Arizona Southern Baptists have long had a passion to reach college students with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Since 1941, under the leadership of Ms. Mary Daniels, the Baptist Student Union (BSU) has maintained a strong and steady evangelical presence on college campuses in Arizona. Over the years, our Baptist collegiate ministries in Arizona have experienced many significant and strategic changes. While our name, strategies, and structures have been adjusted throughout the years, our mission to evangelize, disciple, and develop servant leaders of college students has never changed.
However, the Lord has indeed expanded our vision. With the accomplishment of the original vision to establish ministries on the major universities in our state, we now believe the Lord has called us to embrace a vision for EVERY college campus in Arizona. We believe that every student on every campus should have the opportunity to hear the Gospel and respond to Jesus Christ. Therefore, through the development of strategic partnerships with local SBC churches and the mobilization of dozens of full-time, part-time, and volunteer Campus Missionaries, we are passionately seeking to fulfill this vision.
Today we can confidently say that over these past eight decades tens of thousands of individuals and families, along with many campuses, churches, communities, cities, and even countries have been touched by God and impacted by the Gospel through the ministry of Christian Challenge. We praise God for all He has accomplished through our ministries, but we know there is still much more to be done. Our team is thrilled to be part of a ministry with such a long and rich heritage and we are honored and humbled to lead this incredible ministry to fulfill the mission and vision God has entrusted to us.