected timeline, or even through the expected people. 

In John 1, two followers of John the Baptist started following Jesus and inviting a guy named Peter to come see Jesus too. Jesus then called Phillip to follow him, and Phillip told his friend Nathanael to come check Jesus out. I can’t help but feel blessed that Jesus called Chris to follow him and invite his friends years ago. And then Morgan and Zion couldn’t help but invite LeJuan and a bunch of their friends. 

Who in your life needs to be invited to check out Jesus? Who might Jesus be calling you to that you wouldn’t expect to minister or witness to? How might he want to move to multiple the loaves and fish you have?