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When Craig Turnbull came to pastor Bannockburn Church, he faced a steep learning curve. For one thing, he came a long way—to Austin from his native Canada.
“I love it,” Turnbull said. “I mean, I have the hardest time with the weather, with the heat, and they make fun of me. I wear short sleeves all year round, even when it’s freezing cold because it’s not super cool for me, but I have a hard time with the weather.
“But the best part of Texas has been the people of our church. It really has. They’ve been so welcoming and beautiful and warm.”
Turnbull left Canada to attend school in Illinois before returning to a church staff position for 16 years back home. But God began to work on him, convicting him of being too comfortable where he was. A story from 2 Samuel 24 spoke to him during this time. King David was trying to buy a threshing floor on which he would build an altar. The owner graciously offered the land as a gift, but David insisted he would not offer the Lord anything that cost him nothing.
“And then I realized the cost was very low in my life because the comfort was so high,” Turnbull recalled. “I opened my computer and typed in ‘teaching pastor job’ because I certainly wasn’t going to be called to be a senior pastor.
“Bannockburn,” he said, which was in search of senior pastor, “was the first on the list.”
Craig and his wife, Catherine—a native of Ohio—agreed that the job description fit him well but that moving to Texas was a sticking point. But by March 2023, the family was in Austin.
“What’s working is that we’re praying, and we’re asking the Lord to lead His people and to lead His church. I think we are in a difficult season that the Lord is slowly walking us out of.”
The church was in a rough patch at that point. In the 50-year life of Bannockburn, the church’s high point included about 1,100 people. In 2023, that number was closer to 300.
Bannockburn was meeting in three locations by then: the main campus is in south Austin, the first of the “daughter” churches was established several years ago in Dripping Springs—a community on the western edge of the metro area—and the newest location in the Buda-Kyle area, south of Austin. Each of the new locations has a campus pastor. As senior pastor, Turnbull would need to spread himself over all three locations. This also was part of his learning curve.
“I praise my wife about this [the challenges of those early days],” Turnbull said. “One day when I was struggling with a ‘woe is me’ moment, she picks up her Bible and she says, ‘OK, so I would like you to take the Bible now and show me a place where the Lord calls a man and it’s not more difficult on him.’”
His wife’s biblical encouragement reminded the new pastor he would have to address the real challenges facing Bannockburn. It was certainly a situation beyond human wisdom.
“I think probably the single greatest thing that we have done is to re-institute the value of prayer in the church,” Turnbull said. “What’s working is that we’re praying, and we’re asking the Lord to lead His people and to lead His church. I think we are in a difficult season that the Lord is slowly walking us out of.”
Julie Strock, a longtime Bannockburn member, is prayer leader for the Dripping Springs campus—one of three campus prayer leaders. She’s also noticed some other signs of renaissance in the church.
“We’re seeing people stepping up into ministry needs,” she said. “It seems like there is more joy. People are saying, ‘I’m excited to come to church again.’ We’ve seen lots of baptisms, six or seven spontaneous baptisms in one service.”
Bannockburn gathers the membership of all three campuses for prayer once each month. Additionally, the campuses have their own prayer groups. When Strock took on the role of prayer coordinator, she learned there were already some ladies praying.
“We’re seeing people stepping up into ministry needs. It seems like there is more joy. People are saying, ‘I’m excited to come to church again.’”
“Matt [Werner], our campus pastor, said, ‘Why don’t you start where people are already praying and see if you can get them praying for the church?’ That’s how [the Dripping Springs prayer group] was birthed,” Strock said. “You’ve got prayer happening every single week on all three campuses. We start with Scripture. Every week one of us [prayer coordinators] composes what we call a prayer guide. In our meetings we have volunteers read parts of the Scripture and then we just respond in prayer to what the verses are telling us.”
The prayer team also prints out the church calendar and focuses on those as occasions for God to work in people’s lives. They additionally contact the church’s pastors to solicit ministry prayer requests and personal needs for God’s provision. A second prayer meeting involves all the church membership in a monthly meeting Turnbull calls the “engine room of the church.” These meetings have nearly tripled in size in recent years.
“I came from a place where, you do this, you do this, and then God’s going to bring the fruit,” Turnbull said. “But that’s not necessarily true. What is true is that the Lord holds my hand and the Lord is faithful …. ‘Lord, help me be faithful even if I can’t see the immediacy of results, to continue to preach the Word, to lead the church in prayer, to guide and help operationally as I can ….’ These are the things that, at the end of the day, allow me to lay down in bed saying, ‘I think the Lord would be pleased with that day.’”
“This is what God does,” Strock added. “He goes before us. … The Lord has brought us a humble man [in Pastor Craig] who depends on God. We are just marveling at how God has been faithful. We couldn’t be more excited at what He is doing.”
