{"id":14123,"date":"2025-11-11T17:31:47","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T22:31:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=14123"},"modified":"2025-11-11T17:31:47","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T22:31:47","slug":"purdue-athletes-declare-their-faith-at-baptism-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2025\/11\/purdue-athletes-declare-their-faith-at-baptism-night.html","title":{"rendered":"Purdue Athletes Declare Their Faith at ‘Baptism Night’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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purdue.fca \/ Instagram<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A college ministry is celebrating after thirteen athletes publicly declared their faith by getting baptized. Joshua McKenzie serves as part of Purdue University\u2019s Fellowship of Christian Athlete\u2019s (FCA) and had been receiving a lot of questions about baptism since teaching about it to a group of athletes. \u201cA couple weeks ago, we were looking at the baptism of Jesus and there were some questions around what does baptism look like in your own life. One athlete said they were interested in getting baptized, and honestly, that just kind of spurred in me that we should just give an invitation for any of our athletes to get baptized,\u201d McKenzie told Sports Spectrum<\/em><\/a>. <\/em>After extending the invitation to other students, thirteen students asked to be baptized, and thus \u201cBaptism Night\u201d was scheduled for October 22.<\/p>\n

FCA leaders spoke with those getting baptized about what it means for believers. Demeco Kennedy, a Purdue football player who described himself previously as a \u201clukewarm believer,\u201d discussed his decision to be baptized. \u201cSince giving my life to Christ, it definitely hasn\u2019t been easy. However, God\u2019s love has shown me that this is the way I want to live my life, glorifying Him in all I do,\u201d Kennedy wrote in his testimony. \u201cChrist changed me in so many ways and made me such a better person. I truly am blessed and highly favored and couldn\u2019t have made a better decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

There have been other baptism nights organized by the FCA, but McKenzie said this one was special because of how organically it came about. \u201cIt\u2019s really cool to see the fruit already and the interest from other athletes,\u201d he said. He also noted that there is something different about the responses he\u2019s been receiving from students seeking more. \u201cThese students on campus, if they\u2019re professing Christ, that\u2019s more unique than previously was before, especially in the Midwest and the South where seemingly everyone was a Christian. Now, it\u2019s not a given,\u201d he said. \u201cThose who are professing Christ are maybe more faithfully following Christ. There\u2019s just more of a dividing line where you\u2019re either in or you\u2019re out. I don\u2019t see as many college students on the fence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Purdue FCA celebrated the baptisms, calling it \u201cnothing short of incredible\u201d on Instagram<\/a>. \u201cEach story reflected courage, transformation, and the beauty of surrendering to Christ. We are continuing to pray for everyone who took that step, and that God would strengthen them, guide them, and surround them with community as they continue walking in faith,\u201d the group added. \u201cGod is moving here, and we\u2019re grateful to be part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A college ministry is celebrating after thirteen athletes publicly declared their faith by getting baptized. Joshua McKenzie serves as part of Purdue University\u2019s Fellowship of Christian Athlete\u2019s (FCA) and had been receiving a lot of questions about baptism since teaching about it to a group of athletes. \u201cA couple weeks ago, we were looking at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":14126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nPurdue Athletes Declare Their Faith at 'Baptism Night'<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Thirteen Purdue athletes were baptized after a campus Bible study sparked revival\u2014FCA calls it \u201cnothing short of incredible.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" 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