Stacy Long
AFA Journal staff writer
September 2014 – Up to 12,000 students gather weekly in Reed Arena, the basketball arena and special events center of Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. However, they don’t come to play or watch a basketball game. They come to hear the Word of God preached, worship and pray in the weekly Bible study of Breakaway Ministries.
The numbers are impressive, especially on the campus of a state university. But it began inconspicuously in 1989 when 12 college students met in a dorm room.
“There was no grand vision of what it would become,” Ben Stuart, director of Breakaway Ministries, told AFA Journal. “It was just a couple of guys who wanted to seek the Lord together in Bible study and prayer.”
When Stuart came to the ministry in 2005, it had already grown to 2,500. “About five years ago, we began to see the most growth, with our largest Breakaway up to that point of 5,000,” Stuart said. “The next year it was 7,500; the next 8,000; then 9,000; and this year 12,000. And what is even more encouraging than the numbers are the stories of life change, stories of people coming to Christ.”
Connecting to Christ and the church
Those stories illustrate the first part of Breakaway’s three-fold purpose.
“We exist to introduce students to Christ, connect them with His church, and then inspire them and equip them to walk with Him for a lifetime,” Stuart said. “In polls on students’ spiritual backgrounds, one of the largest groups that come to Breakaway are people who check ‘None.’
“Of equal importance is connecting students to church. A lot of students quit going to church, not because they’re angry with God or rejecting Christianity, but just because they wake up as a junior and realize they’d quit going. That’s a common story. So we try to help students connect to the local church as fast as possible.”
In addition to the Tuesday night Bible study, Breakaway disciples students through conferences, training classes and volunteer activities. However, Stuart said none of that is special enough to account for the amazing growth.
“When you add the factors up, they don’t equal what’s happening here,” he said. “One plus one doesn’t equal 100. I joke with our worship leader and say, ‘You know, you’re not that good – and I’m not either.’ At the end of the day, this is a movement of God. God honors the exaltation of His Word, and it’s important that we stay humble.”
Meeting students’ need
Meanwhile, Stuart shared what he has found to be the most challenging and encouraging characteristics of the spiritual condition of students.
“James said true religion is to visit the orphan and widow in their distress and keep oneself unstained from the world,” he said. “This generation of students is great at that first part. They have the desire to do something that has meaning or value, great concern for the poor and hurting, and real openness and honesty. But they’re a mess in the second part – sexual brokenness and scriptural illiteracy are major problems.”
But students can find help in the church, in the person of Christ, and nowhere else. The uniqueness of Christianity is the attraction for students and must be the focus for successful student ministry.
“When John was trying to summarize Jesus, a pretty mind blowing thing, he centered on the statement ‘He was full of grace and truth,’” Stuart said. “And those are the two things we offer that nobody else does in the world. The world will entertain young people far better than we will. But we have grace. We have genuine love. And we have the truth. And the world isn’t offering that.” 
breakawayministries.org or 979-693-9869
Good read
The Enduring Community: Embracing the Priority of the Church by Brian Habig and Les Newsom, former campus ministers
