This Saturday, the Tarleton State University Baptist Student Ministry will be celebrating their 90^th anniversary.

BSM began in 1926 when Baptist churches in Stephenville began to look at ways to be engaged with Tarleton. The ministry wanted to build a bridge between the college and the community.

Stephenville churches were inspired by the University of Texas who began a BSM in 1919. In 1946, First Baptist Church of Stephenville purchased the property located behind what is now the BSM building on 1111 W. Tarleton Street, and helped the BSM become a more formal organization. However, the Division of Student Life has no official record of when BSM became a student organization, Clayton Bullion, BSM Director, explained.

“When I started here in 2010, we held kind of the first worship service. We invited everyone we knew and were so excited we had about 24 students show up. Last week at 402 [their Thursday worship service] we had 260 people,” Bullion said.

Bullion explained that when he first arrived, the BSM building looked as if it had been frozen in 1987. The carpet, chairs and even stains had been here since them. Bullion then decided that it was time to update the BSM building’s look.

Tarleton’s BSM leadership are some of the students that help maintain the updated clean look. “After an event is held in the BSM building, the students are the ones that clean it,” Bullion said.

By not having to spend money on a cleaning service, the BSM saved money that was used to start other BSMs.

Last year, the Tarleton BSM helped establish a BSM at Ranger College, located in Stephenville. Ranger’s BSM in now in its second year.

“It went so well, and it was so much fun starting from scratch. We started looking around, saying what are other places we can be involved doing that?” Bullion shared.

This semester, Tarleton BSM is helping the students at Weatherford College at the Granbury campus start a BSM.

As Tarleton BSM grows, they look forward to sending students on more mission trips and reaching more people.

“We have been the largest sending BSM in the state,” Bullion said. “Over the past nine years we’ve sent 480 students. 160-180 have been in the past six years. We’ve adopted the Pacific Northwest, all of it.”

Bullion explained that in the pacific northwest, there are campus with large amounts of students, yet they don’t have many ministry opportunities or churches available to the students. Bullion hopes that over the next 10 years, 20 Tarleton students can go to Oregon or Washington and help make a difference.

This Saturday, BSM is having “an informal gathering of friends,” as Bullion described. Students, alumni, local churches, past directors, and Brenda Sanders, the Texas BSM Missions Consultant, will all be gathered to enjoy food and fellowship.

Students are welcome to come and join. Students can get involved in BSM with events throughout the week, from Bible studies on Tuesday nights at the Barry B. Thompson Student Center, noon lunch on Wednesdays, and the 402 worship service every Thursday night.

BSM can be contacted by calling (254)965-4179 or visiting www.tarletonbsm.com.