Black History Month: black student fellowship
Alyssa Waller, Staff Writer and Photographer
NGU’s Black Student Fellowship (BSF), was started to give black students a place to worship in a way they feel more comfortable. While it is for black students, any student is welcome to come. President of BSF, Paul Scotland, a senior Elementary Education major said, “People love BSF because it makes them feel at home in a foreign land so to speak.”
“BSF is important at North Greenville University because at this Christian university, many people get stuck on their way of worship and deem their way of worship as the correct or only way of worship. BSF shows that is not the case at all,” Scotland said. “God created cultures, and cultures should be celebrated and not ignored or silenced.”
In addition to Scotland, BSF leadership includes freshman Trinity Adams as vice president, senior Hope Scott as treasurer, sophomore Breaunna Williams as secretary and junior Ty Johnson, as sergeant at arms.
The overarching BSF organization has been around since the mid to late 1980s. BSF started because black students felt the need to create a space where black students could worship in a way that was familiar to them. They wanted to have their sound, expression and most of all freedom without being judged. Most colleges have BSU (Black Student Union), but at the same time NGU already had a BSU which is now known as BCM (Baptist Colligate Ministries) so came the name BSF rather than BSU.
BSF is not only open to black students, but to all students who want to break cultural norms of separation and segregation even within the walls of the church. Our goal is to make the earth look more like Heaven.
Revelation 7:7-9 “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’”
Meetings are held every month on the fourth Thursday of every month. Each meeting varies such as business sessions, panel discussions, praise services and Bible studies. The meetings are held in the classrooms in the NGU library. Students can get involved in the service projects, Black History Month celebrations and regular scheduled meetings.
Scotland said, “My favorite part of Black Student Fellowship is being able to have a space where I can be unapologetically who I am as a black man.”
*Featured Image: Courtesy of @ngubsf on Instagram.
