The Many Thoughts of Wanda Kidd

I had dinner with a dear friend last night.  The kind of friend you don’t see often enough, but you take up like you had lunch together yesterday.  We both have a background in College ministry. Although we have done other things professionally since our days on campus, we will always be campus ministers at heart. Hopefully, we will also be campus ministers in action. There is a simple reason for that. There was a person with a love for “people in chaos”, who changed our lives when we needed it most.

We sat at a table in a nice restaurant in Brentwood, TN. We caught up about families and what we are doing now. We reminisced about a time we both served with a Baptist organization. And while all of that information was important and hopeful, it was when we both spoke about a campus minister who saw things in us we could not see for ourselves that we both teared up.

Both of us recalled being at low points in our lives.  We both were “walking wounded”. We felt more disappointed in ourselves than anyone else could be. Yet, we stumbled into a building marked ‘Baptist Student Union’ at the beginning of a new semester. We did this for reasons neither of us fully understood at the time.

Back in the day, BSUs hosted activities at the beginning of each semester. These events helped new and returning students reconnect after the break. However, it was seldom the events themselves that changed lives. The side conversations were the most transformative. The campus minister quietly (or not) mingling in the group and catching up often led to these conversations. It was at those moments when they would look in your eyes and say what would appear to be an innocent, even random statement that could change your whole perspective.

For my friend, it was, “Mike, I think you would be great on our council.” He had been put on academic probation the semester before. This offer gave him hope that he had not completely screwed up. It showed there was life after he had failed himself and all he believed himself to be. For me, it came in the form of a job offer to look after his feral children after school. He hardly knew me. Still, he invited me into his family to heal a broken heart.

A well-placed word at the time of despair is way too often underestimated. It’s not the answer. It’s a way to rethink your perspective. It’s like a jolt of revelation. It serves as an invitation to rethink your way forward. Sometimes that is all that is needed.  Yet fifty years later, that person may sit at a table and retell that story and tear up.

The changes we have made in ministry to young adults have real consequences. When religious organizations stopped investing in and equipping young adults, they lost sight of what the future might hold. By replacing mentors and guides with authority figures focused on control instead of nurturing growth, they failed the next generation. Genuine spiritual growth happens when leaders offer space, encouragement, and belief in young people’s future. They should not simply assert power or prescribe answers. The greatest failure happens when we stop believing in the potential and wisdom of those we mentor. By doing so, we risk losing the very heart of a compassionate and empathetic world.

I hope today you look into the eyes of a young adult you have established a relationship with and say a well-placed word into their life. A word or an observation of their personhood. Who knows? They may sit around a table fifty years from now and tear up as they recount that very moment.