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Cody Carroll is a church planting resident and former college director at Redeemer Church in Lubbock. He is also a member of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention’s Collegiate Network Lead Team, which connects and resources college ministry leaders across the state.
What is it about the SBTC Collegiate Network Lead Team that compelled you to get involved and serve?
Cody Carroll: The heart behind the lead team is that you have college ministry representation from all over the state and from all these different regions because Texas is so big. Among those representatives are varying kinds and sizes and styles of college ministries that all speak into how we can help serve all the other local churches in the state that are trying to do college ministry. You get lots of opportunities to serve other ministries.
What does your involvement with the lead team look like?
What that looks like is, take an event like Roundup, which is a conference for college ministry leaders. Our team [at Redeemer] has had moments at Roundup that have totally transformed our ministry because of the questions being asked, because of the tear-sheet assignments we do, and because we’re really just getting in the room with people who aren’t in our normal circles. Being a part of the lead team, you get to help teach some of that, help set some of the vision for that. On the other side you have Commons, which is a conference for helping college students live on mission, so there’s lots of collaborative work there, lots of brainstorming with local church-based college ministries. A lot of it is just showing up and serving and connecting with other people.
You’ve recently answered the call to plant a church in Norman, Okla., and now serve Redeemer as a church planting resident. How far along is that effort?
Carroll: We’re launching in the fall of ’27, Lord willing. We’ve got some of our folks up in Iowa being trained, [our family is] moving in February, and we’ve already got a few different couples that have moved to Norman over the past few months with more on the way. We have a lot of folks who are raising support coming on our staff team. We’re aiming to launch with about 80 adults and kids. … There is incredible work being done in Norman, but there is so much more room for opportunity, so much more room for a multi-generational church to love the city and love the campus [the University of Oklahoma] as well.
How has your participation on the Collegiate Network Lead Team helped equip you for what God has next in terms of planting a church?
Carroll: Networks don’t plant churches—churches plant churches. But being part of the SBTC and being connected with people like Mitch [Tidwell, former SBTC collegiate team leader] and Drew [Humphrey, SBTC collegiate mobilizer] and all these different people … they might not be directly planting churches, but they’re connected with people who are. The beauty of being in a network like this … is that the SBTC helps us realize we’re not alone in this and they help champion us. Being connected in this network has absolutely helped us.
The Collegiate Network Lead Team is one of many networks available to SBTC church leaders. Want to find out more about how to get connected with leaders like you? Visit sbtexas.com/networks.
