For much of Union University's 200-year history, missions and church planting have been a central focus. Hundreds of Union graduates have left Jackson to take the gospel into all the world, serving both domestically and internationally.
"Missions has been in the DNA of Union for as long as I've known it, and that's why they continue to be one of the leading sending schools," says Andy Pettigrew, a 2000 Union graduate who now serves the International Mission Board as team leader for NextGen mobilization.
Pettigrew says that emphasis comes from Union's focus on the integration of faith and learning.
"You do not just study for the sake of studying and getting a degree," he says. "You study for the sake of advancing the gospel."
As Union has celebrated its bicentennial over the past year and remembered how God has faithfully provided for the institution, it has also looked to the future and how God can and will use Union in the days ahead. One thing is certain: Union's commitment to missions and church planting remains, and recent Union graduates are making an impact for Christ all over the world that will be felt for years to come.
Take David Kagaruki ('20) and his wife Tiffany ('21), for example. After serving as a pastoral intern at Cornerstone Community Church in Jackson for the past couple of years, David is heading to Brooklyn, N.Y., where he will serve as a pastoral intern for the next year at Grace Baptist Church alongside fellow Union alumni Chris and Sarah Ortiz. Chris has been serving the church as pastor in an effort to revitalize the small congregation and provide a faithful gospel witness in the city.
"We're going to go by faith," Kagaruki says. "We know it's going to be expensive, but we know that the Lord will provide."
The work of the church in Brooklyn is vital, Kagaruki says, as churches all around the city have been closing over the past decade.
"It seems like the numbers of believers there are dwindling, in some sense," he says. "One of the challenges is just trying to be bold and courageous in the midst of a culture that's anti-church, anti-truth, anti-gospel, and really, it's going to be a battlefield."
Stella McMillan (name changed for security purposes), a 2017 Union graduate from Knoxville, Tenn., began her missions work with a two-year journeyman program after college that blossomed into a permanent position with the International Mission Board.
McMillan serves in Taipei, Taiwan, as a member of the creative team for the Asia Pacific Rim region. Her team handles internal and external communication projects for that region.
She says her overseas ministry has taught her how to put her faith to work.
"Because I grew up in Christian environments I learned a lot about the promises of God, and I heard a lot about the promises of God, but it wasn't until I think I moved overseas in this work that I really needed to trust the promises of God," McMillan says. "It was kind of, 'OK, Lord, my chips are all in. I've got nothing left if you don't come through.' Of course, he always does, but I think I have never needed to really depend for myself on the Lord like I have in the season of being overseas."
In her work, McMillan performs a variety of communication tasks, such as translating and editing video projects and writing stories for the IMB and Baptist Press about the work God is doing in her region. Though the missionary life has proven to be more nomadic than she expected (she's lived in four cities in five years), McMillan says her engagement with the Chinese church especially has been one of God's blessings to her.
"Our global Chinese brothers and sisters are so faithful and so steadfast," she says. "They have such a deep heart for community, and they've really taught me so much."
At Union, McMillan says her professors in the communication arts and history departments, as well as in the Honors Community, saw her gifts and encouraged her to pursue them. Her time in the communication arts department prepared her to know how to communicate stories well and to never forget the people behind them.
"Spiritually, Union is really like an oasis," McMillan says. "I had four years there to just soak in wonderful relationships and think really deeply about love, and beauty, and truth, and wisdom. Then most of my post-grad life since then, I've been living in places that are spiritual deserts. I think I was kind of filled up, and then I've been able to pour out because of that, because of my time at Union."
As his graduation from Union neared, and as Jay Evans (name changed for security purposes) contemplated his future, mission work became more and more of a possibility for him — and more of an answer to his own prayers.
"This is something I've wanted to do because I've seen God's heart for the nations through his word," Evans says. "I've watched my church family in Jackson support their partners over the years and seen them pray for their partners. I was praying Luke 10:2 in which Jesus says to his disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest, that he might send out more laborers into his harvest.'"
Evans ultimately concluded that he didn't have a good reason not to pursue mission work. So in January, after he completed his coursework at Union in December, he began a two-year journeyman term in Turkey.
"This is a great opportunity after college to be intentional when I don't have super big dreams or plans, but to walk faithfully in where I have seen God at work in my life so far," he said.
Learning the language has occupied much of his time so far. He expects that much of his time going forward will be spent meeting with local young men — both believers who are already members of a church and those who are not — to disciple them, invite them to church and share the gospel with them.
For Evans, his time at Union was instrumental in his growth as a believer and in his path to the mission field.
"Did I love the word before coming to Union? Yes," he said. "But did I get to see and dive into and dig into more of the depths of his word while there? Absolutely. And do to that in a community was a really great blessing."
Jesse Greer, who graduated from Union in 2020, just completed a two-year stint as an IMB missionary in West Africa. She worked at a community center using the Bible to teach English classes. That gave her the opportunity to have gospel conversations on a regular basis. She also taught a women's Bible study one day a week.
She plans to complete a seminary degree in the U.S. and then hopes to return to the mission field — a desire she's had since she was in high school.
As a missions minor at Union, Greer learned from professors who had served with the IMB. Her education gave her the chance to learn French, which she used daily during her journeyman term. And she participated in mission trips through the Office of University Ministries.
"I think having that worldview before I stepped onto the mission field was very helpful, and it gave me a passion for missions that I don't would have otherwise grown if I hadn't had that," she says.
