Already in the Field: One Student’s Call to Ministry
On Friday mornings at North Greenville University, around 30 young men gather on the baseball field, but they’re not there to play—they're walking through Scripture together, verse by verse. And Levi Powell is leading the charge.
Powell comes from a line of SCBaptist ministers from both his mom and his dad’s sides. “For as long as I can remember, people would always ask me if I was going to be a pastor just like my father,” he said. But it wasn’t until his late teen years that he felt the Lord calling him to ministry.
Answering the Call to Ministry
He recalls a moment at a church retreat with his youth group that solidified his call. “I just said, ‘Hey, God, if I'm going to pursue ministry in my life, show me that people will follow.’” He walked to the altar, prayed to surrender his life to ministry, and began to feel hands placed on his back. “I looked up, and the entire altar was filled with students praying,” he explained. “It was very special. It gave me lots of clarity that God did want me to pursue ministry.”
From the moment of his calling, Powell had one focus. “I started planning my life for that call. I only applied to one school, and that is North Greenville University,” he said. That decision was an easy one for him. “North Greenville was an obvious choice for anyone that was pursuing ministry,” he said. “It was clear that they were able to teach me God's Word in a deeper way so I would grow in understanding and be able to apply that knowledge.”
Finding Support as a Catalyst
Along with the equipping he received from North Greenville, Powell also found support through SCBaptist's Catalyst program. Catalyst is an initiative funded through the Janie Chapman Offering that connects college students with mentors and resources to pursue ministry while still in school. “The Catalyst program has blessed me in so many ways. It's given me a community and people who are very wise to pour into me."
As his mentor through the program, Lee Clamp got a front row seat to watch Powell’s growth. Clamp serves as the Associate Executive Director-Treasurer at SCBaptist. “He already had a desire to be in ministry full-time. I simply came along beside him during his year here to talk through what it looks like for him in ministry moving forward,” Clamp said.
Baseball as a Mission Field
Aside from his desire to grow spiritually, North Greenville also provided him with the chance to pursue another of his passions—baseball. “Baseball has shaped my life in so many ways. It's taught me discipline, how to be coachable, how to be around others.”
He feels baseball has also provided him with ministry opportunities. That was especially the case after an injury took him out for the season. “October 2025, I had hip labrum surgery, and it was a big deal,” Powell said. “This was tough news for me because this meant obviously that I would have to stop playing baseball.”
Without getting to play, he felt his relationships on the team would suffer. “I felt like these relationships with these guys, these friendships, this brotherhood, was all over,” he said. “I struggled a lot with just wondering what God was doing in my life.”
Starting a Team Bible Study
Although he felt the Lord close the door on baseball for the season, he did feel the Lord opening up a new one. Prior to his surgery, he began entertaining the idea of a Bible study with the team. “I was beginning to talk about it, and everybody was excited about it, saying it was a great idea. And right after I started those conversations, I got taken out from my hip.” With a schedule that was suddenly freed up, Powell felt the Lord nudging him to get the Bible study started.
He’s already seen an impact. His home church, Taylors First Baptist, is about 20 minutes down the road, and Powell points his teammates there to get connected to the local body of believers. On any given Sunday, he can see several of his teammates sitting in the pews. “It’s provided a place for my teammates, who I'm sharing the gospel with, to go on a Sunday morning,” he said. “And they're coming on their own because they want to be there. Even if I'm not able to be there, these guys are showing up each and every week, trying to learn more about God.”
Powell’s Vision for the Future
“It was really cool to hear him kind of dream up what this project was going to be with his baseball team as a Catalyst,” Clamp said, “and an incredible opportunity for us to see him do local ministry.”
Powell’s dream for the Bible study extends far beyond just this season. “My biggest hope is that in 10 years, they'll call me up and they'll say, ‘Hey, I remember all those times we opened up God's Word together, and I'm really struggling with something.’”
He plans to be there to answer those questions. “I hope they know they can come to me, and I'll tell them the Gospel again, and then finally their heart could be transformed,” he said.
Clamp has big hopes for Powell, as well. “My prayer is that he'll be a leader among our churches,” Clamp said, “that he'll be one that says, let's do more together than we can separate. Let's sacrifice individually at the local church to be able to send more missionaries around the world.” For this college student, sending missionaries looks like sharing the Gospel on a red dirt infield.