While UH is the third largest university in Texas, it is also the most diverse. Students from over 130 countries attend UH. The largest contingents are from India and China. Our perspective is that while God calls some to be missionaries in different places around the world, He allows us to be missionaries to the world by bringing the world to us.
Unlike universities like UT and A&M, UH is primarily a commuter campus. Currently, only 4,000 of its 35,000 students live in campus housing. The fact that nearly 31,000 students commute to UH each week presents a huge ministry challenge. With so many students commuting for school and/or working part-time or full-time, finding points of connection can be difficult.

UH is the home of the Hilton School of Hotel and Restaurant Management (HRM). This is the only four-year program in the nation sponsored by the Hilton family. The school includes a working hotel and restaurants which serve as labs for students. Since the school is near the BSM, we have several HRM majors active in the BSM. These students bring a unique leadership set by using their skills through our FREE LUNCH and monthly parties.

Though it is a public university, UH houses the A. D. Bruce Religion Center, which Texas Baptists help build. This center houses not only a BSM office and other Christian organizations, but also the student organizations of other religions. Having a religion center on campus allows for unique opportunities to have interfaith dialogues.

What We Do

Everything the UH BSM does falls into one of two categories: developing Christian leaders and/or relational evangelism. While staff directs the ministry, our student leaders primarily plan and carry out the ministry of the BSM. The BSM is a place where students can practice leadership; it is a safe place where they can succeed or fail and learn from their mistakes and try again.

FREE LUNCH is our primary weekly front door and evangelistic event. Each Tuesday a different church from around the greater Houston area provides lunch for about 100 students. On a given week, between 40 to 60 percent of students attending FREE LUNCH are not Christian. While we do not have a speaker, our Christian students are strategically placed around the building for the purpose of building relationships. Our goal is that these relationships will foster opportunities for spiritual conversations. Each week we say a blessing several times during the 3 hours of FREE LUNCH. Before the blessing we tell students attending that while we will not force Christianity upon them that staff and student leaders are available to talk with them about what it means to follow Jesus if they so choose.

HINGE is our weekly worship/small group time. While the focus is primarily Christian students, non-yet-Christians who are exploring faith in Christ are welcome to participate. Students lead worship through music each week based on a rotation of all who are interested in singing, playing, or leading. After a time of worship through music, one of the staff will briefly present the main point for the evening - an overview of the evening's Scripture focus. Students then divide up into small groups and meet at different places around campus to discuss how to live out that evening's Scripture. These groups are led by students. We have had a number of students overhear these conversations on campus and join the conversation.

Besides FREE LUNCH, our other main front door events are our monthly parties. These parties vary from UglyT-Shirt Bowling to Open Mic Night to Movie Night to our annual HOWDY Party. These are intentionally planned to attract and provide opportunities for us to build relationships with students unfamiliar with BSM and International students.
The BSM sponsors retreats and an annual mission trip, raises money for missions by doing local missions, and also provides other campus-oriented ministry opportunities such as our FREE PRAYER Booth.

UH BSM Staff

B.J. Ramon, Director