On a Sunday evening at the beginning of the fall semester, hundreds of OSU students and non-students assembled around a simple stage in front of Curl Market. The attendees were drawn there by straightforward advertising: “Fall Kickoff: An Invitation to Jesus.” Although several Ohio State football players, churches, and organizations collaborated for the event, God alone received the glory for what happened next.
In the hours that followed, a passionate gospel presentation, vibrant worship in song and prayer, and an estimated sixty baptisms shocked the city of Columbus and made headline news.
Josh Underwood was one of the hundreds (some reports estimate 1,000 in attendance) present on the evening of August 25, 2024. Josh is the College Ministry Pastor for Hope City Church and pastors a ministry on Ohio State’s campus called TBOC (Taking Back Our Campus). He’s been leading TBOC since January 2023, but was an OSU student before he felt the burden to leave his PhD program to focus on campus ministry. We asked Josh about the history of collaboration between ministries at OSU, the Fall Kickoff event, and how we can pray for OSU in the weeks to come.
How would you describe the spiritual climate of OSU in the past versus the present?
I would describe the current spiritual climate of OSU as being at an all-time high for unity in prayer, evangelism, and fellowship between campus ministries. There are currently several consistent prayer meetings that take place within different campus ministries, and there is a united student and faculty-led prayer meeting that takes place as well. It’s readily apparent that God is placing the burden for prayer on the heart of many campus ministries at Ohio State, and I believe that it is from this place of prayer that we have begun to see several consistent evangelistic initiatives come forth. The ministry I lead has been having students go out 3-4 days a week for hours at a time to pray and evangelize, and we have seen somewhere between 200-300 students reached with full gospel presentations. We have also had many different ministries reach out to us to connect students from their own ministries so that we can go out to share the gospel together! The fellowship between ministries has also resulted from corporate efforts at gathering such as the process for planning and finishing the work for the Fall Kickoff event led by the football team and many campus ministries, and by gathering together for other events such as prayer walking OSU with different campus ministry leaders before the school year.
I know there are many ministries on campus that have been pouring into students for a long time. Can you share about prayer on the Oval and other efforts in the past to introduce students to Jesus?
Every Monday at 7pm, students from our college ministry come together and pray for campus on the oval for several hours. This prayer meeting has been going on every Monday that campus has been open to students for nearly two decades, and it even continued off campus through the covid era until students were invited back to campus. This prayer meeting did not originate as one effort of one campus ministry, but was birthed out of a unified prayer movement between many students from many different campus ministries nearly two decades ago. The prayer meeting itself indirectly led to the formation of TBOC, and so as student turnover happened over the years and the prayer meeting became less of a corporate meeting, TBOC has continued keeping the fire from the same exact prayer meeting going to this day. We have sought to reach lost students through the power of prayer, preaching Jesus and His gospel through Bible studies, and through weekly student-led evangelistic efforts over the years!
What conversations led to the Fall Kickoff gathering? How was this gathering different from past efforts to reach students?
The Fall Kickoff gathering on August 25 initially began with a burden in the heart of Kamryn Babb (former wide receiver for the Buckeyes), some of the football players on the team, and an evangelist at a local Columbus church. They explained to myself and other campus ministry leaders their burden from the Lord for an event at OSU only one month before the event occurred. Kamryn and the others began to reach out to several campus ministry leaders to get us unified and on one accord through Zoom meetings, and there, he and the others who had the initial vision expressed their desire for:
Christian unity to be expressed through as many ministries being involved as possible
Everything to be pointed back to Jesus and His gospel, even though the football team’s influence may draw attention
This event was so unique because the level of involvement and buy-in from all of these campus ministries came during the time where many of us have our biggest outreach events to open the semester. Everyone was willing to sacrifice time and resources for the bigger picture of what God was bringing together. This was also one of the first instances I can recall of the football team being a part of the corporate effort to reach the campus with the gospel.
There have been many stories shared online about the Fall Kickoff. What do you think readers should know that hasn't been widely communicated?
What I want the readers to know about is the outpouring that has followed! As I mentioned before, the unity that has been expressed campus-wide in prayer, evangelism, and fellowship has been extremely encouraging and a sign that none of us are in competition, but serving our shared purpose in fulfilling the Great Commission together. Increased vigilance in prayer, evangelistic fervor, and connections between campus ministries is a work of the Spirit and sets this event apart because it’s produced momentum that is tangible!
How can we be praying for God to move at OSU? How can we tangibly help and support what God is doing there?
I would ask your readers to please pray for sustained and increased momentum specifically in prayer and discipleship! With all of our increased efforts to evangelize and reach the campus with the good news of Jesus Christ, we are reminded that going out and sowing gospel seeds can be done with human effort (of course by the power of the Holy Spirit), but reaping the harvest is a sovereign work of God and out of our hands. I believe that God hasn’t only called this generation of OSU students and leaders to sow seeds, but to reap the harvest! Alongside increased vigilance in prayer, it is very apparent that God has a desire to make sure that OSU students are being properly shepherded and brought into discipleship communities. We have seen many people make decisions to come to Christ, but they don’t remain in Christ because of a lack of submission to some type of discipleship community.
Are there any scriptures the Lord has laid on your heart regarding your ministry to students?
The primary passage that God has laid on my heart concerning ministry on campus is John 4:34-38 NKJV:
“Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.”
I have felt very strongly that the Lord is calling the current OSU student body and campus leaders to reap the harvest even where we have not sown. That there will be rejoicing between those who have labored in intercession for years (or even decades) for the harvest and laborers at Ohio State, and between those called to be eleventh hour workers at Ohio State. I hope that this provides encouragement, because I’ve felt the strong sense that the Lord is ready to show the intercessors that they have not labored in vain in their prayers for Ohio State.
One of the churches that helped make the OSU Fall Kickoff happen was Revive College Church. The church incurred fees of $4700 from hosting the event that they still need to cover. If you feel led to donate, please click below. Pastor William Wu and his team would be so grateful!
Are you interested in partnering with others to reach OSU students for Jesus? Please follow this link to connect with For Columbus’ OSU Campus Network!
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