Author: amadmin

Revitalization and revival

The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci is bigger than you think. It’s not in a frame hanging in a museum. In fact, it’s larger than life, measuring twenty-three feet tall and twenty-nine feet wide, painted on a wall in a convent in Milan, Italy. It’s not only bigger than you expect, it’s been a big challenge to maintain. 

When da Vinci painted what is now one of the world’s most recognizable masterpieces, he unwisely chose materials that generations have struggled to maintain. For instance, the plaster on the wall and the paint itself started chipping and fading during the painter’s lifetime. Multiple inadequate attempts at restoring the original color and beauty of the artwork, in most cases, made it worse. Then in 1999, about five hundred years after da Vinci completed the fresco, a multi-year restoration project was completed. Today, the latest attempt at maintaining the art, involving 21st century air filtration technology installed at the church, is currently underway. 

Why have so many people for so many centuries worked so hard and spent so much money to restore da Vinci’s work? Put simply, the value of the work demands it. It cannot be replaced, so it must be restored. 

The church of Jesus is like that in a way. It can never be replaced, but it can be revived when dying, restored when damaged and revitalized when declining. The value of the church is incalculable, so restoring it, reviving it and seeing it revitalized is worth our best effort. Today about 80 percent of our Southern Baptist churches are stalled or declining. It’s a staggering number. While the Southern Baptist Convention has properly focused a lot of training, money and effort on church planting, there is a renewed effort today at revitalizing existing churches. How important is church revitalization? The statistics tell the story. Of our 47,500 Southern Baptist churches, only slightly less than 700 of them were started last year. No matter how generous we are with the math, we quickly realize that at least more than 40,000 churches are existing churches, and 80 percent, or at least 32,000, of them are plateaued or are in decline. Church revitalization is an urgent concern.  

Many of our SBTC churches are existing churches that can benefit from what we’re learning today about church revitalization. Imagine hundreds of existing churches in Texas—currently in decline—experiencing a reversal of that trend. Imagine hundreds of our churches starting to grow again. The change could come if churches admit the need and seek the help. 

Fortunately, the SBTC is a leader in church revitalization. For instance, on our SBTC website you can find our SBTC Church Revitalization app. It contains videos, book reviews, forms and a lot of other material to help pastors lead their churches through a church revitalization process. Your own church prayer ministry, the preaching ministry, leadership, evangelism, discipleship and many other existing ministries, when properly focused and renewed, can help revitalize your church. The SBTC Church Revitalization resources can help.

Our churches can get healthy, and they can grow again. And like the famous restorations of da Vinci’s Last Supper, our churches are worth the investment it takes to revive them. Perhaps more importantly, our churches—revived and revitalized—are a gift to the communities where they exist. A revitalized, revived church is a brilliant testimony to the miracle-working power of our God and a bright light in the darkness for souls who will be saved through the ministries of our churches. Through the SBTC you can find numerous models of revitalization, including assistance with mergers, replanting, covenant revitalization, consultant lead, spiritual renewal and more. 

Pastors, don’t hesitate to get help. Let’s work together to see our churches revitalized. Contact the SBTC. The greatest restored masterpiece in your community won’t be a da Vinci painting; it will be the church awakened and alive again! 

SBTC appoints task force, musters tools and resources to help churches adapt in a COVID-19 world

SBTC Executive Director Jim Richards has formed the SBTC COVID-19 Task Force to streamline the convention’s efforts to assist and support churches during the ongoing pandemic.

The simplest way to stay up-to-date on tools is to visit www.sbtexas.com/covid. This web page is a one-stop shop for tools and resources assembled by the task force from across the convention and the broader SBC.

Richards tapped church ministries associate Lance Crowell to serve as task force chairman.

“In order to continue serving the churches of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, your staff has formed a task force to provide resources in the face of this pandemic virus,” Richards said. “While we pray for you as you minister to your church and community, we want you to know that we will assist you in any way we can.”

Crowell named the rest of the task force, made up of a cross-section of SBTC ministry staff: Dave Carroll, Joe Davis, Chris Enright, Caleb Lasater, Josh Owens, Mitch Tidwell and Tony Wolfe.

“We know these are turbulent times for the state of Texas, your communities and your churches,” said Crowell, task force chairman. “However, we also know that God is good all the time, and in his provision we can find peace and encouragement through the body. Therefore, we want you to know that the SBTC COVID-19 Task Force is working diligently to provide community, support and tools to aid your church.”

These tools include help on:

  • Livestreaming for your church’s worship services
  • Online financial giving
  • Conducting small groups and Sunday school remotely
  • Helps for families at home
  • Networking and brainstorming with counterparts across the SBTC fellowship of churches

The task force has also set up a hotline number: 1-800-701-9358. Church leaders can call the number to speak with an SBTC staff member for tailored help in navigating their local church’s response to COVID-19.

If your church is not currently receiving email updates from the SBTC, please email your name, church, city and cell phone number (optional) to update@sbtexas.com.

“We stand ready to help you, whether answering questions or concerns, providing training, or putting you in touch with local resources to assist you in whatever area your church requires,” Crowell said. “It is our honor to walk beside you as we travel this difficult, yet hopeful road together.”

Churches “stepping up” to feed communities during COVID-19 crisis

ROCKWALL and HOUSTON—Although churches may be online in coming weeks, they are far from idle, as shown by two large Dallas and Houston area Southern Baptists of Texas Convention congregations whose members are actively engaged in community food distribution.

“We are not shutting down. We are stepping up,” Josh Howerton, pastor of the DFW-area, multi-campus Lake Pointe Church, reassured members in a Mar. 18 message posted on the church’s Facebook page and website.

“The world is scared, confused and looking for answers,” Howerton said. “In the message of Jesus, we have those answers.”

As for the larger community, Howerton posted on Mar. 17 that Lake Pointe plans to continue the food drive started last weekend, when members and friends brought 75,000 pounds of canned pasta, peanut butter and jelly, macaroni and cheese, snack bars, crackers, canned fruit and hand soap to the church’s six locations, filling 4,000 boxes for distribution to local agencies serving children and the elderly.

All physical Lake Pointe locations will be open from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. Sundays to receive donations.

Northeast Houston Baptist Church will continue food distribution at its Farrington Mission, a physical needs clothing and food ministry the church has operated for a decade in Houston’s Fifth Ward.

Normally, Farrington Mission is open Mondays and Thursdays for clients. With social distancing now a mandate, the process will change starting Mar. 23 when clients will drive up and receive pre-packed, sealed food boxes from the Houston Food Bank, which has requested the church operate the distribution center two days a week. 

Volunteers will greet drivers, speak to them from an appropriate distance, pray with them if requested and share the gospel as the occasion allows. At the distribution point, drivers will pop their trunks and volunteers will load food in the trunks. Items provided by the Houston Food Bank will be supplemented with those donated by NEHBC and other churches.

“Our clientele are mostly hourly and day laborers. With the coronavirus [leading] to a recession, it will be difficult to find hourly work,” James Jordan, NEHBC associate pastor, told the TEXAN.

“Many live paycheck to paycheck. They will be challenged to pay the rent and put food on the table,” Jordan added, emphasizing that volunteers will be careful about hygiene and social distancing from one another and from clients.

Jordan said that when the new platform begins the church will use some 125 volunteers next Monday, more than half of whom will stay home and pray. Others, at the distribution site, will carefully adhere to CDC guidelines yet are allowed on campus because of the urgent need for food distribution and their connection to the Houston Food Bank.

The current version of the food ministry at Farrington Mission continues NEHBC’s 10-year collaboration with the Houston Food Bank, a large non-profit that warehouses food and distributes it through community partners like the church.

The church conducted a similar drive-by food distribution process after Hurricane Harvey.

“In Harvey, we got in cars with people. Now we are keeping our distance,” Jordan said, adding that on both occasions, “We are sharing light in the darkness. And sharing hope in a world that desperately needs it,” where “unrest and uncertainty” abound.

GuideStone waives telemedicine co-pays for 90 days for members in health plans

DALLAS—Telemedicine has proven to be an effective way to seek medical attention during the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. In response, GuideStone® participants in a U.S.-based Highmark BCBS health plan—including our Comprehensive, SecureHealth and HSA-qualified High Deductible Health Plans—can access Teladoc™ at no co-pay through June 14, 2020.

SecureHealth and all other comprehensive health plan participants are always able to access Teladoc with no co-pay.

This waiver for other health plans remains in effect for 90 days from March 14 and is only available to participants located within the United States and on a Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield plan. GuideStone health plan participants internationally on Cigna Global have access to telehealth services through the Cigna WellBeing app—the standard telemedicine service available through Cigna at no co-pay.

“We are pleased to be able to offer this benefit to all of the pastors, church staff, their families and others through our health plans,” GuideStone President O.S. Hawkins said. “The safest place to be when you’re sick is in your home. Telemedicine provides access to board-certified doctors who can ensure you get the care you need without overwhelming urgent care and emergency departments.”

GuideStone health plan participants can register for Teladoc at Member.Teladoc.com/GuideStone.

GuideStone is encouraging all of its participants to register for Teladoc right away. Participants will be required to answer a few medical questions and provide account information. Having the registration information completed will speed up access time in the event that they do need to use the service.

For more information on COVID-10 and Teladoc resources, visit Teladoc.com/Coronavirus.

Small town churches face coronavirus challenges

Churches in small towns are changing plans in light of tightening local and federal government guidelines to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Such guidelines, which have been changing frequently, pose challenges for small town churches used to congregating weekly for worship and socialization and that can sometimes be, with typical Texas resilience, determined in times of crisis.

“The older population at high risk is the one that gets out and goes to church because that’s what you are supposed to do,” said Terry Bunch, pastor of East Side Baptist Church in Haskell, north of Abilene.

At the time of writing this story on Mar. 17, no COVID-19 cases had been found in Haskell or surrounding counties. Nor had any surfaced in Henderson, Kaufman, Van Zandt or Madison counties, the areas served by the other churches contacted by the TEXAN for this article.

All pastors indicated they were maintaining close contact with local government, law enforcement and school authorities—important for any ministry but especially so for those in contexts where everyone knows each other. 

East Side, which usually runs around 75, held services Mar. 15 with 50 in attendance. Midweek services and youth activities were canceled, along with monthly ministries to nursing home patients and special needs adults. 

Church services will be decided “week to week,” Bunch said, and East Side is accelerating its ability to livestream services with new equipment. The church expects to be ready by this Sunday, Mar. 22.

Deacons have been canvassing shut-ins and at-risk members to assess needs and deliver groceries and supplies.

Cornerstone Baptist, East Side’s sister church across Haskell, sent deacons with care packages including disinfectant and other supplies to visit shut-ins, Bunch added.

“Our world is broken,” he said. “God is not surprised about this. We shouldn’t be either. People need hope. That’s the Jesus part. We are called to be ministers in this time so we take hope, encouragement, and we will take them toilet paper if we can find it.”

For Harbor Baptist Church in Payne Springs near Cedar Creek Lake, services for the congregation of 50 continued Mar. 15 with adjustments as members spread out in the sanctuary, according to pastor George Yarger.

“We’re not touching or hugging. We are foot bumping,” Yarger said after the Mar. 15 service. The church has stocked up on toilet paper, too, and is offering it via Facebook Messenger to those in need.

Yarger is exploring methods for online giving, and in the meantime he is encouraging members to mail in their offerings “so your church will be here when this is over.”

He said he remembers older people in his early congregations who told him of losing family members to the 1918 influenza pandemic.

Grace Community Church, a congregation of 120 in nearby Mabank, has restructured Sunday worship beginning Mar. 22.

“Our plan is to cancel the corporate Sunday worship at church, but this doesn’t mean we are canceling church,” said pastor Michael Cooper.

Although area internet limitations preclude livestreaming, members will open their homes for small groups which will read Scripture, sing and watch Cooper’s recorded sermon.

The Grace Care Team, which focuses on ministering to shut-ins, is contacting older members and offering to assist with groceries and medications. 

“Something will come up and we will stand ready,” Cooper said, adding that members may help with an expanded Meals on Wheels program local officials are exploring. 

Meanwhile, Grace Community’s parking lot is among several drop-off points for Mabank ISD as the district provides breakfasts and lunches to underprivileged students during the hiatus from school.

Michael Criner, pastor of Brownsboro’s Rock Hill Baptist Church, said, “Like many churches, we have made plans, changed plans and then re-planned those plans.”

Rock Hill, which runs about 900, is going online, providing multiple Sunday worship services accessible via the church website with DVDs prepared for others. Small groups will connect via Zoom while staff, deacons and group leaders stay in contact with membership.

“Our main fear is isolation for our most vulnerable,” Criner said.

Finances are another concern.

“We are providing outlets for individuals who need assistance, but also avenues for people to contribute to our church,” Criner said, adding that the crisis is causing Rock Hill to develop technological resources to help families spiritually.

“We want to rest in the truth that [God] is working all things together for the good of those who love him. Now, we get to experience that kind of trust,” Criner said.

The church, which is a Mabank ISD meal drop-off point, is modifying how it distributes food at its monthly community food bank to adhere to CDC guidelines.

Northeast of College Station, First Baptist Madisonville, a multigenerational church of 350 under the leadership of pastor Joshua Crutchfield, is also adjusting to the new normal.

“We are coming up with contingency plans,” Crutchfield said, noting that the church already livestreams all its services.

First Madisonville is exploring ways to stay connected with the congregation should church go completely online for an extended time, including developing resources for family worship at home. Crutchfield will post Wednesday night’s recorded sermon on social media. Small group gatherings may be encouraged.

“Some of the seriousness is starting to set in on people,” Crutchfield said. “It’s hard to know what to expect. That’s why they call it novel. We are taking measured, meditated steps, focusing on safeguarding our people.”

First Madisonville is also ready to help the community, offering a grocery shopping service to shut-ins throughout town. 

Crutchfield said he hopes the church will “provide some sense of normalcy in times that are anything but normal.”

City churches work to keep community while serving their communities during the COVID-19 pandemic

As current federal guidelines recommend public gatherings be limited to 10 people in an effort to “flatten the curve” and reduce the burden of COVID-19 on the healthcare system, churches of all sizes are challenged to maintain community while serving their broader communities.

Churches are also seeing a rare opportunity to speak gospel truth into a fearful culture.

“There has never been an easier time to instill hope or to talk about Christ than right now,” said Bruce Northam, pastor of Houston’s Clay Road Baptist Church.

The TEXAN interviewed pastors of medium to large churches in Amarillo, Austin, Houston and the Metroplex about how they are faring as sanctuary doors close temporarily, services are livestreamed, children are homeschooled and members mostly stay at home.

The pastors interviewed felt strongly about respecting government authorities. Otherwise, our “public witness would be hampered,” said Andrew Hebert, pastor of Amarillo’s Paramount Baptist, confirming his church’s commitment to cooperating with the city.

Cooperation is a matter of being a “good neighbor,” said Tom Goodman, pastor of Austin’s Hillcrest Baptist, adding, “The book of Jeremiah says to seek the peace and prosperity of the city. One way we can do that is to practice social distancing. Now it’s been mandated. We’ll take the lead.”

When church is online

“The coronavirus has forced us to get creative in using technology and digital [platforms] in ways we should have already been doing,” said Spencer Plumlee, pastor of First Baptist Mansfield. Church is online now and life groups will meet remotely via Zoom. 

Like other churches, Tate Springs Baptist of Arlington has suspended all on-campus programs until Easter. But church continues. Last week’s livestream accessible on Facebook and through the church website had 1,500 views, three times the number of regular attenders, said Pastor Jared Wellman.

For Tate Springs, the question was, “How can we do first century church in a twenty-first century context,” Wellman explained, noting that the early church met in small groups in the face of persecution.

“Then it was persecution from people. Now it’s a virus,” Wellman said, emphasizing the importance of using technology to remind members the church is still serving them, albeit at a distance. Staff members are developing age-specific content such as Bible studies for parents and kids to be shared online weekly.

Austin’s Hillcrest Baptist is personalizing its online experience, engaging as many members as possible by encouraging people to tune in to the Sunday morning service at the normal worship time of 10 a.m., even though the content will be available later.

To make livestreamed church interactive and inclusive, Goodman said lay readers will read Scripture, either coming to church for the filming or sending videos from their own homes. During services, members will be encouraged to post comments on the Facebook video feed, and send texts or messages to staff members who will read them during announcements. 

“We want to get our people to interact with one another, which they do intuitively during church,” Goodman said. 

Hebert said Paramount abandoned elaborate plans for multiple on-site small services as Amarillo’s restrictions tightened, opting to go fully online.

“This is a moment where every church is going to have to figure this out in its own way and in its context,” Hebert added.

Staying in contact

Churches are using websites and social media platforms to post valuable information for their congregations, including updates on the pandemic.

As part of one livestreamed service, Goodman will interview a health care professional who attends the church so members can ask questions about the COVID-19 crisis. 

Like other churches, Sagamore Baptist Church of Fort Worth is posting COVID-19 information and information to help congregants stay connected, Pastor Denny Gorena said.

To keep members engaged, staff will post links for digital offerings such as the online women’s Bible study, AWANA and student ministries, Gorena added.

Churches are also employing old-fashioned ways of staying in touch with members. At Tate Springs, small group leaders are checking in with their members every three days via phone or text while deacons and staff contact shut-ins.

While activity on Austin’s Anderson Mill Baptist’s website has spiked, Pastor Rod Minor said that deacons are also contacting the families assigned to them weekly. An online link enables people to submit prayer requests to staff, replacing the written ones members typically leave at church.

“We don’t want to lose the opportunity to pray for them,” Minor said.

Other churches are also employing the traditional Baptist “deacon family” method of discipleship. Clay Road’s demographic includes many members with no relatives or children. The church is their family, and Northam is concerned that the isolation might be worse than the disease for them. Church volunteers will be tasked with staying in touch with 3-5 people during the crisis to make sure their needs are met.

All pastors indicated volunteers were prepared to bring groceries or medications to shut-ins as needed.

A rare opportunity

COVID-19 pandemic presents challenges, including financial ones. All interviewed pastors said their churches were either set up for online giving or soon to be. At least two were mailing pre-addressed, stamped offering envelope to members to make giving easier.

The loss of accessibility to the churches becomes a loss to each broader community as well. The churches all have active presences in their cities, with some hosting day cares, community groups and recovery groups. All that has ended for now.

The crisis offers rare opportunities for ministry.

“Church is not something you do. It’s who you are. Now is the time to be the church more than ever,” Wellman said.

“The church runs to the front lines not from it,” in times of crisis, said Hebert. “We start hospitals and minister to the sick. Some of that may be coming, he noted, if churches end up opening their facilities as healthcare is overwhelmed.

Anderson Mill’s is exploring how to retool its monthly food pantry to allow for safe and possibly more frequent food distribution.

“So many people are at home. They are going to be out of work. We may find more interest among people to pick up food and necessities,” Minor said. 

With the approach of Easter—with its traditional “heightened sense of spirituality”—amid the crisis, Northam said he and his wife have prayed with more people in the community—at stores and deserted airports—in the last few days than in the last few months. 

People are afraid. They want to talk.

Northam has been stopped in grocery stores by people who ask if he is afraid.

“No, I am not afraid because we serve a sovereign God,” he answers, sharing the gospel and praying with people he has never met before and is unlikely to see again … unless in heaven.

How to preach to an empty room

Here are some thoughts that I’m keeping in mind as I preach for video. I hope they’ll be of help to other preachers:

1. Make your delivery as personal as you can. The camera never blinks and it exaggerates how you communicate nonverbally. You will connect better with your listeners by doing the things that make for effective one-on-one communication.

Smile. Maximize your eye contact with the camera. Use minimal notes, if any at all. Aim for a delivery style that is less oratorical and more conversational.

2. Keep in mind how people will be watching you. Preaching for video is different from preaching to a live congregation in that it is not really public communication. Instead, it is more intimate and interpersonal. Many of your people will be watching you by themselves on a computer or handheld device. Some may watch with their families or a very small group.

When making your video, I’d caution against pretending you are preaching to a congregation. Walking around on the platform or being behind a pulpit will seem artificial. Instead, imagine that you are talking to one person. Use second-person singular language—say “you” and “your”—and make application of your message to individuals.

3. Acknowledge the current situation, but don’t dwell on it exclusively. No doubt, we need to continue to pray for God’s intervention in the coronavirus pandemic every week as our churches gather online. Pastors need to bring a word that calls our people to trust God in the face of this crisis. At the same time, our people are being bombarded with messages about the coronavirus every way they turn.

When you speak, they need to hear a word from God that will strengthen their faith. Your listeners always will benefit spiritually from hearing expositional messages from the whole counsel of Scripture, especially as the weeks wear on.

4. Preach live, if possible. While time or technological restraints may require you to pre-record your sermon, broadcasting the message in real time on Sunday morning is best.

After our first week of online-only worship, one couple contacted me to say that they had watched both our Sunday morning services, and they were surprised and thankful that I preached twice, rather than just replaying the first message in the second service. There’s a sense of immediacy when your people can tell you are actually preaching to them in the moment. And they can tell.

5. Relax. Speaking to a camera without an audience to support you and respond is hard. When you misspeak or mess up—don’t worry, you will—shake it off and keep going just as you would in live sermon delivery in front of a congregation.

Your people are not expecting perfection. They do want to hear from and see their pastor and receive God’s Word from you.

6. Present the Gospel and give opportunities for people to respond. Joining your church’s livestream service is a low-risk way for nonbelievers to listen to preaching. They don’t have to come to church, they have relative anonymity, and they can turn you off whenever they want! As a result, you would be wise to assume that unsaved people are watching.

Make sure you proclaim the gospel clearly and provide a way for people to respond who make decisions or have questions or prayer needs. Simply listing an email address or a phone number to call can open doors for ministry.

We can thank God for the opportunity we have to preach to our people via video during the social distancing that the coronavirus requires right now. To my fellow preachers who are preaching to empty rooms, I say:

Be biblical. Be faithful. Be relational. Be genuine. Be prayerful. Be vulnerable. Be encouraging. And be encouraged. We know that God is using even this to accomplish something for his glory.

Stephen Rummage is the senior pastor of Quail Springs Baptist Church in Oklahoma City.

Amid coronavirus restrictions, Texas church switches to “drive-in movie style” service

MONTGOMERY—As pastors across the country wrestle with how to handle services during the COVID-19 crisis, Texas pastor Chris Gober wanted to strike the balance between keeping his congregation safe and bringing them together as a unified family.

For First Montgomery Baptist Church, this meant switching their regular Mar. 22 Sunday service plans to an outdoor “drive-in movie style” approach. The church, which draws about 300 people each week, invited members to pull their cars onto the church’s property for their 10:45a.m. service and listen to the sermon on their radio with the help of an FM transmitter. The idea is similar to the service held Mar. 15 by David Fork Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky, reported by WKYT. 

“I was just asking God how in the world can we keep our church unified and maintain the family feel of our church in the middle of all of this, and this is what came to mind,” Gober told the TEXAN as he was planning that week’s Sunday service.  

Using the church’s five-acre field adjacent to the church building, he said the church would set up a few well-spaced chairs in the front for some who may feel more comfortable getting out of their vehicles. And then behind those chairs, people could park their cars and listen to the sermon with others while remaining more isolated.

The service will allow people to “participate at the level they feel comfortable in,” he said. While Gober acknowledges there is value to watching services on live stream, he noted that an online service doesn’t involve the same family feel. 

“With livestream you don’t get the same sense of community as you do when you’re in proximity,” he said. “And if this is going to last for two months, we need a better solution.”

According to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center on Mar. 17, the state had confirmed 132 cases. And Montgomery County, Gober said, has requested that groups stay to less than 50.

 “We feel like this is within those guidelines if you can maintain the isolation within your car,” he said, “Because you won’t actually come into contact with anyone except the people in your car, which were in your home to begin with.”

Gober said he looked forward to delivering the message that will focus on how God, not man, is in control.

“What’s amazing is we plan our sermons for the year in January,” he said. “And it is the perfect sermon for this week.”

Most people live “under the illusion of control,” the pastor said.

“We feel like we’re in control of our lives and often that results in us drifting from God,” he said. “But times like this are often the times where we see the reality that we’re not in control. And it’s the perfect time to lean into God, not to lean away from God.”

The pastor hopes the drive-in movie style service will help spark more creative ideas for other churches as they navigate the coronavirus crisis. 

“I feel like this is a real opportunity for the church,” Gober said. “We can do great ministry within the body and with the community if we can help those who choose to isolate, who are at risk, by serving them, running errands for them, dropping things off for them without making contact. 

“We can help keep our at-risk people safe by serving them … the way the church has done throughout history,” he added. “The Christians are the ones who rush in and help, and I think we can do that again today.”

REVISED SBTC Statement on the Coronavirus

March 16, 2020

Your Southern Baptists of Texas Convention ministry leaders continue to closely monitor the progress of COVID-19, the coronavirus, in countries around the world and here in Texas. We have been heartened to see the responses of our Southern Baptist churches as they seek to continue their ministries and worship activities in new ways. Our churches are better together even in a day of social distancing.

SBTC is responding to the current crisis by cancelling, postponing or implementing by virtual means, all events and meetings through April 30. Our staff will not be travelling and we are not asking you to travel for an SBTC event. You can check the web page for an event or contact the hosting department to find out the plan for a specific event. Our prayer is that the situation will be clearer by the end of April and we’ll know how to plan our events going into late spring and summer. 

Continue to monitor our website and our news site to get updates and information about how churches and fellowships of churches are responding to the challenges and opportunities of our day. We suggest you check back daily for more details as information and the situation change every day. We will be posting resources starting March 17, including best practices to help churches with live streaming, pastoral care, maintaining community, and other ministry priorities. 

We urge you to stay up to date on current and helpful information available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and your local health authorities as you minister in your own community.  

Please contact the SBTC if there are ways we can be of help to your ministry in the days ahead. 

Always praying for you,
Jim Richards, Executive Director