April 17, 2024
TIFTON – First dad was Baptist Collegiate Ministries president at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in 1991. Then mom followed suit as BCM president at ABAC in 1993. Now, two-and-a-half decades later, daughter is the ABAC BCM president.
This is the legacy of the Jordan family – Jody (dad), Miriam (mom), and Hannah (daughter). Jody is the pastor of First Baptist Church Norman Park.
“It’s really funny and from the Lord,” Hannah said of the legacy of BCM presidency in her family, especially since she originally didn’t want to attend her parent’s alma mater and definitely didn’t set out to be the BCM president.
The shared mentor for the Jordans, ABAC’s campus minister Penny Chesnut, says the credit for the faithfulness of the family is this: “They don’t just take their kids to church. They live it at home.”
In ministry, it’s a package deal, Chesnut explained. When Jody does ministry projects, his 15-year-old son, Josiah, is often accompanying him. Miriam sings in the church choir and is involved in other church ministries.
And Hannah, an education major, is following in her parents footsteps of service – even as she’s serving as president during this pandemic.
“I didn’t expect to become the president,” shared Hannah, who also adds that becoming BCM president wasn’t all what she pictured. “It’s mainly staying in the background, being an example, and lifting others up.”
She continued, “In the pandemic, I’ve really learned that reaching out to people via text, call, message, email, or social media is super important. We’re not seeing everybody anymore, so reaching out to our officers and just to members of BCM is super important, especially during this pandemic.”
But both Hannah and Jody attribute so much of their spiritual growth to BCM.
“Without the fellowship of BCM, I don’t think I would have survived college this far,” Hannah said.
As a commuter, she struggled to become “comfortable on campus,” she explained. “Without BCM, and without being in a small group at BCM and having that Christian fellowship, it definitely would have been a rough college life.”
Chesnut played an important role in that, taking Hannah under her wing as she has done for so many students and being “very serious about getting college students into the Word and sharing the gospel,” Hannah said of the longtime campus minister.
“She’s our other mama. She takes in a lot of folks and loves on them and helps them,” Jody shares.
Chesnut, who says she’s been part of ABAC’s BCM “since Noah dropped me off when he was on the boat” (or 40 years to be more realistic), wants every student who comes through BCM to learn to own his or her faith, have solid accountability through community, be trained to be future leaders, but most of all learn to “feed themselves” through reading the Word.
That’s certainly one of the ways Jody grew the most through BCM as well – small group Bible study. He still remembers the first book study his BCM small group did – Henry Blackaby’s “Experiencing God.” He leads his church through it even now.
“BCM has been a huge apart of my life. It helped the foundation for me to grow stronger. I wouldn’t be where I am today without BCM,” Jody added.
