May 16, 2024
Daniel Holland, a rising senior at Georgia Southern University, has been selected as state president of Baptist Collegiate Ministries for 2024-2025.
Holland, a marketing major, says he plans to attend seminary after graduation, and his ultimate desire is to serve as a pastor.
He is eager to serve as BCM president because he has a heart for college students and the struggles they face. “I have compassion on college students and the war waging inside of them between the flesh and the spirit,” he wrote on his application.
Additionally, Holland sees serving as president as an opportunity to use and develop his spiritual gifts and as a stepping stone to his eventual goal of vocational ministry. “I want to grow in the gifts God has given me,” he explained, “I feel like God has gifted me with encouragement and exhortation and I want to steward that gift well.”
Chris Bryan, the campus minister at Georgia Southern, said he remembers meeting Holland and hearing his testimony for the first time. “When I met Daniel the first week on campus,” Bryan recalled, “I was blown away at the potential of what the Lord could do through him and his heart for people and his passion for the Lord.”
Holland recounts that though he grew up in a Christian home and attended church weekly, he viewed his faith as “a chore.” His faith, he shared, was not evident in his life. “My life began to reflect my passion and desire for the world rather than following the way of Jesus,” Holland says, “Throughout my years in high school I sought after the world with great zeal.”
When he graduated from high school in Georgia after living in five states in his youth, he felt alone and without friends. It was at that point, he says, that “the Lord got my attention.” God led Holland to the realization that He is real and that he had not been living according to His standards. It was that realization, Holland declares, that led him to “begin following Jesus with my mouth and my heart. I was living in darkness but then the Son had transferred me into His kingdom of light!”
That transformation, Holland reflects, changed his entire attitude of why he wanted to attend college. “I wanted to go to college to waste it on my passions, but God stepped in and changed me. I am humbled that God would use me for his great work.”
Part of that “great work” is leading the other state BCM presidents as they seek to serve college students. Beverly Skinner, the Georgia Baptist Mission Board’s collegiate ministry catalyst, says “Daniel’s years in BCM have helped him grow as a disciple, discern God’s calling to vocational ministry, and develop leadership skills that will serve him for a lifetime. I am thrilled he has an opportunity to share what he has learned and invest in leaders of all BCMs in Georgia.”
At the BCM Equip conference earlier this month, Holland led his first meeting with the incoming BCM presidents, and set the agenda for the year. One of their key roles will be to help plan Confluence, the annual Georgia Baptist Collegiate Conference in September.
Holland wants to lead his peers by serving. “I hope to build a sense of community within the BCM presidents,” he explains, “I hope I can inspire encouragement, and challenge the leaders. I want to help every president craft a vision and set strong direction for the students in their BCMs to follow.”
That leadership and encouragement, Bryan says, comes naturally to Holland. “Daniel is known as an encouraging leader at BCM,” he explains, “He even won an award from his peers this year as ‘Most Encouraging.’ He leads with purpose and passion, and his love for God and others is contagious.”
Ultimately, Holland declares, “I hope to first glorify God and not myself.”
