Some ministries begin with a strategic plan and a budget line. This one began with two brave college basketball players, a congregation that had been praying for decades, and a whole lot of food.
At First United Methodist Church in Georgetown, Texas, a weekly college-age gathering built around a shared meal, a short devotional, and small group conversation has grown from eight students at its first meeting to over fifty young adults. It happened fast, and the congregation is convinced they know why.
“This was an act of the Holy Spirit,” says the Rev. Tina Schramme. “This ministry is the answer to a lot of years of prayer.”
Inspired to launch something similar? Explore getting started tips below.
A ministry decades in the making
When Tina Schramme joined the FUMC Georgetown staff four years ago, she quickly learned the congregation carried a long-held hope of developing a ministry for college students. This dream made sense, since Southwestern University, a small liberal arts school of about 2,000 students, sits just seven blocks from the church.
Decades ago, the congregation was unofficially known as the “university church,” because of the large number of professors and students who attended. But in recent years, that connection had faded, and even though the university has Methodist roots, for a long stretch there was no Methodist ministry presence on campus at all.
The turnaround started when two Southwestern basketball players simply showed up to a Sunday service on their own. The church’s youth minister noticed them, sought them out, and visited with them. No one knew at the time that this small act of hospitality would be the impetus to start a new ministry.
Remarkably, the basketball players kept coming back. The church realized that their current ministry offerings didn’t include a place for these young men. They were too old for the youth group, but too young for the men’s groups, and putting them in a Sunday School class made up of married couples didn’t make sense either.
The church came up with the idea to offer a one-time meal and Bible study for college-aged young adults, with the hope that these basketball players would invite their friends. Eight people attended the first week.
The students loved it and asked to do it again the next week. So, they did. Twelve people came, then fifteen, then twenty, then twenty-five. The format stayed simple: Provide food every week, offer a short devotional, then break into small groups. Meanwhile, congregants came out of the woodwork to help. Sunday school classes and church members lined up to provide food.
What started as a one-time gathering two years ago has become a weekly rhythm. Nobody in the congregation planned for it to grow so quickly. It just did.
A wide-open welcome
One of the most important decisions the church made was the name itself. The ministry’s name is Open Table, but the church intentionally calls it a ministry for “college-aged” young adults, not a ministry for “SU students” or even “college students.” That single word choice opened the door to the 15-20% of regular attendees who are not enrolled in college at all, including young adults simply living in the area.
The group is racially diverse and includes people of different abilities. Because the leaders chose not to be selective about who to invite, the group has become a beautiful community where a mechanic sits next to a blind woman, and a college athlete prays with a Jewish woman.
That wide welcome met a real need. Students kept telling the church that while the SU campus offered plenty of evangelical Christian options, there was nothing for anyone who did not fit that mold. The group's inclusivity, including its welcome of LGBTQ+ young adults and non-students, set the tone.
The ministry's impact has gone far beyond weekly gatherings. When a volleyball player who was part of Open Table died suddenly in a water accident, the church was there – reaching out to the students and to their parents. The church continued to show up when several students witnessed a traumatic shooting at an Austin bar.
“This ministry helped hold them together,” Schramme said. In both cases, the ministry didn’t just mourn with its students but reached out and became a resource families leaned on to get through it. As Schramme puts it, the church was there “for such a time as this.”
FUMC Georgetown isn't finished building this ministry. Leaders are developing a mentorship program - an “adopt a grandparent” style pairing - that connects students with families in the congregation for dinners, help with laundry, or just company. A Sunday school class for college-aged young adults has also taken root, and they stay connected during the week through text messaging and GroupMe.
How other churches could start something similar
Schramme is quick to say that none of this required a big budget or a large staff. It required noticing who walked through the door, saying yes to a simple first step, and then getting out of the way as the Spirit did the rest.
Schramme is candid that this kind of ministry is possible for smaller churches, too. Open Table runs on two to three regular volunteers who lead the group itself, plus a small rotating team for meals. Being within walking distance of a college campus helps, but the key factor is having a handful of adults willing to show up consistently, week after week.
Here are some suggestions to begin a similar ministry effort:
- Start ridiculously small. One meal and one Bible study is enough to test the waters. Let attendance, not a five-year plan, tell you where to go next. If your church has been praying about a ministry to young adults, a one-time gathering is a low-risk first step.
- Notice who shows up. The whole ministry began because a youth minister paid attention to two visitors and made sure they felt welcomed, not overlooked.
- Choose your language on purpose. Naming the ministry for “college-aged” young adults instead of a specific school opened it up to far more people than the leaders expected.
- Build partnerships with the campus. FUMC Georgetown has established a relationship with Southwestern University's head chaplain and the Student Life office. The chaplain is a church member and has been a featured speaker at Open Table.
- Let the congregation feed people. Meals were never one person's job. Sunday school classes and individual members rotate in, with one volunteer coordinating the schedule each week. In the beginning, FUMC Georgetown even invited other UMC churches to help provide meals. As long as you have people willing to provide food, you can do this.
- Keep the food simple. This doesn't need to be a catered dinner. A heavy snack is enough, and it matters more than most churches realize. Food insecurity is common on college campuses, even when it isn't obvious.
- Invest in relationships over programming. Young adults are often starved for an accepting adult who will simply show up for them, whether that's during a rough week of testing, the breakup of a relationship, or a surgery.
- Keep showing up. Consistency communicates commitment.
Why is it worth the investment? Because, as Schramme sees it, this generation is desperate for a home. She said, “The most competent of them are still looking for somebody to love them.” For a growing number of young adults in Georgetown, Texas, First United Methodist Church has become exactly that.
Ellen Price is a lay leader at Brentwood United Methodist Church in Brentwood, Tennessee. A graduate of Truett Seminary at Baylor University, Ellen has served in churches in Alabama, North Carolina, and Tennessee as both a lay leader and minister.