A pair of missionaries from Gainesville won’t have to leave the U.S. to influence the world around them.

Kent and Elizabeth Slack were packing up their boxes Thursday in preparation for relocating to Colorado Springs, Colo., to start the first Christian ministry on a new college campus.

The Slacks were recently selected by the Southern Baptist Convention-affiliated North American Mission Board to pioneer a Baptist Student Ministry at University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (UCCS) to be called “The Christian Challenge.”

Slack, a nine-year veteran of the First Baptist Church Gainesville college ministry, said although Colorado Springs is often percieved as a stronghold for Evangelical Christianity — headquarters to Focus on the Family, The Navigators and the National Association of Evangelicals — the campuses can be starkly different in culture than the surrounding town.

“People see Colorado Springs as taken care of,” Slack said. “But the college campuses there — including Colorado College — only have a few people in there doing what we’re doing.”

Slack said Colorado College is a much more established campus, with many student activities and a more tradtional student base. UCCS, on the other hand, is a satellite campus of University of Colorado at Boulder. The campus in Colorado Springs started small, but has grown to 15,000 students, most of whom are commuters who do not live on campus. Colorado College has about 25,000 students, in comparrison.

Slack said despite UCCC’s larger population, the campus has much in common with North Central Texas College’s Cooke County Campus in that most of the students drive in from other locations, rather than live on-site.

He said at NCTC he has maybe a two-to-three year window to reach students before they graduate or transfer to another college or a four-year university. At Colorado Springs, Slack said he will have an opportunity to be more “fully immersed” in the college culture — which was where he began his ministry.

In the late ’90s, Slack was a student studying ministry and business at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, and knew some former members of the First Baptist Church youth ministry. Slack was invited to Gainesville for a three-day conference and ended up liking the experience so much, he said, he stayed for nine days.

During that time, he was offered a job to expand the existing college-age student Sunday School class into a full-fledged college outreach program. Excited, he said, he took a plane home and immediately began to back boxes into a rental van for a move to Gainesville — though the church had not yet voted to hire him.

The leap of faith paid off, and Slack was hired. He later met his wife in Gainesville.

The couple have been students since then, with Kent working his way through Southwestern Theological Seminary in Fort Worth part-time and Elizabeth attending Texas Woman’s University in Denton to study psychology.

Both graduated in May 2007.

The couple led a college group at First Baptist Church called “Impact,” where Kent not only taught the Bible and Christian curriculum, but also played piano, with Elizabeth in the role of song leader.

Slack said though his students don’t stay long, lives can nevertheless be greatly affected.

“Campus ministry is a chance to make your mark, though you’ll rarely see the results of your work first-hand,” he said, as many of the people to whom he ministers do not keep in regular contact.

Slack said college students at the Colorado Springs campus deal with many of the same issues that students at most four-year universities encounter — alcohol addiciton, drugs, promiscuous sex, etc. But Slack said problems can arise from non-harmful activities, such as academics, social activities and athletics, when one’s priorities are not in order.

“The root of this is that we’re all looking for satisfaction in one way or another,” he said. “... We’re out to help them see that the only thing that will satisfy them completely is God.”

Slack said his goal is not to point fingers at sinners or people living with obsessive tendencies, but to “walk through life with them.”

“That’s really the only way I’ve learned to effectively minister,” he said.

Like most missionaries, the Slacks are paid through the proceeds of private donations. Donations may be sent to: First Baptist Church, c/o Kent and Elizabeth Slack, 308 Broadway, Gainesville, TX 76240.

The Slacks may be reached via e-mail at kentslack@hotmail.com.

First Baptist Church Gainesville may be reached at 665-4347.

Reporter Andy Hogue may be contacted at andyhoguegdr@ntin.net