Month: June 2025

‘You can’t be too lost to be found’

I remember that day. I’d been homeless for two years and weighed 90 pounds. My wife, Brenda, and my three kids were gone. As a 45-year-old alcoholic, I was the number one supplier of marijuana and the number one meth cook in Van Zandt County. But that day, I had no home and was walking down Interstate 20 on my way to another dope house.

Then the good Lord spoke to me, and I’ll never forget it. He just told me there was a better way of living than this. I argued with Him all the way to the dope house. When I got there, there was nobody there, so I felt like God was telling me to go home. I said, “I ain’t got no home.” I feel like He was still telling me to go home.

That came out of nowhere. In those days, I thought John 3:16 was a John Deere tractor. Growing up, there was no church or God mentioned in our family. There was a lot of love, though. My dad was a mechanic, and we had go-karts and all kinds of things to play with as kids. He would teach me sports like boxing. But I watched him die of cancer when I was 18, and I became homeless after that for about two years. My mom sold the house and just left me. So I was on the street and an alcoholic by the time I was 21. That’s where that lifestyle started.

So I went and knocked on Brenda’s door. Brenda was a Christian and the strong foundation who helped me get to where I’m supposed to be. She didn’t have to let me back in, but she did. I really think God gave me a chance that day—to either listen to Him and go His way or go another way. I chose to listen to a voice I’ve never heard in my life.

When I came in, she said, “Give me your phone.”

“I ain’t going to give you my phone,” I said.

“Then there’s the door,” she said. So I gave her my phone.

Then she said, “You’re going to go to church.”

“I’m not going to church.”

“Then there’s the door.”

“What time the doors open?” I said.

I was tired of that lifestyle, and my wife stood firm. So I started going to Crossroads Church, and Brother Mark [John Mark Robinson, Crossroads senior pastor] actually took two years of his life [to invest in me]. He took me and my son to play disc golf every Sunday afternoon after church. I ended up accepting Christ playing disc golf. So now in my ministry, I have a disc golf course at the church, and that’s what I do. I share the gospel while I play disc golf.

“I still run into people sometimes at church who remember me as I was. And after 17 years, they still know me in the prisons. They can’t believe where I’m at. I tell them, ‘Well, it can happen to you, too. You can’t be too lost to be found.’”

—Larry Rosemond Tweet

That was 17 years ago. I was six months clean when they put me in charge of running a Celebrate Recovery program there at the church. That same program has been going for 17 years now. For the last seven years, I’ve been the full-time outreach pastor at the church, running the program and other ministries of the church.

I also get to go into the courtrooms here—I’ve known judges all my life. They let me come in and share a testimony during court. I really got plugged into the various services for addicts, the probation office, and the jailhouses. God has probably saved over a hundred people through that program who have accepted Christ and been baptized.

We do a food distribution on the first of every month. I’m in charge of that, and I get to go out and pray with the people who come. About 100 cars come through that, so I go out and share the gospel with them on the weekend.

God has blessed me so much. I have my family back. I have a great church family that supports me, and I’ve come through surgeries and health scares, but He is faithful. My testimony is that if God can do it for me, He can do it for you. I’m nobody special. I was just a kid growing up in the countryside who knew nothing of God or the church or the Bible. I fell into the trenches, but somehow, God saw in the future that He was going to do something with me that nobody else saw. And when I look back at it, He’s been with me the whole time.

I still run into people sometimes at church who remember me as I was. And after 17 years, they still know me in the prisons. They can’t believe where I’m at. I tell them, “Well, it can happen to you, too. You can’t be too lost to be found.”

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

Share your story here

Making good investments

The words “invest” and “investment” are popular words in our English vocabulary. Various thoughts come to mind when we hear them.

Perhaps the first thing to pop in your head is the investment of money for the future. In our faith, the word has a rich connotation of helping and discipling others.

Our church recently wrapped up a spring men’s Bible study on the book of Titus. We studied Josh Smith’s excellent and very practical book, The Titus Ten: Foundations for Godly Manhood. The last chapter is entitled “Investments.” In this chapter, he encourages and challenges men to have someone investing in them and they, in turn, should have others in whom they are investing.

Jesus was the master investor, as seen in the gospels and in books like Robert Coleman’s The Master Plan of Evangelism. This book literally changed my life and approach to ministry. Following Coleman’s advice, I began over 30 years ago pouring into and investing in other men to help them grow in their relationship with Jesus. What a wonderful journey it has been!

2 Timothy 2:2 states, “And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” The word “commit” can also be translated as “deposit,” “put forth,” or “set before.”

Here are a handful of practical principles for investing in others:

1. Ask the Lord to show you the person or people He wants you to invest in or disciple. That is a prayer God loves to answer in the affirmative. Jesus prayed all night before selecting the 12 apostles (Luke 6:12-13).

2. Be intentional. Do not wait for someone to ask you to disciple them. They may never ask.

3. Begin with the end in mind. Replication is the goal. Remember 2 Timothy 2:2—choose to invest in those “who will be able to teach others also.”

4. Disciple them to Jesus and the church—not to you. Of course, there will be a close bond formed with those you disciple, and that is fine. But our main goal is to help them grow closer to Jesus so that when God moves us on, they will be even stronger in their faith, not weaker.

5. Persevere in the process. It is not easy, but it is the best way to change the world.

As I begin to wrap up my two years of serving as president of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, I want to thank you for your faithfulness to Jesus. God has His hand on our convention of churches, and I am so grateful.

Every weekday our ministry, Danny Forshee Evangelistic Association, sends out a daily devotional and a weekly podcast. We have over 8,000 people receiving these resources for free, and I invite you to sign up and receive them as well by visiting dfea.com/devotions. It takes about five seconds to sign up.

I am praying for our SBTC, that we would be fully surrendered to King Jesus and make many disciples before He returns or takes us home.

Pastor reveals why he’s brought hundreds to Equip Conference over the years

‘It helped us do it better and do it right’

The Southern Baptists of Texas Convention’s Equip Conference is designed to provide ministry and volunteer leaders with practical, trusted training and resources to effectively lead and disciple others. This year’s event will be held July 26 at Houston’s First — The Loop campus and will feature more than 70 speakers and 200 breakout sessions.

Charles Draper, associate pastor of family ministries at Spring Baptist Church, has brought hundreds of leaders and volunteers to Equip over the years, and he has led breakout sessions himself. He recently spoke with the Texan about why he has continually funneled so many people to this one-day resourcing event.

You’re the associate pastor of family ministries at Spring Baptist Church. What all does that entail?

Charles Draper: I’m basically the education minister or discipleship pastor by another name. We call our Sunday school ministry from preschool to senior adults life groups, so I’m over all our life group ministries. I like the intentional family ministry aspect of what I do, that it’s not just education ministry. We go beyond serving the Sunday morning age group ministries and try to offer more. We also have a very strong discipleship ministry on Sunday nights and Wednesday nights. We have GriefShare and DivorceCare. We offer a variety of deeper Bible classes, not just in doctrine and message, but in spiritual maturity and hands-on ministry training.

The good thing is, I’ve got a lot of good volunteer leaders who help us in all those areas. It’s hard to keep all the plates moving, but part of it is discovering and enlisting the right people and then getting them equipped and trained.

How does the Equip Conference help you in that task?

CD: Equip gives me an easy way to say to our volunteers, “Hey, I’m not going to get you to say yes and enlist you [to serve] and then leave you hanging.” This conference will help you get some of the tools you need to do ministry better. It makes my job even easier to offer the best training we can offer, because it’s hard to do all of that in-house on your own. I’ve done it before at this church and at the previous church I served, and we had age-group speakers that I brought in for one day, but there’s only a few topics we can cover when we do it that way. Equip has so many more speakers and so many more topics that people can choose from.

When you bring groups from your church to Equip, what are you hoping they carry away from the experience?

CD: The age-specific groups—from teachers in preschool, children’s grade school, pre-teen, fifth and sixth grade, student ministry, and all the adult ages and demographics like singles, senior adults, young adults, etc.—they come away with a more intentional approach to ministry.

I also love the intentional strategies of not just how to teach the different age groups, but how to do ministry 24/7—inreach and outreach. That’s the missing piece for many people. Some [leaders] may come on a Sunday [with the mindset to] check the box and think, “OK, my job’s finished,” but it’s not. It’s 24/7. So I think the biggest value to my volunteers is that Equip helps them catch hold of that idea, that ministry is 24/7.

How has Equip helped you grow personally, as a church leader who is raising up other church leaders?

CD: When I go and attend and am not presenting, I pick and choose the topics and age-group ministries that I need some current help with. For instance, we needed to start some college and young adult ministries. We had a life group, but we didn’t really have a ministry. So I attended the college and young adult breakout sessions that year to get some ideas on how we could take that to the next level. And I’ll tell you—since then, over the last three years, we’ve started several young adult classes. Equip wasn’t the only thing that helped us launch those, but it helped us do it better and do it right.

So personally, Equip has helped me in my ministry to those younger age groups. Those breakout sessions I have attended have always been beneficial to me. I’ve got two seminary degrees, but I’ve never stopped learning. I realize there’s new ideas, cutting-edge strategies, and some different ideas for how to maybe do ministry better. I always want to learn from others about things maybe we don’t know about. Equip is the best thing the SBTC does to offer our local churches a way to train and equip our volunteers for ministry. And you can’t beat the cost.

FBC Rockwall stands firm in its above-and-beyond commitment to CP

At a time when average giving through the Cooperative Program has declined to below 5%, First Baptist Church in Rockwall continues to forward 18% of its undesignated receipts for national and international missions and ministries.

“Automatically in our budget, we’ve committed that 20% is going to go out the door,” Senior Pastor Michael Criner said. FBC Rockwall gives the other 2% to its Baptist association.

The church also collects an annual global missions offering which goes to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering, and the Reach Texas State Missions Offering. For the past couple years, that one-day offering has averaged $1.5 million, Criner said.

“The reason why we give through the Cooperative Program is because the Cooperative Program is this impressive vehicle that takes any church’s money and helps accomplish the kingdom mission all over Texas and even the world,” he said.

The giving partnership between the SBTC’s 2,800-plus churches and more than 47,000 Southern Baptist churches nationwide fuels the Great Commission in ways FBC Rockwall could never accomplish alone.

“Giving through the Cooperative Program reminds us that the mission is beyond just our local church and involves all the local churches within our state and even our nation,” Criner said.

At FBC Rockwall, challenges to CP giving primarily stem from occurrences at the national level that lead people to question the viability of continuing to give.

“As the world becomes more isolated and insulated, giving through the Cooperative Program is a healthy reminder that that’s not how God has wired His church,” Criner said.

The pastor reminds his congregation how CP gifts unlock theological education to some of the best seminaries in the world, support missionaries who are seeing hundreds of thousands of people come to faith yearly, and fund church planting.

“We know that typically new churches reach more lost people than established churches, and I say that as pastor of a church that in a few years will be 175 years old,” Criner said.

Criner has been pastor of FBC Rockwall for one year, succeeding Steve Swofford, who pastored there for 35 years and now serves as pastor emeritus. The church gave 18% through CP throughout Swofford’s tenure, Criner said, and such generosity may have extended through the pastoral leadership of M.L. Jones, who was there 31 years.

At the church, CP is a planned topic of discussion in a new members class, and when it’s time to vote on the annual budget, members are reminded what it accomplishes, Criner said. On various Sunday mornings, the church highlights ministries made possible by strong CP giving.

During its annual global missions emphasis, FBC Rockwall hosted Kason Branch, pastor of Creekstone Church in North Richland Hills. Branch told the
congregation that when he planted his church nine years ago, he didn’t know FBC Rockwall and its members didn’t know him.

“But you gave to my church whether you realized it or not because you gave through the Cooperative Program,” Criner recalls Branch saying.

Theological education hits home at FBC Rockwall, as one of its own young men is attending Southwestern Seminary.

“He’s able to do that because of the Cooperative Program,” Criner said. “The cost of Southwestern is drastically less because of our CP giving. That’s a benefit to him. We’ve got two guys on our staff that are at seminary, so it is impacting our own staff members. Because our church gives so generously, these guys are able to go to school for much less than what theological education would normally cost somewhere else.”

At least two college students from the church will travel internationally this summer with a call to missions supported by CP, he said.

The church averages 1,600 on Sundays, which might lead many to think giving 18% through CP would be easier than at a smaller church, but Criner said he identifies with the feeling that there won’t be enough left to pay the bills.

“I have those same concerns, and yet I think because so much is going out the door, that’s why we’re in the financial spot we’re in as a church,” he said. “I think God has blessed our people through their sacrificial giving and our church budget through our sacrificial giving in ways we’ll never be able to understand.

“The ways of the kingdom are counter to the ways of the world. The world would say, ‘Keep as much as you can and give away the leftovers.’ We’re giving God our first fruits, and He’s giving us more than if we had kept everything ourselves.”

Criner’s advice to churches that might be hesitant to increase CP giving? “Just begin to do more than you believe you can and see how God answers. Just start there. Take a step.”

How a change of plans led to a divine appointment during Crossover 2025

Editor’s note: The following account was submitted by Carl Bradford, dean of Texas Baptist College and associate professor of evangelism at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.

MURPHY—During Crossover 2025 in Dallas, God displayed His sovereignty and providence in an unforgettable way through a simple text message, a last-minute change of plans, and one man’s openness to the gospel.

On the morning of June 3, Tony Mathews, a former Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary trustee who now serves as senior strategist for Missional Ministries with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, sent a message to me:

“Good morning, brother. Any Crossover events you are at today or tomorrow? May I attend?”

Due to a full schedule, I didn’t respond that day, but I followed up the next morning by calling Tony. When we spoke, he asked where my student team and I would be conducting evangelism. I replied that we were heading to partner with First Baptist Church in Murphy and mentioned it might be better for him to join another day since the area was far away.

That’s when Tony said something unexpected: “Carl, I don’t know if you remember—I live in Murphy.”

I paused to double-check the details and realized we were actually assigned to North Richland Hills that day. Even so, Tony said he still wanted to come, regardless of the location. After some prayerful consideration, I felt led to shift the plans and go to Murphy after all. I texted Tony with confirmation, and we made arrangements to meet for door-to-door evangelism.

Later that day, the team canvassed homes in Murphy. At one house, Tony and a SWBTS student named Justin rang the doorbell, but no one answered. As they walked away and Tony answered a phone call, Justin looked back to note the house number and noticed someone peeking out the door. He waved, and they turned back.

Although I was closest to the door, I felt strongly that Tony should be the one to return. So Tony rejoined Justin, and together they engaged the homeowner, Victor. As they talked, Victor mentioned he was originally from Mississippi and had attended Mississippi State University. Tony lit up and said, “I have a friend who went to Mississippi State and later played for the Denver Broncos and Buffalo Bills—Michael.”

To Tony’s amazement, Victor responded, “I know Michael! We went to school together.”

Tony immediately called Michael and, when he answered, handed the phone to Victor. After introducing himself, Michael was overjoyed to reconnect. The two caught up, stunned by the coincidence—or rather, the divine arrangement.

After the call, Tony asked Victor how he could pray for him. Victor replied, “If you have time to pray, then come inside.”

Inside the house, Victor showed Tony a prayer he had written in a notebook—an indication of his struggle with alcoholism. Tony then asked me to pray specifically for Victor’s sobriety and deliverance. The group and I prayed over him, and afterward offered to share my personal testimony.

As the group settled in, I shared how the Lord had saved me. Then I asked Victor, “Has something like this ever happened to you?” Victor said it had, but admitted he believed he needed to live a better life to earn a place in heaven.

This provided an opportunity for a clear presentation of the gospel. Tony and I took turns explaining the message of grace through faith in Christ alone. Tarah, a student with the group, shared a story of her own and urged Victor to place his full trust in Jesus.

Eventually, Tony turned to Victor and asked, “Would you like to receive Jesus’ forgiveness today?”

Victor, deeply moved by the entire encounter, said yes. He prayed to receive Jesus as his Lord and Savior.

The group rejoiced, overwhelmed at how God had woven together every detail—from a delayed text response to a relocated outreach site—to bring about a divine appointment for one man in Murphy, Texas.

Tony has already followed up with Victor and made arrangements to get him connected to a church that includes a ministry specific to Victor’s struggle. Additionally, Tony and I exchanged numbers with Victor to continue communication.

CP giving shapes and empowers SBC seminaries to make gospel impact

Editor’s note: Southern Baptists are celebrating the 100^th anniversary of the Cooperative Program throughout 2025.

NASHVILLE (BP)—Like missions, theological education was on the hearts and minds of Southern Baptists from before the Convention’s founding in 1845.

Baptist colleges that sprang up across the South in the early 1800s provided studies in theological subjects, proof of Baptists’ commitment in the South. But the mid-century split with northern Baptists meant the young convention would no longer use northern seminaries to train its pastors. Southern Baptists were forced to realize they had no institution of their own dedicated to theological education.

That would soon change.

In 1859, one year before civil war split the nation, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS) was founded in Greenville, S.C. By the turn of the 20^th century, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS) in Fort Worth (1908) and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (NOBTS), founded in 1917 as the Baptist Bible Institute, joined SBTS in offering theological education and missionary training.

Yet time and again, each school faced life-threatening national economic crises, financial strain from growth, the storms of war, and competition with other SBC agencies for funding.

With the establishment of the Cooperative Program in 1925, stability became possible. Today, the fund’s unique structure continues to set SBC seminary education apart.

Albert Mohler, SBTS president, noted this in his president’s letter included in the 2023 Southern Baptist Convention Annual.

“I am often asked by leaders of seminaries outside the Southern Baptist Convention to explain the strength of our institution,” Mohler wrote. “I am pleased to point them to the faithfulness of Southern Baptist churches, channeled through the Cooperative Program.”

Today, the CP-supported seminaries together train more than 24,000 students each year as pastors, missionaries, and church leaders to serve the church and take the gospel to all points of the globe.

While the CP provided a much-needed economic anchor to the seminaries, rough waters in its earliest days continued to test Southern Baptists’ commitment to theological education.

Disaster loomed before CP

From Southern Seminary’s founding, James P. Boyce, treasurer and chairman of his small faculty, worked tirelessly raising money across the nation and drawing from his own personal fortune to make the seminary a reality.

“Boyce was a man whom a dream had possessed, and he labored without ceasing and with utter abandon at the task of making his dream come to full fruition,” Southern Baptist historian William Mueller wrote in 1959.

Boyce and other faculty members, including John Broadus, traveled far and wide, even securing a gift once from oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller.

Prior to CP, competition with other agencies proved problematic as agents secured by the different SBC boards traveled from church to church soliciting funds. Southern Baptist historian Leon McBeth described the agents’ work as “disruptive and often demoralizing to pastor and people alike.”

As the 20th century dawned, the challenge to fund Southern Baptist theological education continued.

At SWBTS, students and faculty slept on the floor of the unfinished Fort Worth Hall as founding president B. H. Carroll, followed by L. R. Scarborough, the second president, struggled to secure funds for completion.

Discouraged, Scarborough confided to his wife that the school faced unpaid bills and credit that was stretched beyond its limit. After praying together on their knees, Mrs. Scarborough told her husband that God had answered. Three days later, the bank granted the school a life-saving loan.

Help came in 1925 as the Cooperative Program provided allocations for each seminary. The help came as the Great Depression set in, bringing with it new and deeper financial worries.

In New Orleans, faculty and students shared all food in common in order to stay open.

By the early 1930s, Scarborough stood in defeat before the SBC Executive Committee in Nashville and tendered his resignation admitting that the faculty had not been paid and the school faced insurmountable debt.

Respite came for Southwestern when John Sampey, then-president of Southern Seminary, volunteered funds from his school’s CP allotment in order to keep Southwestern’s doors open. It was a signal to all that each seminary was vital to the Great Commission directive.

A world impact

As economic stability returned to the nation, three new seminaries were added, each to a specific region of the nation.

Gateway Seminary (formerly Golden Gate Seminary, 1944); Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (1950) and Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (1957) each were founded to serve a specific region and culture of the nation.

Today, each seminary offers programs and initiatives in evangelism, mission engagement and mentorships to prepare students to serve at home and abroad.

These programs include Southeastern’s Global Theological Initiative that presents seminary education in Farsi; Gateway’s language program that includes classes in Burmese, Mongolian and Vietnamese; Midwestern’s Fusion program linking students to IMB missionaries; NOBTS’ Caskey Center that mobilizes students for evangelism resulting in more than 75,000 gospel conversations; Southern Seminary’s Hispanic program bringing education to countries as far away as Chile, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic; and Southwestern’s auxiliary website “Equip the Called,” making a storehouse of resources, articles and preaching helps available to serve those in the pulpit.

The importance of the Cooperative Program to the seminaries is emphasized frequently by the schools and their leaders.

David Dockery, in the book “The Great Commission Resurgence: Fulfilling God’s Mandate in Our Time,” underscored the important spirit of cooperation that makes Southern Baptist work effective.

“One cannot understand who Southern Baptists are apart from the distinctive idea of voluntary cooperation,” Dockery wrote. “It is in light of this historical reality that Southern Baptists, with God’s help and guidance, will be able to work together in carrying forth the task of making disciples of the nations through the cooperative and collaborative efforts of the Great Commission partners.”

Adam Groza, Gateway Seminary president, noted the impact of the Cooperative Program giving while addressing the 2024 SBC Annual Meeting in Indianapolis.

“The marching orders of Jesus have not changed and the task is not done,” Groza said. He continued, “Thank you for being our partners in the gospel. Thank you for supporting us as we fulfill our mission of shaping leaders to expand God’s kingdom around the world.”

This article originally appeared on Baptist Press.

Texan Q&A w/ Colin Rayburn: An affection for connections

SBTC missions mobilization associate’s drive to create missional communities is personal

Colin Rayburn has served as missions mobilization associate for the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention since June 2022. He helps churches assess, develop, and implement missions strategies in Texas, the U.S., and around the world. But for Rayburn, a former pastor and missionary who spent several years serving a church plant in France, the job is personal. He recently spoke with the Texan about how God used his experience on the mission field to fuel his passion to create long-lasting connections between SBTC churches and the missions partners often working in isolated cultures where Jesus’ name desperately needs to be heard.

How did your time serving on the mission field in France prepare you for what God has you doing now through the SBTC?

CR: It’s a blessing and a curse to be part of a culture [in America] where church life is so prevalent and where there are so many church options. Almost everybody has somewhere they consider their church home. But in France, and serving in a city where less than 1% of the population is Christian, that culture doesn’t exist. The idea of being part of a church community becomes much smaller and much more precious. Church relationships become more precious. When church partners would come visit our church in France, it was really meaningful. It was a celebration when they were in town. We would all go out to picnics and spend a lot of good time together. They were invested in us, they were for us, and it meant so much to us because there were so few Christian brothers and sisters throughout our area. I know what it feels like to live in a big, new city and have no community. We were surrounded by millions of people every day, and yet it was easy for us to feel isolated. So I think the way God prepared me in France for what I’m doing now through the SBTC is by showing me how meaningful it is to those missionaries to make those connections, and He has positioned me to facilitate those connections through our network of churches.

The SBTC’s Missional Ministries department has developed partnerships in Nevada, Puerto Rico, and Europe, among other places. What is the purpose of these partnerships?

CR: We exist to mobilize churches, as our mission focus says, to multiply disciple-making movements in Texas and around the world. But many of our churches don’t have natural relationships with missions partners on the other side of the world in places like Slovenia or Greece, or even on the other side of our own country or state, for that matter. But through these partnerships that have been curated by the SBTC, we’re able to connect our churches to missions opportunities for the purpose of developing long-term relationships that offer maximum gospel impact. For example, our partnerships in Europe are great opportunities because of the extreme diversity you find there. Every people group can be found on the continent of Europe. As we continue to learn more about the specific needs, desires, and abilities of our churches, we’ll be able to fine-tune these partnerships in ways that maximize every SBTC church’s ability to engage missionally.

How can M-Link—a tool I think many SBTC churches haven’t yet heard about—help with making those connections?

CR: M-Link is off to a good start and can be accessed through the SBTC’s website. It starts with us basically asking a church a series of simple questions. Where do you want to go? When do you want to go? What do you want to do? What unique skills do you have? What’s your budget? Or do you want to host a group? A lot of different questions like that. We use the responses to create a profile of churches that want to go and match them with churches that want to receive. We’ve already uploaded profiles for opportunities in Nevada and Puerto Rico, and we’ll soon be adding profiles connected to our Reach Europe initiative. But it starts with a church getting on our website and filling out a profile.

There are a lot of new opportunities here, but what gets you the most excited as the SBTC’s missions mobilization associate?

CR: As we consider how we want to mobilize, we have the mindset that mobilizing our churches just once is not the biggest win we can achieve. We want to mobilize our churches to develop disciple-making movements through ongoing relationships with other churches and missionaries. I think that’s what gets me most excited—developing long-term, sustained partnerships and providing opportunities for our churches to be deeply invested for long periods of time.

When I think back to our time on the mission field, the things that were most meaningful to us were the continual prayers of the people who came on mission to serve with us and their continual investment in our church. So as I have stepped into this role, my passion for missions is still there. My passion for mobilizing churches to the ends of the earth, for reaching unreached people groups—that’s still my passion. But the meaning comes in the retention rate. The meaning comes in the prolonged relationships and the continued investment.

After the corporate world left him hollow, man finds his purpose by answering God’s call to pastor

AN ETERNAL INVESTMENT

Kason Branch would not describe himself as a self-made man. God has blessed him with too many mentors, supportive family members, and friends to say something like that.

Branch, senior pastor of Creekstone Church in North Richland Hills, is leading a growing congregation of more than 200 members. He also serves as a church planting catalyst for Send Network SBTC and recently completed a stint as second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

While Branch is living out his true purpose, his path to ministry was a long process full of challenges, surrender, and a lot of help along the way.

“I like to say I didn’t choose ministry,” Branch said. “Ministry chose me.”

Growing up as a pastor’s kid, Branch said his parents were faithful Christians who prioritized discipling their children. After graduating college, he chose not to pursue vocational ministry and instead took a job in the corporate world, where he was extremely successful and received several promotions over a decade of work.

Yet, he felt something was missing.

“I was doing well, but I burned out,” Branch said. “I was missing my family and my young kids. During that season, I was sacrificing my family [time], and what I was sacrificing for felt empty. Corporate just felt empty to me. I was doing well, but it just didn’t feel purposeful. I felt the tension there. I thought, ‘Will I give my whole life to this? Is this what I’m supposed to be doing with my life?’”

That tension reached a breaking point when one of Branch’s close friends and co-workers, a man he considered to be a mentor, died suddenly while at work. Branch remembers arriving late to work that day and wondering why several ambulances were in the parking lot.

“It was hurtful,” he said. “It was the first time I had lost a friend or a co-worker, and I hadn’t experienced much loss in my family. It was difficult for me.”

“During that season, I was sacrificing my family [time], and what I was sacrificing for felt empty. Corporate just felt empty to me. ... I felt the tension there. I thought, ‘Will I give my whole life to this?”

—kason branch Tweet

What shook Branch even more was what happened in the aftermath of the tragedy.

“We went to the funeral and did everything, and then within two weeks, they had someone else in his office doing his job,” Branch said. “I was highly upset. I was wondering, ‘How could you do this? This man just died. We just had his funeral a week ago and you’re clearing out the very office he died in and you’ve got somebody else doing his job.’

“Then someone at work said to me, ‘We did love him—that’s why we waited two weeks.’ That’s just the nature of corporate. It’s plug and play. They thought they were being kind and considerate waiting two weeks.”

That was the turning point that ultimately led Branch toward ministry.

“I knew in that moment I just couldn’t give my life to that,” he said. “I couldn’t give my life to something that, within two weeks, would be forgotten about. I realized what I was doing would not last, and I wanted to make my life count differently. I just began to pray, ‘Lord, what else do you have for me?’

“It was during this time of going through the emotions of that loss and the realization of how bottom-line corporate can be that my pastor, Bryan Carter, reached out to ask if I would consider leaving corporate to be the chief operating officer at [our] church.”

Carter had already been mentoring Branch even before he began to feel a call to ministry. Branch was a member of Carter’s Saturday morning Bible study for more than two years and had been serving as a deacon and then a lay elder before joining the staff in 2010.

“As my wife and I prayed about the offer, we realized this was God’s call,” Branch said. “That was the season where God drew me into ministry.”

Once in the role, it became clear to others in his life that Branch was a gifted communicator. He began taking classes at Dallas Theological Seminary and even started training other local church leaders in administration.

After serving at his church for several years, Branch was eventually asked by Carter if he would be interested in planting a church.

“I had no concept of church planting,” Branch explained. “I didn’t even know what that was. I didn’t even know that you could do that.”

Branch originally rejected the idea because he wasn’t confident in his ability to see it through. It felt like an intimidating task that too big for him, he said. But Carter persisted, asking Branch to continue praying about the opportunity. As Branch prayed and sought wise counsel, he ultimately felt led to plant: “ … My answer was yes.”

“My family sacrificed and changed everything because of the call of God on my life. ... Throughout this process, I’ve learned that God is faithful, and it’s not just a cliché. It’s something that I’ve really experienced.”

—kason branch Tweet

Branch would go on to plant Creekstone Church in North Richland Hills in April 2016. The church grew from about 12 people at the first service to about 40 in just a few months. While meeting in several locations over the first few years, the church experienced growth and momentum until a new challenge hit—the COVID-19 pandemic. The church was displaced and did not have a place to meet for 17 months, a season Branch described as stressful.

After navigating the pandemic, Creekstone began to once again seize the momentum it had before. The church purchased a permanent building, has now doubled in attendance since the pandemic, and baptized more than 60 new believers.

“That means more than anything, that we’re reaching new believers for the Lord,” Branch said.

Branch credits his ministry journey to the incredible mentors who have guided him along the way.

In addition to Carter, Branch said he has also been heavily influenced by Conway Edwards, who also pastors in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Branch said Edwards has especially been helpful with advice about planting a church.

“He’s a church planter himself, so he understands the struggle first-hand,” Branch said. “In terms of church planting, he’s been a main mentor for me because he’s seen it and done it and is able to coach me through.”

Edwards praised Branch and his character in ministry.

“Kason is one of my sons in ministry, and I’ve had the privilege of walking alongside him for many years,” Edwards said. “From the beginning, I saw a special calling on his life. He’s a gifted communicator with a deep passion for reaching people with the hope of Jesus Christ. His unwavering commitment to the call—even when it requires personal sacrifice—is a powerful testimony of faithful and courageous leadership.”

Even more than his mentors, Branch spoke to the influence of his family and the providence of God on his ministry journey.

“My family sacrificed and changed everything because of the call of God on my life,” Branch said. “Our family was in a sort of transition period for years, and the walls closed in on us a little bit, but the Lord was faithful. My family really sacrificed for this church plant.

“Throughout this process, I’ve learned that God is faithful, and it’s not just a cliché. It’s something that I’ve really experienced.”

Making a choice to reach the world

Every individual Christian has a choice to make about finances. He or she can either keep every penny for themselves, or they can choose to invest some of their funds in their local church.

As churches, we face a similar decision. We can keep every bit of what we receive for our own local congregations, or we can invest some of it to reach the rest of the world.

Our church could put every dollar we receive to good use, but to keep it all here in Lubbock would be selfish and spiritually myopic. We do have our own Jerusalem to reach, but what about Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth? As for our church, we choose to look up and see a world that needs to be reached with the gospel. Part of the way we make a difference in that big world is through the century old, tried and true method of the Cooperative Program.

By giving through CP, our church helps reach the world by cooperatively supporting about 3,500 International Mission Board missionaries. One of those missionaries is from our church and now ministers in a very needy place in a predominantly Muslim country.

By giving through CP, our church helps reach the world by training spiritual leaders for tomorrow. That training is done by our six Southern Baptist seminaries. To succeed in the difficult task future leaders will face, they need the very best training we can give them.

By giving through CP, we reach the world through the North American Mission Board by helping start churches all over our nation. Those churches will, in turn, reach their local fields and help in our worldwide effort.

When our church recently built a new commons area, we decided to display a huge map of the world in it. When asked why we did that, I like to say that it reminds our church we are only one small place in a very big world. Our church has chosen to make a difference in that big world through the Cooperative Program. We hope you will join us and thousands of other churches who give through the Cooperative Program and reach the world for Jesus together!

SBC DALLAS 2025: Messengers give Pressley a second term, approve resolutions as meeting comes to a close

DALLAS—When Southern Baptists gather each summer to celebrate God’s work among their churches, the crucial task they must accomplish involves the empowerment of their common ministry for the upcoming year. Messengers from the churches that make up the Southern Baptist Convention approve a budget to support their work around the world, as well as those who will steward their institutions and resources.

This year, 10,599 messengers met in Dallas on June 10-11 and worked through a robust schedule of business. They approved a 2025-2026 allocation budget of $190 million, including an off-the-top “special priority allocation” of $3 million to cover continuing legal expenses.

Officers

Sitting president Clint Pressley, pastor of Hickory Grove Baptist Church, Charlotte, N.C., was overwhelmingly re-elected to a second term. Daniel Ritchie, a vocational evangelist from Durham, N.C., was elected first vice president. The second vice president role was given to Craig Carlisle, an associational missions strategist from Gadsden, Ala. Rounding out the slate of officers was Registration Secretary Don Currence, administrative pastor for First Baptist Church, Ozark, Mo., and Recording Secretary Nathan Finn, a professor at Greenville University in South Carolina. Finn and Currence were elected by acclamation.

Resolutions

Messengers approved eight resolutions—non-binding statements on timely issues—during their time in Dallas. Three were broken out in the convention schedule and adopted without amendment: an expression of appreciation for Dallas, the host city; a declaration of cooperation on the 100^th anniversary of the Cooperative Program; and a commemoration of the 100^th anniversary of the Baptist Faith and Message.

Other resolutions approved focused on the harmful and predatory nature of sports betting; on banning pornography; on restoring moral clarity through God’s design for gender, marriage and the family; on standing against the moral evil and medical dangers of chemical abortion pills; and on advocating for international religious freedom.

Other business

Messengers gave first approval to a constitutional change that would allow an annual meeting to amend the convention’s statement of faith with approval of two-thirds of the messengers present.

Other recommendations included the choice of convention cities for 2027 (Indianapolis), 2028 (St. Louis), and 2029 (San Antonio).

Motions to abolish the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and to add language to Article 3 of the convention’s constitution relating to qualifications for being a Southern Baptist Church failed by ballot vote. The proposed constitutional amendment would have required SBC churches to affirm, appoint, or employ “only men as any kind of pastor or elder as qualified by Scripture.”

Additionally, Caleb Turner, senior pastor of Mesquite Friendship Baptist Church, was elected to preach the convention sermon in 2026. Dan Lanier, a vocational evangelist from Meridian, Miss., is the alternate preacher.

Next year’s meeting will take place June 9-10 in Orlando.