About Us
Vertical Ministries was created as a non-denominational, student led ministry that seeks to challenge college students to actively pursue an authentic and “vertical” relationship with God.
At Vertical, our desire is to create an opportunity one night a week for our college community, regardless of other affiliations, to worship and be challenged together in a communal setting.
We are not a church and do not desire to take people away from their prior affiliations. Rather, we hope to challenge students to go back to their specific communities and influence them towards a deeper desire and understanding of the Gospel of Jesus.
Our prayer is that through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit college students in the Waco area will awaken to becoming the men and women God has created them to be. Through active involvement and leadership, their communities both locally and globally will be impacted for the glory of God.
At Vertical, our desire is to create an opportunity one night a week for our college community, regardless of other affiliations, to worship and be challenged together in a communal setting.
We are not a church and do not desire to take people away from their prior affiliations. Rather, we hope to challenge students to go back to their specific communities and influence them towards a deeper desire and understanding of the Gospel of Jesus.
Our prayer is that through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit college students in the Waco area will awaken to becoming the men and women God has created them to be. Through active involvement and leadership, their communities both locally and globally will be impacted for the glory of God.
How it all started
In the Fall of 2009, a group of Baylor students gathered to pray on a weekly basis desiring to unite the college campus under the banner of following Jesus Christ. They began to join other classmates in worship, prayer, and studying Scripture. These gatherings started out in a living room, moved to a park, then to a parking garage, and eventually to the Waco Hippodrome, a historic downtown theater where on the first night over 1,000 college students came to worship and study God’s word together. Since that Fall, Vertical Ministries has sought to challenge college students to actively pursue an authentic and “vertical” relationship with God.
We join a multitude of other fellow believers who have come before us beholding the name of Jesus Christ. In the 1940s, the Baylor campus was the birthplace to a youth revival born out of the hearts of college students that swept the nation and equipped a post-WWII generation to live out the Gospel of Jesus Christ. A banner that hung at many of the Revival’s locations encapsulated the movement’s declaration — “I’d Rather Have Jesus.” Now sixty years later, we embrace this same decree joining with past generations as we take a stand in our communities declaring that the only pursuit that satisfies is the pursuit of knowing Jesus Christ. While the methods and context have changed, the hope and truth we have in Jesus Christ remains steadfast and unwavering.
We join a multitude of other fellow believers who have come before us beholding the name of Jesus Christ. In the 1940s, the Baylor campus was the birthplace to a youth revival born out of the hearts of college students that swept the nation and equipped a post-WWII generation to live out the Gospel of Jesus Christ. A banner that hung at many of the Revival’s locations encapsulated the movement’s declaration — “I’d Rather Have Jesus.” Now sixty years later, we embrace this same decree joining with past generations as we take a stand in our communities declaring that the only pursuit that satisfies is the pursuit of knowing Jesus Christ. While the methods and context have changed, the hope and truth we have in Jesus Christ remains steadfast and unwavering.