Author: amadmin

Developing a culture of prayer

The greatest prayer movement in history is occurring now. This movement is strong and growing in unlikely places all over the world, including countries hostile to Christianity. In addition, prayer is unrestricted by denominational differences. Christian leaders frequently call believers to personal prayer, fasting and prayer gatherings. Even stadiums are sometimes filled for prayer meetings.

Ultimately, however, the success of the prayer movement will not be determined by awesome stadium events, parachurch ministries or denominational initiatives, even though we desperately need them and they are all critically important. The prayer movement is best fleshed out in the life of the local church. Our churches must become more dependent on and powered by prayer.

More than a decade ago, our congregation in Austin started focusing on becoming a “House of Prayer” as a ministry model for the New Testament church. The first step for us was determining what the Bible teaches and planning accordingly. If Jesus wants his church to function as a “House of Prayer,” the evidence for that ought to be overwhelmingly obvious in the New Testament. A study of the early church only strengthened our resolve. We have come to believe that everything in the book of Acts happened at a prayer meeting, after a prayer meeting, or on the way to a prayer meeting. Once we are convinced of God’s will concerning the church and prayer, the only significant question remaining is: “How do we develop a culture of prayer in the local church? The following suggestions aren’t an exhaustive list; much more can be said, but these are reproducible principles in any church.

Pastors lead the way. Every pastor believes in prayer, but that’s only the beginning of developing a culture of prayer. The pastor must be a man of prayer. As has often been repeated, “We teach what we know, but we reproduce what we are.” When it comes to ministry priorities, nothing is more essential to a minister than his personal walk with God. In this regard, Leonard Ravenhill once reminded us, “The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying.” During our secret time with God, the voice of God impresses us regarding his purpose for our lives and for his church. Nothing will ever replace our daily meeting with the Lord. 

Preach the Word. If you want to create culture, preach the Word! There are hundreds of references to prayer in the Bible. With so much said about prayer in Scripture, it is obviously dear to the heart of God and essential to our relationship with him. The most reliable thermostat in your church for creating culture, therefore, is the Word of God. Preaching turns up the heat and creates culture by changing the way believers see God and the mission of the church in the world. Prioritize preaching on prayer, and you will prioritize prayer. It’s as simple as that. 

Learn from other voices. In only the last few years there has been a surge of books, sermons and ministries focused on the subject of prayer. When I started in ministry, for example, most of the best books on prayer were written in the 19th century. Now, however, some of the best books have been written by living authors. These are extraordinary days, and if we want to build a prayer culture we should expose our people to these powerful voices. Take groups to their churches or conferences where they speak. Buy and distribute, or at least recommend, their books. Show videos of their sermons on prayer in your services or small groups. Distribute and recommend classic books too. Build culture by educating and inspiring your people about prayer through the ministries of others.

Equip the people. Even though information is abundant and we should constantly teach our churches, our people often need fundamental, practical help in learning how to pray. Equipping people and training them moves information into action. Remember, there is no correspondence course for swimming! In other words, some things require involvement and action to learn them. So, schedule conferences. Hold workshops. Equip leaders who can train others. The apostles didn’t ask Jesus to teach them about prayer; they said, “…teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1). 

Pray. The secret of prayer is praying! To develop a culture of prayer you have to pray. At our church we offer multiple opportunities for prayer. For instance, our entire staff has a once-weekly, morning prayer meeting. We schedule prayer lunches and invite the church members to join us at the church for one hour of fellowship, teaching, worship and prayer. Once a quarter we host a church-wide, one-hour prayer gathering on a Wednesday night. We periodically devote an entire Sunday morning service to prayer. During Sunday invitations we call people to the altar to pray. We have held 24-hour, non-stop prayer meetings at the church. We recently called for a forty-day fast and over three hundred people signed up to fast for a combined total of over three thousand days of fasting and prayer. Once a quarter we also join with other churches for citywide prayer meetings where hundreds of people gather. Once a month our church commits to 24 hours of prayer as part of our citywide prayer movement. Over 325 people pray for spiritual awakening for 24 hours in 30-minute slots from wherever they are. The point is—if you want to prioritize prayer, you have to provide multiple entry points for prayer.

You can develop a culture of prayer. It takes time, and there will be challenges. Start where you are. Develop your own plan. Measure your progress. Make adjustments along the way. Reach out to the SBTC for resources. In time, your church can be far more effective in prayer. By the way, you can start now! 

“Hats off to the past, coats off to the future” for 150-year-old Texas church

SHERMAN—Rather than resting on 150 years of ministry in North Texas and throughout the world, First Baptist Church of Sherman sees children in its future.

The church where 400 people gather for worship is in the process of completing a $3 million Children’s Center. But members took time out Nov. 17 to celebrate the church’s sesquicentennial and Mike Lawson’s 20th anniversary as pastor.

“Our past has made us who we are,” Lawson preached that brisk Sunday morning. “As meaningful as it is, it really is past. Hats off to the past. Coats off to the future. It’s time for us to be about the business our Master left us here to accomplish.”

“What drives the legacy we’re talking about? The legacy we leave will be determined by what we believe,” he continued.

First Sherman believes in evangelism, baptism, discipleship, missions, ministry and sound doctrine.

“The focus has been on remaining true to Scripture and the practice of evangelism,” Lawson said. “I think the life of the church can be attributed to the depth of its people, which comes from their love for the Lord, their love for the Word, and their love for the things of God, praying for one another, caring for one another.

“Our mission is to exalt Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, and to lead all people into a life-changing, ever-growing relationship with him,” the pastor told the TEXAN, echoing the church’s mission statement. “We seek him through prayer to engage his heart, discover his will, accomplish his purpose and experience his power.”

First Sherman joined the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention when it was first organized, “so we could vote on things we were sending our money to,” Lawson said. “We liked SBTC’s determination to move more money away from the convention than they chose to keep. That model is to be commended and duplicated. We also like the strong doctrinal positions.”

First Sherman maintains an Acts 1:8 strategy of reaching out simultaneously in missions and ministry in Sherman, Texas, North America and overseas. Its outreach starts with children’s programming: community-wide AWANA, Upward Basketball and cheerleading, plus Sunday school, children’s church and children’s choirs. 

Programming for teens through senior adults is also multi-faceted. An outreach in a low-income area across town provides a twice-weekly opportunity for hands-on ministry.

Additional aspects of First Sherman’s missional focus: Baptist Collegiate Ministries at nearby Grayson College, a church plant in Indianapolis and ministry in Mexico, until in the wake of violence there the church’s hands-on attention moved to the mountains north of Lima, Peru.

The church’s giving reflects members’ heart for missions, the pastor said. Most years since 1982 the church has given at least 10 percent to missions through the Cooperative Program. For the last 20 years it’s been 10.5 percent.

“There’s just no better way to make an impact worldwide than the Cooperative Program pooling the multiplied resources of so many churches,” Lawson said. “There is nothing else as important, as effective. It’s such a huge mechanism for reaching the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

And at the local church level, the pastor said, “The person who might never have the opportunity for whatever reason—immobility, finances, schedule—on their own to be able to go and do missions, can do so by contributing dollars and cents through the Cooperative Program.”

According to the SBTC accounting office, “In 2018, FBC Sherman was in our top 50 CP-giving churches, and through 3rd quarter 2019 this still held true,” a spokesperson wrote via email. “As far as Lottie Moon giving, they are in the top 50 in giving and top 75 in per capita.”

First Sherman’s collection of the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions involves families bringing their offerings to a manger at the front of the worship center the second Sunday of December.

“We ask them to drop their gift in the manger, symbolizing giving it to Jesus,” Lawson said. “It’s something particularly the children will never forget.”

Over the last five or so years, “We have buried 25 to 30 strong members a year, people engaged and involved,” Lawson said. Previous generations attended church more frequently and were more active in church ministries than is typical in today’s choices-filled culture, he explained, so often out of 10 who now join, only three become fully-engaged.

Nonetheless, “We’re in a forward momentum,” the pastor said. “We are very optimistic about our future.
… We try to take a holistic approach to everything we do. All are opportunities for evangelism and discipleship.”

Lawson’s counsel for pastors who desire to be at a church for 20 or more years:

  • Preach expositionally. Keep the Word in front of people.
  • Speak truth to a culture blinded by this world.
  • Be aware of how to address cosmic shifts in the culture.
  • Speak lovingly to a world that has a twisted mindset of morality.

“There has to be a willingness to gut it out, to stay the course, even through the early days of hardship,” Lawson said. “It [longevity] doesn’t come so easy; it always comes at a cost.” 

Lawson’s counsel for members who want to keep a pastor 20 years or more:

“To me, the best thing is to pursue a relationship with him, where there is mutual trust, love, respect, understanding; where the church members share more from a heart of concern, rather than a heart of criticism. … The church must never approach a candidate [for the pastorate] with a divorce mentality—that if it doesn’t work, you can get another—but that they want it to last forever.” 

God’s unchanging call

James 4:14: “For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.” It is possible that James was thinking of Psalm 39 when he penned these words. The psalmist was cognizant of the brevity of life. He expressed it in very poignant words. I am not being melancholy when I acknowledge how fast my life has passed before me.

This April will be my 50th birthday. When you look at me, you might say the years have not been kind. I am referencing my spiritual birthday. Although I had a godly home, I did not receive Jesus as my Lord and Savior until I was a senior in high school. I walked down the aisle of the church a couple of times making professions that I wanted to be saved, but I was not in possession of saving faith. Two weeks before graduation, alone in my parent’s home, I came under the conviction of my lost state and cried out, “God save me.” This started a process that will end in heaven. I am not what I ought to be, and I thank God I am not what I will be. 

After coming to Christ, I began to involve myself in every conceivable expression of my faith. I read Scripture, prayed like never before and witnessed to my friends. Three months later, I sensed a call to the ministry. Growing up in Louisiana you are never too far from a swamp. I drove out to Lafourche Swamp near my hometown and I spent the day fasting and praying. As the sun was setting, I was certain God wanted me to preach his Word. The call to preach is as inexplicable as the salvation experience. In Galatians 1:15, the apostle Paul says God set him apart from his mother’s womb to preach the gospel. Jeremiah 1:5 expresses a similar calling for the prophet. Like salvation, the call to preach is a supernatural act of a sovereign God. 

God’s call on my life has never wavered. I started out as a youth evangelist. I served on church staff as a youth pastor, music worship leader and associate pastor. My wife and I started a church. All total, I pastored over 20 years. Prior to coming to the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention I was a Director of Missions in Northwest Arkansas. It has been 22 blessed years serving the churches of the SBTC. Yet, the calling that remains is to preach the Word. The expression of ministry has varied, but the ultimate responsible has remained constant: “Preach the Word!”

My 50th year of salvation and service is a time of celebration. God has been gracious to keep me saved. I have failed him many times, but he has never failed me. God’s calling has been without change. He has allowed me to have preaching opportunities. I am not as good a preacher as I thought I was when I started out, but in God’s good favor he lets me serve him. By his grace I will continue until I see Jesus face to face.

Even if God gives me 20 more years to live and serve him, eventually my time will end. We need others to put their “yes” on the altar. Pastor, call out the called. There are men in your church that need to get into a position to hear the clear voice of God. Church member, the Spirit of God may be calling you to preach the Word. Listen, God is speaking! 

Houston’s First Baptist Church gives over $2.2 million in annual world missions offering, surpassing goal

HOUSTON—In a show of support for missionaries, Houston’s First Baptist Church announced on Sunday, March 1, that members had given $2,286,312 to the church’s annual World Mission Offering. The total surpassed their goal of raising $1,400,000 to be given to three Southern Baptist organizations — the International Mission Board ($1,000,000), the North American Mission Board ($300,000), and the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention ($100,000).

The additional funds will be distributed to pre-determined projects and organizations such as local pro-life causes, scripture translation projects, church planting in India, Houston Welcomes Refugees, Legacy 685 Adoption, Foster, & Orphan Care, and the church’s general Missions fund.

Pastor Gregg Matte pointed out that 2,526 donors contributed to the offering, with each “donor” being either an individual, a couple, or a family. Among those who gave were 406 donors who contributed to the church for the very first time.

“We thank God for how He consistently moves in the hearts of our church family — and how our church family consistently follows His lead,” said Pastor Gregg Matte. “Because of our church family’s faithfulness to generously give as He led us to give, we are able to make a difference in the lives of more people than we will ever know. But, we know that He knows each one of them by name and we pray that they will be open to receiving the Gospel.”

The World Mission Offering is just one way that Houston’s First supports missionaries and missional endeavors throughout the year. Other ways the church is committed to advancing the Good News include:

  • The church’s Great Commission Fund (annual operating budget) has $4,500,000 designated for Missions.
  • Between $10,000,000-$12,000,000 is processed by the church’s Missions team on an annual basis, including budgeted funds as well as designated donations such as contributions raised by members of short-term mission trips.
  • In 2020, Houston’s First will send out nearly 30 teams on short-term mission trips to 17 countries on five continents.
  • Houston’s First supports over 200 missionaries serving in more than 35 countries around the world.
  • The church’s Missionary Care ministry trains members so they can connect with missionaries on the field, and provides a wide range of resources for global workers on the field and when they return home.

Houston’s First Baptist Church is a relevant biblical community where members gather their hearts, grow their souls and give their lives away. Since its founding in 1841, Houston’s First has been committed to sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ and taking care of those in need locally and around the globe. Pastor Gregg Matte leads the multisite church with several campuses in the greater Houston area — The Loop, Cypress, Downtown, and Sienna. www.HoustonsFirst.org

Empower conference speakers stress community engagement, outward focus in evangelism

IRVING  The Southern Baptists of Texas Convention’s Empower 2020 conference saw record attendance as 3,355 registrants enjoyed a diverse lineup of speakers—from Christian hip-hop artist Lecrae to SBC Executive Committee President Ronnie Floyd—in packed assemblies, breakouts, meals and late night events Feb. 24-25 at the Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas.

 Speakers stressed community engagement, spiritual health and alert evangelism.

“It was our biggest Empower conference ever,” Shane Pruitt, Empower consultant and NAMB director of next gen evangelism, told the TEXAN.

Empower offered something for everyone.

Monday’s Classics luncheon on Feb. 24 with Mark Lowry welcomed nearly 900, while 1,300 attended the afternoon Classics session in the main auditorium featuring music by Charles Billingsley and messages from Mac Brunson, Herb Reavis and Fred Luter.

The ladies’ session with Jen Wilkin on Monday saw enthusiastic participation, as did the two dozen breakouts Monday and Tuesday covering multiple evangelistic topics.

Empower’s main sessions kicked off Monday evening as Pruitt and his wife, Kasi, welcomed an estimated crowd of more than 2,500.

Composer Matt Boswell, pastor of The Trails Church in Prosper, led worship throughout the conference with the Matt Boswell Band, performing a mix of traditional and contemporary hymns and praise songs.

Robby Gallaty, pastor of Long Hollow Baptist Church in Nashville, opened with a message from 1 Timothy 4:6-8 filled with personal anecdotes, including the story of his own salvation.

Gallaty likened physical discipline to spiritual discipline, asserting that those lacking spiritual discipline also lack motivation, joy, passion and the abundant life promised by Christ. Introducing the Ephesians passage, he noted Paul’s exhortation to Timothy to pursue godliness while avoiding bad doctrine and “silly myths.”

Citing recent statistics from LifeWay indicating 67 percent of students desert the church after high school, Gallaty said, “When they get to college, they don’t know why they believe what they believe.”

Reminding his audience that there are three things eternal: God, God’s Word and the human soul, he stressed the importance of prayer, Scripture reading and memorization. We are to emulate Christ in performing the spiritual disciplines. “Not only did Jesus tell us to do these things, Jesus did them himself,” he challenged. 

Gallaty’s own story is a case in point. The former Roman Catholic rejected the gospel as a scholarship basketball player at William Carey University. Drifting after college, he worked as a professional fighter, club bouncer and bartender before a collision involving an 18-wheeler left him with severe neck and back injuries and, eventually, an opioid addiction.

Crediting his mother’s “tough love,” Gallaty said he became a Christian during his second stint in rehab. He “wandered into the Christian life,” until fellow church member David Platt, then a seminary student, discipled him, having him memorize the book of Romans. 

Gallaty later quoted Romans to his family during a holiday gathering. Years later, they trusted Christ.

Hip-hop artist Lecrae was then interviewed on-stage by Grant Skeldon of the Initiative Network and Pruitt. Lecrae talked about his relationship with Christ, among other topics. “God doesn’t just snap his fingers and fix our problems. He wants to walk through our problems with us … he’s relational.”

“Devotion is not about how devoted I am to God,” Lecrae said. “Devotion is about recognizing how devoted he is to me.”

Closing out the Monday evening’s main session, Carey Nieuwhof, founding pastor of the multi-campus Connexus Church in Ontario, Canada, spoke about the surprising turns life takes.

Nieuwhof said he attended law school, worked for a year in downtown Toronto, passed the bar, and then went to seminary, admitting his “wiring” is more that of “a lawyer than a pastor.”

His message focused on avoiding collapse in ministry, discussing seven challenges “no one expects and everyone experiences in leadership”: cynicism, compromise, disconnection, irrelevance, pride, burnout and emptiness. 

California pastor Bryan Loritts of Silicon Valley’s Abundant Life Christian Fellowship, began Tuesday morning’s session with a message from Ephesians 2, first emphasizing eternal security from Ephesians 1.

Ephesians 2 offers both the “bad news” that, before Christ, we were dead in our trespasses and sins, and the “good news” of the gospel, Loritts said.

While the emphasis in Ephesians 2 is on the grace of Jesus Christ, the passage also illumines the disturbing topic of racism. Paul moves from considering man’s “vertical reconciliation to God through Christ” to the “horizontal implications” of what this looks like when relating to others, Loritts said. He stressed Paul’s point that Christ’s work on the cross must inform how we treat various ethnicities.

Pleading for unity, Loritts argued, “a racist Christian or a racially indifferent Christian is an oxymoron,” discussing the origins of the historically black American church in the late 1700s when a black worshiper was removed from a Philadelphia church for praying in the white section.

Following Loritts, H.B. Charles, pastor of Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Florida, spoke on Luke 15, crafting his message to complement the Who’s Your One? evangelism initiative.

Charles focused on the three parables in Luke 15, all highlighting a similar truth: “Lost people matter to God.”

“No one of us can reach all the world for Christ, but each of us can reach one for Jesus,” he urged.

“Sinners are lost, but sinners are loved,” Charles said, reminding all that in an “impersonal society” where people are numbers, God knows our names.

Following an announcement of the top baptizing churches in the SBTC for 2019, Ronnie Floyd rounded out the morning session with a message from Acts 17:16-31.

“Is your vision big enough?” Floyd asked the crowd.

Floyd emphasized evangelism in context. Paul, in Athens, the intellectual center of the world, debated in both the synagogue and the marketplace because he “understood the community clearly.” He unfurled sacred scrolls in the synagogue when speaking to Jews and he referenced the statue to an “unknown god” when addressing philosophers at Mars Hill.

Likewise, pastors and church leaders must “work diligently” to understand where God has sent them, Floyd said. “Go to places that matter in your town” he urged, adding, “You cannot learn about your town sitting in your office on a computer all day long.”

Floyd also urged the creation of multi-tiered strategies reach all at town’s citizens of all ethnicities, particularly recommending evangelizing 12-17 year old students, whose baptisms have fallen by 38 percent since 2000. Doing so will reverse the SBC’s decline in overall baptisms, he claimed.

Finally, Floyd exhorted the audience to lead toward the vision with intentionality in preaching and sharing the gospel.

That afternoon, at Empower’s closing assembly, Pruitt presented Tony Mathews, pastor of North Garland Baptist Fellowship, with the W.A. Criswell Award honoring pastors faithful in evangelism. Ted Elmore, evangelist and SBTC prayer consultant, received the Roy Fish Lifetime Evangelism Award.

Kie Bowman, SBTC president and pastor of Austin’s Hyde Park Baptist Church, delivered the conference’s final sermon on John 4:35-38.

“Do you believe in evangelism?” Bowman opened, noting that last year the SBC reported a 74-year low in baptisms.

“Jesus encourages harvest awareness,” Bowman said of the passage, which comes at the end of the Lord’s conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus’ two commands in John 4:35, “look” and “see,” signify ample opportunities for evangelism. 

The phrase “four months more and then the harvest” (4:35a) was a colloquial statement, Bowman explained, what people would say to justify procrastination.

Rather, the Lord emphasizes action in the passage by calling the fields “white for the harvest,” Bowman said, explaining that rice growers know white grains indicate over-ripeness, making immediate harvest imperative.

“We are living in the era of almost too late,” Bowman said. “Everyone you know has a short life and a hard heart.”

Emphasizing urgency in evangelism, Bowman related the story of his best friend who tragically died just before Bowman returned to his native Alaska where the two intended to have a gospel conversation.

“My best friend walked into eternity without Jesus,” Bowman said. “I learned eternity is too long to be wrong.”

Jesus also promises “harvest rewards,” to both sower and reaper, Bowman noted.

Reflecting on the 2020 Empower conference, SBTC Executive Director Jim Richards told the TEXAN, “While this year [featured] record-setting attendance … the most important presence was that of the Holy Spirit. God moved in lives. Pastors, staff members, and laypersons were challenged, encouraged and informed. Spiritual renewal in the churches and spiritual awakening among those who need Christ continues to be our focus.”

Antioch Awards highlight Texas churches planting Texas churches

Since its beginning in 1998, the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention has assisted and nurtured new church plants. The convention’s priorities have encouraged its congregations to sow gospel seeds in their communities. In appreciation of those efforts, the SBTC each year recognizes its church-planting congregations with the Antioch Award.

On average, SBTC churches plant 20-40 new congregations a year with convention assistance. Those churches are small enough to meet around one table at the host church or they can fill a rented space. They reach ethnic groups whose American roots go back generations or that are new arrivals to the nation. Others can breathe new life into dying churches.

Knowing when and where to plant a church requires established churches be aware of the need for a new congregation in their communities. Or, sometimes, the opportunity just happens.

Steve Branson, pastor of Village Parkway Baptist Church in San Antonio, said his introduction to a Jordanian couple that wanted to reach Muslims in San Antonio was “the providence of God.”

Raed and Lana Safadi’s gospel outreach to Muslims in their home country caught the eye—and ire—of Jordanian officials who pressured them to stop.

“They went through a horrible time in Jordan and had to run for their lives,” Branson told the TEXAN. 

The circumstances became untenable and the Safadis fled to the United States. They arrived in Mississippi and then moved to San Antonio where they hoped to continue reaching Arabic-speaking Muslims with the gospel.

Known for its rich Hispanic heritage and population, San Antonio has a growing Muslim community, Branson said. Many live in the area surrounding Branson’s church in Northwest San Antonio.

When Branson and Raed Safadi happened to meet, the conversation turned to Safadi’s outreach plan. By early 2019 the Arabic Baptist Church, a new SBTC church plant, was meeting Sunday evenings in Village Parkway. The worship services are in Arabic. The host church offers their facilities at no cost.

The ministry expanded in 2020 with an Arabic-language school for children. Branson said the program is popular with area Muslim families concerned that their children might lose their native language. About 45 children participate in the Saturday school.

A local congregation may initiate the church plant. But ensuring that the new congregation has the necessary spiritual and material support it needs to thrive is a cooperative effort between the convention, the sponsor church, the new church and, sometimes, other churches.

But sometimes new churches, like Cottonwood Creek Korean Church, don’t thrive—at least not initially. Sponsored by Cottonwood Creek Baptist Church in McKinney, the Korean church plant suffered two setbacks. A hailstorm damaged the room they were meeting in, which forced the fledgling group to move to the church atrium for about five months. During that time the core group members moved out of town.

The setback has not deterred the sponsor church, said Scott Sanford, executive pastor of stewardship and operations at Cottonwood Creek. The Korean church pastor and the sending church are regrouping.

“We’re evaluating and watching to see if a new core group can be established,” Sanford said. “We are hopeful, prayerful and watching.”

Supporting a new church, especially in the trying first couple of years, is not the sole responsibility of the sending church, said Doug Hixson, SBTC director of missions and church planting. He highlighted some of the support system available to the new church plants.

“Financial assistance is provided for the church plant and the average time of that is for three years. We also offer evangelism grants for our plants to do outreach in their city,” he said. “Church planting coaches are provided for every planter while under funding.”

Because the pastors of the church plants can log unusually long hours, the convention offers “church planter care” including a yearly church planter retreat in the spring for planters and their wives. 

Networking among SBTC churches can also help meet the start-up needs of a church plant—even one 200 miles away. Freedom Hill Baptist Church in San Antonio is a collaborative effort between Bruce Northam, pastor of Clay Road Baptist Church, Houston; church plant coach Sam Douglass; and pastor Ryan Napier, who felt called to start a church in San Antonio.

Being open to God’s redirection helped them all.

Northam mentored Napier and also used his 40 years of pastoring relationships to help the young pastor get the training and vetting needed to qualify for SBTC support. Once the congregation had 25 members, Napier wanted to officially “launch” Freedom Hill Baptist Church, Northam said. But as that congregation was coming to life, Eisenhower Road Baptist Church was on the verge of closing. The older church contacted Douglass for help.

Due to his commitment with the SBTC and Clay Road Baptist Church, Napier could not leave his position as pastor of Freedom Hill Baptist Church. But, through the collaborative effort of Napier, Douglass, Northam and both congregations, the Eisenhower Road Baptist Church became Freedom Hill Church.

The legacy church still operates as a church plant with the support from the convention and its sending church. But it is a church plant with church building and a multigenerational congregation.

How, where and when to plant a church will vary. One common ‘why’ is required: a heart for the gospel. For the sending church, watching the church plant struggle or flourish stirs emotions of apprehension and joy. But, it’s worth it, Sanford said.

“You look back and it was all so God-ordained,” he said. 

Fruit at the retail level

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law (Galatians 5:22-23).

As I write this, my news website is in the fourth day of being down. I’ve come to the point where I’d like to know the name and contact information of someone at whom I can righteously and productively yell. Maybe you know the urge: your flight was cancelled and the only people you can talk to had no part in the decision and can’t currently solve your problem, or some genius decided to close lanes on three parallel routes on your way home so that you have no way that doesn’t take much longer. The possibilities are endless and familiar. I don’t want to make grumpy faces at the people sent to meet the inconvenienced public, but I very much want to make them at somebody up the food chain. But of course that’s rarely possible. Decision makers are in positions to hire people to take the heat for them. 

But everyday frustrations are not the point; my desire to “get satisfaction” in mundane situations is the problem I can address. It is a hard part of my sanctification. That is why my wife says I’m not always a pleasant traveler—airports are efficient factories of frustration for impatient people. I admit it: my instinct for justice in most cases is fleshly. Living or traveling in a large metro area is a tailor-made trap for those of us who are sometimes easily vexed. Here are some mantras I use: 

It’s not this person’s fault. In airport travel it’s almost always true that the people you talk to did not cancel the flight, set the rates or make the applicable federal regulations. It’s not fair to make them miserable just because you are. This also applies in many other settings. Have you ever griped at or about the pastor because the auditorium was chilly or the restroom was out of tissue?

It is this person’s fault, be generous with him. Biblical “goodness” carries the idea of generosity (forgiveness, kind assumptions, etc.). Maybe this is the greatest lack within our churches or our fellowship of churches—assuming that a person can be earnestly and benevolently mistaken. Those of us who also make mistakes certainly do expect this kind of mercy. And those of us who are actually guilty of bad intent desire forgiveness from others. We must give it to others.

Don’t attribute to malice what is better explained by ignorance. This is a favorite of mine. It moves me from “What is wrong with you!” to “Okay, how can we fix this?” It makes that airline gate attendant a partner in a solution rather than an enemy. It’s easier to assume the worst but rarely helpful.  

The person before you can help you or hurt you. Now this is the pragmatic mantra. Even those at the sharp end of a business have some discretion to give you a break. Maybe they can extend themselves just a bit to help you out. Why would they do that if you charge at them waving your arms and shouting? Remember, they could also lose your file or ignore you for a crucial few minutes. When you call a business, the person who answers the phone also has a good deal of power. Treating that person shabbily is not in your best interest. If her boss is a good boss, your behavior will have systemic consequences as you seek a solution. Someone close to me tends to approach every clerk as a conspirator against him. Strange how rarely that works. 

The clerk, the pastor, the deacon, the motorist, is a person for whom Christ died. I use this one daily, more often than daily. Imagine tailgating the slow people in front of you and honking when they don’t dash away after the light turns green, then following them into the church parking lot on Sunday morning. We do not have the ability to amend a person’s bad habits as we pass through a store or complain about him in Sunday School, but we can wreck our relationship with him. It’s pretty much the exact opposite of Philippians 2:5.  

A lot of us are talking these days about unity, temperate dialogue and self-control. That’s good and I add my voice, and my confession, to this conversation. Maybe we need to think more broadly than just minding our tongues (even digital ones). We occasionally have a chance to make someone’s situation better by how we respond. More easily, we can make someone’s situation worse by being jerks. Either way, how we treat people bears fruit beyond our imagining.   

Acting like a jerk is in the Bible as well, by the way. Paul calls those the works of the flesh, things which do not typify those who have been transformed by the Savior.  

Growth in new student enrollment and alumni connections encourage Greenway

TUCSON, Arizona Adam Greenway completes his first year as president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary encouraged by the reception he has found within the seminary community and the broader family of Southern Baptists.

“I believe with every fiber of my being that the best days at Southwestern Seminary are in the windshield and not the rearview mirror,” he told the TEXAN during an interview while attending a gathering of state convention executive directors and editors in Tucson. 

“We’re already seeing some signs of that,” he noted, pointing to the double-digit increase in new student enrollment over the spring semester of 2019. “In terms of early signs of admission growth, morale, and internal and external dispositions toward the seminary, I’m very encouraged.” While continuing to work to connect with prospective students, Greenway said efforts also are underway to grow the undergraduate programs of Scarborough College.

He said he has been blessed by a “sense of connection and bond back toward Southwestern and the seminary from alumni across the generations.” As the school with the largest alumni base among the six Southern Baptist seminaries, he sees that as an extraordinary resource to support Southwestern by sending students and providing connections to potential financial supporters.  

Last year’s launch of the B. H. Carroll Center for Baptist Heritage and Mission set the stage for this spring’s Baptists and the Bible conference to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the publication of the book of the same title authored by two then-SWBTS professors, Tom J. Nettles and the late L. Russ Bush.

“Continuing to work to develop and strengthen that center as a resource advocating for the best of our Baptist history, heritage and identity” benefits the denomination by providing a way forward for cooperative work, Greenway said. “I certainly have a strong interest in helping to advocate for what I think is the genius of being Southern Baptist, what it means for our convictional heritage and our cooperative methodology,” he explained.

The role Scripture plays in authoritatively guiding and directing the efforts of Southern Baptists remains a challenge Southern Baptists must embrace, he said. “That’s why I make the point emphatically that the Bible is the core textbook in every class at Southwestern Seminary. It’s not just that we affirm its truthfulness, we affirm its authority in terms of guiding all that we do and it is the source from which we carry out our work as Christians and as pastors and churches.”

Asked what other objectives he would pursue if money were no object, Greenway spoke of a desire to undergird the academic program with a fully-endowed faculty chair in every core discipline of the seminary. 

In the broader sense of contributing to a sense of unity within the SBC, Greenway recalled the big tent vision he articulated following his election as president. “At our best we are committed to a high view of Scripture, confessional fidelity, the Great Commission and cooperation. Every time we have the chance to direct the conversations back in that direction, and to remind us of what called us together as a convention of churches in 1845, what brought forth the Cooperative Program in 1925, and here in 2020, I think that’s a way forward when there are always voices that want to take us in tangential directions or who want us to give a lot of time and energy to other matters.”

He continues to remind Southern Baptists to stay focused on evangelism “working as much as we can to make it humanly impossible for anyone to die and go into a Christ-less eternity because we didn’t share Christ with them.” As a belief in the truthfulness of Scripture drives missiological work and engagement, Greenway said, “We don’t just stand there. We do something.” 

He thanked faithful Baptists in the pew and state convention partners like the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention who make the ministry of Southwestern Seminary possible.

“We cannot do what we do apart from you, and at the end of the day we are always accountable to and desire to come along and be a servant of the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention.”  

REVIEW: LifeWay Films” “Free Burma Rangers” is a gritty faith movie like no other 

David Eubank isn’t your typical missionary. 

He carries a Bible, but also a military-style rifle. He delivers the hope of Christ to war-torn parts of the world, yet won’t hesitate to shoot an ISIS soldier if cornered. When he hears the sound of bullets and bombs, he often runs toward it — not away.  

And for the past two decades, God has providentially protected him.

The documentary film Free Burma Rangers, in theaters Monday and Tuesday (Feb. 24-25), tells the inspiring yet heart-pounding story of Eubank, who along with his wife Karen founded a humanitarian movement in 1997 to rescue innocent victims of war. Their movement, known as Free Burma Rangers, began in Burma but has since moved to other dangerous areas, including Iraq, the Sudan and Syria. LifeWay Films is a partner. 

The movement also has expanded beyond Eubank, who has helped train several thousand Rangers like him.  

Eubank’s goal is to deliver the gospel alongside food and medicine to bullet-ridden areas few would ever go. In Burma, Eubank and his team hike through the bug-infested jungles, not knowing what lurks over each hill. In Iraq, they carry hope through the perilous streets of Mosul — a city where ISIS fighters are hidden in ravaged buildings.

In the two-plus decades since it was formed, Free Burma Rangers has served 1.5 million displaced persons who otherwise might have perished. 

“The anecdote to evil is love,” he says in the film.

Free Burma Rangers is likely the most hair-raising faith-based film ever made — and easily one of the most riveting. Viewers get a first-hand look at the action thanks to camera crews who risked their lives to record the encounters. We sit in a Humvee in Mosul as ISIS gunfire rains down and nearly kills everyone in the vehicle — until a tank providentially arrives. We march along the Iraqi countryside and meet a smiling family — only to discover they were killed moments after Eubank and the Rangers left. 

David — who survives being shot in the film — is undeterred. Vengeance, he says, belongs to God.  

“We’re going to share the gospel of Jesus,” he says. “We’re going to give food and medical care.”

Just as amazing: The Eubanks have raised three children within these hazardous regions. (All three share their parents’ passion, although they and their mom don’t go on the most dangerous recon missions.) 

Eubank and the Rangers also document war crimes and email the information to media outlets. Often, their reports are splattered across the front pages of big city newspapers.

He’s a mixture of Rambo, Clark Kent and Billy Graham. 

Free Burma Rangers won the Best Feature Film award at the Justice Film Festival. It’s a movie that inspires as much as it convicts. It urges us to love those who are different than us — and to serve them, too.

Content warnings: Free Burma Rangers is unrated; treat it like a PG-13 film. A warning at the movie’s opening says it “includes intense, graphic sequences of war violence.” It contains no sexuality. Minus an “OMG” spoken by a Ranger (not the Eubanks), it contains no coarse language. 

Entertainment rating: 5 out of 5 stars. Family-friendly rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Middle of nowhere vs. middle of everywhere: “Regional” church reaches its community

GILMER East Mountain Baptist Church in Gilmer has become a regional church—drawing families from 14 school districts—united around a goal of meeting local needs in Jesus’ name and supporting missions globally.

“I used to joke and say, ‘We’re in the middle of nowhere,’ but I’ve got a lady that says, ‘No, we’re in the middle of everywhere.’ She’s really correct,” Timothy Smith, pastor of East Mountain Baptist, told the TEXAN.

The church, northwest of Longview, has been around since 1911, and Smith credits a transitional pastor with laying the groundwork for the current success just before he arrived in 2012. “I had been here about a month, and I realized he had done my first year for me. I didn’t have to walk around on eggshells or whatever. I could just take off,” Smith said.

East Mountain is “still technically a community,” Smith said. “We have a city hall. We have a mayor, those kinds of things.” They don’t have a school anymore. The church building sits next to the old East Mountain School, which has been closed for more than 50 years, he said. 

Smith kind of laughed at the town’s name and said, “If there’s a mountain here, it’s a molehill.” 

East Mountain Baptist is “pretty much spread out over generations,” Smith said of the people they reach. They draw blue- and white-collar workers, teachers and retired law enforcement officers. 

When Smith, a graduate of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, arrived at East Mountain Baptist, two of his priorities were to build a strong men’s ministry and to ensure that the church gave sacrificially to missions.

“You show me a church where the men’s ministry is strong, and I’ll show you a strong church,” Smith said. A key to that health is for men’s ministry to be service-oriented rather than event-oriented, he said. 

When he spoke with the TEXAN, Smith had returned from one of two weekly men’s prayer breakfasts. “We had 15 men there this morning, praying,” he said, referring to a local coffee shop. The men’s ministry sometimes involves as many as 70 men. 

Regarding missions, Smith said East Mountain Baptist’s Cooperative Program giving was never low. “They’ve always given a percentage, and I believe very strongly in that. I tend to disagree with set amounts because when your giving increases, then your missions doesn’t. I want to see percentages.” 

In 2012, East Mountain Baptist’s CP giving was around 8 percent, Smith recalled, but each year they’ve increased it either half or a full percent. Their 2020 budget allocates 14.5 percent to the Cooperative Program and 3.5 percent to their local Baptist association. 

The church supports a pregnancy help ministry, a cowboy church in Wyoming, a cowboy church in South Texas and mission work in Latvia, among other things.

“So when you throw all of that in together—CP, Reach Texas, Annie Armstrong, Lottie Moon, association—last year our church gave around $240,000 to missions. Eight years ago, that was just about what the total undesignated giving was,” Smith said. 

“In 2018—this little out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere church—total receipts were over $1.1 million. It’s been amazing to watch what’s happened. We have generous people, but people that understand missions.”

At the end of 2012, the church averaged 130 in Sunday School. They’ve added about a hundred to that number, and average worship attendance is around 300.  

“If you could see a picture of where we are, it would blow your mind,” Smith said of the people who come relative to the surrounding population. The Sunday before he spoke with the TEXAN, the church had baptized two people. One was a young man who travelled to Atlanta for the Passion Conference in January with about 20 other college-aged people from the church.

The other man had just shown up on a Wednesday night, Smith said. He had been dropping his son off for the youth program, and that week he said God “would not let him not go to church.”

“So he came in that night and we started talking after the service, and he shared that he had been incarcerated for a while and some other things,” Smith said. The man prayed to receive Christ that night. 

“There are so many needs that flow through here in a week, and yet God provides for every one of those needs,” Smith said. 

East Mountain Baptist affiliates with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, Smith said, in part because of the high percentage of Cooperative Program dollars the convention forwards for national and international missions and ministries. 

“That’s a big thing because it’s supposed to be about missions, and we’re not giving to the Cooperative Program; we’re giving through the Cooperative Program,” Smith said.