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The following is an account Jack Birdwhistell wrote about the history of Campus Ministry at Georgetown College — and the role he played therein. To our knowledge, he had never shared this prior to his passing in Feb ‘14, but we figured he would be delighted at our sharing it now.
I first encountered Georgetown College Campus Ministry as an entering freshman in the fall of 1964. I came from a rural church with a pretty active youth group. We had attended Youth Week at Ridgecrest that summer, which had been a grand experience. I still had no idea what Campus Ministry/BSU was all about.
BSU was very active in the orientation week of my ‘largest-in-the-college’s history’ Freshman class. I distinctly recall the BSU’s ‘Bluegrass Tour,’ when we freshmen, loaded into large farm trucks with flimsy side panels, were driven around the countryside, stopping at an occasional horse farm before concluding the tour with a sumptuous picnic. My new friend Billy Kruschwitz had to urge me to show up for BSU events. As a pastor’s kid from Elizabethtown, ‘Krusch’ knew all about BSU.
BSU activities took place in a building, known variously as the Religious Education Building and the Art Building., which stood where the present LRC stands. ‘Vespers’ was a thrice a week devotional meeting, along with Christian Service Organization (CSO) and monthly ‘socials.’
The President of the college in those days was Dr. Robert L. Mills, an elegant giant of a man who was the model of a Christian layman. BSU was led by the Director of Religious Activities, Dr. Glenn Yarborough (Dr. Y), a tall, bespectacled, energetic, highly organized fellow who kept a tight rein over the BSU Council of about twelve, led my freshman year by Kenny ‘Moose’ Mahanes, a pastor’s son from near Lexington. Other upperclassmen leaders I recall were Lee Hamilton, Larry Yoder, Laurabelle Barr, Jim Cordell, Joyce Watkins, 'Chip' Lockwood, and Steve McKibben, along with many others.
Weekly Tuesday/Thursday Chapel Services brought various preachers and speakers to the campus. Most memorable was an elderly lady, Gert Behenna (the daughter of Andrew Carnegie) who wowed the campus with the story of her dramatic, grace-filled, conversion experience and fruitful Christian life.
Soon after classes started in the fall of 1964 we began to hear about a ‘BSU Convention’ to be held at the Calvary Baptist Church in Lexington. Sounded cool, so one Friday evening we boarded a chartered bus (few students had cars) and headed out. Same thing on Saturday night–but different. Saturday was a BIG service--preacher was a guy named Keith Parks, then a Baptist missionary in Indonesia. At the invitation time, I felt the same sort of ‘Spirit-pressure’ I had felt as a ten-year-old at my ‘join the church’ decision and at fourteen at my ‘do anything the Lord wants’ decision. I interpreted this to mean a ‘call’ to ministry, but managed to stay in my pew without making a move. Then came the ‘after meeting,’ presided over by Kenny Mahanes. ‘Moose’ made some comments, then closed the session by saying, ‘I just feel as if someone here needed to make a decision and did not . . . .’ How did he know? Feeling ‘outed,’ I rose to stammer out my feeling of ‘call to ministry.’ There was great rejoicing in the room; great relief on my part!
From that point on BSU was the center of my college experience. ‘Krusch’ and I became good friends with ‘Chip’ Lockwood, who would be the BSU president for Georgetown and all of Kentucky for 1965-66. Neither of us joined a fraternity, and, along with other friends, Jerry Chiles of Falmouth, KY, David Wheeler of Louisville, Steve Price of Georgetown, Tom Chapman from West Virginia, Dick Nowell of Alabama, and John ‘Bear’ Stanford from Illinois, we gave lots of energy to BSU. There were girls, too! Nancy Forgy (who became my wife in 1969), Carolyn Eubanks, Melva Neafus, Carolyn Wilhoit, Sandy Roggenkamp, Elaine Meacham, Susan Lockwood, Linda Garr Markwell, Sarah Cellar, and others of the class of 1968 were exemplary leaders. BSU Choir, Vespers, CSO, and ‘socials’ provided a full range of activities. BSU ‘haunted houses’ were pretty big in my day! Almost every weekend ‘youth teams’ consisting of a preacher, song leader, pianist, and ‘fellowship leader’ went out to represent the Lord and Georgetown at churches near and far. Several Georgetown students served as part-time staff persons at nearby churches. By the summer of 1966 student Summer Missions was becoming a more important part of Southwide student ministry. I recall Paul Wilson and Nancy Forgy as summer missionaries of the class of !968. Other students worked on summer staffs at Ridgecrest (NC) and Cedarmore (KY).
BSU president for 1966-67 was Roger Roberts, whose father, Dr. Ray Roberts, had practically invented Southern Baptist church work in Ohio. A genial giant of a Tiger football player, Roger loved the Lord and provided strong, positive leadership. I think this was the year a spring state BSU basketball tournament was begun. I recall one held at Alumni Gym in Lexington, and another held in conjunction with Kentucky Southern College in Louisville.
When the Cralle Student Center opened in the fall of 1966, BSU was housed in a small suite of three offices on the third floor, adjacent to Porter Chapel, where vesper services were held. Major events such as the yearly Christian Emphasis Week, were held, of course in John L. Hill Chapel. CEW usually involved a ‘team’ of men and women, lay and clergy, provided by the Department of Student Work in Nashville, who would come to the campus for a week of services, seminars, and class visits. I recall one year we invited John Wesley Hunt, one of the Billy Graham evangelists, to spend a week with us.
My senior year, following in Chip Lockwood’s steps, I became BSU president for Georgetown and for Kentucky as well. In the election at the spring conference held at Berea College, I ‘defeated’ Bill Messer of Cumberland College, who later became a great friend when he assumed the pastorate of the Sand Spring Baptist, my home church in Lawrenceburg