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The Story of BEMA — Dreams for the Future

This article is the conclusion of a series we have been running in 2024. You can read the full series here.


Impact Campus Ministries believes that if you impact college students, you impact the world. We have a conviction that this impact happens through discipleship. This means we need to establish intentional mentor relationships with our graduates that help them understand how to make a difference in their world—through their vocation, their life experiences, and their relationships.


ICM has been building the foundation for a mentoring network that will enable us to connect adult followers of Jesus with college graduates to help disciple them to the impact God is making through them. Eventually we will be looking for a flood of mentors who are willing to be trained to disciple young people all over the world.


If only we had a huge group of people already connected and bonding over a shared experience… oh wait, we do! Perhaps God was preparing pieces we never could have foreseen the entire time. Perhaps this is part of what we’re called to steward together. Maybe this is how BEMA is bigger than Marty or Brent or the teaching team.


So we’re making sure ICM doesn’t disappear under a growing podcast. We’re making sure healthy campus ministry is promoted and set up to thrive. When you give to our ministry, it’s being used to make sure this vision stays alive and moves forward.


It might be helping the student who is experimenting with their calling in an apprenticeship. It might be helping a campus minister stay healthy and funded while they keep college students engaged. It might be used to reach international students so that we embody the call to remember the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow.


But when you help BEMA succeed, it looks like empowering college students both on and off campus.


And please stay tuned, because our future needs more than just your money. The world will need our college students, I promise you—and our college students will need you.

What’s Happening Around the Globe?

Dwayne & Cathy’s Story

This is Dwayne & Cathy.


In 2007, they made a difficult and monumental decision to leave the denominational experience they had called home for years. In the later stages of their lives, this was no easy journey and they didn’t know what to do. The experience was painful.


They started to meet in their home with other believers. Determined to be missionaries in their own neighborhoods, they eventually had a group of 20–30 people gathering in homes. Over the last 15 years, they’ve collected and donated over a million dollars for work in Zambia, Guatemala, El Salvador, Juárez, and Haiti, as well as some local needs in their area of Texas. It’s been a rich experience.


Dwayne was a subscriber and follower of the BibleProject and kept hearing about BEMA in the discussion groups. After finding the podcast, they couldn’t get enough. In 2022, Dwayne and Cathy got to join Marty and Brent on the low-contact trip to Israel.


This season of learning and growth has taken what started as a home church in 2007 to what is now called Mill Creek Fellowship. Dwayne leads a BEMA group and shares his experiences. In 2022, they started a BEMA Liturgy group. With no liturgical background among their group, they had a lot to learn, but in Dwayne’s words, “What a blessing it has been!” They have found great diversity of thought that becomes unified around a common theme, and their group has seen a higher level of focus on the Text each week. They plan to continue down this path.


———


Now is a great time to consider launching a BEMA Liturgy group for this fall! The Liturgy is designed to walk through one year in the Christian calendar. Find out more about the BEMA Liturgy and how it works here.

Job Opportunities in Florida/Utah

Associate Campus Minister

Florida Gulf Coast University


No startup fundraising required.

Learn More: FGCU

Associate Campus Minister

Salt Lake City


Fundraising training and support provided.

Learn More: SLC
DATES OF INTEREST

Marty, Brent, or Brian may be coming to your neck of the woods. If more information is available, we will include some of that below. Full details on the BEMA website.


AUGUST 12: Live Q&A at 5 pm PT / 8 pm ET (details)

AUGUST 18: Marty preaching at University Christian Church in Cincinnati

AUGUST 23–27: Marty in Springfield, MO (details)

  AUGUST 24–25: Marty preaching at North Point Church

  AUGUST 25: Masterclass with Marty at 6 pm


SEPTEMBER 1–12: BEMA Israel Turkey 2024!

SEPTEMBER 19: Live Q&A at 5 pm PT / 8 pm ET (details)

SEPTEMBER 22: Marty preaching at University Christian Church in Cincinnati

SEPTEMBER 27–30: Marty and Brian in Kansas City (no public events)


OCTOBER 1–2: Marty speaking at NW Christian One Day in Eugene and La Pine, OR

OCTOBER 10: Group facilitator meeting at 5 pm PT / 8 pm ET

OCTOBER 18–19: Marty speaking in Cincinnati (details TBD)

OCTOBER 20: Marty preaching at University Christian Church in Cincinnati

OCTOBER 20: Live Q&A at 1 pm PT / 4 pm ET (details)

OCTOBER 27: Marty preaching at University Christian Church in Cincinnati

OCTOBER 29 – NOVEMBER 1: Marty with CCF at Truman State (no public events)


Updates and additional details will be posted as they arrive at bemadiscipleship.com/news.

LATEST VIDEOS

We are sharing links to the latest videos Marty is producing for those of you who don’t subscribe to his YouTube channel. (But please subscribe!)






We also have a new BEMA YouTube channel with a handful of resources so far. We will continue to use this new channel in the future as we develop more of our ideas.

CONNECT AND SUPPORT

Email the BEMA Team
Donate to the Work of BEMA
Published by BEMA Discipleship, in partnership with Impact Campus Ministries.