Month: November 2024

AM24: Annual meeting messengers unified in convention business

HOUSTON—Messengers to the 2024 Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Annual Meeting, gathered at Sagemont Baptist Church Nov. 11-12, conducted the business necessary for the convention’s year-round work amidst two days of fellowship and inspiration.

SBTC Executive Director Nathan Lorick, reflecting on the two-day meeting, was excited about the content and demeanor of this year’s gathering.

“This year’s annual meeting was incredible,” Lorick said. “We were able to present that we will plant more than 60 churches by the end of this year. We also received our highest state missions offering in the history of the SBTC, and we currently have more churches affiliated with the SBTC than ever before. I am grateful for the unity and spirit of the churches that make up the SBTC.”

Messengers conveyed a spirit of harmony in the discussion and resolution of each item. The SBTC is a confessional fellowship, meaning each affiliated church has affirmed the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, in contrast to the Baptist General Convention of Texas, which this week rejected a motion to affirm the BF&M 2000 at its annual meeting, according to an article in Baptist Press.

“Many of our brothers and sisters cannot in good conscience affirm this Baptist Faith & Message,” David Lowrie, pastor of the BGCT-aligned First Baptist Church in Decatur, was quoted as saying in the Baptist Press article. “It was written by Southern Baptists for Southern Baptists. It represents well many of the values of Southern Baptists, but it wasn’t written for us. It doesn’t represent us.”

Bruce Webb, a BGCT pastor of The Woodlands First Baptist Church, said Texas Baptists have intentionally rejected the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 for more than two decades and should continue to do so, according to Baptist Press.

All SBTC churches affirm BF&M 2000. This allows messengers each year to discuss the details of their common ministry confident that they agree on basic doctrines related to the nature of Scripture and the priority of the Great Commission.

SBTC messengers conduct important business

Only one motion was submitted from the floor at the SBTC Annual Meeting, asking the convention to consider ways to assist congregations with insurance costs. The Committee on Order of Business assigned the motion to the SBTC Executive Board for consideration.

During the Tuesday morning business session, messenger Rob Collingsworth of Redemption City Church in Fort Worth raised a point of order regarding a motion adopted in 2022 that intended to clarify the SBTC Constitution’s qualifications for affiliation in Article IV. Collingsworth called the motion a “procedural violation” and a “de facto amendment to our constitution” that violated the process for making an amendment. The chair allowed messengers to consider the question of whether the motion in 2022 expanded the meaning of the constitution. After a lengthy discussion, messengers declared the 2022 motion in order.

The convention’s executive board recommended a budget for 2025 of $27,833,488, which is equal to the budget adopted by messengers in 2023. The budget shows no increase because the 2024 budget exceeded what was collected in 2023. Cooperative Program receipts will continue to be allocated with 55% sent to the Southern Baptist Convention for worldwide ministries and 45% being retained for ministries in Texas. Messengers approved the budget without discussion.

Executive Board Chairman Caleb Turner, pastor of Mesquite Friendship Baptist Church, recognized Bart McDonald on the occasion of his 10 years as the executive director of the Southern Baptists of Texas Foundation and its 20^th anniversary, which will be celebrated in 2025. SBTC’s chief financial officer, Joe Davis, was also honored for his 25 years of service in that role.

The Resolutions Committee recommended four resolutions to the messengers. Messengers expressed gratitude for the “hospitality, service, and generosity” of Sagemont Church for hosting the convention meeting. A second resolution expressed “profound gratitude” to SBTC President Danny Forshee for his service as convention president. A third resolution commemorates the 100^th anniversary of the Cooperative Program in 2025, noting the benefits the SBTC has enjoyed in missions, evangelism, church planting, and church strengthening as it partners through the Cooperative Program. The final resolution addressed chemical abortions, acknowledging that this method accounted for 60% of all abortions in 2023. The resolution concludes with a commitment to “uphold the sanctity of life even at the earliest stages.” All four resolutions were approved without amendment.

Convention officers were each elected by acclamation. Forshee, pastor of Great Hills Baptist Church, was elected to a second term as president. Ed Johnson III, church planter of Harvest Fellowship Baptist Church in Desoto, will serve as convention vice president. The convention’s secretary for 2025 is Amy Hinote of First Baptist Church in Justin.

Upon the recommendation of the Committee on Order of Business, messengers selected East Texas as the site for the 2027 annual meeting.

At final count, 1,122 people attended the annual meeting—864 registered messengers and 258 registered guests representing 351 churches.

Planters commissioned in moving ceremony

Thirty-seven Send Network SBTC church planters were commissioned during the first night of the annual meeting. Those planters represent churches from every corner of Texas, from Abilene to College Station to San Antonio. They’re dispatched to locations big and small, from Houston and Fort Worth to Murphy and Mabank. Many of the planters stood hand-in-hand with their spouses and children.

It’s been a year to celebrate for Send Network SBTC, the church planting partnership between the SBTC and the North American Mission Board. Send Network SBTC recently completed the largest assessment weekend in the history of the national Send Network, with 31 planters assessed. By the end of this year, Send Network SBTC will have planted between 60-65 churches—the largest number since 2005.

The gospel hits the streets of Houston during Crossover event

Ten or so teams representing a dozen area churches participating in Crossover Houston on Nov. 9. The event was held in conjunction with the 2024 SBTC Annual Meeting that began the next day. The Houston initiative was patterned after Crossover events held prior to the national Southern Baptist Convention each year.

“It’s a great opportunity for us to join efforts in spreading the message of hope and redemption to folks in the Houston area,” said Tony Mathews, SBTC’s senior strategist of Missional Ministries. The SBTC coordinated the event with Sagemont Church, host of the annual meeting. The event included not only outreach, but also evangelism training for participants.

Popular 20th century Baptist radio programs now accessible to all

NASHVILLE (BP)—Perhaps you’ve heard of M.E. Dodd, the father of the Cooperative Program. But have you ever heard him? What about longtime Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Duke McCall or legendary First Baptist Dallas Pastor W.A. Criswell or pioneering FBC Atlanta Pastor Roy McClain?

Thanks to an ongoing project of the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives (SBHLA), you can hear them all and many more.

For the past few years, members of the SBHLA staff have been digitizing hundreds of recordings of Baptist radio programs, including the “Baptist Hour” and “Christian Home” series, both of which became popular during the latter part of what’s known as the “Golden Age of Radio.”

“This project captures the voices of distinguished Baptist preachers and leaders,” said SBHLA Director Taffey Hall. “In the 1940s and ‘50s, the ‘Christian Home,’ ‘Southern Baptist Evangelistic Hour,’ and ‘Baptist Hour’ broadcasts allowed listeners to hear prominent, insightful Southern Baptist preachers and scholars through the radio in the comfort of their own homes.”

The SBHLA took ownership of hundreds of recordings when the Baptist Radio and Television Commission was dissolved in the 1990s. They’ve been in storage in the archives in Nashville ever since.

When the digitization project began in 2021, the first order of business was to find a way to play the recordings, which are on “transcription disks”—basically extra wide record albums.

Hall located a machine at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, but it didn’t work. An SBHLA staffer made the two-hour trek north on I-65 to Louisville to get the machine and bring it to Nashville, where a Music City recording technician got it working.

“When people think about an archive, one of the first things that may come to mind is all the paper materials collected and preserved,” Hall said, adding that the SBHLA has plenty of that.

“But in addition to those paper materials, we also have a lot of special formatted materials, items such as oversize photographs, glass plate negatives, motion picture films and these 16-inch transcription record disks, that need special storage and preservation.

“Our approach to digitization, and as was the case with this project, is for both preservation and access. Digitizing these early recordings of the Southern Baptist Radio Committee/Radio Commission was important from both the standpoint of long-term conservation of the physical items, and for making the material available to a wide audience of current listeners.”

Baptists on the air

Southern Baptists began discussing the use of radio in 1930. In 1934, Dodd, who was SBC president at the time, was part of a three-man committee tasked with looking into the idea. In 1936, Southern Baptists adopted a resolution calling for “a joint study of radio opportunities for Baptists.”

Then in 1938, Southern Baptists formed a seven-member committee to look into the possibility of using radio to “broadcast our Baptist message,” as it was put in the motion adopted by messengers. By then, most U.S. homes had radios, and Americans had become accustomed to getting news and entertainment from the medium.

The next year, nine additional members were added to the committee, and the group was allotted $1,200 to promote Baptist broadcasts on powerful radio stations.

The “Baptist Hour” was launched in January of 1941 and proved popular immediately, eliciting 17,500 pieces of mail, according to that year’s SBC Annual.

Over the next few years, the committee’s success grew. It was responsible for getting Baptist content on radio stations covering about half of the United States. Southern Baptists appointed a full-time director of the committee in 1942.

At the 1946 annual meeting in Miami, the name of the group was changed to the Radio Commission, and it became an official agency of the SBC. By 1948, the “Baptist Hour” was aired on 120 radio stations from coast to coast.

Gospel on display

Episodes of “Baptist Hour” flow a bit like a worship service. In an episode from May of 1945, Dodd preaches from John 3:16 and uses the word “Gospel” as an acrostic for the verse: God Only Son Perish Everlasting Life. The episode begins with choral music, (“When I Survey the Wonderous Cross” and “Tell Me the Old, Old Story”).

You then hear a recorded testimony from a traveling salesman who was saved at a church while on business in Knoxville, Tenn. The man tells of hearing a radio broadcast while traveling. The next day, he happened to see the church where the broadcast he’d heard had originated—City Temple Baptist Church.

“Something told me I should go in,” the man says, “so I went on in and asked for the pastor.” The pastor listened to him, read the Bible with him and led him to faith in Christ.

“Since then I have had a new life and joy of living,” the man says.

After the testimony is a prayer, another choral piece (this one based on John: 3:16), followed by Dodd’s sermon.

“John 3:16 is the greatest verse in the greatest book in the greatest volume on the greatest subject about the greatest Person or the greatest object in all the universe,” preaches Dodd, who was pastor of First Baptist Church of Shreveport, La.

And later: “God loves because the primary essence of His character is love.”

The “Christian Home” series featured practical messages on family topics as well as dramatizations of family life situations. An episode from 1956 follows a father, mother and son through the son’s life from babyhood to young adulthood. It depicts the son taking after his father in the worst ways and the tension between mother and father.

Hall says the recordings are an example of Southern Baptists’ ever-present desire to stay relevant and to share the Gospel by any means possible.

“Many of the sermon titles and broadcast series productions of these recordings addressed the concerns and issues facing Americans during that time period,” she said. “These were topics of everyday and contemporary importance to Southern Baptists—topics of marriage life, family life, home life as well as challenges of wartime.

“The ‘Christian Home’ series in particular captures an image of home life, what Southern Baptists wanted to present, in dealing with home issues and documents a time of how Baptists viewed family, marriage and raising children. …

“On almost all of the programs, Southern Baptists talked about how the gospel can change people’s lives and make their lives more joyful.”

The digital audio-visual resources of the SBHLA are available here.

AM24: Annual meeting’s first day ends with ‘amazing hour’ of prayer

HOUSTON—Danny Forshee, president of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention and lead pastor of Great Hills Baptist Church in Austin, called it his “favorite part of the entire convention.” Carol Yarber, who with her husband, Ronnie, and many others was instrumental in founding the SBTC a quarter-century ago, called it “absolutely essential.”

Messengers ended the first day of the SBTC Annual Meeting at Sagemont Church in Houston (Nov. 11) with a prayer meeting led by Forshee. To those in attendance, plenty was at stake.

“Considering the state of the country, the state of the state, we must pray for lost people to know Jesus,” Yarber said.

Lights dimmed and heads bowed as the praise team assumed spots on stage while Forshee energetically offered encouragement.

“Be strong. Don’t quit. Be faithful. The Lord has got your back,” Forshee said, cautioning from James 4:6-7 against isolation and the schemes of Satan.

Noting that the meeting’s structure could be emulated by every church in “every season, no matter the size,” Forshee explained the first part of the night’s gathering would feature prayer following the ACTS pattern of adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication.

Across the auditorium, many rose, lifting hands and joining in the singing of Cross Church’s “Jesus Is Better,” growing louder in a crescendo of praise: “More than my healing, I want the Healer. More than direction, I want the Shepherd.”

Russ Ponder, senior pastor of First Baptist Hamlin, drew upon 1 John 1:9-10 and Proverbs 28:13 to invite worshipers to confess sin. A prayer of thanksgiving led by BJ McCurdy, pastor of New Shores Church in Sweeny, then commenced with the reading of Psalm 105:1 and 92:1.

Amens rippled throughout the worship center as listeners were reminded God had found us “in the pit” and set us “on the rock—Jesus.”

The words of the traditional “Holy, Holy, Holy” filled the room as the audience joined singers and musicians to saturate the space with song. Hands raised, hands clasped, hands were outstretched, and few remained seated.

Announcing that he was “going off script” and following the lead of the Holy Spirit, Forshee returned to the stage to ask audience members to pray for the person next to them. Throughout the auditorium, people embraced or laid a hand on a neighbor’s shoulder as voices rose and fell in appeal to the Lord. Some stood alone, watching silently or speaking softly with eyes closed.

Corporate supplication followed as five pastors led prayer centered on the five markers intended to help SBTC churches identify and measure disciple-making movements: Ed Fenton of First Baptist Malakoff on churches that are prayer-energized; Brian Haynes of Bay Area Church in League City on churches that are evangelism-prioritized; Eric Patrick of Harvest Ministries in Aubrey on disciple-making normalized churches; Cole Hedgecock of First Baptist Rowlett on sending-maximized churches; and finally, in Spanish and English, Enrique Puig of Houston’s First Baptist, on churches where partnerships are synergized.

Few left the auditorium early, and several expressed surprise the prayer meeting lasted an hour, as Forshee noted at the end.

Said Forshee: “It was an amazing hour.”

AM24: After milestone year, next wave of church planters commissioned in moving time of celebration, prayer

HOUSTON—The numbers are undeniably encouraging.

This year, Send Network SBTC—the church planting partnership between the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention and the North American Mission Board—conducted 71 assessments of potential planters. Of those, 34 were conducted in Spanish, 32 in English, three in Mandarin, one in Korean, and one in Romanian.

Additionally, Send Network SBTC recently completed the largest assessment weekend in the history of the national Send Network, with 31 planters assessed. By the end of this year, Send Network SBTC will have planted between 60-65 churches—the largest number since 2005.

But there’s another number that drives the mission of Send Network SBTC. During a church planter commissioning service held during the opening night of the SBTC Annual Meeting at Sagemont Church, church planters reported 926 people proclaimed faith in Christ and were baptized over the past calendar year.

“These are people who have gone from death to life,” said Jason Crandall, Send Network SBTC’s church planting lead, “and we get to celebrate that. That is the center of what we’re called to do.”

Thirty-seven planters were commissioned at Monday night’s service representing churches from every corner of Texas, from Abilene to College Station to San Antonio. They’re dispatched to locations big and small, from Houston and Fort Worth to Murphy and Mabank. Many of the planters stood hand-in-hand with their spouses and children.

“Church planters, you are the answer to prayers,” said Julio Arriola, director of Send Network SBTC. “ … The Lord is answering the prayers of the churches of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.”

‘What the Lord has called us to do’

Among those commissioned was Tim Williams, the 31-year-old pastor planter of The Vine Church in Mount Pleasant. The church is a relaunch of Gladewater Baptist Church, which had existed since 1871—about 27 years after Texas became a state.

Williams was called to pastor Gladewater Baptist Church in December 2021. At that time, the church had nine members, and leaders soon began praying and pondering its future. That future, they decided, would be most fruitful through a replant guided by Send Network SBTC. Gladewater closed in December 2023 and immediately began a nine-month preparation process of relaunching the church.

With the support of sponsor church Holly Brook Baptist Church in Hawkins and others, the relaunch happened on Sept. 24, 2024. Today, the church is multigenerational, multiethnic, and growing—with about 100 people regularly in attendance. With roughly 52% of Mount Pleasant’s population now Hispanic, the church plans to begin a Spanish-speaking service in January.

“This is what the Lord has called us to do,” Williams said. “The coolest thing for me is, throughout this replanting process we’ve had one person come by transfer of letter from another church. Everyone else has either come as a new convert or they were unchurched Christians. … It’s been really cool to see the Lord work in people’s lives.”

Dakota Adair, a 29-year-old first-time planter, stood on the stage during the commissioning service with his 3-year-old son, Elijah. Adair pastors Heirloom Church in Kyle, one of the state’s fastest-growing areas. Twenty years ago, Kyle—about 20 miles southwest of Austin—had about 8,000 residents. That number has ballooned to about 70,000 people.

With the support of its sponsor church, Epic Life New Braunfels, and many others, Heirloom Church was planted to reach Kyle’s growing and incredibly diverse population.

“Our church is very eclectic,” Adair said. “We’ve got Texas State [University] students, empty nesters, retirees … God has really just brought people together, so we’re just trying to keep things simple—love God, love people, and preach the Word.”

SBTC Executive Director Nathan Lorick told messengers he believes the convention will soon lead the way in all of North America in being “a network of churches planting new churches and seeing people won to Christ.”

“We are so excited for you,” Lorick said to the church planters before praying over them. “We are so grateful you took a step out in faith with no guarantees, trusting God to build His church, trusting God to have partners come alongside you. God has and is and will continue to bless your efforts. We’re for you. We’re with you. We’re side by side on this journey together.”

AM24: Crossover Houston leads to salvations on eve of SBTC Annual Meeting

HOUSTON—The team of four knocked at the door of a home a few streets from Sagemont Church and waited. A Hispanic woman peered cautiously outside and saw Sagemont members Y Tran, Ca Tran, and Giselle Higginbotham—accompanied on this particular Saturday morning by Tony Mathews, senior strategist for Missional Ministries at the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.

“Sorry, Español,” the woman at the door said. Three team members glanced immediately at Higginbotham, standing at the rear and the sole Spanish speaker in the group.

“I was hiding in the back and everyone looked at me,” Higginbotham said. “I was only supposed to be praying. I am very timid. I had never shared the gospel.”

Higginbotham embraced the challenge and shared Christ in Spanish with the woman.

“I was praying about being a little more comfortable and bold about sharing the gospel with people, and I think God has a sense of humor putting me in a spot I couldn’t get out of,” Higginbotham said.

The Hispanic woman didn’t come to salvation, Higginbotham noted, but the group did offer to pray for her and extended an invitation to attend an upcoming Sagemont En Español church service. “We are hoping that God will work in her heart,” Higginbotham said.

Y Tran—a college student and Vietnamese speaker like her high school-aged sister, Ca—shared with a Vietnamese man in his own language that day, as well.

Getting ready

The quartet was one of 10 or so teams representing a dozen area churches participating in Crossover Houston on Nov. 9. The event was held in conjunction with the 2024 SBTC Annual Meeting starting Monday. The Houston initiative was patterned after Crossover events held prior to the national Southern Baptist Convention each year.

“It’s a great opportunity for us to join efforts in spreading the message of hope and redemption to folks in the Houston area,” said Mathews, adding that the SBTC worked with Ben Niscavits, Sagemont’s executive director of missions, to coordinate logistics and volunteers.

Participants met at Sagemont’s youth building Saturday morning for training in the 3 Circles method of evangelism led by Carl Bradford, Southwestern Seminary’s assistant professor of evangelism and dean of Texas Baptist College. Bradford also serves as an SBTC evangelism consultant.

Bradford described the 3 Circles as “emphasizing practical steps for starting a conversation and guiding it naturally toward the gospel.”

At the end of the training, teams equipped with the straightforward, powerful-yet-adaptable evangelistic tool headed to area locations to share Jesus with the lost.

“Ben [Niscavits] identified several potential areas for witnessing including malls, parks, and neighborhoods. He also knew places presenting opportunities to engage with Buddhists, Hispanics, Muslims, and Hindus,” Mathews said, adding that these places included at least one mosque.

Launching out

Crossover teams were composed of a mixture of males and females with as much language diversity as possible, Bradford said. In addition to 25 from Sagemont, individuals from a dozen churches registered for Crossover, Mathews said. Several SBTC staff members participated, as well.

Team members approached homes and introduced themselves, asking if there was anything they could pray with them about.

“[Prayer] becomes a segue into other conversations,” Bradford said. A prayer request about a wayward child, for example, might become a conversation about the brokenness of the world and ultimately about Jesus, the solution.

Bradford noted his Crossover team appreciated the opportunity to “go the extra step” when people said they were Christians. Spiritual conversations ensued as team members asked people to describe their faith journeys.

“Some had never gone out and done anything like this before,” Niscavits said. “It was a pretty great growth opportunity for them.”

Ice cream, rocks, and Jesus

Sagemont member Jamie Moreno accompanied a team to a nearby park where two little girls were walking around selling decorative rocks.

“We had the opportunity to share with them about Jesus being the rock of salvation, and they allowed us to pray for them,” Moreno said. “They were so sweet.” Moreno even bought their rocks for a dollar.

Software consultant Chad Porter from Pearland, also a Sagemont member, along with his Crossover partner Martin, headed for a nearby flea market just off I-35, where they encountered vendors and customers of multiple ethnicities.

The pair struck up a conversation with Pepe, who was selling ice cream.

“He looked disturbed, like he was going through something rough,” Porter said. “We asked if we could pray for him.” Pepe agreed and the men took the conversation further, asking about Pepe’s ideas of heaven. He admitted he had never thought about the subject. The men shared their faith, and Pepe gave his life to Christ.

“You could just see his whole [countenance] kind of changed. He had joy in his heart,” Porter said. They invited Pepe and his family to Sagemont.

Pepe was not the only one changed. Chad and Martin were moved emotionally, too. “We were shaking,” Porter said.

“Oh man, it was a great day,” Mathews said. “We are just so happy that we all went out in diverse groups and the Lord really blessed.”

By midday, when Crossover concluded with a debriefing and praise session back at the church, the numbers told the story: Teams engaged 224 people, had 114 spiritual conversations, presented the gospel 72 times, and saw three people give their lives to Christ.

A great day, indeed.

Keep these things in mind when practicing church discipline

Practicing biblical church discipline is vital for the health of a local church. It is given to us by the Lord in His Word. Let us not grow weary in walking in accordance with what the Scriptures teach.

Church discipline is hard to practice because it involves people we love, have cared for, and are shepherding. It is hard because one party does not see the destructive nature of their sin. This destructive nature of sin and its spread through the people of God is one of the reasons for entering into church discipline no matter the difficulty.

The question then becomes not should we practice church discipline, but how should we do so? Here are three encouragements for how I believe we should practice church discipline in the local church:

Teach, teach, teach

There may be many opinions about church discipline in a particular local church. Some have never heard of church discipline, some are informed by their experience, and others have heard horror stories about a discipline case that was undertaken in an ungodly manner.

So, we begin our process of practicing biblically healthy church discipline by teaching about church discipline. The first time a church hears about church discipline does not need to be in the form of a recommendation from the elders. Instead, the church needs to have been taught and grounded in the biblical teaching on discipline from texts like Matthew 18:15-20, 1 Corinthians 5, and Titus 3:10-11.

We began by teaching on church discipline in our membership classes so anyone who joins knows our church will know we take unrepentant sin seriously. Let us not be like the church in Corinth, which allowed sin within the church that is “not even tolerated among the pagans.”

Church discipline is a gift to the church for the sake of her holiness and witness in the world. Because church discipline is vital to the health of a local church, it is important to teach on the topic.

Follow the biblical teaching regarding practice

Even if your church has not practiced discipline in the formal sense by removing someone from the fellowship, it has likely been participating regularly in the informal discipline as we see laid out in Matthew 18.

Here we see the road map for how we are to most regularly practice church discipline. Step one: We confront the sin in the life of our brother. If there is repentance, we have won a brother. But if there is no repentance, we move to step two. In step two, we take other witnesses with us to establish the charge. Again, we hope for repentance, but if there remains an unrepentant heart, we move to the third step. Lord willing, this step will be a rarity in local churches. In the third step, we bring the situation before the congregation. It is important to remember the church is the one that is acting in formal church discipline.

If all these steps do not lead to repentance, we are to remove the person from among us. We are to no longer treat them as one who belongs to the family of God (see 1 Corinthians 5). We do this recognizing we can no longer affirm they are one of the Lord’s people because they refuse to repent when faced with their sin. This is a sobering and heartbreaking reality. At this point a church has acted to say it no longer recognizes this person as someone who belongs to the family of God. It is worth adding that accurate, meaningful, regenerate church membership is a prerequisite to practicing biblical church discipline.

Remember the aim

In 1 Corinthians 5:5, we read, “You are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.” We are hoping for repentance and restoration. We are hoping for salvation on the day of the Lord. Our aim in church discipline is repentance and restoration. Let us not grow calloused into thinking the Lord will not save those whom the church disciplines. The church’s act of discipline may be the instrument the Lord uses to bring salvation to a sinner.

Oh, how sweet the day is when a sinner repents. How wonderful is the moment when we bring one who has wandered from the fold back into fellowship! We ought to be willing to enter into the difficulties of church discipline because we love the Lord, His Word, His church, and His people.

Crossover registration available for prospective host churches, volunteers

DALLAS — Registration for Crossover Dallas is live.

Crossover, which will run from June 2-8, 2025, is the annual evangelistic emphasis preceding the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting in the host city. Events such as block parties and personal witnessing opportunities have become ingrained in the outreach effort.

Churches and groups can register through the Crossover site, which is also available in Spanish.

Participation happens two ways. The first is hosting a Crossover event. Churches in the counties of Dallas, Denton, Collin, Hunt, Rockwall, Kaufman, Ellis, Johnson and Tarrant are eligible to host, in an effort to make an indelible mark on their community.

One option for hosting is partnering with students and faculty from Southern Baptist seminaries for door-to-door evangelism. Churches can also host a multi-day event such as Vacation Bible School or a block party outreach limited to one day. Another single-day event, Harvest Sunday, would take place June 8.

The second track for Crossover registrants is to serve at an event. Southern Baptists both in the target area and outside of it are welcome to serve with local churches.

The North American Mission Board will report the number of Gospel conversations, salvations, volunteers and other figures to messengers at the annual meeting. More than 185 people responded to the Gospel delivered by more than 1,469 volunteers during Crossover Indianapolis in June.

“We would like to encourage churches in that target area to host an event and individuals and groups, especially if you are already coming for the annual meeting, to serve alongside these host churches,” said JJ Washington, NAMB national director of Personal Evangelism who is overseeing Crossover’s planning.

Benefits for host churches include learning evangelism best practices and using the event as a catalyst for establishing an evangelistic culture in the congregation. Volunteers will gain experience in starting an evangelism movement in their own church as well as the experience of partnering with other Southern Baptists.

Washington said NAMB is working with leaders from the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention and Baptist General Convention of Texas as well as regional and state networks. Local Baptist associations—Dallas, Denton, Collin, Hunt, Kauf-Van, Ellis, SW Metroplex and Tarrant—have also featured prominently in Crossover’s planning.

“This is truly cooperation at its finest,” he noted.

Luis Antonio Gonzalez, Spanish pastor for Lamar Baptist Church in Arlington, is helping mobilize other Spanish-speaking churches in the area.

“We are providing resources and encouraging them to participate,” he said. “Our prayer is to develop an evangelistic culture in the churches and bring a fire to fulfill the Great Commission.”

First Baptist Garland, where Greg Ammons is pastor, will host a Harvest Sunday and door-to-door evangelism.

“We’re looking at having a block party as well,” said Ammons, who is also helping mobilize churches in the area. “JJ and [NAMB Vice President for Evangelism] Tim [Dowdy] led evangelism training last week. We had a good turnout and are now signing up churches for hosting.

“We’re hoping to see a lot of people come to Jesus, to plant a lot of seeds. We want to establish an evangelism culture.”

SIDE BY SIDE: SBTC churches gather to pray, celebrate what God has done over the past year

Messengers to the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Annual Meeting will gather for a powerful time of prayer, worship, and fellowship at Sagemont Church in Houston on Nov. 11-12.

Giving that grows

Hays Hills goes above and beyond to see the gospel delivered around the world

Hays Hills Baptist Church strives to “bring life-changing hope to an ever-changing people through the unchanging gospel.”

To make that mission statement a reality, the church is setting an example of what it looks like to engage in ever-increasing generosity.

When Aaron Kahler transitioned from a staff position to serving as lead pastor in 2017, he felt led to challenge Hays Hills to give 20% of its annual budget through the Cooperative Program by 2030.
That effort, which the church refers to as “Neighbors & The Nations,” describes the commitment the congregation has made to support those working to bring the gospel to unreached and unengaged people locally and around the world.

The plan was for the church to increase giving by 1% annually until it reached its 20% goal. But that’s not what happened.

“In God’s grace, He did far more abundantly than we could have imagined and we went all the way over to 21% given in year one,” Kahler said. “The church just bought in wholeheartedly to giving to the cause ….”

Kahler said Hays Hills recognizes the potential to multiply its impact through CP giving, “not only in our church being effective today, but for our church and other Southern Baptist Convention churches to be effective 100 years from now.” Giving through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, which Kahler said has increased substantially, is one of the main ways Hays Hills seeks to have a global, cooperative impact.

On a more local level, Kahler said the impact is evident in the support provided to missionaries from Hays Hills who have served with the International Mission Board, in guidance provided to church leaders on multiple occasions by the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, and even in how he has been personally equipped to preach by Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. All are entities supported by CP giving.

Though the gospel work never seems to be accomplished as fast as he’d like, Kahler said he is more encouraged now than he has been in his 13 years serving at the church because of God’s faithfulness. Planted in one of the fastest-growing suburbs of Austin, the church has seen Buda’s population more than double to over 15,000 residents over the past decade. Hays Hills has advocacy groups for each of its missionary partners, which has strengthened the missions culture within the church in an effort to reach the growing population.

Additionally, Hays Hills is beginning to see more evangelistic fruit through its college and career ministry and through its young couples ministry.

“All of those areas of ministry that the Lord is blessing are areas I do not touch at all,” he said. “It is ministry our people are engaged in because of their love for Jesus, His church, and the lost.”

The greatest kind of legacy

Family passes on legacy of faith to reach multiple communities in need

Many years ago, the gospel changed the Gameros family. It started with Javier Gameros, who grew up in a Mexican Catholic family that, as he says, taught him the rites and practices of religion without helping him understand that God wanted a personal relationship with him. Over time, God used a series of people and circumstances to help Javier come to know that truth. He heard the plan of salvation for the first time at age 8 from a Baptist pastor hosting a Bible club in his neighborhood. At age 19, Javier accepted Christ after hearing the gospel again from his sister, Susana.

Javier later met and married Margarita, and soon they answered a call to vocational ministry. While Javier and Margarita committed to serve the Lord with all their hearts, they knew their greatest influence would happen at home among their five children.

“Ministry was something I saw and learned every day,” said Vidreael Gameros, one of the family’s three sons. “My parents taught us how to love and serve the Lord through a life of obedience and sacrifice. … The same leader I saw [from my father] in the pulpit was the same leader I saw in the home, and that impacted my life in a big way.”

Javier eventually was called to pastor a church in Manvel known today as Un Nuevo Comienzo Venciendo Con Dios, which means, “A new beginning, overcoming with God.” It’s a fitting name, Javier says, noting a severe economic and moral decline has caused what he calls “spiritual poverty” in parts of the city.

Even as he served his own community, Javier was burdened by other nearby communities suffering in similar ways—one of which was Holiday Lakes, a predominantly Hispanic community located about 30 miles south of Manvel. At the time, Holiday Lakes had no Hispanic Southern Baptist church.

“I saw the urgent need to not stop, but to expand the gospel and see more souls saved since society, the family, and the church are being attacked and their precepts are being erased,” Javier said.

But who would be willing to plant a church in Holiday Lakes? He looked no further than his son, Vidreael, who had sensed a calling to ministry since childhood. Vidraeal began a church planting residency training program through Champion Forest Baptist Church in Houston and also received training through Send Network SBTC, the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention’s church planting partnership with the North American Mission Board.

After working with his father, Vidraeal was sent to plant Iglesia Bautista Holiday Lakes about three years ago. The church officially launched about a year ago and is seeing fruit despite many challenges, including natural disasters, a large drug trade, and the presence of witchcraft.

The work is challenging, but Vidreael said he feels like he is never alone because of his family and the connections and equipping offered through the SBTC.

“It is a blessing to have access to a family that is running the same race,” he said. “[The SBTC] has helped us find connections we need to facilitate challenges in ministry, and it has connected us to other brothers and sisters who love the work of the Lord. … We are celebrating the transformation God is doing in the families in Holiday Lakes.”

In other words, the same gospel that once changed the Gameros family is now changing families across the region.

One mission, many hands

Churches from near and far are pitching in to assist Celina plant at the center of a population boom

As Robert Welch looks around the middle school where Legacy Hills Church meets each Sunday, he sees the faces of people who otherwise might not be there if it weren’t for the churches across Texas that have worked alongside his.

Over the past year, Legacy Hills members have deeply invested in the community, hosting kids camps, community events, and outreaches to build relationships in one of the fastest-growing regions in the state. But when you’ve planted a church in a city that has more than tripled in population over the past five years, you can never have too much help.

To date, 17 Southern Baptists of Texas Convention churches and two associations have in some way helped Legacy Hills solidify its gospel footing in the city. Some of those churches have sent volunteers to Celina, sending missions teams and financial support. Others have taken up offerings at their own vacation Bible schools and sent the proceeds to Legacy Hills so it could host its own outreaches to kids. Still others have committed to pray weekly, asking God to bless the gospel work happening there.

The results have been tangible.

“The majority of families that are now deeply involved with Legacy Hills have come through community events, camps, and outreaches that our partners have helped with,” Welch said. “Our partners were the first to share the gospel with their children. Many of our families are literally the result of the opportunities that our partners helped us create.”

New Beginnings Baptist Church in Longview is Legacy Hills’ sending church. George Willis, NBBC’s pastor of missions, said the relationship has been mutually beneficial to the kingdom.

“We believe in equipping and empowering members of our congregation,” Willis said. “We want them to understand their kingdom platform, their giftings. So when we partner with other church planters, they get the opportunity to see what it looks like to be part of kingdom growth all over. If we just stayed here in East Texas, it would be a disservice to the church to not be utilizing our people to be sent out and serve all over the world.”

Added Todd Kaunitz, New Beginnings’ lead pastor/elder: “We believe the church is the number one vehicle God is using to take the gospel to the world … so everything we do with our missions ministry is aimed toward either partnering to strengthen [existing] churches or to plant churches—whether that’s in East Texas, East Africa, or in Celina. … This is about the kingdom of God, so whatever we can do to expand the kingdom, we want to be all in.”

That mindset, Welch said, reaffirms what he believes the SBTC is all about.

“It’s not just about one church or one kind of church,” Welch said. “The mission that God has called us to cannot be done by one church. The mission Jesus has called His church to is accomplished by churches of every shape and size working side by side to accomplish one singular mission.”

Fostering strong partners

Churches forge special relationship that benefits residents in two areas

When an established church partners with a plant, conventional wisdom says the younger church reaps most of the benefits. Old River Baptist Church in Dayton and Cross Community Church in Houston are working together to show that the benefits can flow both directions.

The relationship between the two churches originated in the friendship between their pastors. Old River’s Wes Hinote said he and Cross Community planter Del Traffanstedt have known each other for years—“through pastor circles”—dating back to when Traffanstedt served an Odessa congregation.

“We knew each other through Southern Baptists of Texas Convention pastor retreats, and today, our two congregations are within an hour of each other,” Traffanstedt noted.

When Hinote came to Old River seven years ago, he found a loving congregation primed to adopt a missional focus. He recognized an opportunity when he learned of Cross Community.

“When Del planted Cross Community in an underserved area of Houston, I was able to speak with my congregation about the needs,” Hinote recalled.

Old River began financially supporting Cross Community. When the urban church’s vibrant English as a Second Language program encountered problems through the loss of its curriculum provider, Old River stepped in to assist.

“They were caught off guard,” Hinote said. “I got wind that they were having problems and told Del, ‘Hey, this is what we are here for. What do we need to do to make sure ESL doesn’t take a step back?’”

Cross Community’s ESL outreach (pictured below) is a vital part of its ministry. The program was started only six months after the church launched. The ESL ministry attracted more students than anticipated to its multi-semester Wednesday evening program which incorporates Bible stories and prayer. Now more than 70 participate. Nearly half attend the church and several have joined.

But the loss of their curriculum provider threatened to disrupt all that. Students pay a nominal fee for the course, affirming dignity but not covering the $180 per person cost.

“We count on our church partners to subsidize that cost. Our students cannot afford the whole amount. Our church plant in an urban area cannot afford it. We need churches like Old River to come alongside us,” Traffanstedt said. “Wes and his church pray for us and help fund ESL.”

Recently, Cross Community began playing an important role in its sister church’s new family ministry.

It began when a church family, who had both fostered and adopted children, came to Hinote about starting FAM, or Family Advocacy Ministry, at ORBC. Hinote immediately thought of Traffanstedt, who also had fostered and adopted children.

“We have fostered 10 children and adopted three,” Traffanstedt said, adding that he had started family ministries at two previous churches in addition to Cross Community.

“We were able to coach the family and Old River’s lead volunteers,” Traffanstedt said. “We prayed for them and recommended resources from the North American Mission Board.”

“The first call I made was to Del and [wife] Charmaine to pick their brains,” Hinote recalled when the family in his church approached him. “Cross Community was a big help. It’s all part of the blessing of being part of a mission that is not your own. Our SBTC churches have a lot to offer one another. Size doesn’t matter. Location doesn’t matter. Mission matters.”

Giving their best in the worst of times

Spring Baptist Church has become a ‘go-to’ when it comes to helping others following disasters

When Hurricane Beryl slammed into Southeast Texas in early July, Spring Baptist Church was already prepared to work side by side with Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Disaster Relief and its partners to serve survivors.

This wasn’t the church’s first hurricane.

“Hurricane Harvey [in 2017] was terrible, but Beryl was in some ways worse, with extensive tree damage,” said Spring Baptist Church Pastor Mark Estep. “Because of Harvey, we were ready to help.”

In Harvey’s immediate aftermath, the church converted an unused building into a laundry facility through a chain of events that saw God’s provision of skilled workers and materials. An electrician and plumber “happened by” to offer their services free of charge, and then seven washers and dryers were donated.

“God provided a laundromat within a few hours,” Estep said. Soon after, the church added four RV slips with electricity and sewer hookups to serve DR trailers, bunkhouses, and mobile command posts.

Church members were trained, as well. Spring Baptist has 50 credentialed SBTC DR volunteers among its members. Just about all of them pitched in during Beryl.

Like many SBTC churches, Spring Baptist is a “go-to” church when disaster strikes nearby, SBTC DR Director Scottie Stice said.

“During Beryl, they housed teams, provided a kitchen, made their laundry facility available,” Stice said, adding that Spring Baptist maintains a quick-response unit mobile kitchen and a recovery unit which are “very active.” Southern Baptist DR teams are housed in the church’s renovated youth building, to which showers and bathrooms were added after Harvey.

“It’s not like home, but we want to make volunteers comfortable,” Estep said. The church even erected a new pole barn to store SBTC DR trailers and equipment plus a church bus.

During the six weeks after Beryl, Spring Baptist received over 380 requests for help with downed trees, said Jason Mayfield, the church’s associate pastor. “SBTC DR responded with SBDR cleanup and recovery teams from Texas, Georgia, Florida, and Tennessee.” Teams completed 121 jobs, with the remaining requests handled by others. Five salvations occurred among survivors and many gospel conversations ensued.

“SBTC DR is not only a blessing to our whole church, but to our whole community,” Mayfield said.

“I don’t know what we would do without the SBDR teams coming here. They minister in such a powerful way. They are the hands and feet of Jesus,” Estep said. “It’s not just talk with them.”

Estep explained that he, too, has been a beneficiary of DR ministry.

As Beryl’s winds raged, Estep and his young grandson sat in a recliner, watching a tree in the yard whipping back and forth until a huge branch broke off and burst through a large plate glass living room window.

“It sounded like a shotgun,” Estep said. DR crews helped secure the window, temporarily sealing the void where the glass had been.

That assistance “meant the world to us,” Estep said. “When you are victimized during a disaster, you realize how important DR is.”

Several hurricanes and serious storms have pummeled the Spring area since Estep arrived as pastor in 1997. Working with SBTC DR, Estep’s staff and congregation embrace the opportunity to minister to survivors.

“God knows we are a church that is going to help,” Estep said. “It’s in our DNA.”

I’ll see you in Houston

One of my favorite events of the year is our Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Annual Meeting. It is such a joy to be with pastors and leaders from across Texas. Every year, we have an incredible time of prayer, worship, preaching, and a little business. I love our annual meeting.

This year’s meeting is being held at Sagemont Church in Houston on Nov. 11-12. Our theme is “Side by Side,” from Philippians 1:27. As you know, ministry can be challenging. Events like our annual meeting remind us we don’t have to do it alone. We have a network of churches serving alongside one another to see Texas changed by the power of the gospel.

I want to encourage you to set these two days aside and make it a priority to attend. You will be refreshed and encouraged as you worship with other pastors and leaders. There will be plenty of networking opportunities around meals or coffee to connect with friends new and old. You will also hear great stories of how God is moving across our state. I will continue to expand on our vision of mobilizing churches to multiply disciple-making movements in Texas and around the world. You don’t want to miss it!

As we gather, I would ask you to pray the Lord would use these two days as a catalyst for the gospel’s advancement in Texas. Lostness in our state is rampant, and we have the answer in Jesus. Pray the Lord would capture our hearts and minds as we come together to give us a fresh sense of urgency and unity in our mission as a network of churches.

You can register on our website at sbtexas.com/am24. I hope to see you there and be a source of encouragement to you. I love you and am honored to serve you. I look forward to seeing you in Houston.