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Heights Baptist Church is energized to grow the kingdom of God rather than focusing on growing its own congregation. Its pastor, Lee Peoples, says any church, no matter its size or resources, can help start a new church to reach the unreached.
“In the book of Acts, you often see the kingdom growing by multiplication, not just addition,” Peoples said. “The blessing has always been as we have sent people out, we turn around and reach new people. We never miss what we give away for the kingdom of God.”
Heights has church planting in its DNA, as it began as a mission of First Baptist Church in Alvin in 1965. Having been the church’s pastor since 2017, Peoples noticed Heights wasn’t living out its history. It wasn’t planting churches.
The congregation of about 500 began praying for opportunities, and with help from the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, gained momentum. The church helped plant The Way of Life Church in Pearland by sending one Sunday school class per week to be present and help in whatever ways were needed.
“Every church reaches different people, and I think we need all kinds of different churches for reaching different types of folks.”
Heights also helped start Kingdom Harvest Church in Pearland, as one of their members went to be the pastor and they sent some people on a launch team. Through the North American Mission Board, Heights is the supporting church for an Hispanic plant 45 minutes away in Brazoria.
With the Alvin area growing rapidly as young families in particular look for affordable housing while commuting to Houston, Heights began praying a year ago about how to reach the south side of town.
“We have the belief that new churches often reach new people,” Peoples said. “Every church reaches different people, and I think we need all kinds of different churches for reaching different types of folks.”
This year, Heights started Living Oaks Church with Cary Perrin as pastor. He said it speaks loudly to the community that a church would work to reach people not in its immediate area “just for the sake of Christianity being available to people who live on that side of town.”
Perrin sees value in having the backing of an established church. It’s “very much like having your big brother in the room with you just to help out,” he said. It also gives credibility in the community.
“Thankfully, Heights Baptist has a good reputation, and for the community to see that’s our big sister goes a long way and helps ease some fears of people in the community,” Perrin said.
Even so, Living Oaks realizes a lot of younger people have had negative experiences with churches that keep them from attending. Such people are among those Living Oaks is trying to reach.
“We are trying to meet you where you are, and we don’t have that expectation of you to just glide right in and feel happy about it,” he said.
Living Oaks, particularly by meeting in some classrooms at Alvin Community College, has an eye toward people impacted by suicide, which is alarmingly prevalent today—hitting younger generations especially hard.
As Peoples urges other churches to look for ways to help start a new church, he thinks one of the biggest challenges is fear. Churches may fear what will happen if they send out members, commit to give money, or try something that doesn’t work, he said.
“One of our commitments as a church is we didn’t put a limit on how many people could be on the core team,” Peoples said. “Whenever we get a chance to do a launch team, we say, ‘If God puts this on your heart, we want you to go do it.’
“That’s scary because it may be you lose some key volunteers and you lose some key families, but what we’ve learned over the process is that gives the opportunity for the body of Christ to be the body of Christ,” Peoples said.
Heights also is starting an Hispanic church on its campus, first by having a church planting resident with NAMB working to reach the 48% of Alvin that is Hispanic and the 30% of that figure for whom English is not their first language.
To plant the Hispanic church, Heights is starting with an ESL ministry, then a small group Bible study for Spanish speakers, and eventually a Spanish service once a core team is established. By Easter, they hope to have Spanish translation of their English services.
“I encourage every church to find a way to be involved in church planting,” Peoples said.
