Author: Russell Lightner

Annual Meeting panels to discuss prayer, post-COVID ministry

FLINT—When Baptists gather, food and fellowship follow. The 2021 Annual Meeting of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention at Flint Baptist Church, just south of Tyler, should prove to be no exception as attendees will have ample time to enjoy Texas cuisine and friendly conversation.

Even before the main events, the Spanish session of the annual meeting will feature a luncheon Mon., Nov. 8, from 12-2 p.m. at Flint Baptist. The event will include a panel discussion on the persecution of the church in the U.S. featuring Joshua Del Risco, George Levant and Rafael Rondón.

Monday evening’s events will commence at 4:45 p.m. with an outdoor steak dinner honoring June and Jim Richards. Space is limited so attendees are encouraged to reserve their spots soon. Nathan and Jenna Lorick will be feted at a reception following Monday night’s program.

Messengers and guests will enjoy breakfast tacos at the church prepared by SBTC DR volunteers under the direction of Scottie Stice on Tues., Nov. 9. Others may choose to attend the alumni breakfasts hosted by Criswell College, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

At noon Tuesday, attendees will pick up their lunches and enjoy two breakout sessions of presidential panel discussions, with the audiences shifting spots and the panelists remaining in place.

Breakout session 1 will be from 12:15-1 p.m., followed by session 2 from 1:10-1:55 p.m.

The president’s panel discussions will focus on the following topics:

• Keeping the Basic: Evangelism and Prayer will be moderated by Kie Bowman, current SBTC president and pastor of Hyde Park Baptist Church in Austin. Panelists will include Todd Kaunitz, pastor of New Beginnings Baptist Church in Longview; Jason Paredes, pastor of Fielder Church, Arlington; Nathan Lino, pastor of Northeast Houston Baptist Church, Humble; Damon Halliday, pastor of The Key Church, Fort Worth; and Nathan Lorick, SBTC executive director.

• After Covid: Rebuilding the Pastor and the Church will be moderated by Tony Wolfe, SBTC associate executive director. Panelists will include Danny Forshee, pastor of Great Hills Baptist Church in Austin; Ed Johnson III, pastor of Harvest Fellowship Baptist Church in Denton; Ramon Medina, global pastor of Spanish ministries at Champion Forest Baptist Church, Houston; Jacob Fitzgerald, pastor of Denman Avenue Baptist Church of Lufkin.

• Young Pastors Network: Worship, moderated by Spencer Plumlee, pastor of First Baptist Mansfield, will feature Matt Boswell, composer and pastor of The Trails Church, North Texas. The Young Pastors Network panel will be held only during the first lunch session.

• Tuesday evening will feature a 5 p.m. barbecue dinner and time of fellowship. Tickets are $10 each.

• Missional Ministries will also hold a Tuesday evening dinner featuring Jarrett Stephens, pastor of Champion Forest Baptist Church. Tickets are $10.

Register for the annual meeting at sbtexas.com/am21 and then scroll down to or click on “meals” to sign up for the various times of food and fellowship.

Houston church plant seeing fruits of labor yield salvations, baptisms

HOUSTON — It doesn’t take God long to do his thing once we’ve done ours.

Cross Community Church—a plant of Northeast Houston Baptist Church—marked its one-month anniversary this past Sunday. Over the first four weeks of its existence, the church has baptized someone every weekend—a total of seven people, according to Pastor Del Traffanstedt.

“It’s been a huge encouragement,” Traffanstedt said. “We’re just doing what the Bible says in Acts 2—sharing the gospel—and people are responding and getting baptized. I don’t mean this sarcastically, I just mean it truthfully—when we do what the Bible says, God gives what he promises to give.”

Cross Community held its first service on Sept. 12. Traffanstedt said he believes the church is seeing fruit from their already-achieved goal of reaching every home within a three-mile radius of the campus during what he called a six-week, door-to-door blitz. Every home within that radius has received either a gospel tract or a face-to-face conversation, with many of those interactions yielding gospel conversations.

Houston is one of the largest, most ethnically-diverse and fastest-growing cities in the nation, with a population of nearly 8 million. The area of influence around Cross Community is home to more than 100,000 people, and yet its church planting prospectus notes there are only a handful of SBC churches in the immediate area.

“My heart kind of grew attached to this area years ago,” said Traffanstedt, a former NEHBC staff member who spent three months working in the area during Hurricane Harvey. “We just felt a strong calling from the Lord to plant here. Ultimately, God made it happen.”

Rosharon pastor The Mey dies of COVID-19

ROSHARON—Pastor The Mey, 76, of Rosharon, Texas died from COVID-19 complications on Wed., Sept. 15, 2021 at HCA Houston Healthcare Mainland hospital in Texas City.

The was born Jan. 10, 1945 in Cambodia and was a longtime resident of Rosharon where he pastored the church he also planted, Rosharon Bible Baptist Church, for more than 30 years.

“Pastor The Mey was small in stature, quiet in manner, but a giant in the faith, particularly among those in the Cambodian community,” said Mitch Kolenovsky, SBTC field ministry representative for South Texas.

Kolenovsky added that the pastor had been a monk in Cambodia before his salvation, after which he moved to the US and Rosharon. The was also active in the Gulf Coast Baptist Association.

Chuck Beem, director of missions for the Gulf Coast association, told the TEXAN that The had escaped the infamous Cambodian Killing Fields during the reign of terror of the Khmer Rouge.

Beem also noted The’s commitment to evanglism: “Whenever The Mey shared his testimony, he made it clear that every bit of his salvation was accomplished by God. He loved his people, and he worked hard to share the gospel in Rosharon and in Cambodia. When he wasn’t able to go to Cambodia, he preached via cell phone.

“We are sad to lose him, but we rejoice that he is home with Jesus,” Beem added of the pastor.

The was preceded in death by his wife Nen, his parents and three brothers.

He is survived by his wife of 41 years, Khim Lor; sons Reaksa Mey and wife Channa; Rokha Mey and wife Sothea; Thavith Mey and wife Sou; and Corinth Mey; seven grandchildren, plus many extended family members and friends.

A funeral service was held Sat., Sept. 25, at Rosharon Bible Baptist Church with interment following at Confederate Cemetery in Alvin.

Int’l ministry requests prayer for Afghanistan’s Christians, who ‘must flee’ or ‘risk being killed’

International human rights ministries are urging Christians around the world to pray for Afghan believers who now face potential persecution following U.S. withdrawal from the country.

Afghanistan is home to an estimated 8,000 to 12,000 Christians—most of whom are converts from Islam and could become targets of the Taliban, according to International Christian Concern. The Taliban’s strict Muslim ideology requires punishment—often, death—for converts.

“In many cases, known Christians must flee Afghanistan or risk being killed,” ICC reported.

The Voice of the Martyrs issued a prayer guide with six specific requests for Afghanistan’s Christians:

Pray for God’s protection. “The situation on the ground is fluid right now. Pray for God’s protection over his people,” Voice of the Martyrs said.
Pray for wisdom. “Ask God to bless our brothers and sisters with discernment as they decide whether to stay or go and even with whom they should talk.”
Pray for fellowship. “Pray that God will help each Afghan believer to connect and fellowship with at least one other believer in person, by phone or through some other technology.” For safety reasons, many Christians in Afghanistan often keep their faith a secret.
Pray for safe passage. “Pray that God will provide safe passage to those who feel led by God to leave Afghanistan and provide for their immediate needs in their new location.”
Pray that Muslims will be saved. “As Muslims in Afghanistan see this cruel face of Islam, pray that they will be drawn to Jesus Christ, the shepherd Savior who doesn’t oppress but instead chose to lay down his life for his sheep.”
Pray for Christians trying to help. “Pray for the wisdom of front-line workers and pray that God will open new pathways for them to continue their work under Taliban control.”

—Voice of the Martyrs, International Christian Concern

No task is too big for God, says Esperanza First Del Rio

DEL RIO—What one woman interviewed by national media called a border, humanitarian, health and security crisis, some at Esperanza First Del Rio church call “heart-wrenching.”

The influx of illegal immigrants to Del Rio also is an opportunity to share God’s love, Jim Wilson told the TEXAN. He’s pastor of the 2005 Esperanza church plant that in 2018 merged with the congregation of First Baptist.

“There are two things going on here,” Wilson said. “About three years ago, about 150 people a day were coming through Del Rio. City leaders called a meeting and asked pastors for a solution for processing people.”

The city provided a facility. Members of the 40-plus churches in the town of 35,000—including Esperanza First—provided food, supplies, showers, and bus transportation as well as helping the migrants locate friends or relatives elsewhere in the United States.

“Very few needed money,” Wilson said.

While that ministry continues, the situation has drastically changed since Sept. 8, when President Biden announced he would no longer be deporting Haitian refugees. Word spread quickly. Nearly 15,000 illegal immigrants in less than two weeks have crossed the Rio Grande River and found shelter from summer temperatures under the International Bridge that joins Del Rio, Texas, U.S., with Ciudad Acuna, Coahuila, Mexico.

Local law enforcement, with ranks swelled by sheriff’s deputies, National Guard and state police, work to contain the illegal immigrants under the bridge, maintain order and provide food, water, sanitation and medical care.

In some cases, yellow tape and a line of law enforcement personnel and their vehicles are all separating the illegal immigrants from townspeople. Elsewhere there is chain-link fencing.

“I have several members who are border control agents,” Wilson said. “They’ll call when they’ve had a particularly bad day after trying to help people while maintaining the law.

“We just need a lot of prayer. It’s a dilemma for Christians who just want to help people.”

Jim Wilson, Esperanza First Del Rio Tweet

“We just need a lot of prayer,” the pastor continued. “It’s a dilemma for Christians who just want to help people.”

While the illegal mmigrants come from many countries, the majority are from Haiti, officials say.

Haiti, the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, experienced a massive earthquake in 2010 that killed more than 200,000 and left at least 1.5 million homeless.

The United Nations sent in Peacekeepers after the earthquake destroyed the island nation’s infrastructure. Cholera came with the Peacekeepers, a disease new to Haiti. Not until 2016 did the U.N. apologize for bringing in cholera. News reports said the lack of compensation for the deaths added to financial uncertainties.

The category 4 Hurricane Matthew, Oct. 4, 2016, killed nearly 600 people and brought new devastation to the nation still under siege from the massive earthquake six years before. Haiti was hit with a different kind of event on July 7 when its president, Jovenel Moise, was assassinated.

Even as Southern Baptists and others streamed to Haiti to help after each of these events, Haitians who could, found ways to stream away, mostly by boat to Brazil. From there, the Haitians mostly made their way plodding southwest to Chile or northwest to Honduras.

There they stayed, some since 2016, until word spread in early September that the door to the “Promised Land”—the U.S.—was now open.

Southern Baptist and other Christian aid groups have been told they can’t set up disaster relief food, shower or childcare units because of the geography. There’s no room under the bridge, and law enforcement outside the bridge barriers are stretched too thin to maintain control, Wilson explained.

“The Haitians are in no man’s land. They can’t go back through Mexico [to Chile or Honduras] and they can’t go forward [into the rest of the U.S.],” the pastor said. “The situation has resulted in so many visiting law enforcement agents that there’s nowhere for [the agents] to sleep, so we have offered our dorms to them.”

Esperanza First has men’s and women’s dorms built for mission teams on the way to and from Mexico, which the church has opened to law enforcement.

“Now the focus is making sure law enforcement is fed and has drinks.” Wilson said. “We do whatever we can to help.”

“Our desire is to lead to Christ the people God puts before us, whether they’re people in the community, people wanting to come to America, or people charged with protection,” the pastor continued. “We want them to know everything we do, we do to the glory of the Lord.”

“Our desire is to lead to Christ the people God puts before us, whether they’re people in the community, people wanting to come to America, or people charged with protection.”

Jim Wilson Tweet

But God …

I remember it like it was yesterday. The pastor of the church that my family was a part of while in Colorado was called to a new ministry. I was asked to do much of the preaching during the interim time.

The day came in March 2020, when we had to quickly shift to online church only. COVID-19 was making its rounds in communities across the state. I will never forget it. As I gazed into the lens of the camera trying to give calming and hopeful words, internally I was wondering how the world had found itself in this situation. Who would have thought that as advanced as we are in technology, medicine and communication, something like COVID would have turned the world upside down?

The next few weeks and months proved difficult for so many families, churches and communities. Many lost loved ones, some were laid off work; all had to get used to new rhythms and adjust to what seemed to be a new normal. In many ways, the pandemic changed the world.

But God…

In the midst of so much uncertainty and chaos, one thing that certainly never changed is the faithfulness of God. While lives were and continue to be altered, the sure thing that we can always place our hope and trust in is the Lord’s goodness to us.

Throughout the story of the Bible, we see many instances of difficulties, heartache, disappointment and obstacles. However, in most of those stories we also see “but God” moments. When all hope seemed lost, God would step in and put his faithfulness and glory on full display. As believers, we must read those stories and be reminded of God’s character.

In life, we will face tremendous challenges and pain, yet we have to believe that God is still fully capable of creating “but God” moments. His glory shines brighter coming out of the dark days.

This is the theme of this year’s SBTC Annual Meeting: “But God.” While we all know how difficult the last couple of years have been, we want to celebrate those moments in which God moved in the midst of the crisis. In early November, you will have the opportunity to hear from people all across Texas who have experienced “but God” moments in their lives. The annual meeting will be an incredible time to be together and celebrate the faithfulness of God.

The evening session on Monday will constitute a unique time of honoring the past with an exciting look toward the future. I will have the distinct honor of following my hero and mentor as we will both preach messages to kick off the 2021 annual meeting. Dr. Richards will open the night and I will follow later. The evening will symbolize the “handing off of the baton” of 23 years of faithful ministry as we look enthusiastically to build on this strong foundation working to reach the current and coming generations of Texans.

On Tuesday we will hear great messages throughout the day, including one from our president, Kie Bowman. Most of our business will happen in the afternoon session on Tuesday. Though the time of business may not seem as exciting as times of worship, it is important for our messengers to hear how God is using the SBTC to serve churches. In addition, it’s an opportunity to make decisions as a united body on issues that are important to Southern Baptists.

I know many people are busy and sometimes must leave during the day on Tuesday. However, I want to make a personal plea for you to stay and participate in our Tuesday evening prayer gathering. It is going to be an incredible time of corporate prayer with worship led by Matt Boswell. We need to unite in prayer for a movement of God like never before. I promise you will be blessed by being a part of it. It is crucial for us to go before our God together in prayer. Please make plans to stay and pray.

We are so grateful for you. It is the joy of the SBTC to serve you and see how God is using you. I believe God is going to meet with us at our annual meeting, and I can’t wait to see you. I love you and am honored to serve you.

Meet us in Flint

When Sam DeVille went to Flint Baptist Church as pastor in 1996, it was a small congregation of a few families. Today, it’s a large, mission-minded, evangelistic, praying church reaching East Texas and far beyond. The church is now lodged in beautiful new facilities perfect to host the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention in November.

We all need this time together to do the business of the convention, renew our relationships across the state, experience deep worship in the presence of God, celebrate the victories of the past and hear powerful challenges about the years to come.

The meeting this year will be historic. Following last year’s annual meeting in Austin, Dr. Jim Richards announced his intention to begin the transition to his successor as executive director of the SBTC. A nationwide search led us to one of our own: Dr. Nathan Lorick, who was then the state executive in Colorado but who had deep roots in the SBTC.

In February, the board issued a unanimous call to Dr. Lorick. In the months since, the SBTC has embraced Dr. Lorick and his vision of evangelism, church planting, prayer and much more for the future. So, this historic convention in Flint will witness a significant moment in time: the passing of the baton from the first generation of SBTC leadership to the next.

The theme of this year’s meeting, “But God,” is a reminder to all of us that personal transitions, global pandemics, the shifting sands of a changing culture and all of the challenges of leadership today could potentially hinder us—But God! Almighty God is the “uncommon denominator” who, when he steps in, immediately changes the outlook from the impossible to “we can do this!” And together, we can do everything God calls us to do.

Join us in Flint. Highlights will include the following:

A dinner honoring Dr. and Mrs. Richards
Messages from Dr. Richards and Dr. Lorick and others
The Spanish language session
The election of new officers

Additionally, there will be panels to discuss evangelism, prayer, caring for our own souls; a young pastors panel, and an incredible prayer and worship gathering Tuesday night.

God has given us a great convention (the best in the SBC) and this year’s annual meeting will be one you will not want to miss.

Put November 8-9 on your calendar and meet us in Flint!

New NAMB, SBTC partnership to provide momentum for statewide church planting efforts

GRAPEVINE—A new partnership between the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention and the North American Mission Board will provide additional resources to start churches in high need areas throughout Texas.

Approved at August’s meeting of the SBTC executive board, the new Send Texas collaboration will begin in 2022.

“We are excited to see God move in a powerful way through Send Texas,” said Nathan Lorick, SBTC executive director. “God is bringing the world to Texas, and we want to be ready to maximize all our efforts and as many dollars as possible to see more churches planted than ever before. In the future, we want to accelerate the gospel advance across Texas at an unparalleled rate. We believe one of the most strategic ways to do this is through church planting.”

"God is bringing the world to Texas, and we want to be ready to maximize all our efforts and as many dollars as possible to see more churches planted than ever before."

Nathan Lorick, SBTC Executive Director Tweet

This new partnership means that beginning in 2022, NAMB will take on a bigger role in assessing, training, caring for and supporting SBTC church planters. The SBTC will continue to care for church planters and provide retreat opportunities for planters and their spouses.

Tony Mathews, SBTC senior strategist for Missional Ministries, says the new resources will allow the convention to grow church planting efforts throughout the state—including in some of the most unreached parts.

“With millions of lost people in the state of Texas along with thousands of people moving [weekly]to major cities across Texas, we are expecting to plant churches in as many places as we can,” Mathews said. “Of course, from a strategic standpoint, we will be looking at unreached areas and unreached people groups as the world has come to Texas. NAMB’s expertise in identifying, training and mobilizing church planters along with our current expertise in this area, should increase the number of sending churches and pastors in the pipeline.”

Before this partnership, SBC churches worked through NAMB to plant churches in areas of high need mostly outside of the South. To plant churches within Texas, SBTC churches worked through the state convention. Now, NAMB President Kevin Ezell said, SBTC churches get the best of both organizations.

“So instead of just having the SBTC looking at Texas and how to plant churches, now you have two of us. You’ve got NAMB and the SBTC, so it’s like you added a whole other cylinder to the engine,” Ezell said. “Instead of either/or, it’s both/and. That’s what I’d want every pastor to understand. The only thing that’s changed is now NAMB is going to add its momentum and its church planting expertise to what the SBTC already has.”

SBTC churches can now access NAMB support for church planting efforts in the state as well as beyond it.

Noting that Southern Baptists are better together, Lorick looks forward to God moving throughout Texas in a powerful way through this partnership.

“When you can cooperate with an organization that does planting as well as NAMB does, you are able to gain a synergistic momentum,” Lorick said.

NAMB launched Send North America in 2011 with a focus on urban areas that were underrepresented by Southern Baptists. In recent years, NAMB has expanded the Send Network to include entire state conventions, like the SBTC.

Ezell says these new networks have worked “incredibly well.” He added that these state Send Network agreements have streamlined how NAMB partners with states to do church planting. It has created even greater synergy and cooperation. For church planter candidates, it has been an encouragement because the process is simpler, and they have the benefit of knowing that both the state convention and NAMB are unified in their partnership and support for them.

Texas represents a critical state for NAMB’s effort to mobilize Southern Baptists to push back lostness. Ezell compares it to high school football, where the athletic talent in the state draws the attention of recruiters around the country. The same is true for church planting.

“There’s a tremendous amount of talent in that state,” Ezell said. “Our biggest need right now is high-capacity planters, and for Texas to partner with us so that we can engage their churches in intentionally mobilizing their people to be potential church planters, then that’s huge for us.”

The new resources and systems NAMB is providing through this partnership have the potential to draw new leaders into the SBTC, says Doug Hixson, who served as the SBTC’s church planting director until moving to Colorado to plant a new church this summer.

“Although I don’t know the exact statistics, I would say close to half of the people that would come to SBTC to plant with us were looking for a network,” Hixson said. “Maybe they weren’t from the SBC or were only marginally involved. Having a national network that we’re a part of has been helpful from an SBTC standpoint, but now for the convention to be formally connected directly with NAMB brings a lot more to the table. The Send Network and the North American Mission Board have high-level thinkers and leaders, along with their training, their assessments, and their planter support and care. In my opinion, it is the best—or one of the best—church planting networks in our nation.”

Lorick urges SBTC congregations and pastors to pray for church planting efforts within the state.

“We know there is power in prayer. I would ask that you pray that God would raise up new planters who see the desperate need in Texas for new churches,” Lorick said. “We need to plant as many new churches as we can, as God continues to bring so many people here. The need is great, and the time is now.”

‘Sovereign grace of God’ undergirds Calvary Beaumont

BEAUMONT—Churches commonly believe in the unseen hand of God on their congregations, but not all cite it as the chief reason for the effectiveness of their ministry. At Calvary Baptist Church in Beaumont, pastor Nathan Cothen said “the sovereign grace of God” sets this group of believers apart.

“[God] decided to do a work here,” Cothen told the TEXAN. “Secondly, there is a huge commitment to the Word here. This church does not veer to the left or to the right. It sticks with the Word.”

Calvary Beaumont began in 1904 and has started two other churches in the area with the goal of reaching Southeast Texas for Christ. In 2007, it started a new campus in Lumberton, a rapidly-growing bedroom community about 15 miles north.

“That market is exploding for us,” said Cothen, who has been Calvary’s pastor for 22 years. “The population shift and things like that are making it a really good place for us to be right now.”

"The population shift and things like that are making it a really good place for us to be right now."

Nathan Cothen, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Beaumont Tweet

Beaumont is not an Anglo-majority city, and Calvary is “one of the most diverse congregations that you’ll find,” Cothen said. They have a thriving international ministry, which includes Filipinos, Chinese, Guatemalans, Ecuadorians and people from several countries in Africa. They also have Casa Calvario, an Hispanic ministry, “which is rocking and rolling.”

About 15 years ago, some researchers studied Calvary using a list of about 100 socio-ethnic groups. “They said the average number of groups off that chart represented in the average church was four, and Calvary had 24 at the time,” Cothen said.

The church’s greatest asset, the pastor said, is something he describes as “sweet reasonableness.”

“Sweet reasonableness, in my opinion, is what makes it fun to come to church here—the absence of fussing and fuming and fighting. Two-thirds of our ministerial staff has been here over 10 years, and over half of our support staff has been here over 10 years,” Cothen said. “I think that’s kind of a big deal.”

As the community changes and people are moving from Beaumont to Lumberton, Calvary has tried to get involved in the local schools through mentoring projects and by supplying chaplains for the football team at one of the large high schools. They’ve also partnered with First Baptist Church Hamshire to host a Beast Feast to reach men who love to hunt and fish but don’t have much exposure to church.

“In the last 23 years, we started a television ministry that’s on every week and a radio ministry that’s on in Houston five days a week. We were paying for 30 minutes a day, and they showed favor to us—I believe it was divinely inspired—and gave us an extra 30 minutes free,” Cothen said. “They play our broadcast twice a day on the biggest Jesus station in Houston.”

Disaster relief is a significant ministry at Calvary Beaumont, particularly hurricane relief. “We are more than willing to lose our expertise from lack of use,” Cothen said, acknowledging the challenges of living with dangerous weather patterns. When Hurricane Katrina struck, the church had 400 evacuees come and go, seeking shelter during the first month. “Two of our buildings were devoted just to housing Katrina refugees,” the pastor said.

When Hurricane Harvey hit in 2017, both campuses of Calvary remained dry and became ground zero for disaster relief teams.

“We housed 600 Team Rubicon people. We had a group of relief workers from Israel that came and stayed with us. We had a group of New York firefighters that came and stayed with us,” Cothen said.

Southern Baptist Disaster Relief workers from at least seven states were housed at Calvary Beaumont in the Harvey aftermath, and Rick Warren rallied local pastors there. More recently, Calvary sent its chainsaw crew as the tip of the spear heading into New Orleans after Hurricane Ida.

Cothen believes the two most important functions of the Southern Baptist Convention are to provide seminaries to educate new pastors and missionaries and to reach the nations through the International Mission Board. “Those are the two biggest reasons that we’re hard core in on the Cooperative Program,” the pastor said.

Through the years, Calvary has prayed to have 100 “sell your house” missionaries come out of the church, and so far about eight families have been sent through the IMB, he said. One of the highlights of CP, the church’s missions pastor Clay Jones said, is that those families don’t have to raise money when they come home. They can recharge and go out again.

“Beaumont is a good place. Some parts of it are pretty tough, but we believe that the Lord called us here for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, forsaking all others to cleave only to the calling he put on us ‘til death do us part or he burns a bush,” Cothen said. “So that’s what we’re going to do.”

Cooperation, not allegiance

In 2002, the SBTC met in Houston for its fifth annual meeting. During Jim Richards’ executive director’s report, the ministry staff of the convention signed a brief affirmation of the Baptist Faith & Message 2000.

The BF&M had become the convention’s statement of faith shortly after it was adopted by SBC messengers in 2000 and the staff indicated their commitment to conduct their ministries within the parameters of the confession. We did not sign the document itself; many of us would have more specific interpretations of the atonement or eschatology or church polity, for example. But we each considered the BF&M sufficient to describe our understanding of biblical doctrine and Baptist distinctives.

One observer, the editor of another state paper, sneered in print that the SBTC had “pledged allegiance” to the Southern Baptist Convention. It wasn’t a fair representation of what we’d done—it wasn’t intended to be—and it expressed a common misconception of that day regarding cooperation.

A little context

Two brief matters of context for that moment: First, since 2000, SBTC churches have affirmed their own broad agreement with the confession when they affiliate with the convention. Convention ministry staff already knew that the BF&M was the outline that defined our ministries. More particular interpretations were certainly our right, so long as they were not mistaken for an official SBTC addition to our standards for affiliation. We were affirming doctrinal agreement with our churches.

The second matter of context to that moment in 2002 was that my colleague’s state convention had, two years earlier, initiated a significant break with the SBC over the Conservative Resurgence and its values expressed in the Baptist Faith & Message. His convention had defunded most SBC entities in favor of its own seminaries, a publishing house, an ethics agency and a mission-sending venture. Hundreds of churches left that state convention for the SBTC as result of this defunding of the SBC. Without fanfare, the defunding was rescinded a few years later, by the way. My editor colleague arrived at our convention already certain who was a bad guy in this disagreement.

"The new fellowship of churches judged the Southern Baptist Convention a strong and reliable ministry partner."

Gary Ledbetter, Editor Tweet

From its beginning four years prior at the inaugural SBTC annual meeting, also in Houston, the new fellowship of churches judged the Southern Baptist Convention a strong and reliable ministry partner. In his 1998 sermon to that first meeting that elected him executive director, Jim Richards lined out core values that included the Southern Baptist Cooperative Program as the method that fueled our work to reach Texas and to impact the world beyond Texas. This latter priority was a point of contention between the new convention in Texas and the old one. The new convention, the SBTC, began in 1998 apportioning 50 percent of Cooperative Program receipts for SBC missions beyond Texas. With the adoption of the 2002 budget, messengers raised that percentage to 52 percent. The convention that most of our churches had left behind was sending about 29 percent beyond Texas in 2002.

Why the difference?

From 1995, the completion of the Conservative Resurgence goal of electing inerrantist presidents at all SBC entities, Southern Baptists in Texas had a high degree of trust in our national SBC partners. This was not and is not lockstep, but it was like-mindedness on the essentials or denominational goals. We agreed that abortion was the taking of a human life, that Jesus was the only way to heaven, and that the Bible is the inspired Word of God—without error in anything on any subject that it asserts.

There were advantages to our young fellowship of churches. We could call on resources already available to SBC churches that owned the institutions that provided them. The SBTC, an autonomous fellowship of churches, could also multiply its effectiveness in national and international outreach by working with tens of thousands of SBC churches beyond our borders. We didn’t have to reinvent the denominational wheel or do everything with our own hands because we could trust resources already in place.

Everyone wins

There were also advantages to the SBC. Texas Southern Baptist churches are among the strongest in the world. Some of our churches innovate ministries that bless thousands of sister churches. Cooperation and partnership with the SBC mean that we give according to how we’ve been blessed so that sister churches will flourish, and the lost will hear the gospel. This desire for cooperation was a significant reason for the SBTC’s formation.

That November afternoon in 2002 was a recognition that we agreed on essential doctrines with Southern Baptists around the world. It was the same commitment our churches had already expressed. Today, I say with gratitude that the accord with our partners at every denominational level in the SBC is at least as strong as it was in 2002.

—This is the second of four 2021 editorials describing “denominational virtues” of the SBTC.