THE STORY OF THE FORGOTTEN50 BEGINS IN THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS IN JUNE OF 2016. A GROUP OF COLLEGIATE MINISTRY LEADERS FROM ALL OVER NORTH AMERICA GATHERED FOR A PLANNING SESSION CONNECTED TO BAPTIST COLLEGIATE NETWORK (BCNET). TASKED WITH CREATING A STRATEGY FOR IMPACTING PREVIOUSLY UNENGAGED CAMPUSES WITH THE GOSPEL, THE GROUP QUICKLY REALIZED THAT THEY NEEDED A SYSTEMATIC MEANS FOR PRIORITIZING CAMPUSES, BASED ON THEIR ACCESS TO THE GOSPEL.
AFTER DETERMINING THAT NO COMPREHENSIVE DATA ON THIS SUBJECT EXISTED WITHIN ANY ORGANIZATION, THEY DECIDED THAT A LARGE-SCALE, YEAR-LONG RESEARCH PROJECT NEEDED TO TAKE PLACE, A PROJECT THAT WOULD UTILIZE A PROFESSIONAL RESEARCH COORDINATOR IN THREE STAGES:
Create a Database
Generate a comprehensive list of every college and university in North America.
The result: a list of 6,726 institutions of higher education!
The result: a list of 6,726 institutions of higher education!
Identify Gospel Presence
Identify the campuses in North America with no on-campus gospel presence. For the purposes of the research project, gospel presence was determined by the following two criteria:
1.A group meeting on the campus.
2.An evangelical group of sound doctrine.
1.A group meeting on the campus.
2.An evangelical group of sound doctrine.
Rank Campuses
Prioritize the campuses having no on-campus gospel presence with a gospel accessibility value utilizing the ratio:
The 50 campuses with the highest gospel accessibility value became the focus of the project.