Written by Nia Mwangi
First Belton Baptist Church’s college ministry is most known for The Well, but The Well is not the only branch of its college ministry, as there are two other main branches: College Connect and Life Groups.
College Connect is a Bible-centered gathering of students from 9:45 to 11:00 a.m. on Sundays in First Belton’s small sanctuary. College Connect has been present since the church’s establishment, but was previously called Sunday School. Senior marketing major Kathryn Fisher, a college intern at First Belton, described why they rebranded it to College Connect in August 2024.
“A lot of students were thinking, ‘Okay, we’re going to be here for another hour and listen to more teaching,’” Fisher said. “So, a lot of people didn’t go during my first year [October 2023] at First Belton. We rebranded it as College Connect to make it sound less like what you would assume Sunday School would be, which is sitting for an hour and listening to more teaching.”
The rebrand encouraged more students to attend College Connect. Before the name change, the Sunday School averaged 40 to 60 students, but attendance doubled to 120 students following the rebrand.
The goal of College Connect, according to college ministry pastor Stanton Corley, is to have table discussions centered on the Bible. The gathering begins with breakfast provided by different Sunday school classes at First Belton and leads into these table discussions. The lead team members of First Belton’s college ministry alternate as the facilitators who moderate them.
The lead team consists of six college students called to vocational ministry who are training to be future church leaders. These lead team members pour into what are called Life Group leaders, which make up the second part of First Belton’s college ministry. Life Groups focus on the lives of their members, spending time asking specific accountability questions to help members grow in their relationship with the Lord.
“One of our mottos for our Life Group is that Life Group is not another Bible study,” Corley said. “Many college students are in three to five Bible studies a week. It might sound oxymoronic for a Baptist church to not study the Bible in a Life Group. But we’re doing life meaning we’re doing accountability, which formulates vulnerability.”
Life Groups meet from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. on Sundays and are hosted by each Life Group leader in their living area. The first fifteen minutes are dedicated to a devotional led by either a Life Group leader or another member of the group. The remainder of the time is spent answering the following questions: How did you feed your soul? How did you feed your flesh? How did you feed others?
Another part of Life Groups includes Life Group parents. Life Group parents come from an older generation of the church and contribute to First Belton’s goal of being an intergenerational church. Life Groups are hosted monthly by their Life Group parents, with the purpose of forming relationships that can develop into discipleship.
In total, there are 15 Life Groups—nine for women and six for men. Each group typically includes 10 to 12 people, though this can vary since participants are free to choose which group they join.
Both branches of the college ministry aim to foster community and spiritual growth while helping others grow in their relationship with God and build Christ-centered relationships with one another.
To learn more about First Belton’s college ministry, visit the First Belton website at https://www.firstbelton.org/ or follow their college ministry on Instagram at @firstbelton_college.
