Cedarmore—Five teams of college students are completing the second week of an intense two-week training session as they prepare to present the gospel in unique ways throughout the commonwealth and beyond this summer.
The summer missionaries serving on the Son Teams will be leading Discovery Youth Weeks and Discover Kids camps at Cedarmore Baptist Assembly, as well as leading camps, vacation Bible schools and worship at churches throughout Kentucky.
This year the teams also will travel abroad as some of the teams will minister in Brazil, Poland, Switzerland, and possibly New York.
The 27 members of the five Son Teams were chosen by audition especially for their skills with puppets, drama, interpretive movement, music and sports.
Each year, the Kentucky Baptist Convention’s Collegiate/Young Adult Ministry Group and the Creative Ministries group of the Kentucky Baptist Convention audition dozens of prospects for each team.
Each team specializes in a different area of creative ministry:
- Son Bound focuses on sports ministry.
- Son Burst on puppetry, drama and creative movement.
- Son Reach on children’s ministry.
- Son Share on drama.
- Son Praise on leading worship.
The Son Teams began in 1976 with the Son Share Players under the direction of Tom Smoot, who then served as a campus minister for the western Kentucky region. Nearly 30 years later, the Son Teams have become one of many summer ministry choices for college students.
“I saw the impact that the ministry had on the kids,” said Adam Kilchenman, a second-year member of Son Burst and a student at University of the Cumberlands. “I saw lives changed. I saw kids come to know the Lord for the first time and that’s something I want to be a part of. There is nowhere else I would rather be than here.”
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SUMMER MISSIONS Kentucky Baptist college students from throughout the commonwealth are preparing for a summer of creative ministry through Son Teams. The five teams will use sports, drama, music and other creative arts to connect with audiences at camps, churches and other settings and tell them about Jesus. Above: “David” played by Jeremy Shoulta, slays “Goliath” played by Kelly Kays in a presentation of the familiar Bible story. The two attend Georgetown College. Below: Levi Castle, a student at Morehead State University, “jams” with his Son Praise teammates. (KBC photos by Jonnathan Johnston)
PUPPET PRACTICE Adam Kilchenman, student at the University of the Cumberlands, rehearses a puppet routine with his Son Burst teammates. Son Burst is one of five Kentucky Baptist Son Teams that travel throughout Kentucky and beyond sharing the gospel in creative ways.
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