Fount with Fordree: the new BCM leader and what’s changing in Fount
Micah Webster, Staff Writer
Photo courtesy of raileys_perspective_ on Instagram
Fount is experiencing influential changes this year thanks to a new coordinator, John Ross Fordree.
While he may be new to this position, he is not new to this school. As an North Greenville University alumni, he is coming into this job with a deep awareness of NGU’s potential and has a clear heart for its students.
Fordree attributes the beginnings of his ministry knowledge to his time at NGU, describing the amazing opportunities for discipleship investment here at the school. In his eyes, one of NGU’s greatest strengths is its sending potential.
This is what played out in Fordree’s life as well. In the summer before his senior year of high school, Fordree felt the Lord calling him into ministry, and he pursued that at NGU, eventually graduating, getting married, and making plans to move abroad to do church planting.
Then Covid hit, and everything shut down. Unable to move overseas, Fordree ended up working as an admissions counselor for two years before finally embarking on a new season of ministry as a youth pastor. He describes how it was clear the Lord wanted him in this position by how He opened up doors for him and his wife to have jobs down near his new church.
However, Fordree was only a youth pastor for nine months before the Lord opened the door for him to be part of a church plant in downtown Columbia, specifically a night church, due to the needs of the people in that area. Fordree followed the Lord’s calling and pastored there for two and a half years, working primarily with college students and young adults.
Then, he ended up here at NGU where he is now in charge of the BCM on campus and gets to use his ample experience with college students on the regular.
It’s not just Fordree’s experience that makes him a fit for this job though, it’s also his heart for the American church and the young people of America.
According to Fordree, the American church is burdened and sick, and he believes that the solution is in the young people in colleges right now.
For Fordree, the most exciting thing about his job now is being able to send out students into the world to share the gospel. He sees North Greenville University’s BCM as a place to care for students and prepare them for service in the wider community.
One of the biggest changes being made to Fount this year is the addition of small groups. This is an opportunity to build a healthy community in the BCM and for students to be able to serve various affinities on campus.
Most small groups have a dedicated group that they plan to work with, such as commuters, or athletic teams, or any number of other groups on campus. These initiatives are primarily students driven, with Fordree stepping back and letting students take the reins in this particular area.
Fordree said his goal “is that the freshmen who are here now, whether they ever attend fount or a BCM event, will leave here and say ‘BCM at North Greenville had an impact on my life.’”
For some students, like Sebastian Seigler, a junior Spanish major, the opportunity to serve was immediately appealing. Seigler, a leader of one of the BCM small groups, described how excited he was that the BCM was finally getting small groups, and how good that would be for building community.
Fordree and Seigler both echoed the significance of these small groups, which meet right after the Fount service on Thursday nights.
A typical Fount service includes a time of worship, a testimony, and some teaching, all with the goal of equipping and encouraging students to take the gospel beyond the walls of Fount and into NGU’s community.
If you’re interested in getting connected, BCM Fount meets on Thursday nights at 7 p.m.
