Vertical Ministries<\/a> welcomes hundreds of Baylor students each week to its meetings. As it celebrates its 15th anniversary this year, Vertical is thriving as a non-denominational, student-led ministry that seeks to challenge college students to actively pursue an authentic, \u201cvertical\u201d relationship with God.<\/p>\n\u201cVertical\u2019s mission has always been the same for the past 15 years: to reach the campus for the gospel,\u201d says Myles Olenski (BA ’18), Vertical’s executive director. \u201cOur mission statement is to ignite a passion in college students for Jesus Christ, His church, and His mission around the world. We want people to know Jesus; we want people to be connected to His body, His church; and then we want people to go be effective missionaries wherever they go after they graduate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last October, Vertical hosted its 15-year celebration in Waco Hall. The evening included some of the ministry’s original founders along with volunteers, staff, friends and family from the last 15 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had some people who hadn\u2019t seen each other in 10 years who helped start Vertical, and they just were amazed that it’s still going,\u201d Olenski says. \u201cThat night we had around a thousand individuals show up for worship. It was incredible getting to share where the ministry started and where we are now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today, the ministry continues to be led by students who are passionate about the Gospel.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love Vertical because it\u2019s a beautiful place to truly worship and meet with God during the week,\u201d says Baylor junior Sarah Davis, a member of Vertical’s student executive team. \u201cThe volunteers and staff care so deeply about the Gospel, Vertical\u2019s mission, and the community that is formed in this place. It\u2019s such a powerful community at Baylor, and I\u2019m so grateful to be a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sic \u2019em, Vertical!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Worship can happen anywhere. As Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” In 2009, a group of Baylor students decided to come together in one of their living rooms to pray on a weekly basis. Soon, others joined them to study scripture and worship — and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-student-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24757\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Students](\"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/vertical-apr25.jpg\")
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