Month: July 2024

In this kingdom, nothing is small

You’ve probably never heard of First Baptist Church of Woodsboro. In fact, you’ve probably never heard of Woodsboro.

Woodsboro is a little pocket of a town hanging off the southeast side of State Highway 77, about 40 miles north of Corpus Christi. There’s no Walmart there, but they do have a 2A high school equipped with a hurricane shelter (standard issue for that part of the state), a Dairy Queen (standard issue in many a small Texas town), and a dollar store.

The town is home to about 1,300 residents, 80 of whom can be found on any given Sunday inside FBC Woodsboro.

“We are just a very normal-sized church,” their pastor, Jordan Newberry, recently told me. “We’re not a megachurch at all. Nothing like that. We’re just your normal, everyday Southern Baptist church—full of good people, though.”

Within this issue, you’ll find a story about FBC Woodsboro that we hope inspires you. To be honest, it’s not so much a story about FBC Woodsboro as it is a story about what God can do when kingdom-minded people say yes to the Lord and then wait to see where He will lead.

FBC Woodsboro recently returned from a mission trip to Nevada, where members worked alongside Pathfinder Church in Reno to connect with the community through a series of public outreach events. As the week wrapped up, Pathfinder’s pastor said having FBC Woodsboro’s assistance paved the way for him to have more meaningful conversations with Reno residents over the course of a week than he’d had in any other week since he planted the church about a year ago.

So how in the world did a rural church in Texas get connected with a church in a hustle-bustle town like Reno?

"When we work together to multiply our resources behind a common gospel goal, there is no small work."

Jayson Larson Tweet

A couple years ago, the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention partnered with the Nevada Baptist Convention to do kingdom work together. Through the partnership, the SBTC began offering its resources to help NBC churches become stronger and multiply. Part of that commitment included the SBTC making its churches aware of the opportunity to work side by side with Southern Baptist churches in Nevada.

These aren’t connections churches like FBC Woodsboro would normally expect to have. But by leveraging the SBTC’s network, the church was able to send a group to a western state for a week to help a young church hungry to reach the lost better connect with its community.

“We’re not a huge church,” Newberry said, “but we’re still able to go and have an impact.”

To be clear, there are megachurches among the SBTC’s 2,700-plus churches doing amazing kingdom work. But there are also much smaller SBTC churches like FBC Woodsboro having a massive eternal impact not just in their communities, but around the world.

Having pastored, I know how overwhelming it can feel to just address the needs in your own congregation and community. It can often feel like paddling as hard as you can just to keep your head above water, so reaching outside your local context might feel difficult.

That’s one of the reasons God calls us to something greater. He calls us to be members of a body, one that works together to achieve His purposes. When we work together to multiply our resources behind a common gospel goal, there is no small work. It’s a great work performed by thousands and thousands of faithful hands working together.

Church partners with SBTC DR to be hands and feet of Jesus following storm

Being a light in the community

LEVELLAND

The small Levelland church of about 75 had been praying for a way to serve its Hockley County community, 30 miles west of Lubbock. When a microburst with vicious straight-line winds swept through the city in the early morning hours of Wednesday, May 28, they got more of an opportunity than they anticipated.

“Since I’ve been here, we’ve been praying for an opportunity to be a beacon of light to the community,” said Tony Ward, pastor of College Avenue Baptist Church since March. “This is probably not how we wanted or expected it.”

Dinnertime on May 27 in Levelland brought more than conversation around the table. A brief storm pelted the community with hail—weather not uncommon in the flat lands of the Llano Estacado. Little did residents know that the small evening storm was a precursor of what was to come.

“Since I’ve been here, we’ve been praying for an opportunity to be a beacon of light to the community. This is probably not how we wanted or expected it.”

—Tony Ward Tweet

‘It came out of nowhere’

Ward recalled waking with a start around 2 a.m. the next morning to the sound of hail pounding his property.

“It came out of nowhere,” he said. “No lightning or thunder. It just started immediately. High winds, heavy hail … probably for 20 to 30 minutes. The power went out pretty quickly.”

The Ward home, located on the south side of town, escaped the worst of the damage as the storm struck the north side with unanticipated ferocity. Some thought it was a tornado, Ward said, although the National Weather Service has only confirmed the microburst.

Ward stayed up most of the rest of the night, watching to see if anything else was coming. Dawn revealed downed power lines and trees shorn of their leaves and branches. Ward estimated that he later raked up 15 bags of leaves, as did his neighbors.

A handful of church families were affected by damage at their farms and homes. No members were injured, but some collected buckets full of dead birds, likely victims of large hailstones.

Hailstones also piled up around the church, which suffered broken windows and damage to its roof. A courtyard flooded, causing water to spread inside the foyer and into a section of the sanctuary. Members quickly showed up to help shovel hail away from the doors to prevent further water damage as the hail melted. Cleaners estimated they pumped out 600 gallons of water from the facility.

But with the inconvenience came opportunity.

SBTC DR deploys quickly

Shane Kendrix, SBTC regional catalyst for Northwest Texas, contacted Ward to check on the church and community early on May 28. Could the SBTC help?

“That [phone call] got the ball rolling,” Ward said. “By Wednesday afternoon, we had plans for a team to come.” An SBTC DR QRU quick response mobile kitchen from the Top O’ Texas association in Pampa with four volunteers arrived later that day, setting up feeding operations at the church.

Over the next three days, the SBTC DR QRU cranked out more than 1,000 meals for residents and first responders, Ward said, before power was finally restored to the town.

“All those volunteers were tremendous,” Ward said. “They served and never complained. They’ve been doing this for a while.”

From a pastoral perspective, teaming with SBTC DR was seamless and encouraging, Ward noted. “I didn’t have to do a lot,” he said. “For someone in the SBTC to reach out and tell us what our options were was great. We were all in. It was a joy to have them.”

A light in the community

The experience allowed church members to see the benefits of SBTC affiliation, Ward said, as well as how a DR ministry works in emergencies.

Members helped, too, visiting with and praying for locals who came to the church for encouragement and a hot meal.

“Several church members had meaningful conversations with visitors. We heard lots of people just being appreciative,” Ward said, adding that people were pleasantly surprised to find that the food would cost them nothing.

College Avenue announced the meals on social media. Area banks and small businesses were also organizing food giveaways, Ward said. Word spread and people flocked to the bright yellow and blue SBTC DR QRU in the church parking lot.

“For our little church, we put it on our Facebook page and the post had the most Facebook interactions we’ve ever had in the history of our church, plus 125 shares,” he added, estimating the post reached several thousand people in the Levelland area.

“We wanted to be a light in the community and to share the gospel,” Ward said. “We wanted to love on people here.”

In the wake of a devastating storm, they did just that.

SBTC DR Director Scottie Stice said of the Levelland deployment: “We were grateful for the opportunity to partner with Pastor Ward and College Avenue Baptist as we served Levelland and Hockley County. We appreciate the QRU volunteers who responded very quickly and arrived ready to serve.”

Stice also confirmed that an SBTC DR shower and laundry unit deployed to Roswell, N.M., on June 20 to support a shelter housing evacuees from Ruidoso, where wildfires continue to rage.

Something better than ‘WWJD?’

I am a child of the 90s. I grew up with Walkmans, Tamagotchis, and neon-colored windbreakers. I also grew up in the craze of the “What Would Jesus Do?” bracelet.

Every stylish Christian kid had at least one WWJD bracelet next to their cassette of DC Talk’s Jesus Freak (played at ear-piercing volume in your Walkman, with bass boost) and their puka shell necklace. For many, these bracelets became more than a reminder of acceptable behavior—they were a fashion statement!

What could be so wrong with that?

I think the most basic way to answer this question is not only to ask what Jesus would do, but why we should model Christlike behavior. At its core, WWJD assumes personal action. When we are faced with an ethical or moral dilemma, we ask, “What would Jesus do?”

The result is a good deed or good work. The connection to the dangerous prosperity gospel—which has attempted to infiltrate the gospel of grace by turning it into a gospel of works—is undeniable: If I do what Jesus would do, God will bless me. Essentially, if we model Christlike behavior, God will bless our efforts.

Now, don’t miss what I am saying. Indeed, we should behave in a way that reflects what we believe, but even more, we should reflect what has been done for us.

This brings us to the follow-up question: Why should we model Christlike behavior? This question gets to the core of the biblical gospel. Instead of looking back at our good works, we should look back at what has been done on our behalf. Our behavioral change comes out of a heart change.

Here are a handful of things to consider when you ask “WWJD?”:

Your ability to do anything Jesus would do is only because He has given you a new heart. Ezekiel 36:26 says we will be given new hearts as a result of the new covenant made in Christ’s blood. Our sinful hearts of stone will be removed and we will be given new hearts sealed with the Holy Spirit.
Apart from a new heart, all your works are dead in and of themselves. Paul says in Ephesians 2:1-3 that we are dead in our sins and trespasses. In our dead state, we carry out the desires of the flesh, and one of the strongest desires of the flesh is validation. As dead people, we find validation in doing good works, even though everything good we do as dead people only results in dead works with no value. But there is hope. Paul says in Ephesians 2:4-9 that God—being rich in grace, mercy, and love—has made us alive in Christ. The gospel is the message that God, in Christ, has brought dead men and women to life by grace through faith in Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.
Having been made alive in Christ, we are to be imitators of Christ. Ephesians 5:1-2 says to be imitators of God and walk in love as a sacrifice to God, who has made you alive in Christ. Additionally, Paul writes to the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians 11:1, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” We are to follow in the sacrificial love of Jesus, who gave His life as a ransom for our sins to give us a new heart. In his grace, God also gave us strong men of the faith like Paul who model Christlikeness. They were imperfect and struggled with sin, but we are encouraged to follow them as they strive to follow Jesus.
Imitating Christ results in the fruits of the Spirit. Paul writes in Galatians 5:22-23 about the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These fruits are the byproduct of imitating Christ. They also become the salt we, as believers, are to season the earth with. In this, we work out our faith with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12-13).
The fruits of the Spirit are worked out in our good deeds. Paul says in Ephesians 2:10 that we are created in Christ Jesus for every good work. Additionally, James 2:17 says faith without works is dead. He continues in the next verse to say, “I will show you my faith by my works.”

WWJD is not simply about behavioral modification, but a reminder that God is at work within us. Simply asking what Jesus would do and doing that thing does not earn favor with God. Instead, when we understand that we should model Christlike behavior because He died to give us a new heart and bring us to life, we will desire to demonstrate our faith in Jesus by modeling Jesus through our words and deeds.

Several SBTC DR units already deployed after Hurricane Beryl

MATAGORDA, Texas (BP)—Disaster Relief units from the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention have already deployed even as now-Tropical Storm Beryl makes its way northeast along the eastern edge of Texas and parts of Louisiana.

Beryl made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane near Matagorda around 4:30 a.m. Monday (July 8), about 95 miles southwest of Houston. The storm pummeled coastal areas like Galveston as well as the outskirts of Houston, America’s fourth-largest metro area. Nearly 3 million people are without electricity.

“We have one mass care feeding unit, two shower trailers, one quick response feeding unit and one chainsaw unit mobilized,” said SBTC DR director Scottie Stice in an email to Baptist Press. “However, we are less than 12 hours from landfall. More units will be activated.”

Houston has experienced flash flooding Monday after several inches of rain, with more expected. Flash flood warnings continue for Houston and Galveston.

At least two people were killed in southeast Texas by trees felled by the storm. Prior to its arrival in the U.S., Beryl caused widespread damage in Mexico and the Caribbean, killing at least 12. At one point, the storm reached Category 5 strength.

DR resources including a mass feeding unit, a chainsaw unit and a laundry unit are heading to three locations today—Wharton, Galveston County, and Spring, Texas. More locations will probably be added in the coming days, Stice said.

The mass feeding unit in Wharton will prepare meals that will be delivered by the Salvation Army.

“We will be here to serve so long as we have financial and volunteer resources available,” Stice said. “I anticipate requesting out-of-state DR teams.”

Stice urged Southern Baptists to pray for “God to be in the details.”

“We have logistical and volunteer needs already,” he said. “Pray for our volunteers as they meet needs of survivors. Lastly, pray with us as the Gospel is shared with the Texas Gulf Coast communities.

“I wish to thank Southern Baptists that have already sacrificed so much to get us to the field,” Stice continued. “SBTC DR is supported by CP, state mission offerings, and designated gifts. Thank you, Southern Baptists, for your prayer and financial investment in Southern Baptist Disaster Relief.”

First Odessa’s Hispanic ministry is opening doors to reach a rapidly changing community

ODESSA

Erika Meza had been praying for her husband, Luis, to come to faith in Jesus for nine years. But spiritual conversations with Luis could feel tense and he would tell Erika he did not want to feel pressured to walk away from the Catholic religion he had always known.

But something began to change in Luis’ heart one day after he received a personal invitation from Hiram Ramos, the leader of First Baptist Church Odessa’s Hispanic ministry, and his wife, Saraí. Luis was touched by the invitation, but still guarded about the visit.

“Don’t get excited,” he told Erika and their two children that Sunday.

But God began to do a work in Luis’ heart through that first visit.

“The first day I went, I felt I was part of something,” Luis now admits. “God moved something in my heart and in my mind, so I started going regularly.”

Hiram, sensing the Lord at work, began to pull Luis closer. He invited Luis to his home. He was a sounding board to which Luis could voice his questions and doubts. Most importantly, Hiram presented the plan of salvation to Luis.

On April 7, 2023, First Odessa Senior Pastor Byron McWilliams preached his annual cross service—a special message he delivers on Good Friday while simultaneously using an ax to craft a life-sized cross on the church stage. Luis said something “clicked” in his soul as he listened to the message, and he gave his life to Jesus that evening. Luis became the first person Hiram baptized at First Odessa Español—the first of many.

“The first day I went, I felt I was part of something. God moved something in my heart and in my mind.”

—luis meza Tweet

Expanding its reach

Long before that day, First Odessa—with a mission to reach its city and the world with the gospel of Christ—saw an urgent need to connect with the growing number of Hispanic people coming to the community to work in the oil industry. With nearly 60% of the city’s population being Hispanic, church leaders wondered, “How are we going to reach Odessa if we don’t speak Spanish?”

First Odessa already had a Spanish Bible class meeting at the church. It was led by its only Hispanic couple at the time—Roberto Chavez and his wife Aracely, who is Hiram’s sister. As the class began to grow, church leaders began to pray about taking the next steps to broaden its reach. They eventually purchased a building across the street to use for a Hispanic church. All they needed was a pastor.

At the time, Hiram lived in his native Mexico and, other than making an annual visit to Odessa to visit Aracely and her family, had never considered leaving. During one of his visits, in 2019, Aracely told Hiram about First Odessa’s vision of starting a Hispanic work and asked him to join her in praying for the man God would call to serve as its pastor.

“So I crossed the street from the church and started walking around the building [the church had purchased for the Hispanic work],” Hiram said, “praying that God would bring a pastor who would love the work.”

He never imagined he would be the one God would choose to call to lead the Hispanic work.

“How are we going to reach Odessa if we don’t speak Spanish?”

—Byron McWilliams, First Odessa Senior Pastor Tweet

A couple years later, in January 2021, Hiram returned to visit his sister and help preach the funeral of her father-in-law. Hiram preached part of the funeral message in Spanish, while McWilliams preached in English. Afterward, McWilliams said he and some other members of the church staff began texting one another about Hiram, saying, “This is the one we’ve been praying for.”

At McWilliams’ request, he and Hiram met a couple months later to discuss what God was doing to reach the Hispanic population through First Odessa’s ministry. Heading into that meeting, Hiram remembers praying the words of Philippians 2:13: “If it is your will, work in me both to will and to do” so that I may fulfill your purposes.

The conversation ended up with the two men standing in front of the altar facing the pews inside the building where Hiram had prayed for First Odessa’s planned Hispanic ministry a couple years earlier.

“This is the place God wants to fill with Spanish-speaking people,” McWilliams said to Hiram. “When can you start?”

“At that moment,” Hiram recalls, “God produced the ‘will and the doing’ in me.”

Hiram answered the call to lead the Hispanic work and he and Saraí moved to Odessa. They said God affirmed their call to the work by allowing their work visas to be granted rapidly—faster than their attorney said she had ever seen. Hiram and Saraí prepared to launch the Hispanic work by hosting Sunday Bible classes, as well as men’s and women’s Bible studies during the week.

“We are all part of the same vision where the Spanish ministry is being formed with the support of the whole church.”

—Hiram Ramos, First Odessa en Español Tweet

One church, one mission

First Odessa en Español held its first service on Dec. 3, 2023, with 28 people in attendance. Since then, the church has seen more than 50 people come to faith in Christ. The church is working to disciple, shepherd, and meet the unique needs of those families—many of which include older generations that speak mostly Spanish with younger generations that are increasingly more fluent in English. By offering its Spanish ministry, First Odessa provides a place where such families can worship in the same location.

Hiram uses his training in psychology and counseling to minister to the needs of marriages and families. The church recently held a marriage dinner conference with 115 attendees. It also hosted an Easter activity in a local park where about 800 people came to hear the gospel in Spanish and English.

“We are one church and one ministry together, and I love that,” Hiram said, “because we are all part of the same vision where the Spanish ministry is being formed with the support of the whole church.”

SBTC DR aids New Mexico fire and flood survivors, encounters flash floods themselves

RUIDOSO, N.M.—Eleven Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Disaster Relief volunteers rolled into Ruidoso, N.M., on Tuesday, June 26, quickly setting up the SBTC DR mass feeding unit from Flint Baptist Church in the parking lot of First Baptist Church in Ruidoso.

Their task? Partnering with New Mexico Baptist DR, they would support the American Red Cross in feeding evacuees at shelters and survivors in the community displaced by the devastating summer wildfires still partly burning around Ruidoso.

They got far more than expected.

“We came to respond to fires and a flood,” said Debby Nichols, a team leader from DeKalb. “But since we’ve been here, we have had two major flash floods.”

One flash flood occurred about 50 yards downhill from FBC Ruidoso.

Nichols and her yellow-shirted crew watched and prayed as firefighters hurried down the nearby hillside to rescue people stuck in their vehicles after a flash flood swept across the road just below the church.

The DR volunteers circled up to pray for the victims and the first responders, pulling them from flooded cars and trucks.

For Nichols and many of the volunteers, it was the first swift-water rescue they had ever seen: “We were in no danger, but they were. We prayed for them all.”

The team had at least one other narrow escape, Nichols said. Less than two hours after they had eaten in town after church on Sunday, June 30, another flash flood struck, inundating the street and restaurant where they had been.

Between close calls, the team has been busy preparing around 1,400 meals per day—700 lunches and 700 dinners—for distribution by the Red Cross to survivors at sites established in tribal areas, shelters, and other locations.

The SBTC DR mass feeding team expects to be in the area until Saturday, July 6, Nichols said.

In addition to the Texas feeding crew, volunteers from New Mexico, Arizona, and Louisiana Baptist DR teams are serving at the church, which is also functioning as a point of distribution for relief supplies for the community. SBDR chaplains are counseling and praying with survivors. SBDR administrative volunteers are assisting with logistical matters.

‘A blessing to help people’

As with all major emergencies involving a large SBDR response, Ruidoso is very much a team effort.

While officially charged with mass feeding operations, Nichols said SBTC DR volunteers are praying also, and not just for stranded motorists. They pray for and with truck drivers dropping off and picking up supplies, Red Cross workers driving emergency response vehicles into the church parking lot, and community members just walking by.

The Ruidoso deployment marks the first for Tyler resident Lori Padgett, a dyslexia reading specialist with the Tyler Independent School District. Although she trained in mass feeding more than a year ago, Padgett’s schedule has not allowed her to deploy prior to Ruidoso.

“It’s a great experience,” Padgett said, admitting she was initially a bit nervous. “It’s a lot of work but it’s a blessing to help people. We are supposed to help people in need and that is what we are doing.”

Everyone in the community has been grateful, Padgett noted. Often people in stores and restaurants stop and express gratitude to the “yellow shirts.”

“They thank us for being here and for helping,” she said.

“We are so grateful to serve the residents of New Mexico and work alongside the very capable NMDR team,” SBTC DR Director Scottie Stice said. He also praised the SBTC DR shower unit, which deployed to assist evacuees at a Roswell shelter.

“We can always count on New Mexico DR to respond to needs in Texas. We are pleased that we have been able to return the favor following fires and floods in Ruidoso and in Lincoln and Chavez counties,” Stice added.

Remembering the beauty of our calling

I have historically not been a strong reader. I don’t think I actually read a book from start to finish that wasn’t written by Beverly Cleary until I graduated from college. Later in life, I found out my reading struggles were caused by learning disabilities, but I did not know that growing up as a kid in the 90s.

Do you know what? I am kind of glad I didn’t know. If someone had told me I didn’t have the tools or that my situation was different, I probably would have just hung it up and never challenged myself.

At age 35, I went to seminary—where I was required to read about a book a week. I struggled with the theological vocabulary because it’s like learning a second language. I struggled with the volume of reading. I felt like I was drowning and didn’t have any time to myself. I was in full-time ministry and married with four kids. All the other students, 10 years younger than me, seemed to be running circles around me.

However, I had professors who made the subject matter so beautiful that I wanted to read these books. And they reminded me often that what I was doing was worth it.

So I grew—in my love for reading and for the Lord. I was molded into a different person. My weakness has become a strength. I have graduated and continue to read about a book a week.

Being a pastor is hard. I am told that a lot, and I think it is a growing trend for us to talk about how hard it can be. We need rest, we need soul care, and we need others to help us. Most of all, we need the Holy Spirit to do a job no man is strong enough to do.

But we need to be careful not to focus so much on the difficulties of pastoring that we never push through or delight in our calling. Just like with reading, I don’t always need someone to tell me why this will be hard for me, but I do need someone to remind me of the beauty of it.

Yes, our calling can be challenging, but here are some of the beautiful parts I want to remind you of:

There is no other job in this world where you get to hold people’s hands as they come into this world and as they leave it. There is no other job in this world where you see people get saved, graduate, get married, counsel them through the hard, celebrate the beautiful, see their children saved, and bury old friends knowing they will rise from the dead and see the Lord.
Of all the people who have ever existed, we are the few the Lord has allowed to professionally declare the full counsel of God. Think about that.
I am paid to read God’s Word, study God’s Word, teach God’s Word, and subsequently enjoy the God of the Word more and more. That’s like getting paid to eat candy.
God is our great joy and treasure. He is the bread we eat in the wilderness that gives us joy until we see His face. John Piper says, “If you live gladly to make others glad in God, your life will be hard, your risks will be high, and your joy will be full.”
I saved the best and most beautiful reminder for last: We will see God. We will see His face. I imagine on that day, we will come to a realization that we just barely see now—that being a pastor is the greatest honor and one of the greatest treasures we could ever have. Take my life from me, but let me die serving the Lord.

Brothers, pastoring is one of the greatest joys ever. You can do it. His grace is sufficient, His power is perfect, and His joy is wonderful. Let us remind each other about these things.

On steering, staring, and seeing what really matters

Ihave found the following to be true: We steer where we stare. In other words, we tend to gravitate toward the direction of our focus. I have found this to be true when I’m driving (much to my wife’s dismay) and in my thought life, as well.

Social media has its own iteration of this. It’s called an algorithm, which creates a digital environment based on what your chosen platform perceives your preferences to be. In other words, it tries to give you what it thinks you want.

Algorithms can be disturbingly prescient and annoyingly persistent. A simple search for “auto mechanics near me” can turn into an endless barrage of posts promoting not only local shops, but ads from car dealerships, automotive parts and accessories stores, and reels from internet influencers rating rideshare apps.

Paul told followers of Jesus at Colossae, “So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things” (Colossians 3:1-2).

Even 2,000 years ago, Paul knew it to be true: we steer where we stare. The Colossians had plenty of adversity they could have focused on: physical suffering, cultural pressures, and more. To choose to keep their focus on those things was to take their eyes off the prize—Jesus and the glory to come. Getting our focus off Jesus is a strategy Satan loves because it works on the lost and saved alike. For one, it steals the possibility of eternity and for the other, the possibility of peace.

"Pain turns the focus inward, but Jesus continually calls us to a life of faith and hope that is meant to bring peace."

Jayson Larson Tweet

We live in an age of information overload with inputs coming at us from every direction. If you own a smart phone, you’re never more than a few inches away from countless forms of media offering you the latest updates in conflict and chaos around the globe. This is true both in secular and Christian media. With a presidential election just months away, the intensity of this reality will reach a fevered pitch.

This isn’t a call to bury your head in the sand, but rather, to keep your focus on things above. Doing so will take intentionality and discipline. It’s so hard not to get sucked into some of the negative black holes created not only on social media, but as a result of the very difficult things life can sometimes bring. Pain turns the focus inward, but Jesus continually calls us to a life of faith and hope that is meant to bring peace—the kind of peace that doesn’t make sense to the world around us.

I don’t mean for this to sound like a shameless plug, but that’s what we aim to do each month in this magazine: provide you content that will help you keep your focus on the work God is doing around Texas and beyond. You can find more than a handful of media outlets offering the latest controversies in a minute or less, but far fewer telling the stories of what God is doing in some tiny, out-of-the-way church where faithfulness—and not furor—is changing the world.

Paul says it best in Philippians 4:8: “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any moral excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy—dwell on these things.”

Advice like that is worth taking a second look at.

Annual Equip Conference aims to resource churches with tools, training for leaders of all types

Stronger servants, stronger kingdom

The Southern Baptists of Texas Convention’s annual Equip Conference will be held July 27 at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano. The event will feature more than 200 breakout sessions and 90 speakers. Phil Todd, SBTC spiritual formations team leader, recently spoke with the Texan about the heart of the conference to serve the local church.

The Equip Conference is designed to resource churches by providing tools and training to anyone serving in the local church, including lay people. Why is it so important for the SBTC to offer this kind of training?

Phil Todd: It’s always great to be a learner, to continue to improve, to continue to sharpen your skills. Equip offers that opportunity at an individual level. A study in Georgia showed that churches that were engaged in regular ongoing training of their leaders were growing churches because they’re equipping their leaders to be the best they can be. So Equip is a great opportunity for the SBTC to come alongside churches and provide training that hopefully they’ll be able to continue in their own context.

As you talk with leaders in SBTC churches, what are they communicating to you that they need in terms of training and how is Equip being responsive to that?

PT: We meet with pastors in a lot of different settings and many of our breakout topics are driven by those conversations, such as how to teach a lesson or how to ask the best questions in a small group setting or a Sunday school setting. We’ve crafted several Equip breakouts that address that issue this year. We also have pastors who talk about equipping their people to defend their faith, so we have an apologetics track this year. Security issues always seem to be brought to the forefront due to the relevancy of that topic for our churches, so we always offer church security breakouts to better equip churches to secure their people and their facilities. We also get a lot of requests for training in the areas of children and preschool ministry, and I would say those tracks we offer at Equip are top-notch, as we have some of the top leaders from around the country coming in to lead breakouts.

I also want to mention that we have partnered with our missions department to expand our missions breakout trainings at Equip, and I think that will be instrumental in helping churches launch people out. We want to help churches learn how to partner in missions and send people on short-term and long-term mission trips. We’ve also partnered with our church planting team [Send Network SBTC] to offer training at Equip for churches on how to raise people up to be church planters.

What’s a growing area of interest in terms of training that might surprise some people?

PT: The last two Equips we’ve had, the worship tracks have always drawn full rooms. So, we’ve expanded our worship ministry track this year. I’m excited about that. We have access to several breakout speakers who are really leading well in their areas of worship and allowing us to expand our worship ministry networks. These leaders are very effective at raising up the next generation of worship leaders, starting even at the preschool level, and they are even seeing students and youth equipped to lead in the main worship/praise band. Equipping church worship ministries can be a multi-generational approach, so we’re offering tracks along those lines about how to raise up that next generation.