Bible study club ignites passion in students city-wide

Ignite is a city-wide bible study club that was started at AHS by senior Caleb McKee and has now spread to eight other campuses including Dallas Baptist University.

Ignite is a city-wide bible study club that was started at AHS by senior Caleb McKee and has now spread to eight other campuses including Dallas Baptist University.

High school can be a difficult place with the stress of classes, changing friends and social pressures bearing down on students. A recent club has been trying to do something to combat these common issues. With an explosive growth since the end of the last school year, the Ignite club has grown into one of the most talked about and attended clubs district wide.

Starting with 22 high school students from across the district, the club has grown and expanded to eight other campuses including one at Dallas Baptist University. Using nothing but word of mouth and social media there were over 240 students at the first city-wide meeting.

“The goal of the club is to ignite and unite everyone and it just all comes from a passion,” Caleb McKee, senior, said.

McKee has a very obvious passion for the club he started which can be seen and heard when talking to him. McKee has earned a reputation of great persistence for always asking people what they are doing Thursdays during lunch. He does not care what kind of person you are, he wants you there.

I feel that Ignite is somewhere I can find my dignity and my hope.

— Abby Dalton

“I’m trying to get more young Christians involved with that same desire,” he said.

McKee’s perseverance seems to be paying off as evidenced by more than 350 students at the most recent city-wide Ignite meeting. Being so large, the club meets at Mosaic, eats lunch and then splits up into smaller groups. Each group participates in bible study led by two or three group leaders. All of this is entirely student run. Feeding hundreds of students every week without asking for money from members is a feat of almost biblical proportions.

“If we continue to work hard and focus on what is important and not ourselves then God will continue to bless it,” McKee said.

Week after week the Ignite leaders manage to feed hundreds of hungry high schoolers and supply them with a place to feel welcomed.

“I think Ignite is something that can share a lot of light,” Abby Dalton, junior, said. “It’s something where you can be having a hard time and think there’s this to look forward to.”

On a campus with clubs like FCA, Young Life and Colt Cornerstone, Ignite can seem like just another bible study, but after speaking to students who have been to both it seems very much its own club.

“I feel like Ignite is the perfect picture of the Gospel,” McKee said. “And students feel like it is our Ignite.”

McKee, Dalton and several of the other Ignite leaders attend Colt Cornerstone, an on-campus Bible study club that has typically around 30 students in attendance, and while they all feel that is an amazing group, they also feel that it is just a different kind of ministry. With a smaller group it is easy to understand that there would be more one on one with each other and more depth throughout.

“I feel that Ignite is somewhere I can find my dignity and my hope and I just want to give out love to everyone,” Dalton said.

Ignite’s regularly scheduled meetings are held on Thursdays but due to a scheduling conflict, this week’s meeting will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 11. Meetings are always held at Mosaic Church on Park Row across from AHS.