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ABILENE—During Joe Sexton’s Air Force career he and his wife Melene, along with their two daughters, moved nine times in 20 years—which meant attending many different churches. But they are quick to say which one they miss most: Southside Baptist Church in Abilene.
That’s because Southside makes a point to embrace families from nearby Dyess Air Force Base and integrate them into leadership even if their time in the church is brief.
“They asked Joe to be a deacon after we’d been there about a year and a half,” Melene Sexton told the TEXAN. “Joe told [Pastor] Kevin [Ueckert], ‘I’d love to do it, but we’re not going to be here that much longer.’ And Kevin said, ‘We want to use you while you’re here.’ And that made us feel good.”
Southside is among dozens of SBTC churches near the 19 military installations around Texas that make caring for servicemen and women a priority.
Dyess is home of the B-1B Lancer bomber and is the Air Force’s premier operational B-1B unit. The B-1 is the backbone of America’s long-range bomber force, providing massive and rapid delivery of weapons anywhere around the globe on short notice. The 317th Airlift Group also operates at Dyess with some of the busiest C-130 units in the Air Force.
Ueckert said one of his church’s goals for Air Force families is to help them feel a part of the congregation quickly and teach them how to use their gifts in the body even when they know that they’re going to be deployed or that they’re not going to stay in Abilene long-term.
“We try to organize our ministry opportunities, our leadership opportunities so they can jump into stuff while they’re here and then vacate that area while they’re gone, knowing that it’s still going to be OK and jump right in when they get back,” Ueckert said. “We want to make the most of their time here.”
Jason Gray, pastor of Elmcrest Baptist Church in Abilene, said his church works to extend hospitality to Air Force personnel. A year and a half ago, Elmcrest baptized a couple who both served in the military and whose families lived far away. Later, when the wife was deployed overseas, the church helped the husband care for their two sons who were both under 3 years old.
“There’s stability in the military in general,” Gray said. “But there’s instability of location and being away from family. I think that’s the hardest thing—being away from all your natural family. The biggest thing we as a church can do is to be that family away from home for them.”
FORT HOOD
Two hundred miles away at Fort Hood, Army families are the focus of ministry for area churches. As one of the largest U.S. military bases in the world, Fort Hood is home to more than 30,000 people.
At nearby Unity Baptist Church in Copperas Cove, most of the members are either active or retired military. Each deployed soldier in the congregation receives letters from the church’s children and youth along with care packages that include CDs of worship services. There is also a special ministry for children of deployed parents, and men’s and women’s ministries provide support for the spouses of soldiers.
Unity Baptist Pastor Richard Lewis said the attention his congregation gives to Army families has yielded significant spiritual fruit.
“At least 14 young men have been called to the ministry out of our church that are now either working in the ministry in other places after they’ve been reassigned or are here with us after they’ve retired or have gone away to seminary,” Lewis said. He added that Unity sees marriages and families healed “on a weekly basis.”
Skyline Baptist Church in Killeen, which is about a mile from Foot Hood’s east gate, has a Sunday School class for wives of deployed soldiers. Called the “Overcomers,” the class provides a support network for the women, and men in the church do yard and housework for them.
Skyline also waives the $65 Upward Basketball fee for children of deployed soldiers, and its AWANA program draws many Army children.
“Through all the programs, we see these people who come for help and come for comfort go away with more than what they came with because of the love of Jesus portrayed through the people that are working with them,” Skyline Associate Pastor Dennis Cutbirth said.
Whether it’s at Dyess, Fort Hood or any other base, Melene Sexton said friendship and support are the most helpful ministries a church can extend toward the families of servicemen and women.
“Sometimes the squadron can’t do what a church can do,” she said.
