Month: April 2025

Five minutes with T.J. Lewis

T.J. Lewis has spent 25 years in student ministry, the last eight as youth pastor at Lake Church in Arlington. “I love Jesus, the state of Texas, baseball, smoking meat, Christmas, reviewing movies, and the nachos at the various student events I attend,” Lewis says. He added that it’s possible he created the bacon-wrapped Oreo 15 years ago, a Father’s Day tradition at the church. T.J. and his wife, Bekah, have three teenage children.

What victory has the student ministry at Lake Church been able to celebrate lately?

The coolest victory we’ve gotten to celebrate in the last year has been our students’ increased involvement in missions. It’s the most important thing I can lead a teenager to do besides sharing their faith here at home. Last year, 70 youth went on a mission trip. This year, we’re set to take 85 through five different trips. I’m thrilled they’re catching the Great Commission and ready to go! I’m also overjoyed about how many kids are not only bringing their hardcover Bibles to church, but actively taking notes each week.

What’s one thing you are praying will happen over the next year among the youth?

My prayer for my students remains the same every day and year: I desperately want them to love, know, and follow Jesus. If they do, all the other things fall into place.

What’s something surprising you have learned about this generation of students?

The number of teens who don’t want their drivers licenses at age 16 continues to grow. That’s been an interesting trend in the last decade. Several have been honest and told me, “Why would I drive when I can sit in the back seat on my phone?” Others have said they’re genuinely nervous to drive—understandable when you live in [the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex]. Nonetheless, it’s been fascinating watching this pattern continue.

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

The task of a shepherd is the same, regardless of how old your flock is. I’m called to teach my group to obey all of Jesus’ commandments and help them see the beauty of how doing that together with a church family is so much better and easier. The Spirit of God is just as powerful and excited to do the work in and through students as He is doing in and through adults. … I’ve got the best gig in the kingdom.

How can SBTC churches be praying for your ministry?

Short-term prayer is easy: We start our big biennial six-week biblical sex series in late April. I’ve been doing this for a long time, but it takes no less wisdom and grace to do that set of messages well. A long-term prayer would be for unity. We have students from 31 different schools in our group. It’s awesome and awful. My team and I are working continually to keep track of all of them and be involved in their world, but we’re also trying to help them really know and love one another. That’s tricky when they usually only meet eye to eye on Sunday and Wednesday.

Texan Q&A w/ Drew Humphrey: ‘The garden from which everything else grows’

New SBTC collegiate mobilizer says his ministry was transformed when he doubled down on two things

Drew Humphrey is no stranger to ministry. The son of a Baptist minister, Humphrey gave his life to Christ at age 9, spent many of his formative years singing and playing instruments as part of his church’s worship service, and answered God’s call to ministry at age 17. Though he’s held a variety of ministry positions, God has given Humphrey a particular passion for collegiate and young adult ministry. He recently spoke with the Texan about his new role as collegiate mobilizer for the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, the value of the annual Roundup conference, and the realization that changed the course of his own collegiate ministry.

How would you describe your role with the SBTC?

Drew Humphrey: The main calling I sense is twofold. It’s resourcing and equipping college ministries and young adult ministries to grow in healthiness and effectiveness, and the other part is to help them develop a sending pipeline. Really, the most sendable people in our state are the 18- to 25-year-olds. One of my goals is to help college ministries reignite some of the missional sending opportunities, leveraging spring break, summers, and graduation to be times of sending.

Based on your experience, what do you want churches to know about the importance of investing in collegiate ministry?

DH: I think churches sometimes struggle to see the kingdom impact college ministries have on the future of the church. I truly believe churches that want to have a strong kids ministry and a strong youth ministry should also invest in having a strong college ministry, because that’s a great place to develop volunteers who can help support and disciple and minister to those kids and younger adults. There are many churches that do see and understand this, that see college ministry not as a side ministry but an integral part of what we’re trying to do holistically.

You began serving as the college pastor at Highland Baptist Church in Waco in 2016. You saw many instances of God moving during that time, but you’ve also said you felt like something was missing. What was it that God impressed on you through that experience?

DH: I had been the college pastor for about six or seven years at Highland, and we had been doing a lot of great ministry, but it was not a prayer-centered ministry. There were a couple of events that God used to really start gripping my heart for prayer, in my personal life but also in ministry. One was the Collegiate Coaching Network put on by the North American Mission Board. The other was [the SBTC’s Collegiate Roundup]. At Roundup in 2023, we were doing tear-sheet exercises and charting some of the most central things we do in our ministries—whether that’s small groups or mission trips or weekly meetings or whatever else.

As we were doing that, we would assess the impact those things were having, and the Lord really led me into a new vision statement for our ministry based on Acts 6:4, where the apostles were described as being devoted to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. Those two things started to mark everything we were doing. If I couldn’t connect [what we were doing as a ministry] back to being devoted to prayer and to the ministry of the Word, I was going to probably de-emphasize it—even if it meant undoing things we’d been doing for years. I started preaching about prayer more, and then we would host prayer events more on-campus, weekly prayer meetings. Nobody pushed back on it because I think everybody felt the same thing, like, “This is right. We’re not praying enough. I’m not praying enough.”

If you want to grow in evangelism or salvations or baptisms or discipleship, all of that really grows out of the healthy soil of prayer.

—Drew Humphrey Tweet

How did that pivot impact the ministry?

DH: Over the last three years, we went from seeing fewer than 10 students a week in prayer meetings to anywhere between 150 to 200. That was a huge shift in terms of our weekly rhythms. We still have weekly small groups, and they serve in various ways in our church, but prayer has basically become a weekly rhythm for about 200 students.

I think the Lord has shown me that prayer is the garden from which everything else grows in the life of our ministry. If you want to grow in evangelism or salvations or baptisms or discipleship, all of that really grows out of the healthy soil of prayer. We baptize every Sunday. We recently had nine baptisms in one day—and that’s not strange anymore. I think over the last 14 months we’ve had 150 baptisms. I think that’s due, in great part, to the emphasis on prayer. There’s a deeper heart for the lost, and our students have self-organized and coordinate weekly outreach groups. They go out on campus and pray together for 15 or 20 minutes and then spread out and start to engage people in spiritual conversations. They ask people how they can pray for them or they invite them to church. All of that grew out of that garden of prayer and budded into something fruitful and healthy.

You’ve benefitted from the SBTC’s annual Collegiate Roundup. Why is this event so valuable to collegiate ministries and leaders?

DH: It’s a great way to network with other college ministers. Building friendships, getting prayer support, brainstorming, and all those kinds of things are really important. We have lead pastors, church planters, college leaders, and missionaries literally from all over the continent coming to Roundup to equip us. There are main teaching sessions and breakouts where you get to choose areas of your ministry you want to emphasize. Another thing I think is really helpful is the collaborative moments when we do tear-sheet exercises so you can workshop your ministry. Those kinds of opportunities are guided by collegiate coaching experts who help you take a lap around the car and assess what’s working and what’s not. That’s hard to do when you’re on your church campus or in your office and trying to get ready for the next sermon you’re going to preach or lesson you’re going to teach. This is for college ministers, leadership teams, and staff, but it’s also for lead pastors or anybody on a church staff trying to grow a collegiate or young adult ministry. Roundup allows you to pull up out of all the ministry fog and busyness to evaluate and get equipped.

Looking to attend Roundup 2025? Find out more about Roundup 2025, scheduled for May 14-16.

No fear!

Sharing with people that they are sinners and need to repent takes boldness. Instead of obeying the Lord and faithfully sharing His gospel, we often make excuses and decide we will not say anything or simply say a silent prayer for them and hope perhaps God will send someone else to be His witness. Fear of failure and fear of rejection have kept many would-be witnesses quiet.

Let’s talk about fear for a minute. God has not given the Christian a spirit of fear, but just the opposite. As 2 Timothy 1:7 states, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” When we are fearful, we are not powerful, loving, or thinking correctly. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:57, “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

One of the seminars I attended at the Empower Conference in February was led by Pastor Levi Skipper. Levi is the senior pastor at Sagemont Church in Houston, and God is pouring out His favor and blessings upon the church and Levi’s ministry. He encouraged our group and motivated us to be ambassadors for God, inviting others to be reconciled to Him (2 Corinthians 5:20).

The title of his message was “No Sweat Evangelism.” When Levi was only 5 years old, his best buddy, his older brother, died from brain cancer at age 7. As you can imagine, it was a very hard time for Levi. He said he can remember having questions about life and death from an early age. Levi accepted the Lord Jesus as his Savior as a child, and he started immediately telling his classmates in school about Jesus.

“Fear of failure and fear of rejection have kept many would-be witnesses quiet.”

Danny Forshee Tweet

He said evangelism is simple but not easy. I agree. The devil will attack and seek to discourage us in any way he can to stop us from obeying Jesus and witnessing to others. But praise God, Jesus is greater than the devil!

Levi’s four points were:

1. Own your role as a missionary.

2. Choose to be super intentional.

3. Develop evangelistic curiosity.

4. Show them what you are telling them.

What if we obeyed the Lord and did what Levi has taught us to do? What if we realized the person who is meant to share Jesus with my neighbor is me? What if we woke up each day asking God to help us be intentional and share His good news? What if we developed a genuine curiosity about the people God puts in our paths and we actually ask them what the cross they are wearing or the tattoo on their body means? And what if we clearly presented the gospel to the lost using simple visuals or illustrations like the bridge analogy? What would happen would be a lot of people coming into the kingdom of God.

My favorite Christian contemporary song currently is John Reddick’s, “No Fear.” Google it, turn up the volume, and be blessed. He reminds the follower of Jesus that the devil has no power over our lives, our families, future, or any other part of us. Jesus reigns, and so we have no fear!

Couple finds common threads as they minister to multiple generations ranging from newborns to young adults

Andrea and Jay Hancock know kids.

Not only are they the parents of three adult children, but they also have ministered to multiple generations of young people at Parkway Hills Baptist Church over the last decade. The Hancocks say every generation, from preschoolers to youth to Gen Z and beyond, longs for the same thing: truth.

Andrea, PHBC weekday education minister, oversees the church’s preschool for kids ages 12 months to 5 years. It’s her 10th year in the role. About a third of the students are from Parkway Hills families; more than half attend area churches; 5% are unchurched.

“I work a lot with young kids and even more so with their parents and families,” she said, adding with a smile, “I don’t know when I’ll graduate.”

Jay, a software consultant, volunteers with the student ministry and is also involved with the PHBC Sunday preschool department.

In addition to these tasks, the couple just started a new life group for young single professionals on Thursday evenings in their home.

“That’s my older group I get to work with. Probably many of them will be the age of a lot of the parents of our preschoolers,” Andrea said.

Layers of ministry frequently intersect at Parkway Hills.

“There’s a lot of bleeding over among the generations at Parkway Hills,” Andrea said. “I work with preschool, but their parents are in their late 20s and early 30s. Then we have the new life group with young adults about the same age. … At our church, the generations intermingle a lot. We know all the families and their kids. There is a natural outpouring of opportunity to [do multigenerational ministry].”

“At our church, the generations intermingle a lot. We know all the families and their kids. There is a natural outpouring of opportunity to [do multigenerational ministry].”

—Andrea Hancock Tweet

‘Serious about their walk’

At their prior church, Jay taught adult classes and life groups. When they moved to Parkway Hills, student ministry became “the door the Lord opened.” Jay thought, “Why not?” Intending to help for a season, he has been doing it for 10 years.

“I never looked back. It has been the biggest blessing,” he said.

Three years ago, he saw another need and added working in preschool Sunday school to his list. “You go where the need is and you can expect a blessing to follow,” he said. Blessings have indeed followed as he has moved up with his original class of 3-year-olds who are now kindergarteners.

He also continues teaching the high school seniors he started discipling when they were sixth graders. Jay and Cy Casto, PHBC student and outreach pastor, co-lead the church’s high school guys life group on Wednesday nights.

“One of the church’s five faith habits is living in biblical community,” Jay noted. “There is a lot of connectedness among the people we serve and serve with.” A leader with whom Jay works in youth ministry has a child in Jay’s kindergarten Sunday school class, for example.

Even the new singles life group—actually more of a restart—is connected to a group Jay helped found earlier. As some members married and had families, dynamics changed, calling for a new class. Since many singles attending also serve Sundays at the church, the decision to meet on a weeknight made sense.

Fifteen are on the life group roll now, and the Hancocks said friends are welcome, too. Each Thursday gathering begins with a shared meal, followed by Bible study and prayer.

“If we could outgrow our home, that would be a good problem to have,” Andrea said, adding that the life group members have expressed a desire to engage in a deep study of Scripture.

“They want to really dig into the Word, grasp grace and truth in the context of the Bible,” Jay added.

Young adults want to know how to live in this world as Christians while making an impact, Andrea said. “The life group members are serious about their walk. They want to mature in their faith,” she said.

Truth as the backbone

The need to convey truth is not limited to adults.

“The need for truth is across the board. All ages need this,” Andrea said.

The revelation of truth forms the core of multigenerational ministry, the Hancocks said. Whether ministering to small children or 30-somethings, teachers must be concerned with imparting truth to those whose identity is in Christ and who find themselves pushing against culture.

“Preschoolers are different from kids about to leave for college,” Jay said. With young children, you have the “opportunity to make deposits in their spiritual bank at their young age.”

With preschool ministry, the impact may seem small, the results not apparent for a long time, but teachers can pour into young lives and be part of making disciples, Jay continued, adding, “After all, Charles Spurgeon was 3 years old once.”

“With young children, so much is about time. … It’s making time [for families] to be in community … to be in church,” Andrea said. “Time is limited. Being with fellow believers can give wisdom on how to live in this world and raise kids amid social media and other pressures.”

As kids age, introducing teenagers to Jesus in a true and authentic way becomes the heart of youth ministry, Jay said. “It’s easy for students in high school to love the youth pastor, the activities. It’s fun. Fun just happens. But if they don’t love Jesus, that’s when you hear the stories of young people falling away in college.”

“One of the church’s five faith habits is living in biblical community,. There is a lot of connectedness among the people we serve and serve with."

—Jay Hancock Tweet

The joy of community

Imparting truth while living in community motivates the Hancocks to keep going in their late 50s.

Jay knows his time to serve has an expiration date. “I don’t know how many more years I will be able to go on student trips, sleep in cabins in a sleeping bag, attend the fall youth leader retreat,” he mused, even as he mentioned a student mission trip to Ecuador he is scheduled to go on this year.

For Andrea, the motivation to minister also stems from the fact she did not grow up in a Christian home. “All that I missed, I don’t want these kids to miss,” she said.

To avoid burnout, they do say no occasionally. But serving kids is their main purpose and chief mission now that their own children are grown.

“We don’t take trips. We are not travelers,” Andrea said. “This fills our cup rather than drains our cup. We enjoy all the relationships in church.

“Community is a joyful thing.”

For Peoples, passion for special needs equipping ministry is personal

When Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Ph.D. student Sandra Peoples recognized God’s call to ministry in her life as a teenager, she knew it was a call to discipleship and specifically women’s ministry. Little did she know at the time that God would use the special needs ministry of her family’s church to shape her calling.

Peoples was born in Oklahoma and grew up going to First Baptist Church in Duncan, where she was part of the fourth generation in her family that had been faithful members, volunteers, and leaders in the church.

Peoples recalls praying in her bedroom when she was seven years old with her mother, confessing her sins and her need for Jesus. From that early age, Peoples said she “saw the importance of plugging in and being part of a church family and serving with our gifts.”

While still a teenager, Peoples began to have the opportunity to use her gifts to help lead Bible studies for other girls and was also mentored by youth and children’s leaders. But while she was being invested in by other women, Peoples said the church had another lasting impact on her life in how they cared for her family and specifically her sister Sybil, who had Down syndrome.

Peoples said their church provided disability programs that supported her family as well as four other families. Of those families, Peoples said four of them now have siblings of the special needs members serving in full-time ministry.

“I just think about how if that church hadn’t accepted Sybil and welcomed her, then I couldn’t have attended either, and that really would have changed our family for generations, potentially,” Peoples said. “It certainly would have made it harder for us to love Jesus and love the church. So that church was a real gift to my family and to the families that attended.”

Peoples attended Hardin-Simmons for her undergraduate, taught for a year in Dallas, and then went to Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, where she met and married her husband Lee and had their first son. She was pregnant with their second son when she graduated with her Master of Divinity in Women’s Studies in 2007.

Upon graduating, Peoples began to lead women’s Bible studies and disciple other believers while her husband pastored. But in 2010, while they were living in Pennsylvania, their son James was diagnosed with autism, and they realized that the small church they were a part of, and many other Baptist churches in the nation, did not have programs and resources in place that would help their family and other special needs families. While she had grown up in a special needs family and in a church that supported families such as theirs, Peoples faced the realization that not all churches had that available to the congregation.

“What I had kind of taken for granted growing up wasn’t available to me as a mom,” Peoples said, adding that reality led to her “wanting to make churches more accessible and inclusive.”

Peoples’s husband spent time pastoring in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, and for the past 10 years in the Houston area, where Lee has pastored Heights Baptist Church in Alvin, Texas, for eight years. At each church, Peoples and her family helped create programs that would ensure their son and others could receive the discipleship opportunities they needed.

In 2021, she began working for the Southern Baptist of Texas Convention (SBTC) as their disability ministry consultant, SBTC being the first Baptist state convention to have that position, working closely with and for Karen Kennemur, Southwestern’s professor of children’s ministry and children’s and family ministry associate with the SBTC.

In working with the SBTC, Peoples has the opportunity to travel and provide training, visiting churches and assessing what their needs are as they provide a place for families with special needs to worship and fellowship.

In 2022, Peoples decided to continue her education at Southwestern as a Ph.D. student with Kennemur as her supervisor.

“When I thought about getting my PhD, Southwestern was at the top of my list,” Peoples said, adding the online options were especially a blessing. “… I love the family ministry and generational studies area. It fits so well with my passion of inclusion for special needs families. So it really was just the perfect fit at the perfect time.”

Peoples said she has enjoyed the family ministry degree program at Southwestern, which has led her to look at her own experiences through a biblical lens, asking questions such as what discipleship looked like in the early church and the Old Testament, and to consider how families might have participated in the church.

“All of that has been really interesting to think through and then apply to our context,” Peoples said, adding she has enjoyed her classes and learning with her classmates.

Peoples said her Southwestern education has also helped her as she teaches classes at Liberty University on disability ministry, leading her to look at that ministry as discipleship for the entire family.

“We’re not just talking about programs for a kid with disabilities; we’re really talking about holistic discipleship, and how a church welcoming somebody with a disability allows their entire family to attend,” Peoples said.

Using her experiences of training churches, consulting with the SBTC, teaching at Liberty, and even joining churches that did not have resources available to her own family, Peoples authored Accessible Church: A Gospel-Centered Vision for Including People with Disabilities and Their Families, set for a July 1 release through Crossway.

Peoples said the catalyst for the book was hearing from so many churches asking the same questions about disability ministry and believing “that they’re starting from scratch because there just aren’t a lot of resources out there.”

The book looks at elements of disability ministry, including how it fits with other ministries of the church, how to disciple an individual with disabilities, and how to make the proclamation of the Gospel priority in that ministry. Specifically, Peoples said her studies at Southwestern led her to write the book focusing on ministering to the entire family, not just in the children’s ministry or to the individual with a disability.

“How do we support the whole family in our churches?” Peoples said of what sets her book apart from others. “And then how do we make sure that we’re building ministries that meet people with disabilities at every age and stage, because we don’t want the inclusion to end when they’re done with children’s ministry, or even done with youth, next-gen ministry.”

Peoples said this book is to help churches of all sizes, but that it is also more than just a how-to book as it looks at the theology of disability and what the Scriptures say about disabilities. She said leaders of any area of church ministry could benefit from the information.

In her studies at Southwestern, her writing, and her teaching, Peoples said “my goal is always just to help churches, [to] do that however I can as a pastor’s wife and as a consultant and as a professor, all these ways. The goal is just to make churches stronger and to help them, especially as they reach special needs families and people with disabilities.”

God uses small churches to do big things

God has promised that we have a mission field. That’s what I think small churches forget, that God gave them a mission field. We tend to jump to, “Let’s go overseas,” instead of going across the street to talk to your neighbors. I think every church has to ask, “God, how can we serve for Your glory, at the size that we are, to the community You planted us in?”

I came to pastor Wildwood Baptist Church in Mesquite 11 years ago. Our church needed to find its mission field. We were financially weak and small in numbers. By the time I’d been there two years, we’d cut 40% from our budget to make things add up.

One of the things we noticed, and even complained about, were the kids walking through our neighborhood all the time. Sometimes they would mess with stuff at the church, or they’d get into areas they weren’t supposed to. The Lord laid on my heart, instead of seeing those kids as a nuisance, why not see them as a mission field? I didn’t know what the Lord would do with that until He laid on my heart a way for us to be involved in our schools.

Through Alex [Gonzales, the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention’s regional catalyst for Dallas/Fort Worth] I learned about Kids Beach Club [an evangelistic program for elementary school kids], and we decided to start with that, stepping through an open door and doing what we could. We also wanted a presence in the middle school and the high school, but we started with Beach Club nine years ago. We’ve seen more than 100 kids saved through that ministry.

We have connected with families in our community. Some of them have joined our church. Our church isn’t big—50 to 80 people—but we’ve been able to minister to those families.

About five years ago, the Lord opened a door for us to get into the high school. Mesquite High School hired a new head football coach. I found out it was a guy I had gone to high school with, so I contacted him to congratulate him and ask how we might serve the football program. He said, “Well, we need extra nutritional offset—food, Gatorade, things like that.” Our church wasn’t able to provide that, so I started making calls to a few benevolence ministries. Through those, we started weekly deliveries of food for the athletic programs and the student athletes.

That developed into them asking me to speak weekly to the football team, and then to be the team chaplain. It all developed organically and by God’s grace and providence. Fellowship of Christian Athletes came along afterward, since I was doing everything they wanted a “character coach” to do, and said, “If you come under our umbrella, you can be under our insurance and access some additional resources.” That has been a blessing.

The principals now ask me to speak at a few events. Sometimes I’m invited to speak to the teachers before the school year starts. I’m just referred to as “Pastor Rick” on campus, and I go to all their football games, trying to provide resources when students or families are in need.

It was a couple of years ago that we were able to start doing FCA at Agnew Middle School. We began there with about 30 kids, and that has grown to more like 250 participating in FCA at Agnew.

I think God prepared me for this ministry. In addition to being a high school football player, God brought me up in a tough background. We were so poor we hauled water for drinking and washing from a pond when I was a kid. My dad also had serious drug abuse problems. But it was seeing him saved and changed that led me to follow Christ when I was 17.

In all of that stuff growing up, now I look back and I thank the Lord for it because it has given me a heart and compassion for people in difficult situations. I am able to look past the symptoms and expressions of their anger, frustration, and struggles they’re going through, especially our school ministries—those kids do some wild stuff. I mean, some of these kids will cuss you up one side and down the other—they’re very difficult. They have operational and oppositional defiance disorders. But to have an adult in their life to say, “Hey, it’s not acceptable to act that way, but I’m still going to love you and you still get to be a part,” that’s radical for some of these kids.

Now we have a church full of people who love to serve, and they love to look for ways we can bless our community. Some of the people who are our most faithful volunteers and servers within the church have been reached through these ministries to the schools.

I’ve learned a couple of things. The first is to not make assumptions about people, positive or negative, based on externals. Everybody has to go through life. Everybody goes through the good and the bad. Everybody has hard things they’re worried about. The second is that God uses small churches—churches like ours.

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

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Why pastors should practice favoritism

Early in my first pastorate, I was advised to avoid favoritism by treating all my church members exactly the same. It took me several years to root this ministry myth out of my system.

Like any myth, there is a seed of truth within it. The dark side of favoritism is when injustice or prejudice stains a relationship. God’s children are forbidden to play favorites based on wealth, power, or appearance (Exodus 23:3, James 2). God does not show favoritism when He rewards or punishes us (Acts 10:34, Romans 2:11, Galatians 2:6).

Isolation is the dark side of favoritism that pastors must come to terms with or risk finishing their ministry poorly, if at all. We are called to prioritize some relationships by investing ourselves more intentionally into them. I propose that every pastor should practice favoritism with these three groups.

Family

For a decade, I was the pastor of my wife, her parents, and our two children. Your family members are your most important church members and should never have to wonder where they stand with you. While the rest of the world tries to figure out their work/life balance, we are not left with an option to fail here (1 Timothy 3).

Pastors need to sometimes practice favoritism at home. Our wives also do not need to compete with our parents, which is why Moses and Jesus told us to leave them (Genesis 2:24, Mark 10:7-8). This same principle applies to our kids. Jesus and my wife, Janet, are the king and queen of my life and everyone else needs to get in line behind them.

Friends

There are still too many pastors who are convinced they should not befriend church members because of a fear of favoritism. Although I concede there are risks to church friendships, my experience teaches me the danger of isolation far exceeds that risk.

For example, I recently celebrated my birthday with a house full of former church members. We laughed and cried together past midnight as we recounted fond and funny memories. Your call to ministry is not a sentence to solitary confinement for you or your spouse, so take a risk and let some of them into your inner circle.

Leaders

Wash their feet, kick their pants, but don’t ignore or neglect your staff. I have made that mistake too many times. Jesus often sequestered His disciples from the crowds to eat, worship, teach, encourage, or send on specific ministry assignments (Mark 3:13-14).

When the apostles were overwhelmed with the tsunami of souls at Pentecost, God sent a special ops unit of laymen who successfully helped history’s first Christian church avoid a split. They became commonly known as deacons. Deacons, elders, teachers, and other key leaders are part of God’s personal growth strategy for the pastor, who still needs to devote himself to prayer and the ministry of the Word. They are also part of your life, so love them like the sacred siblings they are. Prioritize your time with the leaders who serve on the frontlines of a holy war with you.

Love every person God puts into your path without the bias of prejudicial favoritism. Also, be intentional about who God has surrounded you with so you won’t marginalize those He has prioritized for your good.

What’s next after nearly a year stranded in space? For astronaut, a church elders meeting

PASADENA, Texas (BP)—Barry Wilmore attended his first elders meeting in nearly a year at Providence Baptist Church on April 10. His absence was understandable.

Wilmore, known by many as “Butch,” had an unexpected extended stay at the International Space Station after the Boeing Starliner carrying himself and fellow astronaut Suni Williams developed issues docking with the ISS. Their plight and return home last month became worldwide news.

In speaking with media outlet after media outlet, Wilmore’s faith also received an astronomical stage. For him, though, it’s nothing more than a matter of obedience.

“If you’re a true believer, you’re directed by a Holy God who draws us to His Word and teaches us,” said Wilmore, who had joined fellow Providence member Tracy Dyson aboard the ISS. “My experience may not be common to people. But perseverance and knowing God is in control is really the focus for every situation in life.”

To quote an ‘80s icon, life comes at you fast. Wilmore experienced that 250 miles above the earth, and his faith helped him deal with intense, second-by-second situations.

“Jesus should be everything, all-encompassing,” Wilmore told Baptist Press. “If you are born again as part of the redeemed, then trust Him and His direction.

“We have to deal with life as it comes at us. How we handle it, comes a lot from the Word.”

No small details

There are parallels to his experiences in space and as an elder, lessons for anyone claiming to follow Christ.

“The battles are not won in the battle alone. They are won in preparation,” Wilmore told BP.

Decades of practice and training go into the systems, jet structures and innumerable other aspects of space missions. But then, something happens. Things don’t work together the way they should.

That is when the thousands of hours in a simulator—like Wilmore accumulated, often early on Saturday mornings—come into play. You don’t only sharpen a knife right before you need it, and the time an engineer spends examining data in his or her office becomes a matter of life or death.

“There are no small details. They all matter,” said Wilmore. “I’ve had enough experiences that prove it time and again.”

There is a correlation with church leadership such as the elders’ meetings at Providence. They last as long as necessary and are scheduled for the last Thursday of the month. But others, like last week’s, take place as needed.

“Barry is an action guy,” said Tommy Dahn, who is in the process of transitioning out as pastor after founding the church 25 years ago. His successor is the other staff member among the elder group.

“We missed him for those nine months. He’ll poke and prod where others don’t,” he said. “He definitely brings another level of intensity with his background.

“Barry is always thinking through things and developing a plan. There is never a wasted minute.”

Wilmore said being back with his fellow elders last Thursday was “rich” and “wonderful.”

“We talked about a lot of things, primarily about shepherding the flock,” he said. “We talked about how people get into situations over which they have no control. I know something about that.”

A perfect life

His house had some deferred maintenance. Wilmore’s brother and dad helped him do some foundation work recently—pulling out some shrubs and painting the front and back porch to get ready for his daughter’s high school graduation party.

He missed volleyball season but was thankful to see her off to the prom last Friday night.

“I should’ve gotten a haircut,” he groused about pictures with her.

Now with 464 total days in space over three missions, he is willing to complete another. It’s who God created him to be, but not the only thing.

“There are many lines of work,” he said. “The world needs Jesus; it needs biblical truth. The Word is the only place to get it, as it guides us to truly know hope. If you’re not living that, ensconced in it, then when things happen failure is imminent.

“We had a mantra when I was selected as an astronaut—‘Know everything and perform it well.’ It’s the goal to be perfect, but we can’t attain that in the flesh. Through the eyes of God, though, it’s not about perfection but direction.”

While at the ISS, Wilmore viewed livestreamed services from Providence as well as Grace Baptist Church in his hometown of Mt. Juliet, Tenn., where he is friends with Pastor Alan Herd and where Wilmore’s childhood best friend is an elder.

Dahn remembers Wilmore coming to the church 17 years ago, an obviously intelligent guy who was humble enough to tell them “he didn’t know what he didn’t know.”

Many know him as one of those astronauts who was stuck in space. His church knows him as a leader, a guy who is very involved in others’ lives.

A year ago, Wilmore was preparing for what was supposed to be a nine-day trip to the ISS. He was also spending time with a senior adult in his final days, not only watching Providence’s worship services with him at times, but also handling his business matters to the end.

“That’s who he is,” said Dahn. “He looks for needs and works to meet them. He’s everywhere.”

Crossover 25: Southern Baptists mobilizing to engage Dallas with gospel

DALLAS—Organizers of Crossover 25 are urging Southern Baptists nationwide to pray as preparations ramp up for this year’s evangelistic outreach on June 2-8.

Held annually in the host city of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Annual Meeting, Crossover brings churches together to share the gospel with residents during the week before the Annual Meeting.

This year, organizers are asking Southern Baptists to begin praying now — that God would prepare hearts to hear and respond to the good news of Jesus in the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area.

“Around this time, the enemy tries to distract or discourage pastors — telling them they don’t have the bandwidth or capacity,” said J.J. Washington, the national director of personal evangelism at the North American Mission Board (NAMB). “Pray specifically for churches and the communities where the gospel will be presented, that the Lord would move and prepare hearts.”

Southern Baptists have hosted Crossover annually since 1989. NAMB co-sponsors the effort alongside local Baptist associations and churches. SBC churches from Dallas, Rockwall, Denton, Collin, Hunt, Kaufman, Ellis, Johnson, and Tarrant counties will host this year’s events.

As of last week, Washington said 72 churches have registered to participate. Nearly a third of those churches are Spanish speaking.

Luis Gonzalez, the Spanish pastor of Lamar Baptist Church in Arlington, said his church is organizing a soccer tournament and doing door-to-door evangelism, followed up by a Harvest Sunday that weekend at the church.

According to NAMB, a Harvest Sunday is a church service designed specifically as an outreach Sunday for those who need to hear and respond to the gospel.

“Our goal is to involve everyone — adults, kids, youth, English speakers, Spanish speakers — in this evangelistic effort,” Gonzalez said. “It’s a great opportunity for the entire church family to share Jesus.”

Gonzalez is also heavily involved in mobilizing other Spanish-speaking Southern Baptist churches in the Dallas area to get involved. Some of the other projects already in the works include Vacation Bible School and block parties, including one such party where four small churches are partnering together.

“We’re trying to connect local pastors around the Dallas area to the resources available for outreach and evangelism,” Gonzalez added. “It’s the Great Commission. We have the truth of God, and we need to share the gospel every day.”

Ryan Jespersen, the executive director of the Dallas Baptist Association, believes the evangelism opportunities through Crossover can significantly help to revitalize Dallas-area churches.

Even though some think of Dallas as the “buckle of the Bible belt,” Jespersen said the city has significant lostness, where most of the population doesn’t have a relationship with Jesus Christ. He urged Southern Baptists not to think of Dallas as a “saved city” but as one where people need to hear and respond to the gospel.

“Crossover is an opportunity for churches to engage their communities,” Jespersen said. “NAMB has pretty much taken all the excuses out—there’s funding, there are volunteers coming. Just plan something.”

During this year’s Crossover events, Shane Pruitt, NAMB’s national director for next generation evangelism, will once again lead evangelistic student rallies to help engage youth with the good news. First Baptist Church of Rockwall will host a rally at 6 p.m. on June 6. Cross Church’s North Richland Hills campus will host another one at 4 p.m. on June 7.

Southern Baptist seminary students will be in the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area throughout the week, partnering with churches for door-to-door evangelism.

Specific service opportunities during Crossover will be announced in April. To learn more about Crossover, visit namb.net/crossover. To learn more about the Crossover student rallies, visit namb.net/crossover-student-rally.

This article was originally distributed by the North American Mission Board.

Seeing beyond our assumptions

I recently read a book about a growing subculture in America—full-time RVers. You likely see them all the time without realizing who they are. Many drive tall, boxy luxury vans that literally cost twice as much as the first house I bought. Their ubiquitous reels on Instagram extol, in 15-second snippets, the virtues of living untethered from neighborhoods and 8-to-5 workspaces.

Me? I like showering at home too much to live in a van, but anyway …

This book exposed me to an entire culture that I previously knew nothing about. It challenged my assumptions—that all those who live on the road like this do so by choice or because it’s adventurous. It turns out many of these full-time wanderers have no other option, sometimes due to economic circumstances beyond their control, and sometimes as a result of a tragic series of bad choices that left them homeless.

It’s exhilarating to learn about things we don’t know, isn’t it? So here’s something else you may not know.

Ever heard of Dumas? It’s way up in the Texas Panhandle, with a population around 15,000. I don’t need Google to tell me that it probably gets pretty dry in Dumas during certain parts of the year, and during the winter, they get a little more of the cold stuff than we get down here in points south.

Based on its rural setting, I might also assume Dumas has a majority Anglo population—and it does; several groups that track such things, such as the U.S. Census Bureau, cite that number to be somewhere between 60-70%.

That’s why I found it fascinating when one of our Southern Baptists of Texas Convention regional catalysts recently told me about Dumas’ growing Haitian population.

Haitians? In Dumas?

It’s difficult to quantify just how many Haitians are in Dumas, but they’re there—just ask Mike Watson, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church. In this month’s issue, Watson, along with Clief Joseph, a Haitian pastor who is among those who have come to Dumas, gives a first-person account of not only the changing demographics in that city, but how God is working through those circumstances to reach people. As Watson explains, most Haitians are coming for work, but once they arrive, they’re hearing the gospel and accepting Jesus.

The opportunities to impact eternities for Christ are plentiful. Sometimes, all we need to do is look beyond our own assumptions and see what God is really doing.

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These “unexpected” types of things are happening all over the SBTC. Hispanic churches are developing strategies to reach Muslims in their communities. Small churches are being mobilized to have a massive gospel impact. Young leaders are networking and supporting one another as they continually dispel the myth that the next generation isn’t ready to step up.

In other words, we are challenging assumptions.

One of the things I love about the SBTC is that we, as a family of churches, are highly intentional about reaching not only our neighbors, but the nations. Sometimes we do that through a record-number of churches being planted through Send Network SBTC (you can read several of their stories in this issue). Other times, it’s accomplished through providing opportunities like the SBTC’s new Reach Europe initiative.

The opportunities to impact eternities for Christ are plentiful. Sometimes, all we need to do is look beyond our own assumptions and see what God is really doing. When we see that, we just might see that He is inviting us into that work.