Mount Zion: Outreach By the Busload

CBN.com Mount Zion Baptist Church, founded in 1866, is one of Nashville’s oldest churches.  Today over 20,000 members attend services at three locations.

The college ministry at the church has been a big part of the church’s growth.
Mount Zion church is committed to evangelizing and discipling college students.

“It’s an interesting age, 18-22,” said Bishop Joseph Walker III, the senior pastor at Mount Zion. “It’s an age where you commonly have seekers, particularly with young students, college students, who are engaging in various thoughts and philosophies. So it’s important for them to have a grounding, and to have a church that embraces them and affirms them in their faith for that foundation.”

Each year, thousands of students attend “college night” at Mount Zion. The church sponsors programs such as the “true love waits’’ program, and the Mount Zion “ladies of virtue,” at the Jefferson street location. But students don’t always have to come to Mount Zion. Mount Zion is happy to come to them.

“We do a lot of things on campus,” said Elder Darryl Taliaferro, the college ministry director. “We have bible studies on campus. We have rap sessions on campus. We have a prayer thing on campus that we do called CPT—College Prayer Time—where we get together and pray for certain things they are dealing with. A lot of times they cannot leave the campus and come to us, so we go to them.”

Perhaps the most effective outreach has been the bus ministry at Mount Zion. On Sunday morning, the church provides a free round-trip bus shuttle to six different colleges and universities in the area. 

“A lot of these kids don’t have cars, so try to eliminate every excuse, and to give the students an opportunity to come and worship God,” Bishop Walker said. 

The impact of the Mount Zion college ministry on the Nashville area is evident. 

“What we want to do, is to really disciple them, to really encourage them,” Bishop Walker said, “but at the same time, to use them as witnesses on the campus. Hey, sheep get sheep, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
                        
For your outreach efforts to college students in your area, The 700 Club salutes Mount Zion Baptist Church, Nashville – America’s Church of the Week!