A few weeks ago in June, nineteen students and five adult leaders from our church traveled to North Charleston to serve through SC GO, a missions initiative of the South Carolina Baptist Convention designed to help students partner with local churches while learning what it means to live on mission. Throughout the week, students worked alongside four churches, helping with beautification projects, assisting with children’s sports camps, and sharing the hope of Christ through community outreach.
For Student Minister Sage Moody, however, the greatest impact wasn’t measured by the projects they completed—it was what began happening inside the students themselves.
“We could tell students all year long that they should share their faith,” Moody said. “But if we never put them in situations where they can actually practice it, they’ll never develop the confidence to do it.”
That opportunity came quickly.
While one group of students spent several days helping revitalize the grounds of Creekside Church—removing landscaping, preparing new outdoor gathering space, and improving the church’s entrance—another group helped promote a community sports camp by inviting families from nearby neighborhoods. As the week progressed, many of the students began asking for something more.
“They came back saying, ‘We want to go do evangelism,'” Moody recalled.
The next day, several of the middle school girls headed to a local park armed with sports equipment, church flyers, and a simple Gospel presentation called Three Circles. They struck up conversations while playing pickleball with children and families before naturally transitioning into conversations about Jesus.
One moment especially stood out.
Two girls spent time playing pickleball with a young boy they had just met. After the game, the conversation shifted from sports to faith as they shared the Gospel with him.
“They were so blown away by doing that,” Moody said.
The experience left such an impression that when the student ministry gathered again after returning home, several students immediately asked if they could go evangelize at Finlay Park in Columbia.
For Moody, that’s exactly what he hopes mission trips accomplish.
“One of the first evidences of someone’s faith is the desire to tell people about their faith,” he said. “When we take the time to train students and give them opportunities to have both successes and failures, they’ll be much more inclined to do this on their own later. If that’s not discipleship, I don’t know what is.”
The week also exposed students to another important lesson.
Many of the churches they served were young church plants or revitalization efforts working faithfully with limited resources. Students spent long days in the South Carolina heat helping complete projects that those congregations could not easily accomplish on their own, while also seeing firsthand that many churches face challenges very different from those at First Baptist.
“I think our students realized that not every church looks like First Baptist Columbia,” Moody said. “There are churches that simply need people willing to serve.”
Whether they were shoveling rock, inviting children to sports camp, or sharing the Gospel in a public park, each opportunity pointed students toward the same truth: following Christ means serving others and being willing to talk about Him wherever He places you.
For Moody, that’s the kind of momentum he hopes continues long after the mission trip ends.
“I want our student ministry to be known as a sending ministry,” he said. “I want to see students grow into adults who are serving, leading, planting churches, going on mission, and living out their faith wherever God calls them.”
