Author: Jayson Larson

New look Texan aims to tell stories of God’s work, provide practical ministry helps

GRAPEVINE—A new era for the Southern Baptist Texan has begun.

Beginning with this month’s issue, the Texan will be published in a 32-page, full-color magazine format. While the magazine will continue to cover news that is relevant to Southern Baptists of Texas Convention churches, it will specifically focus on telling the stories of what God is doing in those churches. Additionally, more space will be given to articles that provide pastoral and ministry helps.

Texan Online will also post articles regularly throughout each week in addition to serving as the digital platform for magazine content.

“We are absolutely thrilled to bring this new look to such a storied publication,” said Lance Crowell, SBTC Digital Ministries & Communications senior strategist. “Besides the great beauty of the piece, I believe readers are going to be thrilled with the Texas-centric content. We are focused on telling the story of what God is doing in Texas through his churches. In addition, I am extremely excited about our online content on our new digital platform, which is adding new stories on a daily basis.”

The magazine will include several new features for 2022. Among those are “Faces of the Faithful,” which will not only feature pastors and other faithful church servants, but inform readers how they can pray for those servants and their churches. Another regular feature called “What’s your story?” will tell the stories of how God is moving in the lives of individuals and churches.

Another monthly feature, “The 5,” offers practical tips and ministry helps written exclusively for the Texan by Chuck Lawless—dean of doctoral studies and vice president of spiritual formation and ministry centers at Southeastern Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C. His regular blogs and social media posts have provided practical and personal ministry helps for thousands.

“At the end of the day, our hope is that everyone in the church—from pastors and leaders to men and women who have just made the decision to follow Jesus—will find value, encouragement, and inspiration in what they read in the pages of this magazine,” Texan editor Jayson Larson said.

SBTC churches and church members can receive a free copy of the Texan each month by filling out an online subscription form. Readers can also opt to receive the Texan Digest, a weekly e-mail that keeps them informed of the top stories published on Texan Online.

Brilliant! UK resident receives Christ watching Texas church online, is baptized in Weatherford

WEATHERFORD—UK resident Samantha (Sammy) Scott has Texas-themed décor throughout her home in Southampton, about 80 miles southwest of London. Now she has Texas-sized memories of her baptism at Greenwood Baptist Church—the culmination of a spiritual journey that started in a Hill Country dude ranch and found purchase in an online church service during the pandemic.

“For a very long time I had been feeling … empty, I think that is maybe the best way to describe it, cold even, never being able to put a reason on why,” Sammy said.

But all that began to change after Sammy met the Scott (no relation) and Clay families of Greenwood Baptist Church at the Mayan Dude Ranch near Bandera in 2017, starting a friendship that would make an everlasting impact.

The ranch had long been a destination for Emily Clay’s family. Her parents, Jack and Brenda Scott, started coming even before Emily was born; the tradition continued after she married and had kids of her own.

In 2017, the Scott and Clay families met Sammy, a single mom and western afficionado from London visiting the dude ranch the same week.

“My whole family … just took her in, adopted her for the week,” Emily recalled. They even joked about their shared surnames. “She was meant to be in our family.”

Sammy returned to the dude ranch the following summer the same week as the Scotts and Clays, this time with her two daughters, Kellyann and Elliemay, who became friends with Emily’s kids. Between summer vacations, the women kept in touch on social media and through the Marco Polo app, planning the next “reunion.” In 2019, Sammy and her daughters not only stayed a week at the dude ranch but spent an extra week at Emily’s home in Peaster.

“We all became extended family,” Sammy said, adding that the shared time also began her “journey to salvation” as conversations turned to spiritual matters.

“The Scott-Clays and I would discuss all things, including religion and the church they attended. The ranch also had a religious culture, and I found this all very warming,” Sammy said, adding, “Where I live, there is very little religious influence of any kind.”

COVID hit in 2020. Things shut down. Sammy’s plans to return to Texas were cancelled. Clay invited her to watch the livestream of Greenwood Baptist’s Easter service.

Sammy tuned in, remembering fondly her visits with the Scotts and Clays about God and the happiness she had experienced. Surely “there would be no harm in attending online and seeing how I felt,” she concluded.

After Pastor Brian Bond’s Easter 2020 message, Sammy said she felt “like a light had been switched on, a warm and fulfilling light. Everything Pastor Brian said felt right; it made sense and I understood it. The Scripture spoke to me. God spoke to me, and I knew then that I wanted a relationship with him.”

The “emptiness, the void, the confusion” was gone, she recalled.

During her second week of online viewing, Sammy informed the church that she had trusted Christ as Savior. Tina Jackson, Greenwood’s preschool minister, was tasked with follow up. Jackson checked out Sammy’s social media and found that she and Emily were friends. She emailed Sammy.

“I explained who I was,” Jackson said. “I told her I wanted to discuss her decision and see if she had any questions … [following] our usual protocol for those who respond during services.” Jackson mentioned that baptism would be the next step in Sammy’s walk with Christ.

As they corresponded through emails, Jackson and Sammy also became friends.

“Tina was amazing, is amazing,” Sammy said.

“She wanted to be baptized here in Weatherford,” Jackson said. “But COVID did not go on its merry way. Weeks turned into months and months into years.” The women discussed options for Sammy’s baptism in the UK, but she balked. “She was adamant. [Greenwood] is her church family. She watched every Sunday.” By then, Sammy made regular comments on the livestream; Greenwood members responded.

Greenwood seemed like home.

Finally, with restrictions lifted this fall, it became possible for Sammy to come to Weatherford in person, but flying to Texas had become financially prohibitive for her.

“It was weighing on me that she’d not had a chance to be baptized,” Jackson said, explaining that she approached Sonny Grissom, Greenwood executive pastor, to see if the church could make it happen.

Flights proved to be affordable, Jackson said, and the church offered to bring Sammy over for her baptism.

“She was shocked, elated, excited!” Jackson said of Sammy’s reaction to the news. Greenwood arranged for Sammy and Elliemay to fly over (Kellyann had school obligations and could not come) and secured a hotel and car for them for an extended visit.

Sammy’s Dec. 5 baptism was extraordinary. Student pastor Jon Hartman, who performed the sacrament, encouraged the congregation to stand. Groups approached the front of the church. The Scott and Clay families gathered in the special viewing area for close friends and family.

“I had never felt happiness and fulfillment like that,” Sammy said. “The church, its people and the services were and are so beautiful.” Greenwood had become “an extended part of my family,” she said, adding that she continues to attend services, prayer groups, and Bible study groups online.

“I thank the Lord every day for sending such an amazing church family,” she said.

“For a long time, Sammy knew something was missing. But she didn’t know what it was,” Jackson said. “When she prayed to receive Christ, she knew suddenly that that was what had been missing.”

Suicide is preventable, and God’s people know the cure

I have no hope.
It’s only going to get worse.
I don’t know if I want to be around any longer.
People won’t miss me if I’m not around.

Over 1.3 million people attempt suicide every year. Every year, more than 47,000 succeed. In the past, Christians haven’t always spoken out on the topic of suicide. In many denominations it was taboo, sometimes communicated as a lack of faith to a struggling believer. Suicide is preventable, and God’s people know the cure.

The Truth

Battling with suicidal ideations has nothing to do with lack of faith. It is part of the human condition to struggle with trials that often produce great sadness and sorrow. The Bible records many who cried out to God in frustration, anger, and bouts of hopelessness. The Psalms are full of King David’s laments, including Psalm 13:2: “How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart all the day?” The apostle Paul in his letter to the church in Rome expresses “great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart” (Romans 9:2).

Normalizing the struggle we all have with sorrow and disappointment is part of the healing process. It demoralizes people to believe they are all alone in their struggle and are somehow deficient as a believer because of it. Condemning or shaming a person into isolation keeps him or her from reaching out for help.

The Belief

Scripture is full of verses that refer to a man’s thoughts. It is David who asks the Lord, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts.” In 1 Corinthians 10:5 we are charged to “Take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

As any cognitive behavioral therapist will tell you, thoughts matter. The filter you choose to view life through often determines your mental health. Perhaps one of the most detrimental beliefs is that “life will never change.” The belief that one is “doomed to this existence” is a lie from the enemy. With God we have hope.

The Remedy

When we view life through the eternal lens, it changes things. If we begin with the premise that God is good regardless of our current circumstances we are able to realize that a bigger plan exists. The lost job becomes God guiding your steps as you trust in his provision. A broken relationship provides an opportunity for you to develop a closer relationship with the one who will never leave you or forsake you. What looks like loss today is merely an effective tool in the hand of an all-powerful God and an opportunity for him to grow you up and bless you, as you trust in the Lord with all your heart.

As a Christian therapist I’ve always taken a different approach to a therapeutic intervention called journaling. There might be some benefit to penning current thoughts and feelings, but I believe people profit greatly when they focus on past blessings. I ask my clients to journal on what God has already rescued them from in the past. This creates a beautiful track record of God’s faithfulness in their lives. My example comes from a passage in the book of Joshua. When God parted the water for the children of Israel to cross the Jordan River, Joshua asked a man from each tribe to take a stone of remembrance from the middle of the river. Those markers would come in handy when they faced the battles of Jericho and many more challenges.

New Life

Life on this side of eternity looks very different than the other side, but there are plenty of joys to be experienced today. Our Lord set up an entire new way of thriving, even during difficult times. Here are a few comforting markers of the abundant life:

Peace
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. (John 14:27)

Strength
After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you. (1 Peter 5:10)

A Friend
But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. (John 14:26)

Promises Fulfilled
Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4)

Victory
Then my head will be exalted above the enemies who surround me; at his sacred tent I will sacrifice with shouts of joy; I will sing and make music to the LORD. (Psalm 27:6)

A Sound Mind
And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7)

Purpose
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. (James 1:2-3)

How to Help the Suffering

Keep checking in on the person you are concerned about – don’t let him fall between the cracks.
Help with reframing broken thoughts: “This could be a blessing in disguise.”
Keep her moving with activities, lunch dates, and exercise, even if she doesn’t feel like it.
Don’t let the person struggling with suicidal ideations isolate.
Encourage your friend to get professional help. Many churches can offer assistance as well as local Christian counselors.

Pete & Lynne Thompson provide office and online counseling services at Pete Thompson Christian Counseling, in the Dallas area. They have been married for 35 years and have two adult children. You can reach them at PeteThompson.org

Gospel labor leads to new life for churches 200 miles apart

HUMBLE—Nobody was baptized at United City Church during the early weeks of 2021, said Pastor Chris Kouba, who came to the church in 2019.

With just a few days left in the year, 203 have now been baptized, with three more scheduled this weekend. “We feel like we’re seeing God move,” Kouba said.

When Kouba arrived in April 2019, the church was called The Hub, its third name change in 15 years. Attendance and giving had declined. The church, flooded during Hurricane Harvey, needed to rebuild.

“The church was pretty beat up—emotionally, physically, all those things—coming out of the flood. The church did an amazing job helping the community, but its facility was in disrepair,” Kouba said.

Construction started in August 2019, and staff was reorganized. Yet in Easter 2020, when the new name and building debuted, COVID “zapped” all momentum.

“COVID hits, and all the sudden we can’t even meet,” Kouba recalled, adding, “It wasn’t exactly a recipe for greatness.”

The pause did allow the 106-year-old church time to develop name recognition. By July 2020, United City experienced “little stretches” of baptisms, ultimately baptizing 67 by year’s end.

Kouba said the largest number of baptisms occurred historically from 2006-2008, when the church moved into a new facility and averaged weekly attendance of 1,800-1,900. Now a typical Sunday welcomes 1,400-1,500 worshipers—a significant increase from pandemic lows.

Baptisms in 2021 spanned age groups: kids, youth and adults—including two septuagenarians and some people who had been watching online.

Kouba said he prayed for the church to experience unity and direction, focusing on a core value: “Lost people matter.”

An emphasis on diversity has also produced results. “We are so much more diverse and younger than we were two years ago. Even out of the 40 men we have baptized, 18 are non-white,” Kouba said.

The pastor reinstated a weekly public gospel invitation and the church has made baptism a central part of worship.

Cameras positioned near the baptistry improve viewing for the congregation, and a designated area allows friends and family to approach as their loved one is baptized. Baptisms beget more baptisms, as friends are saved after watching their friend’s act of obedience.

“It’s become this cascading thing, come watch a friend get baptized, six weeks later they’re in the baptism waters themselves,” Kouba said, noting that the church actively encourages invitations to friends.

“We actually say, don’t ever invite more people to a birthday party than you would to a baptism.”

Kouba said the staff had prayed and fasted for a week at the beginning of 2021, asking God to act abundantly. They have continued in weekly prayer.

“Ever since that prayer week, we’ve baptized someone every week … I don’t know if that’s a coincidence, but I know I’ve never seen anything like that before,” he said.

Rock Hill: Recovered lives lead to living water

Michael Criner assumed the pulpit of Brownsboro’s Rock Hill Baptist Church—the oldest Southern Baptist church in Henderson County—less than three years ago.

“Five months before the pandemic hit, we had just landed,” he said.

The established church had relocated to State Highway 31 eight years previously, a “massive move” to a new facility that proved to be a gift, Criner said.

Before Criner was called as pastor, Rock Hill had begun a partnership with a drug treatment group, Call 2 Recovery, led by Dan Hosch, who is part of the church staff.

The church is committed to ministering to individuals who have critical needs and helping them see their spiritual needs. This, Criner said, leads to transformation.

Baptisms have grown steadily in recent years—from 60 in 2019, to 90 in 2020 during the pandemic, to 116 by November 2021 with more scheduled to come by year’s end. Many of the adults baptized are those “walking out of addiction, many helped by Call 2 Recovery,” Criner said.

Rock Hill also subsidizes Iron House, a residential rehab home housing up to 19 men a month who are recovering from addictions. “We help them get jobs and [achieve] sustainable living,” Criner said. The men attend Rock Hill on Sundays and participate in Bible studies at the home. Many are baptized as a result.

Children and youth also are being baptized, Criner said.

The church offers a class to help children trying to understand what it means to believe in Jesus, the pastor explained. The six-week new believers’ class, structured by children’s minister Arom Adalian, supplements what parents are teaching at home and occurs during the regular Sunday school hour.

Adalian is doing a “marvelous job in a tangible and accessible way helping kids understand what it means to believe in the gospel,” Criner said.

“Kids aren’t necessarily coming to faith in the class but going home and having conversations with Mom and Dad who are leading them to Christ,” he added.

For teens, the primary sources of salvations and baptisms are church-sponsored youth camps and retreats. Six youth were called to vocational ministry during camp this summer, Criner said.

The pastor urged that “every church can be evangelistic. They have to be consistent. It just takes discipline. You just have to do the work.” This can be hard, he admitted, as other things can easily fall victim to the “tyranny of the urgent.”

Yet the formula is simple. “Every day sharing the gospel, meeting people’s needs, caring for them … this leads to an evangelistic culture,” Criner said.

Salvations and baptisms result.

Christmas teaches us about true love

Advent is a season of remembrance, and few things fuel us more than to remember, “For God loved the world in this way . . . ” (John 3:16, CSB), for this love comforts the brokenhearted. But, do we understand the meaning and depth of love?

I was reminded of this love recently when my family experienced an expected, yet painful, loss. My grandfather passed away after many years battling health complications. Yes, we knew it was a matter of time, but losing a loved one is a serious and bitter matter. It’s a raw reminder of the brokenness of life on earth.

Even during the Christmas season—a time to celebrate love, joy, and peace—we continue to find ourselves calling to God from the depth of our sorrows. Maybe it’s not the loss of life that haunts you, but continual torture from past mistakes. Perhaps a dysfunctional family, broken relationships, or financial burdens weigh you down. In a world like this, where do we go? Our longing is to look to the future with hope, but the heart must first grieve and be comforted by truth.

During Christmas we buy gifts to remind others of how much we care for them. Stores are filled with cards meant to “share the love” with others. Magazines, TV shows, the news—all of these mediums insist we must “love each other” in this season. But why should we love others? And furthermore, are we using the same meaning of the word “love”? The sad reality is that our eagerness to love is compromised by a misunderstanding and generalizations of what love truly is.

So what is love, really? The Christian faith has language for this: “God is love” (1 John 4:16 CSB). This love is shown to us in what He has done in Christ. But our society is so foreign to its inner condition that the work of Christ is no longer a matter of wonder. For this reason, 4th century Christian Athanasius explained in his writing “On the Incarnation“ that to understand the wonderful news of Christmas, “it is necessary . . . to speak of the origin of human beings, in order that you might know that our own cause was the occasion of his descent and that our own transgressions evoked the Word’s love for human beings.”

In Genesis 1 and 2 we read about God’s beautiful creation, including Adam and Eve who were given everything they could ever need in the garden and walked side by side with God. But in Genesis 3, everything changed. Adam and Eve did not count the cost and sold themselves to a lie that was not worth the price. God loved them, but they chose to disobey. Since then, all their children sin, fall short of the glory of God, and, despite their best efforts to blame someone else, they are condemned.

Throughout the ages, the people of God have cried out for deliverance, but if we don’t understand the significance of this plea in light of our human condition, the coming of Christ may not be marvelous in our sight. Whether as exiles, enslaved, or oppressed at the hands of foreign rulers, God’s people have suffered the price of their rebellion and disobedience. And even with the sacrifices ordained by God, they could not fully atone for their transgressions. But God stepped into our world and made a way: “For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life,” (John 3:16, CSB).

As the Nicene Creed has declared for generations, “for our salvation, he came down and was incarnate.” The giver of life comes and dwells with us and reveals God’s plan to save the world. It’s as Richard Sibbes once said: “Grace has not a body to appear visibly. But Christ appeared; and when he appeared it was as if grace and love had been incarnate, and took a body. So that grace and mercy most of all shines in the incarnation of Christ.”

This is the true display of love. The only-begotten Son of God came down from heaven to “lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13, CSB). By showing the greatest love that there is, it was necessary He suffer to the point of death in human flesh.

Therefore, let us rehearse and listen to the old story again and anew, so our hearts will be pointed to the faithfulness of a loving God who did a great thing for us. We love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). Love has come; let every heart prepare him room.

Joel Rosario is associate publisher for Spanish books at B&H Español. He graduated with an MDiv from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and is passionate about the intersection of faith and the marketplace. A native from the Dominican Republic, Joel now lives in Nashville with his wife, Emily, and their two daughters.

SANCTITY OF LIFE MONTH: SBTC churches taking ‘all-of-life’ approach to make a difference

FORT WORTH—For nearly five decades, evangelicals have been pushing back against legalized abortion. And although Texas has recently celebrated the passage of a law effectively outlawing abortions once a fetal heartbeat has been detected, pro-life activists and pastors say churches still face significant hurdles—and opportunities—when it comes to caring for preborn babies and their mothers.

Amanda Stevens, who works part-time at Church at the Cross in Grapevine as the director of the church’s Life Task Force, said one of the most important things that has made their ministry a success has been the support of the church’s pastoral staff.

“It started with our pastor really caring about this issue and knowing he needed to delegate the task to other people to run with it,” she said.

For that reason, she stressed the importance of having an organized ministry to oversee a church’s pro-life efforts.

“There’s no way a church can really get traction on this unless there is a formal structure of some kind in place,” she added.

Stevens said that one of the most fruitful things a church can do is to focus on the relational aspect rather than simply meeting material needs.

“Giving stuff to people is not going to fundamentally change anything, but relationships will. Of course stuff is important, and people need diapers and wipes and car seats. But you have to be in touch with people’s needs in order to help them.”

According to Stevens, issues of life are regularly highlighted in corporate teaching, though “not necessarily abortion all the time, but caring for the marginalized,” she said. “Part of following Jesus is taking care of the vulnerable.”

Andrew Hébert, pastor of Paramount Baptist Church in Amarillo, similarly stressed the importance of addressing issues of life from the pulpit.

“It sounds fairly basic, but it’s really important and shouldn’t be passed over quickly,” he said. “What you say from the pulpit matters, and any time you can talk about the sanctity of life from a text of Scripture and show how this is a biblical idea just in the regular, routine preaching of God’s Word, is important.”

Hébert noted that he recently preached through a passage that referenced Psalm 8, the text of which states that God has crowned mankind with glory and honor.

“I took a pastoral moment to talk about the fact that if it’s true that men and women are crowned with glory and honor from their creator, then it means that every single person you talk to has dignity and worth. And that’s true whether we’re talking about preborn lives, or homeless people, or Democrats—whoever we tend to marginalize.”

In addition to Paramount’s annual focus on Sanctity of Life Sunday each January, Hébert said the church partners with, promotes, and financially supports their local pregnancy center.

“They care about their clients’ entire life, so they’re not just trying to talk someone out of an abortion,” he added. “They also work preemptively on doing mentoring courses for preteen boys and girls, they do counseling for women, they help after the baby has arrived with training on parenting and supplies for their new baby. And they make it a priority to share the gospel clearly with everyone who comes through those doors.”

“Our pro-life commitment is not just about preborn babies but an all-of-life commitment,” he said.

Carolyn Cline, CEO for Involved For Life in Dallas, said that one unique challenge they face since the passage of Texas’ heartbeat bill has been the way it has changed their strategy of how to get women to rethink their decision to get an abortion.

“The conversation has had to change, because it used to be that we could encourage women to take a breath and tell them they have plenty of time to think it through,” Cline said. “Instead of using a sonogram machine to show life, now it’s being used to get an abortion. Tactics we’ve traditionally used are not proving effective in the conversation.”

One of the unique things about Involved for Life, according to Cline, is that they operate as a full reproductive health clinic, offering everything that a woman can get at Planned Pregnancy other than an abortion. They also offer women post-abortion exams, which Cline said has generated some controversy among those who say the practice justifies abortion.

“We never say it’s OK, but we do tell them we will be there for them no matter what they choose. Many women never do a follow-up exam, and some can’t stand to ever walk through the doors of the abortion clinic again,” Cline added. “To me, I believe it’s the most Christlike we ever are, taking a woman when she’s feeling the worst about herself, hating herself for what she’s done and believes she’s worth nothing, and we take her in and love her like Jesus does and help her understand how much he loves her.”

Cline and Stevens both emphasized that churches must be aware of the statistics regarding abortion and the inevitability that many of the women in their pews have had an abortion in the past.

“We have a lot of people who are suffering in silence,” Stevens said. “Abortion is not and cannot be the unforgivable sin, and we need to create safe spaces where people can talk about that.”

Cline said that the numbers in the church are nearly identical to those outside of it, which mean that at least one in four women in the church has had an abortion.

“There is something broken in our churches that we’re not talking about this more,” Cline said. “We just can’t stick our heads in the sand. If you have unmarried women in your church, abortion is happening.”

The U.S. Supreme Court is currently reviewing Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which bears on laws like the Texas Heartbeat Act. An explainer is available at erlc.com.

Prayer conference brings unexpected salvation at FBC Rowlett

ROWLETT—With a Great Commission focus, First Baptist Church Rowlett’s “Let Us Pray” Sunday church service and evening prayer conference Oct. 18 signaled the church’s desire to ask God to “do amazing things” within the heart and life of the congregation and community, Pastor Cole Hedgecock said.

God did.

After hearing Gordon Fort, International Mission Board executive vice president, preach on the importance of prayer and having a relationship with the heavenly Father through Christ, Hannah, a Chinese migrant recently relocated to Rowlett, responded.

Hannah and her friend Amy, also from China, had been attending FBC Rowlett services and an adult Sunday school class for a few weeks, where they met church member Maria Covolan. The women exchanged phone numbers and Covolan texted Hannah about church events, including the Bible conference. Amy and Hannah came, and after Fort asked the congregation to pray, Covolan approached Hannah.

“Do you want to pray?” Covolan asked.

“I don’t know what prayer is,” Hannah replied.

Covolan explained that prayer is “talking to God.”

“I don’t know God,” Hannah said. So Covolan continued.

“I started explaining to her about salvation, Jesus and God,” Covolan said, asking Hannah if she understood and if she wanted to receive Jesus as her Savior. Hannah said yes, so Covolan led her in a prayer for salvation.

“We prayed and finished by asking Jesus to come into her heart and save her,” Covolan said.

“That’s it?” Hannah asked, surprised, after praying. “I want to know more.”

By this time, the pastor’s wife, Christy, had noticed what was happening and approached the women. She motioned for her husband to come over.

When Hannah told the group she did not have a Bible but could “manage it on her phone,” Cole remembered something.

After determining that Hannah spoke Mandarin, the pastor rushed to his office and returned with a Chinese/English Bible that “just happened” to be on his shelf. He gave it to Hannah, explaining how to start reading in the Gospel of John.

Hannah’s joy was evident as she opened the scripture for the very first time.

“This is how God works. When we humble ourselves and ask God to show up and do amazing things, he goes completely off script and does things that only he can get the glory for,” the pastor said

“Think about it, what are the odds that a Chinese immigrant would attend our church on a Sunday night when we have the IMB executive vice president leading a prayer conference … we don’t normally have Sunday evening activities … where she would receive Jesus as her personal Lord and Savior and get a Bible in her Mandarin language collected on an IMB mission trip years ago?” he told the Texan.

That shows the “true power of prayer,” he added.

Maria has since invited Hannah and Amy to church events and also fellowshipped with them in their home. The women continue to attend the church.

Hannah is active in a connect group, ESL classes and weekly church events. She participated as a helper in the fall festival and collected items for needy families at Christmas. She continues to read her Bible and have gospel conversations regularly, the pastor said.

SWBTS alumnus Carter following God wherever he leads

Editor’s note: This article first appeared in the Fall 2021 issue of Southwestern News.

“God, wherever You want me to go, whatever You want me to do, I’m Yours.”

These are the words Matt Carter (’06) recalls praying in the cab of his truck somewhere on the side of the road between Texarkana and Dallas. The words may seem simple, but for Carter, who had been wrestling with God and resisting a call to ministry, they represented a future and a direction in his life for which he would never be able to take credit.

“I didn’t know what it was going to look like,” he said. “But I surrendered.”

A college sophomore at Texas A&M at the time, Carter, originally from Athens, Texas, was working a summer job for a construction company and trying desperately to run from a call to ministry. Spending time in prayer while he was driving, Carter remembers specifically telling the Lord, “I don’t want to answer this call.” A moment later, he turned on the radio in his truck and the song playing on the local station was one by Christian artist, Al Denson, titled, “Be the One.”

He heard these words:

Will you be the one
To answer to His call
And will you stand
When those around you fall
Will you be the one
To take His light
Into a darkened world
Tell me will you be the one

Carter didn’t know what his ministry would look like, but he knew, in that moment, he needed to answer the call.

“Wherever You want me to go, whatever You want me to do, I’m Yours.”

THE POWER OF THE WORD

While he continued working on a Bachelor of Arts in history at Texas A&M, Carter saw firsthand the power of the Word of God faithfully preached from the pulpit by his pastor, Chris Osborne (’77, ’19). Osborne, who now serves as professor of preaching and pastoral ministry at Southwestern Seminary, spent 33 years as the pastor of Central Baptist Church in Bryan-College Station, Texas, and throughout his ministry he has mentored many who now stand in pulpits around the state and the nation, weekly walking their flock verse-by-verse through the Word of God. Osborne would also be instrumental in pointing Carter toward Southwestern Seminary for his theological training.

“I had never heard really anointed, biblically-based expositional preaching,” Carter said, reflecting on his four years at Central Baptist. “[It] profoundly changed me. So, when I’m thinking about moving to Austin, going near a university, how am I going to preach? I’m going to do it. I’m going to do the same thing.”

THE AUSTIN STONE

Carter planted The Austin Stone Community Church with his wife, Jen, in Austin in 2002. They recognized the strategic value of planting a church in the artistic, cultural, and capital of Texas and had a deliberate focus on what Carter called a built in “mission sending agency” represented by the college students coming into Austin to study at the University of Texas.

“Every four to five years, you’ve literally got 60,000 people that are coming in, some of the best and brightest. And then they’re going out.”

He remembers being a young church planter, “scared to death and poor,” who would often pray, “God, would You do something so significant that when we look back on it, years from now, that the only explanation for how it happened is that You did it?”

The Lord answered that prayer.

The Austin Stone, which began in the Carters’ apartment in south Austin, now meets in six locations around the city. In its nineteen-year history, the church has sent more than 300 full time missionaries out to unreached people groups, baptized thousands of new believers, launched a training institute for church leaders, and faithfully exposited the Word of God to an average weekly gathering of nearly 8,000 people.

“People told me I was nuts,” Carter remembers when he launched “The Stone” with a plan of preaching expositional sermons and simply explaining the texts of Scripture. “[They] said, ‘There’s no way you can go into a city like Austin and just preach verse-by-verse through the Bible and reach the culture.’ And they’re wrong.”

Impacted by the model of expositional preaching at Central Baptist, and undergirded by the preparation for ministry he received while he was earning his Master of Divinity degree at Southwestern Seminary, Carter saw no better thing to bring with him to reach the city of Austin than the truths of Scripture.

“There was actually a lot of movement in that time of people saying, ‘Hey, you don’t need to go to seminary,’” Carter recalls. “But somebody told me that they thought the best of both worlds was not to go to seminary alone, or not to just have a job and never go seminary, but to go to seminary while you have a job.”

The world is here and it needs churches that preach the Bible and live on mission.

Sagemont Church Pastor Matt Carter Tweet

Carter grew up a Southern Baptist and admits that many of the men who influenced him over the years helped him narrow down the choice of where he would pursue his theological training. “A lot of the guys that were the previous generation that I respected and loved went to Southwestern and Chris Osborne went to Southwestern, so that just was the natural choice for me. If you’re going to go, you’re going to Southwestern.”

A strong emphasis on expositional preaching at Southwestern Seminary made the choice a natural fit for the preaching style he wanted to cultivate at The Austin Stone.

“I’m convinced that the Bible is the most relevant book that’s ever been written. If it’s true, that it is living and active, and it is, then it’s living and active for every culture, and for every generation,” Carter said. “I really believe that the only guarantee that our preaching possesses the power of God is when we’re preaching the Holy Spirit inspired Word of God and I don’t care what culture you’re in, or what city; I’m convinced that that’s the way to go.”

Carter served as lead pastor of The Austin Stone for 18 years, but one night after a worship service, he sensed a stirring in his heart and the Lord asking the question, “Matt, are you ready if I ask you to do a fresh work somewhere else?”

His answer was the same as the day he surrendered to ministry, “Wherever You want me to go, whatever You want me to do, I’m Yours.”

ONE CHURCH, TWO PASTORS, ONE DIRECTION

On November 24, 2019, John D. Morgan (’66) addressed Sagemont Church in Houston for the last time as the senior pastor. His message to those in attendance, watching online, or listening by radio was the same message he had preached for more than 53 years in the church he helped found: follow Jesus.

“I learned a long time ago,” Morgan said, “if Sagemont is going to be in the future what it needs to be, all of us have to get on board to the fact that we will follow Jesus.”

The stately pastor stood behind an ornately carved wooden pulpit with the words “Jesus is Here” adorning it, and, with his soothing, unhurried south Texas accent, implored men and women within the sound of his voice to give their lives to Christ. It seemed the most appropriate way to bookend his ministry at the church that had grown from a few dozen people when he was called there fresh out of Southwestern Seminary in 1966, to more than 21,000 members in 2019. He also reassured his flock that God had a great future for Sagemont Church if they continue to follow Jesus.

“God is up to something right now. I wish I could get up here with boldness and tell you what’s going to happen. I don’t have a clue. I don’t know what another day is going to bring,” Morgan shared. “But I know this: God has a plan.”

God’s plan would ultimately lead the pastor search committee at Sagemont Church to call Matt Carter as the church’s second pastor in March 2020.

CONFIRMATION IN ‘GOD MOMENTS’

Denny Autrey (’84, ’87, ’13), a retired dean and professor of Southwestern Seminary, chaired the pastor search team at Sagemont Church where he has served as a faithful member for 17 years. Speaking to the church when the announcement was made that Carter was the pastoral candidate for Sagemont, Autrey referenced countless “God moments” that occurred between the search team and Carter.

One such moment was in relation to the search team’s first meeting with Carter in Austin. They selected a hotel for the interview and booked a conference room for Tuesday, March 17, 2020. Restrictions and shut-downs related to the COVID-19 pandemic began to take place on that same day in the state of Texas. But, the search team and Carter had the exact number of people in it to still be eligible for their meeting in the conference room under mandated COVID-protocols.

Another notable “God moment” Autrey relayed to the church came when the search committee heard Carter share the story about his call to ministry and the Al Denson song that played on the radio in his truck. While he was telling the story, Autrey reached over and calmly placed his hand on Carter’s shoulder. When he had finished telling the story, Autrey asked him a question: “Matt, do you realize that Al Denson grew up in Sagemont Church?”

Denson came to faith as a sixth-grader in the youth service at Sagemont and was one of many called to ministry under the guidance and leadership of Morgan and others on staff at Sagemont.

“Sagemont had a part in your story before you ever had a part in our story,” Autrey told him.

SAGEMONT CHURCH

When he accepted the call to pastor at Sagemont Church in March 2020, Carter told the church that his entire philosophy of ministry could be summed up in this: “I live my life to exalt Jesus Christ. I want the name of Jesus to be exalted above my name, above the name of our church. I want Him to be the star of Sagemont.”

Carter points to Ephesians 3:20-21 as a life verse that he has kept at the forefront of his ministry all the years he has served. His hope and prayer for Sagemont in the years to come is that God will continue to do “far more abundantly” than all they ask.

One of the many core values of Sagemont Church that resonated with Carter as he was seeking the Lord and praying about accepting the invitation as senior pastor was their commitment to being debt-free as a church. As Sagemont Church grew in its early years, the church initially took on debt to build new buildings. Ten years into their existence as a church, Morgan was convicted by the Lord that they should cease all borrowing and work to get out of any debt. The church paid off all its debts in 14 months and moved forward using a cash-only method for all future construction projects.

Sagemont Church is one of the top contributors to the Cooperative Program and the top-giving church in the state of Texas. Carter sees the correlation between their commitment to be wise financial stewards and their gracious generosity to local, national, and global missions.

“There’s a direct connection between being debt-free, not having to spend an enormous amount of money paying down building debt, and your ability to be Spirit-led in how you direct your finances,” Carter explained. “When we’re debt-free as a church that really creates a very clear pathway from the giving of the dollar into the offering plate into the Kingdom of God.”

Giving through the Cooperative Program, Carter recognizes the distinctive nature of the Southern Baptist Convention and notes that it has the “greatest seminaries in the world. You’ve got the greatest missions structure and organization in the world. You’ve got, in my opinion, the best national missions organization in the world. And you’ve got a theological document that is precise enough to keep us together, but broad enough to let us have some freedom there.”

Looking forward to the future Carter recognizes Sagemont Church’s location in Houston as one that God has uniquely positioned and prepared as the population booms all around them. The Houston Metropolitan area is projected to overtake Chicago as the third largest U.S. city in the next 8-10 years.

According to recent census data, 1 in 4 Houstonians were born outside the U.S. and it reflects greater ethnic and racial diversity than the nation as a whole. Sagemont Church and its leadership are already making an impact in their city and around the world for Jesus. “The world is here,” Carter said. “And it needs churches that preach the Bible and live on mission.”

Carter is poised to see God do “far more abundantly” than they can ever imagine at Sagemont Church as they continue to follow Jesus.

Adam Covington is senior editor of Southwestern News.

‘Culture of evangelism’ precedes massive harvest at Champion Forest

HOUSTON–Champion Forest Baptist Church is having a remarkable Christmas season.

The week of Dec. 8-12 the church hosted between 25,000-30,000 people for eight performances of its Christmas Spectacular pageant. The presentation of the Christmas story was put on by performers and crew of about 600 church members and featured sheep, donkeys, a camel, and an elephant bearing a wise man from the East.

The week-long event also turned out to be an evangelistic harvest. Of the 30,000 or so people to attend the Spectacular, more than 1,100 made a first-time decision to trust and follow Jesus.

“The church has been doing the Christmas Spectacular for years, but this is my first one,” CFBC pastor Jarrett Stephens said. “It’s just amazing. When we put out on social media that there were more than 1,100 decisions, those are people who actually gave us their information and we were able to put a gift bag in their hands.”

After giving a gospel invitation, the pastor invited people to show their cell phone lights in the darkened auditorium to indicate they had accepted Christ during the evening. Those who responded were then invited to bring a decision card included with the program to a collection table manned by staff members who had prayer with them.

The attendance alone was notable, perhaps reflecting a desire on the part of church members and neighbors to resume Christmas traditions after a year off. The church preceded the Spectacular with 25 days of prayer, asking for lives to be touched during the pageant.

“I met so many people who wanted to introduce me to friends, to neighbors, to clients that they brought,” Stephens said, “The biggest thing [regarding attendance] was our people inviting people who didn’t know Christ. There is a can-do spirit in our people, and there is an evangelistic fervor in our people.”

One unusual aspect of the presentation was that two of the eight performances were in Spanish. The choir learned the music in Spanish as well as English for those two performances. The church recorded 430 professions of faith in the Spanish-language performances.

Even the dress rehearsal was a harvest.

“We invited all of our widows, as well as partner ministries such as a special needs ministry and a ministry to save girls out of trafficking,” Stephens said. “Five young women accepted Christ during this dress rehearsal presentation.”

Within days of the final performance, the church was following up with those who professed Christ. Each of them received a call from a ministry team member within 48 hours.

But Christmas isn’t here yet; the work continues.

“This morning [Dec. 14]; we met as a staff and went and canvassed neighborhoods, passing out 3,000 door hangers inviting people to our Christmas Eve service,” Stephens said, “That’s the heart of our church,” he added, “I told our staff today: If you go after people that you’ll never get, God will give you the people you never went after.”

"If you go after people that you’ll never get, God will give you the people you never went after."

Jarrett Stephens, pastor, Champion Forest Baptist Church Tweet

Responses such as that at the Christmas Spectacular flow out of the church’s established culture of evangelism; Champion Forest is celebrating a record number of baptisms in 2021.

“Right in the middle of COVID, we’re having more baptisms than ever before,” Stephens said. But even before he assumed the pulpit one year ago, the church long had a missional focus.

“The church has always been evangelistic at heart,” Stephens said, praising his predecessors.

Even so, Champion Forest is currently experiencing an uptick in baptisms of adults, youth and children of historic proportions. Until 2021, the highest number baptized in a year was 577 in 2017. By early December 2021, Champion Forest had already baptized 628 and expected the number to swell to more than 700 before the new year, Stephens said.

“Coming out of COVID, I think we reached a lot of new people,” he explained.

A special baptism service scheduled for Dec. 26 is expected to draw many, as people are together in town for the holidays and those baptized will likely want to share the experience with loved ones.

The service illustrates a Champion Forest philosophy: “You replicate what you celebrate.”

“We celebrate life change around here. Our people are very receptive. If someone comes forward at the end of a service to receive Christ, our church is applauding them. If somebody is being baptized, when they come up out of the water, it’s like you are at a concert. They are clapping, applauding, whistling,” Stephens said.

All baptism candidates are even given a “Never the Same” t-shirt for the service that they can keep and wear in the community.

“The Bible says all of heaven rejoices when one sinner comes to repentance. That’s what we tell them. We want to join heaven and celebrate these life changes,” he added.

The church encourages a culture of evangelism, Stephens noted, commending not only the church members who invite people who don’t know Christ to church, but also staff and volunteers who work with those who make decisions.

Church members know their unsaved friends will hear a clear presentation of the gospel at each service and will have the opportunity to respond. Teams of volunteer encouragers answer questions and pray with those wishing to make decisions for Christ, while church staff follows up to encourage baptism and participation in life groups.

Ultimately, however, the glory for the increase in baptisms goes to God, Stephens said: “No question. It is God’s hand of favor and blessing. We give him all the glory truly.”

SBTC DR crews mobilizing to help Kentucky tornado survivors

PRINCETON, Ky.—Western Kentucky suffered the brunt of the EF3 tornado which pummeled four states Dec. 10, killing at least 88 people. Most victims were from the Bluegrass State, where 74 died, including eight workers at the Mayfield Consumer Products candle factory in Mayfield, a town of 10,000, CBS News reported.

The deadly tornado may have been the longest single-twister storm in U.S. history once the National Weather Service completes its analysis, the Independent reported on Yahoo News.

As soon as news of the devastation emerged, Southern Baptists of Texas Disaster Relief crews went on “high alert” status, joining other Southern Baptist DR teams in preparing to be called out and assigned to specific areas.

Southern Baptist disaster relief efforts follow established procedures designed to maximize the use of resources and avoid duplication of efforts, Daniel White, SBTC DR associate, explained.

“We also have to be very concerned about logistics when deploying, making sure our teams have food, water, electricity, and places to sleep. We cannot send them to the field without adequate preparation,” White said.

Kentucky authorities are still doing search and rescue, White added. “We can’t go in while they are still looking for victims and survivors. There are areas where people are still unaccounted for.”

SBTC DR Director Scottie Stice confirmed that he and his staff have been in constant communication with national Southern Baptist DR and appropriate Baptist state DR heads, as is usual during disasters.

When the call-out came for SBTC DR, it was different than expected. Instead of the deployment of large numbers of recovery teams, White said that so far site command has asked for smaller groups to work in Western Kentucky after Christmas and after New Year’s Day.

Volunteers will include both recovery workers to help survivors sift through the damage to find belongings lost in the storm and chaplains to help them spiritually.

“Chaplains will help survivors process the trauma and minister to their emotional and spiritual needs, while sharing the hope of Christ,” White said.

SBTC DR is preparing to deploy two teams to the Princeton area in the coming weeks, White said.

Those who would like to donate to recovery efforts related to the tornado can do so through a link provided on the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention website.