English
Korean
Spanish
RICHMOND, Va.—God uses unexpected ways to further his kingdom. Just ask the members of a former Coppell church.
This past March, Pastor Randy Webb realized God’s plan for Sandy Lake Road Baptist Church in the northwest Dallas suburb had been fulfilled. After 45 years of ministry, the church doors would permanently close.
“We knew that if God was not finished with us, he could bring a harvest … or he could show us another option,” Webb said.
That option was to dissolve the Sandy Lake church, where Webb had been pastor for nearly 10 years and where his grandmother had been a charter member.
When the church property was sold to another church, a list of ministries Sandy Lake had supported or wanted to support, and the amount to be given to each, was already in place.
“From the beginning of this process we wanted our assets to be distributed to ministries we had supported through the years and to further the kingdom,” Webb said.
North Texas Baptist Area (NTBA) was to receive the assets and distribute them according to the wishes of Sandy Lake’s congregation.
Sandy Lake knew the association’s needs and that they would use the funds to impact the area by starting more churches, supporting missions and expanding ministries.
“A bittersweet occurrence has afforded us the privilege of being able to begin to do ministry that we have only dreamed of until now,” said Ed Etheridge, director of missions for NTBA.
In November, a check for $40,000 from the association was given to the SBTC for disaster relief equipment.
Also in November, a check for $100,000 from the association was presented to IMB for the annual Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions, 100 percent of which is used overseas to support missionaries and their ministries.
The association and Sandy Lake are working together to provide gifts to several other organizations including Criswell College and Southwestern Seminary for scholarships to train pastors; and the local Gideon’s International for Scripture distribution. Funds also will be given to Living Water Baptist Church, a Korean congregation that met in the facility before it was sold.
Webb said Sandy Lake was always a generous and mission-minded church; however, the sale of the property and distribution of assets enabled the congregation to give more than twice as much to missions in just one gift than in all the previous years combined.
Webb said he believes closing the church was God’s will all along.
“I had hoped for a different outcome, but I had a peace about this because I knew God was in it. … His timing is perfect,” Webb said.
