Go Make Disciples: Serving in Student Ministry

Almost four years earlier, while completing a bachelor’s degree in animal sciences at Clemson University, Katy was confronted by God’s calling in a way she never expected.

Training for veterinary school was not easy, and as the summer of her senior year approached, Katy found herself consumed with thoughts about her academic standing: what grades she needed to receive, how many clinic hours she must complete, what it would take to come out ahead of her classmates — concerns that many of her peers were struggling with too.

Until, one day, standing in front of one of her professors, Katy didn’t know what to think. Her mind struggled to process what the woman had just asked.

“Have you ever considered not going to vet school and instead getting a master’s of theology?”

“Have you ever considered not going to vet school and instead getting a master’s of theology?”

Seasons of Discipleship

Over the next several years, God began to redirect Katy’s heart, revealing her gifts and skills for student ministry.

Following the conversation with her professor, she decided to work at a summer camp for middle school and high school students instead of pursuing further clinic hours.

“It was the best summer of my whole life,” Katy remembered, thinking back on the joy she had during those months as she learned what it meant to lead others, especially youth, and engage their hearts for Christ.

In some ways it felt very familiar to her. In middle school and high school, multiple women had demonstrated discipleship in Katy’s life.

“There was a girl named Chelsea,” she recalled, “whom my mom connected with, and she will always stand out to me because she pretty much took over my group of girlfriends in church and walked with us from freshman to junior year. She invested in our lives and had us in her life.”

Watching the way Chelsea lived and sought Christ everyday inspired and encouraged Katy to do the same.

This pattern of intentional discipleship continued through college as Katy found herself in a local church that cared for her and sought to strengthen her walk with the Lord.

“I’m so grateful,” Katy expressed, “because I saw the beauty of the local church, and that actually started the gears turning that eventually moved me away from medicine and towards ministry, even if I didn’t want to acknowledge it.”

Fine-Tuning Desires

After her first experience of student leadership at camp during the summer of 2015, she decided to finish her degree and then see where God would lead her after that.

Following graduation, Katy spent a year and a half overseas with Campus Outreach, engaging with college students in New Zealand.

“Looking back,” she said, “I can just see the Lord’s faithfulness. He used that season overseas to fine-tune my desires for what I wanted to do — which led me to Christian education.”

He used that season overseas to fine-tune my desires for what I wanted to do — which led me to Christian education.

Southeastern seemed like the most obvious option. Her local church in college had worked alongside Southeastern, and she remembered traveling with some students to the Go Conference years prior. Apart from these connections, however, she still had much to learn.

Finding a Place in Seminary

Upon arriving at Southeastern, Katy found community that welcomed her with open arms, especially amongst the returning Journeymen who were also struggling to adjust to life in the States after months or years overseas.

She also discovered professors who desired to see her learn and grow, both in her knowledge of God and in her giftings as a student of his word. She found particular encouragement and wisdom amongst the ministry to women faculty but also in her Old Testament and hermeneutics classes.

“It was so helpful,” Katy recalled, “to be told that it’s not bad or sinful to say, ‘I want to teach the Bible; I just don’t know where or how to do that,’ — and then learning to entrust that to the Lord and watch him just unfold the path.”

She remembered particularly the encouragement she felt from professors who valued her as a scholar and wanted to invest in her.

“During my training at Southeastern, specifically as a female, I felt very encouraged to grow in my gifts of leadership, teaching, and education, which can be sensitive fields for women in Christian circles,” Katy said.

“But I learned how to ask, what does it look like to grow these gifts and then use them in a God-honoring way, in a way that is obedient to Scripture, even when you feel the tensions of asking, ‘Where does this fit?’”

Serving the Local Body

It wasn’t long however, before God gave her an opportunity to use her gifts in the local church to continue discipling others.

Only a few months into her time at Southeastern, Katy joined Imago Dei Church and quickly became involved in the life of its local body. Unbeknownst to her, Imago Dei would play a crucial role in her ministry journey as she put her Southeastern training into practice.

“I had told myself I was going to pause on doing ministry while I was in school because I needed to relearn how to study and write,” Katy remembered. “But after  about six months, I started to feel the ache of missing the ministry I had been doing for so long.”

As Katy immersed herself in Imago Dei’s community, she came alongside a friend and fellow member who had been informally meeting with college students at the church. Both he and Katy observed a need within the church’s college population for community and discipleship. And so, together, they approached the church’s leadership, and in the summer of 2019, began forming what would eventually become a thriving college ministry.

“I felt very strongly about students graduating from college and feeling comfortable and equipped to join the local church in their next season of life because churches see so much drop off there,” Katy said.

As the ministry developed, Katy was also growing, both as a leader and as a disciple maker. The combination of academic training at Southeastern with practical application in a church setting equipped Katy holistically for the work that God was calling her to.

“I just had such a positive experience from a leadership perspective, both at Imago Dei and at Southeastern,” Katy reflected. “Both of them worked hand in hand, whether it was professors who invested in me and in our relationship, or it was pastors that didn’t treat me like someone they didn’t know what to do with. Rather, they wanted to work with me, they trusted me, and they were so influential in my growth.”

Rather, they wanted to work with me, they trusted me, and they were so influential in my growth.

Transition to Two Cities

In the spring of 2021, Katy graduated from Southeastern with a Master of Arts in Christian Education.

She would continue serving at Imago Dei for the next year and a half as their full-time director of college growth groups and membership. In this position, she had the opportunity to pour into people’s lives, watch them faithfully live out the gospel, and come alongside them in the difficult seasons.

Then, in 2023, through a long a series of events clearly directed by God’s sovereign timing, Katy received a job in Winston-Salem. She was hired as the college director at Two Cities Church.

Surrounded by universities on all sides, both major and private, Two Cities Church is in a prime location to minister to college students in a formative season of their life.

As she seeks ways to reach students in the community and nurture the discipleship of college students in her church, Katy has seen God’s grace time and time again, both in his provision and in the opportunities that he continues to place in front of her. She has seen her training from Southeastern come into practice many times, especially as Two Cities continues to grow and change. She has felt deeply blessed by the opportunity to pour into the lives of young people who will soon leave to go out into the world, into areas of influence where they will be able to shine the light of Christ brightly.

“I try to emphasize with our students here how sweet it is to know that theological training and education can benefit you regardless of what you do,” Katy shared.

“My pathway has been into vocational ministry, but the education you get at Southeastern is something that’s valuable regardless of what your career is. My training directly equipped me for what I’m doing now. But I think it can also directly equip people to go into the workplace and know how to be faithful there.”

My training directly equipped me for what I’m doing now.

Thankful for her time at Southeastern and the opportunity to grow as a disciple maker and student of God’s word, Katy is able to invest these talents in the local church for God’s glory. The discipleship she received as a young girl is now, by God’s grace, reflected in the lives of those she serves as she seeks to point their hearts towards Christ.

Join us in praying for Katy as she seeks to serve God’s church and further the kingdom in each new season of life. Pray for strength and wisdom for her as she walks through life transitions and continues to adjust to her role at Two Cities. Pray that her heart would be set on God’s promises and that she would continue to remember his faithfulness in all of life.