Author: Jayson Larson

AM23: Longtime Sherman pastor honored with Leaders Legacy Award

EULESS—Mike Lawson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Sherman the past 24 years, was awarded the Leaders Legacy Award by the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Executive Board on Tuesday (Nov. 14) during the 2023 SBTC Annual Meeting.

The Southern Baptists of Texas Foundation created the Leaders Legacy Endowment to fund an award “to honor individuals who have distinguished themselves by their service to Christ through the SBTC or the SBC.” Candidates are considered by the SBTC Executive Board and recipients are recognized during the board’s report during the annual meeting each year.

Lawson called the honor “special.”

“I am honored and humbled to be considered for this recognition and will treasure the blessing of it all of my days,” Lawson said. “I’m particularly grateful for opportunities to support and serve in this fine convention of churches called the SBTC.”

Lawson has been a leader at all levels of denominational service. In addition to pastoring Texas churches for nearly 40 years, he has served extensively on committees and boards for the denomination. Nationally, he was a member of the Southern Baptist Convention’s executive and credentials committees. His service to the SBTC includes time on the resolutions, nominations, and evangelism committees. More locally, Lawson has been a leader within Grayson Baptist Association as a seminary extension instructor and as a member of various associational committees.

He holds degrees from East Texas Baptist University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, including a Doctor of Ministry degree from Southwestern.

“Mike Lawson is a faithful pastor who has consistently modeled grace, humility, and integrity,” SBTC Executive Director Nathan Lorick said. “It is a joy to highlight faithful men like Mike who have selflessly served the Lord with excellence.”

Mike has been married to Kim, who serves as the church pianist, since 1990.

AM23: Lorick casts new vision for SBTC to attack growing lostness in Texas: ‘We must move forward together’

EULESS—When the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention was founded 25 years ago, Texas had a population of 19 million people. A quarter-century later, it’s estimated that’s how many lost people there are—19 million—among the state’s 30 million residents.

SBTC Executive Director Nathan Lorick likens it to a mountain of lostness—one of Mount Everest-sized proportions—but one that can be scaled as convention churches strategically work together.

On Monday, during the opening night of the SBTC Annual Meeting at Cross City Church, Lorick cast a new vision that aims to reverse the growth rate of lostness in Texas and the world. That vision, developed over the past year through a prayerful collaboration between SBTC leaders across the state, calls for a united front among the convention’s 2,700-plus churches.

“This is a daunting reality—one that ought to move our hearts to action,” Lorick said of the growing number of lost people in Texas. “What we’ve seen time and time again over the past 25 years as a convention [is this]: what seems like an insurmountable mountain to the world becomes a God-sized opportunity to reach every person and place God sends us.

“So how do we climb this mountain and reverse the rate of lostness in our state and the world? Just as we have for the past 25 years … we must move forward together.”

Lorick described the new vision as a “refocus” for the SBTC, one anchored upon its longstanding core values of being biblically based, missionally driven, and kingdom focused. The refocus provides a framework to drive the SBTC’s mission over the next 25 years: to mobilize churches to multiply disciple-making movements in Texas and around the world.

These disciple-making movements can be identified and measured by five markers: prayer-energized, evangelism-prioritized, disciple-making normalized, sending-maximized, and partnerships-synergized. Lorick noted all five markers are found throughout the New Testament.

“Knowing that God multiplies these markers, we want to mobilize churches toward them,” he said.

Mobilization of the markers will take place on three strategic pathways that resource churches with tools and training, network leaders with relationships and partnerships, and advance mission through giving and sending opportunities. As examples, Lorick noted continued growth among SBTC networks including the Black Church Network, Young Pastors Network, and Bivocational Pastors Network. He also lauded Regenesis, a revitalization process SBTC leaders project will have been completed by 500 pastors and leaders from 72 churches by May 2024.

Lorick said implementation of the convention’s new vision “won’t happen overnight,” noting it will begin to be integrated into the SBTC’s ministries and marketing objectives over the next year. The vision will be “fully optimized” in three years, he said, leading the SBTC to resource 1,000 churches, revitalize 350 churches, connect 1,000 leaders to 75 networks, and connect 1,200 churches to support 120 church plants. In 2023, Send Network SBTC, the convention’s church planting partnership with the North American Mission Board, expects to start 50 churches—which would be the most in a single year for the SBTC since 2005.

“No hill is too great for climbers like us,” Lorick said, “ … Let us move forward together and take our first steps on our path up that seemingly unscalable mountain as a family of churches. This challenge is too massive to go alone, but also one we cannot afford to walk away from.”

SBTC founding board member remembered as ‘champion, warrior’ for Christ

LUBBOCK—Almeida “Skeet” Workman, a founding Southern Baptists of Texas Convention board member, died Nov. 3. She was 85.

Visitation will be at Southcrest Baptist Church in Lubbock on Wednesday, Nov. 8, at 8:30 a.m. Her funeral will follow at 10 a.m.

Workman was a board member for the convention’s precursor group, the Southern Baptists of Texas, Inc., and then joined the new convention’s executive board in 1998. She also served the Southern Baptist Convention in key roles during and after the denomination’s Conservative Resurgence (1979-1995). She was a member of the SBC denominational calendar committee when that body debated adding a Sanctity of Human Life Sunday to the convention’s list of emphasis Sundays. In what she later described as her most memorable role in the SBC, she cast the deciding vote in favor of the addition. She was later a member of the boards for the Christian Life Commission (now called the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission) and the International Mission Board.

SBTC Executive Director Emeritus Jim Richards served alongside Workman during her time on the Christian Life Commission and from the beginning as she served the SBTC.

“We have lost a champion for salt and light in this world in the passing of Skeet Workman,” Richards said. “She was indefatigable in her stand for the Word of God. Skeet was a voice for the unborn and the model of a prayer warrior. We have few of her courage today. She eschewed the trends of feminism yet was one of the strongest women I have ever known. She heard, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant,’ from Jesus when she entered heaven.”

Skeet and her husband, Don, were married in 1961. They were longtime members of Southcrest Baptist Church in Lubbock and active advocates for pro-family issues in Texas. Skeet was part of the Texas Eagle Forum and formed a Lubbock chapter of Pray America, an effort to mobilize prayer for the nation and its leaders.

Her love for God and country continued through the end of her life. In an article printed in the November 2023 issue of Southern Baptist Texan magazine, Skeet said, “Prayer is more important than [anything], and right now, God is the only one who can save America. I guess we just pray for America. That’s what we do.”

In addition to Don, she is survived by two sons and four grandchildren.

Tending to your sheep by tending to your membership roll

Inattention.

I’d guess it’s the reason your church rolls are five, six, even seven times larger than your average Sunday attendance. Everything in life gravitates toward disorder and deterioration without attention. If you need evidence, look at your lawn. Healthy grass is a product of attention. You must pull weeds. Water in the morning. Mow often. Spray and fertilize. Neglect the yard and entropy follows.

Likely, pastor, you inherited a decade or more of inattention to the rolls and, by this point, have probably added to it. As my high school coach used to tell me, “Josh it’s really not about where you are … it’s about where you’re going.” I find that encouragement helpful and hopeful as we think through this essential area of membership that has been neglected in Baptist life.

Before you begin evaluating your membership roll, here are three words of caution:

1. Be patient

Love is patient (1 Corinthians 13:4a). It takes years to build relational trust in a church. Take time to build trust by preaching God’s Word and loving God’s people. Tackle books of the Bible and never skip hard passages. Live out what you preach by loving your people. Answer phone calls. Attend different Sunday school classes. Counsel struggling couples. Visit the sick. Volunteer in the children’s and student ministries. Disciple faithful men. Equip leaders. Pray for your people. Be patient.

2. Work within your system

You (most likely) aren’t the first pastor of your church. Godly men, women, and children have prayed, served, taught, evangelized, worshiped, and systematically organized your church into the coherent and vibrant body it is today. The coherence you experience flows from your constitution and bylaws.

Before you start skipping merrily on your way in an effort to trim the rolls, get to know your system. Learn how your autonomous congregation organizes herself. Talk to seasoned saints who can give you greater insight into why certain structures are in place. Don’t break your constitution and bylaws to get to the finish line sooner—that will lead to discord and a loss in confidence.

3. Practice regenerate membership

Managing the rolls is deeply doctrinal. According to Article 6 of the Baptist Faith & Message 2000, we confess: “A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel ….”

Membership is for baptized believers, which means we must have practices in place that support our doctrine. This may mean tending to your constitution and bylaws. Make candidates take a class on membership essentials. Have them sit with a pastor to share their understanding of the gospel and personal testimony. In most cases, don’t baptize anyone who isn’t moving into membership. Cleaning the rolls without having meaningful practices that support regenerate membership is like mowing a yard full of weeds. It only appears to have solved the problem. The weeds continue to spread.

Now that you have prepped the ground, here’s a few practical tips to help you get started:

Recruit a team

When I began trimming, I began with a team. I looked for people who had four characteristics: They understood and supported the vision; they were knowledgeable about the history of our members; they were willing and hardworking; and they possessed wisdom in handling potentially difficult or awkward conversations. Get like-minded people around you to help share the load.

Set priorities

Teach the team the basics of church membership. Guide them through the doctrine of church discipline. Coach them on how the roll is a tool to identify who the pastors are to lead. Encourage them with the tremendous opportunity of reclaiming straying members.

Think concentric circles

Our team started with non-resident members before we moved to resident members. Not only will this keep your efforts organized, but it prepares your team for more difficult cases later in the process.

Get to work

It’s much easier to talk about removing members from church membership rolls than actually doing it. But do it we must. Pastor, go after your sheep.

Our team spent hours finding good contact information, drafting countless emails, making hundreds of phone calls, messaging dozens of people on social media platforms, and having face-to-face conversations with local relatives. Then we took all our work to member meeting after member meeting and had the church look over our recommendations and vote. Our hope through it all was to reclaim as many sheep back to the fold as possible and give the pastors clarity on who they were to shepherd.

Peter writes to the elders of the persecuted church, “So I exhort the elders among you … shepherd the flock of God that is among you ….” (1 Peter 5:1-2). The membership roll is your flock. Pastor, you will give an account for how you shepherd them (Hebrews 13:17). Get to work.

But remember, member care is never finished. It’s a lot like a lawn. It will always need attention. When you cultivate a healthy lawn, in time, weeds become the exception. You notice them and it takes less effort to remove them. So, begin the good work—the hard work—of tending to your member rolls.

Reach Texas giving for 2022-23 campaign sets record

GRAPEVINE—With the 2023-2024 Reach Texas State Missions Offering in full swing, the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention is celebrating the generosity of its churches stemming from last year’s campaign.

SBTC churches gave $1,673,560 to Reach Texas—the most ever collected in a single year for the offering. The offering period covers September 2022 to August 2023. It marked the second time in three years a record Reach Texas offering was collected. The second-highest offering came during the 2020-2021 campaign, when $1,527,969 was given by SBTC churches.

SBTC Executive Director Nathan Lorick said giving to Reach Texas is critical for the advancement of missions and evangelism strategies across the state and expressed gratitude for yet another year of sacrificial giving on the part of convention churches.

“I am so grateful for the generosity of SBTC churches and their common desire to reach Texas and impact the world together,” Lorick said.

Reach Texas funds a variety of gospel-fueled efforts, including church planting, disaster relief, missions mobilization, and the annual Empower Conference, which emphasizes evangelism. Data indicates that an estimated 20 million of Texas’ 28 million residents are lost.

The 2023-2024 statewide challenge goal is $1.6 million. For more information or to give, visit sbtexas.com/reachtexas.

SBTC DR relieves Baptist teams to serve Florida hurricane survivors

PERRY, Fla.—Though national media attention regarding Hurricane Idalia has ceased, recovery from the disaster continues. The category 4 storm slammed into Florida’s Big Bend region on Aug. 30. Southern Baptists of Texas Disaster Relief teams answered the state’s call for assistance in late September and remained working in Taylor County in early October.

“We were on alert status even before Idalia hit,” SBTC DR Director Scottie Stice said. “On out-of-state deployments, we don’t respond until the host state requests us. Our deployment was put on hold until Florida and Southeast Baptist DR teams cycled through. We came in and relieved them the last week of September.”

The Big Bend—also known as Florida’s Nature Coast, where the panhandle meets the peninsula—is an eight-county area densely forested and rural, far removed from big cities and popular tourist attractions, according to FloridaNatureCoast.org.

Taylor County, the southernmost county in the Big Bend, has a population of about 22,000, ranking it 54th in population out of the state’s 67 counties. In 2021, about 18% of the residents lived below the poverty line, USA Today reported.

Serving disaster survivors in rural areas such as Taylor County presents challenges. Homes are far apart and rural roads sometimes difficult to clear.

An SBTC DR chainsaw team under the direction of Monte Furrh of Bonham arrived in the Perry area first. Six volunteers worked 10-hour days for a week and completed seven time-consuming chainsaw jobs. That task included removing large limbs—known as widow-makers due to their dangerous potential to harm if left in place—from damaged trees or helping homeowners with downed trees.

“The work is with massive live oaks. It takes time,” Stice said.

Furrh’s team was relieved by another North Texas team directed by Jesse Hauptrief of Anna on Oct. 1. The team is scheduled to work through week’s end, Stice said. SBTC DR team volunteers come from across Texas, he added.

Florida homeowner Randy Newman posted his thanks for the SBTC DR team’s help on Facebook. “Them showing up to our house was a godsend,” Newman wrote. “They worked all day cutting trees, most of them ‘widow-makers.’ They started the day with a prayer for safety, our community, and for me and [my wife] personally. I can’t explain the true compassion they have for all of us involved in the storm.”

Thus far, SBTC DR teams have recorded one salvation, many spiritual contacts, and many Bibles distributed, Stice said.

Allowing God to preach to us so we can preach to others

Paul’s exhortation in 2 Timothy 4:2—“Preach the Word; be ready in season and out of season”—is an urgent call for pastoral readiness. We are called to be ready to preach God’s Word regardless of circumstantial convenience. Having walked with chronic daily migraines the past two years, my recent sermon in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 provided me an opportunity to live out this truth and boast in my weakness in the midst of difficult circumstances.

Preaching is cathartic for me. I can meditate on a passage, memorize it, and apply it to the biggest struggles of my life, but when I am forced to process and share those reflections with our local church, the Scriptures pierces the depths of my heart in a different way. My recent sermon taught me three valuable lessons:

1. Preaching is open heart surgery.

The preaching event is a unique act of worship in which we depend on God’s Spirit to empower us as we proclaim His Word. Preaching takes the goal of teaching a step further, from informing minds to transforming hearts. We must not neglect faithful exegesis and understandable explanation, but we should pray and work to the end of our sermon for heart transformation. God is the divine physician who uses His Word to pierce our hearts and remove the cancerous sin within (Psalm 147:3; Matthew 9:12; Hebrews 4:12). Although a scalpel may cut painfully deep, in the hands of a skillful surgeon it can save our lives. But before we prayerfully seek to preach to the hearts of others, our hearts must be worked on first.

2. Go under the knife first.

Colossians 3:16 provides the aim of each local church gathering: “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts.” As a pastor, my eyes are drawn to “teaching and admonishing one another,” but out of the four verbs in this verse, only one is an imperative—and it is stated first.

The order and emphasis of this sentence commands us to let the Word of Christ dwell in our hearts before we even think about teaching or admonishing others in it. The worst mistake a preacher can make is to approach a passage exegetically and homiletically but not devotionally and prayerfully. As John Piper writes in Expository Exultation: Christian Preaching as Worship, “[Worship] is why the universe exists, why the church exists, why corporate worship exists, and why preaching exists.”

We must approach God’s Word as worshipers primarily (and as preachers secondarily) and ask God’s Spirit to let it work on and dwell in our hearts. Only then, as a former pastor told me, after we plunge the sword of the Spirit into our own hearts and wrench it around will we then be able to pull it out and implore others to do the same.

3. Lay yourself on the operating table.

Worshipful preaching is vulnerable: in expositing God’s Word, my heart is exposed. While this is of great benefit for the preacher, it is also of great benefit for others. This is why the Bible is filled with examples of various saints’ shortcomings, from Peter’s fickleness to Paul’s weakness.

However, there is a prideful propensity to present a polished product. This is why for years I manuscripted my sermons, rehearsed them multiple times, asked pastors for feedback, and watched my own sermon videos each week. But in my experience, the sermons that connect most with people (either in a challenging or encouraging way) are not the ones where I was the most technically sound, but the ones where I was the most human.

It’s difficult to invite your church into the operating room, but when the pulpit becomes the operating table in which God’s people witness Him using His Word to work in our hearts, it compels others to bring their hearts to our great surgeon.

Pastors, lay yourself bare before God’s Word and ask Him to work in your heart for the sake of your soul (before the sake of your sermons). Then and only then will we be able to preach to the hearts of others so that they, too, might find great healing under the scalpel of our great physician. “He has torn us, that He may heal us; He has struck us down, and He will bind us up” (Hosea 6:1).

‘A great woman of God’: Mary Frances Melton passes away at age 90

ABILENE—Mary Frances Teaff Melton died Wednesday morning, Sept. 20, in Abilene. She was 90 years old.

A Texas native, she married her husband of 72 years, T.C. Melton, in 1951. Mary Frances was a graduate of Hardin Simmons University and taught in public schools for 20 years.

The Meltons served churches in West Texas for decades as pastor and wife. Later, they became an encouragement to pastors in that part of the state and great supporters of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention as T.C. became a consultant for the convention.

Said SBTC Executive Director Nathan Lorick: “The Meltons have been such a blessing to the SBTC. Mary Frances served the Lord faithfully with such a sweet spirit. Our hearts and prayers are with T.C. and the Melton family as they grieve the loss of a great woman of God.”

SBTC Executive Director Emeritus Jim Richards, Lorick’s predecessor, knew the Meltons well.

“Mary Frances Melton was a supportive pastor’s wife and vital ministry partner for over 70 years,” Richards said. “It is impossible to tally, this side of heaven, the ways God blessed His people through her. I’m praying for my friend T.C. as we all await the day when we’ll see her again.”

Services are being held under the direction of Hamil Family Funeral Home, 6449 Buffalo Gap Road, in Abilene. A graveside service will be held at Rose Hill Cemetery at 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 23. A funeral service will follow at First Baptist Church, 301 Locust, in Merkel, Texas.

East Texas church seeing ‘little things that have huge effects’ through student ministry

MARSHALL—For many, youth ministry has a distinctive texture: big and loud.

But for John Bailey, student pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church in Marshall, pointing the next generation to Christ is just as much about things simple, small, and subtle. Though it may never show up on a ministry scorecard, Bailey said he gets excited about brief conversations that allow gospel seeds to be planted. He’s been encouraged by students who once seemed indifferent to Jesus now showing more receptivity and focus during Bible study.

Bailey even sees progress in the fact that many students who once stayed seated during youth worship times now stand.

“We’re not trying to conquer the world,” he said. “We’re really just trying to make a small difference, and we’re seeing little things that have huge effects. What we’re really hoping for is that these little sparks will turn into fires that just can’t be quenched as students continue beyond high school and through their academic careers.”

Bailey said this generation of students is very open and honest about their struggles. While some have an idea about where they want life to take them, many have no direction and don’t know what the future will hold for them. While Bailey admits he doesn’t have the answers to many of those questions, he finds in them opportunities to share truth: “God has a plan for you. You may not know what that is, but He does, and you can have confidence in that.”

Bailey was a student, himself, when someone had an eternal impact on he and his family.

His early life saw him zigzag across much of North America. He was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, but spent most of his formative school years in Portland, Ore. In sixth grade, he played on a soccer team with a teammate whose dad served as the worship leader at a nearby church. The worship leader invited Bailey’s family to church, where they heard the gospel. His parents got saved and baptized within a year, with Bailey deciding to give his life to Jesus two years later.

Following high school, Bailey joined the military and served from 2008 to 2013 and, upon marrying his wife, Leah, moved from Maryland to Texas. While in Texas, Bailey interned as a recreational minister at a church in Universal City while working as a San Antonio firefighter. He eventually was encouraged by leaders in the church to visit a Wednesday night youth service where Leah was already volunteering.

Bailey admits he did not feel like youth work was a good fit for him, considering his background in the military and in firefighting. Even so, he decided to take a chance and help with the youth. In the process, he got hooked on youth work.

Before long, a part-time staff position ministering to middle school students opened up at the church and Bailey answered the call to serve—setting the tone for how the Lord would use him upon transitioning to Immanuel in Marshall.

Immanuel is seeing about 60 students attend on Wednesday nights thanks, in part, to opportunities the Lord has provided outside the church. IBC hosts a monthly prayer and devotion time at the local high school, and they also meet in front of the school at the flagpole the first Wednesday of every month. Six students showed up at the first gathering this past spring. They prayed and studied 1 John 4:7-21, about God’s love for us and the love that we are to have for one another. By the time the group held its final meeting of the spring, 10 students had started regularly attending.

Through continued hard work and faithfulness to teaching the simplicity of the gospel, Bailey said he anticipates the next generation catching fire for the Lord and impacting a world in ways that can’t be measured.

“Just the idea that any one of these students could have an impact on the kingdom is amazing,” he said. “We will follow Christ’s example and then hopefully these students will go out into the world after high school and have or continue a relationship with Christ that impacts the world.”

Young adults pack BT Church’s growing Move Conference

McALLEN—Danny Rangel, online and young adult pastor at BT Church in McAllen, says people ages 18-29 face what he calls “life’s big decisions” regarding beliefs, ideologies, college, career, relationships, and marriage.

To help them navigate those challenges, BT Church hosted its third annual Move Conference on Aug. 25-26. More than 200 young adults attended—an increase of 40 percent from last year.

The mission of BT’s young adult ministry is to help young adults “move faithfully in the culture while following Christ,” Rangel said. The 2023 Move Conference expanded on that. Guest speakers and breakout leaders focused on topics including discipleship, faith in the workplace, mental health, finances, career mapping, social media as ministry, and studying Scripture.

Olivia Thai, a corporate media executive from New York City, shared practical career counsel—including resume-building and interview tips—during a breakout session. Thai is a member of a NYC church planted by Rangel. Israel Mendez, a church planter from San Antonio, spoke on “Moving with Jesus,” focusing on spiritual disciplines and practices.

Luke Lefevre, author and founder of the Consecrate movement, delivered the keynote message on holiness and revival. Lefevre also participated in a question-and-answer session on revival with Rangel. Music was led by Dallas worship leader Chichi Onyekanne.

Young adults delivered short talks onstage. These mini sessions of “young adults speaking directly to young adults” were new this year, Rangel noted.

“I really believe this year we were challenged and encouraged to pursue Jesus to experience holiness more realistically,” said a conferencegoer named Angelo. “I definitely left refreshed and excited to seek out revival in my every day.”

“I wasn’t expecting the presence of the Lord to be there so quickly or be so strong, but Friday, as soon as worship started, I could feel Him and it was powerful,” added Jessica, another attendee.