Downtown satellite of Houston’s First making inroads

HOUSTON—Lee Hsia is proof that the most effective evangelism tool ever created is God’s Word. The Communist China native—who immigrated to the United States with his family as a child—found a Bible that had been left in his garage.

“To this day I don’t know who put it there,” he said. “I read it right away. It took me from passage to passage of Scripture and explained the gospel. I chose to pray the sinner’s prayer and follow Christ as my Lord and Savior from that day forward.”

Today, Lee Hsia (pronounced “Shaw”) pastors an underground church—not in China or North Korea but in downtown Houston, 20 feet below the city’s streets. And for many, the downtown church has literally become the light at the end of the tunnel.

Already serving as minister of evangelism and new initiatives at Houston’s First Baptist Church, Hsia was named campus pastor for the downtown church plant, located in the city’s six-mile tunnel system that stretches under the downtown business district.

Houston’s First Baptist—with 24,000 members, founded in 1841— was itself located downtown until the 1970s, when it moved out to a new suburban campus just off the Katy Freeway (I-10), about nine miles northwest of Houston.

Houston’s downtown tunnel system links office buildings, restaurants, shops, convenience stores and even residences under downtown streets. Some 280,000 Houstonians have access to the tunnels and on any given day, 180,000 “go underground,” according to Hsia.

“People hate to walk in downtown Houston in the summertime because of the heat and humidity,” Hsia said. “The tunnels are self-contained and cool.”

Hsia’s personal journey—as a Buddhist living with his parents in Shanghai, China, moving to Houston-suburb Sugarland at the age of 7, accepting Christ as a teen, graduating from Rice University, going on to success in business, losing his parents and grandmother in a fatal car accident, entering the ministry and joining the staff at Houston’s First Baptist—is an incredible story in its own right.

His parents’ and grandmother’s tragic death along I-45 between Houston and Dallas in 2002 forever changed Hsia and his priorities. They were on their way to Dallas to see Hsia, who, at the time, was riding the Internet technology wave as a successful entrepreneur.

“God spared me,” he said. “My parents and I used to take a lot of road trips together and I could have been in that car. It made me realize how fragile life was, and I just decided I wanted to make good use of the time I have left on earth.”

Already a Christian, Hsia took a half-year sabbatical, traveled, did some soul-searching and felt God calling him into the ministry full-time.

Meeting since October of 2011 in the basement of a 19-story building, the tunnel church plant is one of only 10 houses of worship in downtown Houston, and Hsia says most of those are not Christian.

“We’re now running about 230 a week,” he said. “Our members and visitors are a diverse, eclectic group. Some people come during their Sunday walks downtown. Some come in with their dogs. Some are homeless, who we always welcome. “Yet others are long-time Houston’s First members who choose to leave the ‘burbs every Sunday and drive downtown, to support Hsia and the new church plant.”

“We’re attracting a very diverse, international crowd,” Hsia said. “When we launched last fall, I thought we’d have mainly young people in their 20s and 30s. As it turned out, we have people of all age groups and all kinds of ethnicities—at last count, 35 nations are represented.

“Houston is renowned as a medical center, so we draw a lot of downtown medical professionals, along with people in the energy field. We also attract college students, artists and musicians. It’s a very eclectic group.”

The Life Bible Studies ministries which are comparable to Sunday School have outgrown the space available, prompting expansion to the Vine Street Studios in north downtown. “Our married young adults Bible study is meeting in that space on Sunday mornings, and then they travel one mile to go to worship,” Hsia told the TEXAN.

“We are also growing the number of neighborhood-based small groups that are meeting in downtown area homes during the week,” he added.

Most Sundays, Houston’s First Baptist Church senior pastor Gregg Matte—based at the Katy Freeway site—preaches to not only his “live” congregation there, but also to the smaller downtown tunnel church via video.

Why did Matte and Hsia feel compelled to plant their downtown “tunnel” church—now located under the same block they vacated back in the 1970s?

“We did it for the sake of outreach,” Hsia said. “Many folks in downtown Houston are unsaved and unreached who wouldn’t step foot in a traditional church like Houston’s First or any other church building to consider the claims of Christ.”

Hsia said his transition from a Buddhist to a Christian works to his advantage.

“I’m able to talk to a traditional Muslim or Buddhist and go right into telling them about the gospel and how Christ has changed my life.”

Although his downtown tunnel church is supported by one of the largest megachurches in the United States, Hsia says he still needs help from other churches to meet Houston’s future possibilities and potential.

“We need to cooperate as one church of Jesus Christ to be able to handle Houston’s future growth,” he said.