Author: Russell Lightner

God has used a series of relationships to mold Sagemont Church’s Hispanic ministry—and its pastor

‘We have grown together’

HOUSTON—Lazaro Riesgo, pastor of Sagemont Encuentro, is a product of the people God has brought in and out of his life.

Riesgo was three when his father left Cuba promising to find a better life for the family in the U.S. The father never returned, however, leaving the family struggling to overcome the trauma and suffering that comes with abandonment.

“I remember [hearing] a knock on the door and wanting to believe it was my father who was home,” Riesgo remembered, “but it wasn’t.”

Riesgo acknowledges the heavy burden his mother, Cary, took on as she raised her family while also caring for her own mother.

He remembers an aunt, Obdulia Peña, visiting from Miami one year and leading his mother to faith in Christ. The aunt, who died in 2023 at age 96, encouraged Cary to find a faith community that could support her as she endured life’s hardships.

Cary did just that and began attending Iglesia Bautista Libre, one of the few churches in town still standing after the Cuban revolution. It was the presence of the Lord and the fellowship of brothers and sisters at the church that sustained the broken family.

Riesgo was nine when he gave his life to Christ during an altar call. Several Christian men who had been investing in him since he was younger continued to speak biblical wisdom into his life, encouraging him to not hate the father who abandoned him, but to have love and mercy for him.

“These men taught me to love the heavenly Father and to fill the absence of my earthly father with the sufficiency of the God of heaven,” Riesgo said.

When Riesgo was 17, another important man came into his life—Rolando Delgado, a new pastor called to serve the church. It was Delgado whom God used to lead Riesgo to answer the Lord’s call to attend seminary and prepare for ministry.

“Lázaro,” Riesgo remembers Delgado challenging him, “you need to find your place in the body of Christ.”

Riesgo never wanted to be a pastor or be involved in ministry. “I just wanted to be a good believer, get married, and have a successful career in sports,” Riesgo said.

But God began to change his heart during one of Delgado’s sermons, during which he warned that fame and success are often stumbling blocks to serving God. Before long, Riesgo enrolled in seminary in his hometown to prepare for the ministry.

Open doors

Riesgo met his wife, Ariadna, before entering seminary. She understood and accepted God’s call on their lives and never doubted that call, he said—even when she had to make the difficult decision to leave her medical career in Cuba to serve in ministry with him.

After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in theology in 2003, Riesgo was sent to pastor his first church. A few years later, in 2007, God opened a door for his wife and him to expand their ministry through the National Youth Leadership Network, an association of three Baptist conventions in Cuba. This led to a full-time job for the Riesgos to travel throughout the island to help disciple Cuban youth until 2010.

The Riesgos began to envision expanding the ministry they were doing in Cuba to a larger area. In 2011, they left Cuba to fulfill a missionary call in Panama at a Bible institute, preparing future leaders for the pastorate and for missions. In 2015, that larger vision came more into focus when they received an invitation from a Baptist mission agency in Nashville to expand the work they were doing in Panama throughout Latin America. They accepted and spent four years training leaders in many Latin America countries, including Uruguay, Peru, Ecuador, and El Salvador.

‘God is not finished with you’

By 2019, however, Riesgo sensed something was missing. Because of his frequent travels training church leaders, he missed the connections associated with serving in the local church. Before long, he learned of an opportunity to pastor a church in Miami. While it seemed like an answer to prayer, many difficulties lay ahead.

Prior to the pandemic, he and Ariadna’s passports and residency documents were stolen during a burglary of their home. Pastoring during the pandemic proved physically and emotionally exhausting, leading Riesgo to make the difficult decision to take a break from ministry in 2020 to take care of his health.

“We were left alone in Miami with virtually nothing,” Riesgo said.

They spent six months, from June to December, walking through that desert season. Though it was a time of discouragement for Riesgo, he remembers Ariadna’s constant encouragement.

“I saw myself without a future at that time,” Riesgo said, “but my wife faithfully reminded me that this was temporary … [that I needed to] remember what and by whom we were called.”

“God is not finished with you,” Ariadna would tell him.

Though he admits it was hard to believe at the time, he has since seen God move in a powerful way through a new ministry assignment.

A new start, a new story

After spending half a year away from ministry, Riesgo received a call from an American pastor, John Carswell, who had gone to Cuba to teach other pastors. Carswell learned that Sagemont Church in Houston was looking for a pastor for its Hispanic ministry and encouraged Riesgo to submit his resume.

Despite his trepidation, Riesgo did and was called for an interview. About a week after he returned to Miami, leaders at Sagemont sent him a letter extending the call for him to pastor Sagemont Encuentro. Riesgo and Ariadna packed the few possessions they had left and arrived at Sagemont Encuentro to preach on Easter Sunday 2021.

From that moment on, a new story began for the Riesgos and for the church.

Relationships—with God, each other, and even sister churches—are one of the focal points at Sagemont Encuentro. Riesgo was greatly impacted by the relationships he formed with the men who invested in him when he was younger, and now he wants to connect others so that they may grow and learn to serve others.

Riesgo also focuses on encouraging people to deepen their experience with the Lord and have an identity rooted in Christ. He recently wrote a book, Contrasts: The Value of Being Different, to challenge believers to live authentic lives while making decisions that align with God’s kingdom values.

As a result of their focus on Jesus and one another, Riesgo—who also works with new church planters through his collaboration with Send Network SBTC—said God is allowing the ministry to experience growth numerically, spiritually, and relationally.

Said Riesgo: “We have grown together.”

5 minutes with Damon Halliday

Damon Halliday founded Keystone Fellowship Church, recently rebranded as The Key Church, in 2012 in North Fort Worth. The 1,200-member congregation is engaged in a vibrant youth sports outreach, among other ministries. In addition to his tenure at The Key, Halliday served as an associate pastor of evangelism and missions at a prior church and formerly conducted corporate Bible studies for a major airline in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. He is a member of the executive board of the SBTC. Halliday and his wife, Antoinette, have been married for 34 years and are the parents of two adult daughters.

What is something you’ve been able to celebrate at The Key Church recently?

Our outreach ministry, Huddle Touch, is going well. Through Huddle Touch we provide pregame meals for area high school football teams. Last year we provided pregame meals for L.D. Bell and Chisholm Trail high schools every game. There are 10 games in a season. We feed them. We pay for the meals. The celebration is last year, we led 31 football players to Christ. Sports is an easy avenue to reach kids for the Lord. We give them what they like so we can introduce them to the One they need.

What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced in your ministry lately?

We are already outgrowing our brand new four-year-old building. Our children’s and nursery spaces are jam-packed. It’s a great challenge to have.

What’s a lesson you’ve learned to this point of your ministry you know you’ll never forget?

Prayer and integrity are most important, and if you prioritize those two things, God will bless the rest. So many times we focus on practical things. We need to do that. But we must focus on prayer. Take care of the simple things and He will bless everything else. God has done exceedingly abundantly above all we can ask or think. We never thought we’d be where we are today.

What’s one thing you’d like to see God do specifically at your church this year?

Fill up our second service, which is half full. That’s our 11 o’clock service. The 9 o’clock service is completely full. We have a 600-seat worship center. We’ve had a good crowd through the summer. Once we fill the 11 o’clock, we can start our third service.

How can other SBTC churches be praying for you?

Pray for God to provide directions and resources to build our new sanctuary. Our current sanctuary is our future gymnasium. When we reach three services, we will really have to start planning on building. There’s nowhere to go. We think, “Here we go again.” It seems so impossible with everything so expensive. Building can be overwhelming, but thank God for growth.

You can learn a lot from the Lord on the run

get out and run a few times a week, but hot summer days give me a very small window for running. If I don’t get out before the sun comes up, it’s probably not happening that day.

Rain—rare as it can be in my area this time of year—adds to the challenge. But as I ran on a misty, dark morning recently, the Lord reminded me of a few truths that are just as good for the road of life as they are on the run:

Know the terrain

I have two to three loops I’m familiar with depending on how many miles I want to run. When you repeatedly travel the same paths, it gets easy to remember where the trouble spots are. There’s a sidewalk on one of my streets, for example, where a soil shift has caused the concrete to break and ramp upward. I’m always thankful when I remember to step over—rather than stumble on—that little piece of pavement.

Applied personally, knowing the terrain means knowing my tendencies in different seasons of life and adjusting accordingly. There are times on my schedule when I’m going to be a little more uptight because I’m a little busier than usual. Twenty years ago, I was sure the way to navigate times like that would be to press in and work even harder. Now I know hectic seasons are times, at least for me, when I need to apply more self care and slow down in as many areas as possible to conserve energy for the most demanding tasks at hand.

Mind your posture

As I tire during a run, my posture begins to sag. My chin drops, which makes breathing more difficult. That lowering chin starts to put pressure on the middle of my spine, which, in turn, puts more stress on my lower back and hips. This eventually changes my stride, causing unnatural movement in my knees and feet. The result? Increased soreness and a need to take extra days off to give my body a chance to heal.

It’s easy to get out of whack—physically and mentally. I’ve suffered from many a mental sag, which is why it’s so important for me to remember God’s command to set my mind on things above (Colossians 3:2) and to be renewed in my mind by truth (Romans 12:1-2). Just as it takes discipline and stamina to maintain proper posture while running, it takes effort to keep your mind focused on what the Lord has promised and what He is doing rather than on what’s going wrong or what you don’t have.

Puddles are unavoidable

I hate wet socks and shoes, but when you’re running in the rain and in the dark, you’re going to step right in the middle of several puddles. It’s unavoidable. And when you’re a couple of miles from home, you can either pout about your soggy footwear or focus on something better and finish the run strong.

Sometimes I live as if it’s possible to avoid puddles, and when I step into one, I get nonplussed, as if something unusual is happening to me. Life’s got puddles—lots of them. Better to embrace that reality and spend my mental energy seeking the Lord’s comfort and wisdom rather than lamenting wet socks.

“I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace,” Jesus said in John 16:33. “You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.”

Jesus wasn’t running when He said that … but that shoe sure does fit.

‘God is in the middle of something here’

70-year-old first-time pastor says he has no other way to explain East Texas church’s fruitfulness

GRAND SALINE—The man who gave Christian recording artist Chris Tomlin his first opportunity to lead worship at a concert has been called to pastor his first church at age 70. In fact, it’s the church both he and Tomlin grew up in, years apart.

Main Street Baptist Church in Grand Saline had “been kind of dormant” after years of successful ministry, said David Crain, the church’s pastor who, after 45 years as a traveling evangelist, was hesitant to think he had what it took to lead the congregation back to vibrancy.

The pastor search team had secured a younger candidate just over a year ago. “He was coming, 29 years of age,” Crain said. “I chuckle when I think about it.” The church asked Crain to fill in for four weeks until the new pastor arrived, but the pastor went to another church and Crain’s time was extended.

“They asked me if I would consider being their pastor, and I said, ‘No. I have never pastored. I have no idea what that means,’” Crain recounted. After turning them down repeatedly, he agreed to pray about it and realized God was leading.

Attendance the first four Sundays Crain preached at Main Street Baptist signaled something may have been up. The first Sunday, they had 85 people in worship. The second Sunday they had 112, the third Sunday they had 144, and the fourth Sunday they had 180, Crain said.

Now attendance has surpassed 360, and the church has moved to two services. “It’s kind of just skyrocketed for a little town in East Texas,” Crain said.

They baptize most every week, and many new people have joined, including couples with young children and students. The church has hired two associate pastors, and preregistration for a fall Awana program is nearing 70 children.

“All I can tell you is God is in the middle of something here, and I didn’t want to miss out. The conventional wisdom says, ‘Get a younger guy,’ and we would have done that had we been able to find one.”

David Crain Tweet

“All I can tell you is God is in the middle of something here, and I didn’t want to miss out,” Crain said. “The conventional wisdom says, ‘Get a younger guy,’ and we would have done that had we been able to find one.”

One way being 70 years old helps at this particular church, Crain said, is that he already had connections with the congregation.

“I wasn’t the new guy on the block,” he said. “I knew everybody here. … I knew their heart, and I could just start ministering right away.” That includes being with a family when a loved one dies, cheering on the local team at football games, and visiting people at hospitals.

“In a church this size and a town this size, there’s a whole lot more going on than you would think,” Crain said. “We’ve had two suicides here in the last month or two—kids from our school. There’s a lot of need, and there’s a lot of pressure on folks in this day and time, so to be able to be a part of that and help them through it is kind of a wonderful thing.”

David Martin, who grew up in the church five years ahead of Crain and now serves as a deacon and trustee, said, “He doesn’t let anybody in the church go to a surgery or anything like that unless he’s standing there with them when they go in.”

And since Grand Saline doesn’t have a major hospital, that means a 45-minute drive to Tyler or a 55-minute drive to Dallas.

“You can’t speak about his age because his age doesn’t show,” Martin said. “I’ve never seen a young pastor that was able to keep a schedule like that.”

Having recorded several studio albums, Crain is a world-class musician, Martin said.

Tomlin wrote about Crain in an Instagram post in 2017: “David was a traveling musician out of our little church. I thought he was the coolest guy ever. I couldn’t believe that someone could travel around to churches and sing for a living (ha).

“I just want to be purposeful. I just want to be useful.”

David Crain Tweet

“I’ll never forget this one particular afternoon when I was in high school. David stopped by my house and asked if I would like to go help him set up his gear and sell ‘tapes’ in the back for the concert that he had that night,” Tomlin wrote.

“… In the middle of his concert, he said he had a friend in the back named Chris that was helping him for the night, and he thought it would be a good idea if I took the stage and played a couple songs. Then, to my surprise, he just walked off the stage and everyone was staring at me! All I can remember was that I was pretty awful. But that one opportunity turned into another and then another and then another.”

Martin said Tomlin is one of countless young men Crain has nudged into the ministry and even mentored. His decades of preaching at youth camps between revivals demonstrated his love for youth.

“Kids just flock to him,” Martin said. “They sit on the front row. The front row is loaded down with kids. God has worked through David in many, many ways that we don’t even know about.”

As for how long he plans to continue pastoring now that he has gotten started, Crain said he doesn’t see an end in sight.

“I know the Levitical priests actually got to retire after a certain amount of time, but since I’m not of that tribe, apparently there’s no retirement for me,” he joked. “I just want to be purposeful. I just want to be useful.”

To everyone around him, he said, he’s 70, but “to me, I’m still like in my mid-40s. I look in the mirror and I don’t know the guy.”

His schedule had been full of 30 to 40 revivals a year, as well as concerts and camps when he was asked to pastor, so “it wasn’t like I was running out of anything to do.”

“Right now, it’s kind of just full steam ahead.”

I have to depend on God to do this

I became a pastor when I was 40 years old. So, it was a 20-year training process, not through seminary, but through different pastors and churches. I can tell you more than a dozen churches and more than a dozen pastors who discipled me and mentored me.

My spiritual journey began when I was 16. I lived in the Philippines and a college student from Campus Crusade came to my campus—he was the first person to share the gospel with me. A Southern Baptist pastor discipled me when I was in college. He was a campus minister, and he really spent time with me. That was a turning point in my Christian life.

God really spoke to me through this preacher. We would meet every day because his ministry center was close to my dorm. I would hang out at his house, and we would be talking until sometimes three in the morning. We talked about the Word, discipleship, prayer, confession—all basic responsibilities of Christians.

After college, I was on fire. I wanted to share what I learned with my own church back home. So, I went back and started a ministry among the youth, and that was fruitful—some of the youth that came out of that are leaders in our church now here in Austin.

I started working in Manila and met my wife, Rela, there. We later helped plant a church in Cavite. That was my first time to be involved in church planting, just assisting the pastor, a worship leader, musician—all kinds of other roles, except being a pastor. My landlady was our first member. That church continues today.

I did want to attend seminary after that time in college because I was interested in being a pastor, but God closed those doors repeatedly, so I ended up being mentored by all kinds of pastors from different churches.

I know many pastors would say, “God called me to plant a church,” but in the case of our church, it’s different because it was not a single person who was called. It was my entire family. I had moved to Idaho where I was working as a semiconductor engineer. My brother moved to Memphis and my sister moved to Nebraska. Because we wanted to live close to one another, I think it was in 2007, we agreed to find a city where we could all be together. We all moved to Austin and joined different churches. My wife and I started a Bible study with my sister’s family and my brother’s family, and we met in South Austin. That small Bible study was just us at first.

There were two other families that started attending our group as well, so we ended up having five Filipino families. Then neighbors started attending. I called Dr. Kim [Asian ministries consultant] at the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention and told him we needed a place to rent. He connected me with Gilbert Chavez. Pastor Gilbert was very encouraging and accommodating. He let us use his youth room for our Bible study. The first night we had 64 people. He said, “I don’t think this is a Bible study. Why don’t you plant a church?” I said “no” since none of us was in the ministry. My brother and I worked in the tech industry and my sister was a nurse. Pastor Gilbert still encouraged me, and that led me to begin training through the SBTC.

“It’s all part of God showing me that I have to depend on Him.”

—Al Manigsaca Tweet

But in our Bible study, we had three different pastors who were connected with us. Every time a pastor came in, we would all agree that we would defer to him: “OK, you might be the pastor of this church.” Three times we tried that and none of them worked out. It was just as if God was giving me this basketball, then every time a pastor came to our group, I would pass this ball to him. And each time, the ball was back in my court. The third time the ball came back to me, my brother said, “Al, I guess you’re the one.” I agreed. When I surrendered to that, things moved very, very fast. A year later, I was ordained as a pastor. Now, 12 years later, I’m the pastor of Riverlife Baptist Church.

On this long journey, I believe the biggest thing I’ve learned is full dependence upon Him. Just think about the struggle that I am going through every week. I don’t have any seminary training on which to base my sermons or my judgment whether I’m doing a good job or not. So basically, the thing is when we started, I really don’t know how to pastor. I was praying to the Lord, “Lord, I don’t know how to do this.” And I know that’s still my mindset even up to this point in time.

It’s all part of God showing me that I have to depend on Him.

Want to share a story of what God is doing in your life or your church?

Share your story here

Stronger together

Iam grateful to God for our network of churches known as the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. God has been so gracious to us since our inception in 1998. We have 2,780 churches in the SBTC, and we are blessed to be guided by our executive director, Nathan Lorick.

Having served on the executive board and now as president of the SBTC, I have had a front row seat to view the many ways God continues to show His favor upon us. Take a moment and lift up a prayer of thanksgiving to God for allowing you to be a part of a dynamic partnership with brothers and sisters in Christ committed to proclaiming Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit.

The theme for our annual meeting, scheduled for Nov. 11-12 at Sagemont Church in Houston, is “Side by Side.” Nathan and I, along with all the men and women serving in the SBTC, want our churches—especially pastors and staff—to know they are not alone. The devil likes us to feel isolated and removed from other believers. There is much strength and joy for ministry when we realize we are not alone.

"God has blessed us with many fellow ministers of Christ who are passionately pursuing Jesus and His gospel."

Danny Forshee Tweet

Being a Lone Ranger pastor removed from contact and encouragement from others is no way to serve the Lord. God has blessed us with many fellow ministers of Christ who are passionately pursuing Jesus and His gospel. We need each other. We are so much stronger when we are together.

Our focal biblical text for the annual meeting is Philippians 1:27, where Paul writes, “Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.” The verb translated “striving together” in Greek is synathleo (notice the root structure for the English word “athlete” in this Greek word). This connotes toughness and tenacity. We are to exert the energy of a wrestler in his match for the sake of unity in the body of Christ. There will be many temptations to separate us. Let us determine to do all we can to stand fast, be of one mind, and strive together.

I look forward to sharing a message based on this biblical text during the Monday evening session. Also on Monday evening, we will have a prayer and praise service that is going to be powerful.

Be sure and join us in Houston as we celebrate what God has done and is doing through the churches of the SBTC. Each session will have uplifting messages and worship. Meals and gatherings will allow you opportunities to connect with others from around the state. I am excited to host the President’s Lunch on Tuesday, where we will look at some practical ways we can walk side by side with others for the gospel.

I am praying now for God to pour out His favor and anointing on every one of our 2,780 churches in the SBTC. You are loved and appreciated. Keep going strong for Jesus.

Just keep planting

One of my favorite features in each issue of the Texan is our monthly “Jesus Is Writing My Story” article. This article highlights the personal testimonies of faithful brothers and sisters in our Southern Baptists of Texas Convention churches who have learned a lesson about walking with God that they graciously agree to share with our readers.

I must admit, I’m a little biased about this month’s article featuring Nancy Simon. When I was a middle schooler growing up in East Texas, Nancy and her husband, Brian, played a huge part in my spiritual development. Brian was the youth pastor at a small rural church, and I was a kid looking for something to do and, let’s be honest, a girlfriend. Surely I could find one or both at the Baptist church down the street.

But as I got more involved in the youth group, God began to use Brian and Nancy to turn my attention to matters of faith as much as fun and games. They would invite me and other kids from the youth group over to their house to watch movies, or Brian would ask me to ride along with him as he picked up and then dropped off kids in the church van. We had lots of conversations in that van—some of them silly, many of them spiritual.

Ultimately, I strayed away from the church as high school approached. It wasn’t until after high school that all those spiritual conversations took root and, in my 20s, I gave my life to Christ. I’ve often wondered how—or if—that would have happened without Brian and Nancy planting seeds in me that took a long time to grow.

God calls us to be seed-planters. Scripture is clear that only He can draw people to salvation. It’s equally as clear that His followers have a role to play, as well:
“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:6).

"To you who have planted and watered until it hurts, who have tilled and turned with not even the hint of a sprout to celebrate ... just keep planting. God is absolutely at work, and you never know what He is going to do."

Jayson Larson Tweet

There are at least a couple of challenging things about planting seeds: it requires us to get our hands dirty, and once we’ve planted and watered, the final result is ultimately not up to us. Oh, that there were a Miracle-Gro for growing disciples of Christ! But there isn’t. All we can do is offer our emotions, invest our time, and wait to see what God will do with the ones to which we minister.

That’s often a deal-breaker for those of us raised in a results-driven, have it your way and have it now culture. We demand immediate outcomes. We want to know that whatever we’ve invested in will take root and become fruitful. The reality is, sometimes seeds don’t grow as fast as we’d hoped. Sometimes they don’t grow at all.

And yet our calling is the same.

I’m so grateful for people like Brian and Nancy who invested in me even when it may have appeared I was as clueless as a question mark. Though I claim to be nothing great today, I am saved, secured, and striving to pour out my life for Jesus.

To you who have planted and watered until it hurts, who have tilled and turned with not even the hint of a sprout to celebrate … just keep planting. God is absolutely at work, and you never know what He is going to do.

‘Advancing the mission together’: Churches top Reach Texas challenge goal, set another record

GRAPEVINE—Southern Baptists of Texas Convention churches are making a strong statement when it comes to the Reach Texas State Missions Offering: advancing the mission matters.

SBTC churches gave $1,752,383 to Reach Texas this past year—the most collected in a single year in its history. The offering period covers September 2023 to August 2024.

Last year, a record $1,673,560 was given by SBTC churches, topping the $1.6 million challenge goal that was set prior to the offering. Reach Texas has now received record giving in three of the past four years. The goal for the current campaign is $2 million.

SBTC Executive Director Nathan Lorick thanked churches for “advancing the mission together” and expressed gratitude for the record offering.

“We are excited about churches partnering together to see the gospel advance across Texas,” Lorick said. “We remain committed to church planting, missions, and evangelism as a top priority in practice and in principle.”

Reach Texas funds a variety of gospel-fueled efforts, including church planting, disaster relief, missions mobilization, and the SBTC’s annual Empower Conference. The need for evangelism is as urgent as ever, with 19 million of the state’s 30 million residents estimated to be lost.

For more information or to order promotional materials, visit sbtexas.com/reachtexas.

Reach Texas Prayer Guide:
Advancing the Mission Together

Forshee, Johnson, Hinote to be nominated at SBTC Annual Meeting

Byron McWilliams, senior pastor of First Odessa, has announced his intention to nominate Danny Forshee to serve a second term as president of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention at its annual meeting in November.

Forshee has served as lead pastor of Great Hills Baptist Church in Austin since June 13, 2010. He has been president of the Danny Forshee Evangelistic Association since it was formed in May 2004.

“I would be honored to serve a second term as president of the SBTC,” Forshee said. “God is working in powerful ways in and through our convention. I am excited about what the Lord will do in the future.”

McWilliams said he is honored to nominate Forshee for a second term, noting he has led Great Hills with “pastoral integrity and exceptional wisdom.”

“He has led the SBTC well this past year, and I’m confident he will lead us well in his next term as president,” McWilliams said. “I am also confident Danny will continue the theme of his life and ministry—to lift high the name of Jesus and make His name known wherever he goes.”

Great Hills gave $211,175.62 through the Cooperative Program in 2023 and $233,730.08 in 2022.

Forshee holds a doctoral degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, where he has served as a professor. He and his wife, Ashley, have three grown children, four granddaughters, two grandsons, and another grandchild on the way.

Ed Johnson III, lead pastor of Harvest Fellowship Baptist Church in Desoto, will be nominated to serve as SBTC vice president. Johnson, a bivocational pastor who also serves on the convention’s executive board, will be nominated by Caleb Turner, senior pastor of Mesquite Friendship Baptist Church. The convention vice president fulfills the duties of the president in the president’s absence or when requested by the president to do so.

Amy Hinote, a member of First Baptist Church Justin and the wife of its pastor, Beaux Hinote, will be nominated to serve as convention secretary. She will be nominated by Matt Kendrick, lead pastor of Redemption City Church in Fort Worth. Mrs. Hinote previously served on the SBTC resolutions committee. The convention secretary’s duties include receiving copies of motions offered for consideration at the SBTC Annual Meeting.

The secretary and vice president also serve on the credentials committee, as outlined in Article III of the convention’s constitution and bylaws.

In my sickness, I have found His strength

Things can change in an instant. When that happens, we tend to think we’re forgotten about. We’re not. God is so faithful, and no matter what happens—no matter what we’ve been dealt—He is there and we’re not alone.

I went for a wellness check [in 2018] and they found a mass on my thyroid. It was benign, but then it started growing and the doctor said, “Well, we’re going to take it out because when they start growing, there could be issues.” During the operation, they found a four-centimeter mass hidden on the other side of the thyroid. That one was malignant. They got out what they could, but it was kind of large.

I went in the hospital and swallowed radiation and stayed four days. And then when I came out, I had to stay six feet away from my family for two weeks and balance my thyroid with medicine.

In 2020, I was sick again right before the COVID shutdown. They thought I had pneumonia, but I wasn’t getting well. My doctors decided they would check my heart and lungs to make sure they weren’t missing anything. I was actually in heart failure and had three tumors in my lung.

During my lung biopsy, they ended up collapsing my lung and I was in the hospital for eight days. The cardiologist was able to stabilize my heart with meds. It was really kind of crazy because both cancers were found while treating something else. I felt like that was God’s way of letting them find what they needed to find so I could get the treatment I needed.

They saw the tumors in March and then in May [after the shutdown], they did the biopsy. That was hard because, after my collapsed lung, only one person could see me a day. But if Brian [Nancy’s husband, pastor of FBC Merkel] came and left, he couldn’t come back. We also have a 10-year-old that we adopted, so he was young and all he knew was Mom disappeared for a week.

When we got that first cancer diagnosis, I really had to just lean on the Lord. I didn’t know what that meant. I lost my mom to cancer, Brian lost his mom to leukemia—and I had all that in my head. But I didn’t ever panic. God just gave me this peace and He just kept drawing me closer to Himself.

People would say, “Well, aren’t you worried about this?” or, “Aren’t you worried about that?” I was like, “I can’t live waiting for the other shoe to drop. God has me on my feet, and He has me in a position where, yes, I’m sick, but I can still serve.” It has made my faith in Him stronger—relying totally on Him daily for my physical strength, for my spiritual strength. He’s just really drawn me in.

“In an earlier church, one of the sweet ladies had gone through colon cancer a year before and I would go and sit with her. We built a relationship and then she turned around and loved on me. I don’t know how people do it without their church family.”

—Nancy Simon Tweet

It’s weird, but when I was told about the thyroid cancer, I was more worried about the surgeon because he knew the mass he planned to take out was benign. So, when he came into the office with the lab results, he was panicking and he was like, “You’re OK. Well, you’re not OK, but you’re going to be OK.”

And I said, “Whoa, breathe. It’s OK. I’m the one who has it. You need to relax.” Brian and I, we went to the car, and we just looked at each other and we were like, “OK, let’s just hit this head on.” The lung cancer threw me a little bit, though.

When I was in the hospital during lockdown, I took some time and I just sat. Maybe it was a good thing that my lung collapsed and I had to be in the hospital primarily by myself, because I got to sit and pray and be by myself without having to tell my kids at that point or having to be strong in front of them, not knowing then what I was facing. God gave me a peace over it. I haven’t panicked. It’s been kind of a part of life. You just hit it and go.

When you see what others have gone through, you see those who handle it well and those who have a harder time, maybe this gave me a little more encouragement on how to deal with it without totally panicking. In an earlier church, one of the sweet ladies had gone through colon cancer a year before and I would go and sit with her. We built a relationship and then she turned around and loved on me. I don’t know how people do it without their church family.

I’ve also learned that God is faithful. You’re never alone. He is so faithful to walk through it with you.