Texas Baptist Mission Foundation holds groundbreaking ceremony for new Baylor BSM building

WACO, TX - In July, the Texas Baptist Missions Foundation (TBMF) announced that it had officially met the requirements of the Mabee Foundation Challenge Grant, awarded in July 2024, toward the construction of the new Baptist Student Ministry (BSM) building at Baylor University.

Wednesday, Sept. 10, TBMF held a groundbreaking ceremony for the new BSM building. 

TBMF President Jerry Carlisle opened the ceremony by recognizing the site superintendent, architect and other special guests. 

Livingstone said Baylor is “proud to have a ministry like BSM on our campus” and is “delighted that BSM will soon have its own dedicated space.” 

“[The new building is] going to benefit our students, contribute to their spiritual growth and prepare them to be effective Christ followers while they're at Baylor and then long beyond that as they go out into the world,” said Livingstone. 

Baylor President Linda Livingstone said there was a “spirit of excitement and anticipation to break ground on this new home for Baptist Student Ministry.” She thanked donors for their generosity and the BGCT for their “ongoing partnership” with Baylor. 

“[This] has been in the planning stages for many years and would not have come to fruition without the involvement of everyone here and so many others,” said Livingstone. “I want to thank so many who have given so generously to the design and the construction of this building… We are deeply appreciative of your love and care and support for our students, for Baylor and for your investment in the Kingdom of God.” 

Julio Guarneri, executive director of Texas Baptists, said the groundbreaking was a “celebration and affirmation of what God has been doing [at Baylor] for a long time.”

“[Today], we celebrate the fact that God is not done yet, that he is doing a new thing. He is raising up a generation of students who have a passion to love God, to love people, to make disciples,” said Guarneri. “We are so excited and thankful for the Baptist ministry that is taking place here on this campus, the partnership that we share with the churches here in Waco.” 

Guarneri told attendees that Texas Baptists’ focus is to “strengthen churches, to strengthen ministers and to partner with one another for missions.” He said BSM is “at the center of that [focus]” because it “connects us to churches.” 

“BSM is a way for our churches to come together and have ministry on campus. It develops ministers and leaders for our churches, whether they’re lay leaders or pastors, and then it mobilizes students for missions,” said Guarneri. 

He said the groundbreaking is a “testimony not only to how much Baylor values the partnership with BGCT, but how invested Dr. Livingstone and her leadership are in the spiritual development of our students.” 

Baylor BSM Director Will Bowden said over the past three years of planning and fundraising for the new building, he and his staff have been praying that they would be “a ministry that deserves the building.”

He said he’s looking forward to having a space where “we can train, equip and pray with our students.” He said he feels “complete gratitude” for the groundbreaking. 

“This has been a process that's been going on for years, and sometimes you don't believe that this day is coming, and when it's here, all you feel is ‘God did this’… He put all the right people together, and he brought the money together, and he did it. So, [I’m] grateful to God. He's really moving,” said Bowden. 

George Loutherback, former Baylor BSM Director, said the new building will give the BSM identity on campus. 

“When I came [to Baylor BSM] way back in the late 70s, there was no building. We had no house, and so we didn't have a place [where] we could say, ‘This is our identity.’ A place where we could come and get trained and go out and do [ministry],” said Loutherback. “It's not a come and sit place, it’s a place to come and train to go out [on campus and do ministry]... I'm just honored to be a part of it, and I hope to see it open next year.” 

The next step in the new building campaign is to raise a $2 million endowment to support the new building and ministry. 

“The earnings [from the endowment fund] after that first year, we’ll be able to use those to actually fund the operations of the building, so that we don't have to use any ministry funding to take care of that,” explained Carlisle. 

Carlisle said he and his team are “grateful that [God] used us” to help fundraise for this building. 

“As hard as we've worked for the last couple of years to do everything we know how to do and then some, we recognize that God did every bit of it, and we're just grateful that he used us,” said Carlisle. “The new friends that we've made, the donors that we've become introduced to and to dream with them about what God has on their heart to do and then help them figure out the best way to do it – that's really what's most important to us.” 

To learn more and make a gift toward the building endowment, visit baylorbsm.com/bsm-building.  

Texas Baptist Student Ministry engages 1.6 million Texas college students to follow Christ and transform the world. Texas BSM currently has a presence on 130 campuses around the state.

Headquartered in Midland, Texas, the J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation has helped fund new construction and building renovations for non-profit organizations since 1948. It funds projects in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arkansas, Missouri and Kansas.