WBS Student sees a stirring of the Spirit among college students

Will Perkins is the new director of The Wesley at West Texas A&M, a thriving ministry to college students at this regional university in Canyon, Texas. He previously served as Discipleship Minister at St. Paul Methodist in nearby Amarillo. He and other leaders are seeing a fresh movement of the Holy Spirit as many of those young people respond to the call to be discipled and enter seminary training for ministry.

Will’s involvement started with a one-year dual internship program with The Wesley and St. Paul. During that internship, St. Paul’s senior pastor Bill Ivins saw leadership potential in Will. He encouraged Will to pursue ordination in the Global Methodist Church along with seminary studies, pledging the church’s help to pay for it.

“I see the Lord stirring in the hearts and lives of younger people in a way that I have not seen in my lifetime,” Ivins wrote on a GMC website. “They are hungering for the things of God.”

Ivins recommended Wesley Biblical Seminary. After doing his own research, Will agreed it was the place for him. “I was drawn by the strong stance WBS takes on biblical inerrancy,” Will says. He enrolled in the GMC Course of Study program. “The classes are awesome,” he says. “Each professor has not only taught me, they have also truly pastored me.”

Culture of Calling

Will is not alone. At 22, he knows a number of young people who have discerned a call to ministry, taken Lay Supply placements, and started seminary. “It seems something special is going on in this region,” he says. “We’ve developed a little WBS small group here.”

While there is inevitably some resistance to Christian values on a secular campus, Will says West Texas is remarkably open to the gospel. He reports a spirit of unity among various campus ministry leaders. Conversions and new disciples are being made every year.

“With a transient population, college ministry is a little like replanting a new church every year,” Will says. “We are focused on sharing the gospel with those who have never heard it and making disciples one-on-one or in bands.”

Changed by Grace

Will did not grow up in the church. Although his maternal grandparents were pastors, his parents divorced when he was four. Will says his father’s heart turned against God at that time. They moved out to the highly secular environment of Southern California. “There were 600 people in my high school graduating class,” Will recalls, “and I only knew two Christians.”

Nevertheless, his grandparents faithfully prayed for him. Then, at age 17, Will was surprised when his father came into his room and wanted to talk to him. “I think God is softening my heart,” he said, “and I want us to go to church.” Within a year of hearing the gospel preached each Sunday, Will sensed a change that he would later understand as regeneration. “It was not a big decision moment,” he says. “I was just sitting in the back of the church. But I realized I needed Jesus. My heart of stone turned to flesh, and my desires began to change.”

Obedience opens doors

Sensing that as a ‘baby Christian’ he would not do well in its faith-hostile environment, he dropped out of UCLA, where he had been attending. Although he had been saved, he had had little discipleship. At that point, a tragedy entered his life that changed his path.

One of Will’s uncles in Texas was killed in an auto collision, and his aunt and cousins were severely injured. Will clearly discerned God’s voice telling him to go and take care of them. Responding with obedience, Will moved in with the family and took care of them physically, financially, and emotionally. He drove them to surgeries and doctor’s visits, helped them move houses and manage the bills, and walked with them through the combined grief of COVID and the loss of their father.

When an insurance settlement came through and it was clear the family was back on their feet, Will felt God release him from that assignment. That was when he discovered West Texas A&M and began to be discipled at St. Paul. That was also where he met and married his wife, Kelsee.

Catching the Wave

Will and Bill Ivins were invited to speak earlier this year on Plainspoken, a popular podcast and YouTube channel addressing issues in the GMC and the broader Wesleyan Movement. Will told the story of a staff meeting at St. Paul in which Ivins spoke up. “I think there is a wave of the Holy Spirit right now among young people being called into ministry, and if we don’t get on the wave, we will miss it,” he said. “So, I am going to spend more time mentoring these young people, and I need the rest of you on staff to pick up the slack for me in other areas.”

Along with that commitment from senior leadership, Will credits the growth of both The Wesley and the St. Paul college ministry to their commitment to Scripture and stability. “The center point of everything we do is Scripture. We are finding that college students are over the quippy one-liner self-help teachings,” Will explains. “They want the Bible. For an anxious generation searching for roots, that focus on the bedrock of truth, along with strong relationships from both mentors and like-minded peers, provides the stability this generation is seeking.”

Through God’s grace and providence, this young man who grew up outside the church is now being mentored by spiritual fathers and professors, and is becoming a disciple-making leader with a firm foundation in the inerrant Word of God. We praise God for the movement of young leaders in responding to a call to ministry in his region, and pray for similar movement across the nation and the world.