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When Pastor Nick Marnejon looks around Somerset Baptist Church, a 168-year-old congregation near San Antonio, he sees not only numerical growth, but spiritual growth.
That growth was facilitated by a church full of “generous, loving people” who hold a high view of Scripture and were willing to return to their roots upon Marnejon’s arrival a little less than a year-and-a-half ago.
“Let’s get back to basics,” Marnejon said. “Let’s get in our Bibles. Let’s have a prayer life. Let’s get to church.”
Worship attendance at Somerset has grown to an average of 150, with about 125 of those also attending Sunday morning Bible study.
“I just think people have been hungry for God’s Word,” he said. “I’ve taught how-to-study-the-Bible classes recently, and that was well-attended and well-received. Our women’s ministry has been up and going. We’ve had various outreach things that the church has been doing historically that we’ve kept up.”
The student ministry has grown to about 70. Kasey Hobbs was hired to lead students about a year ago, Marnejon noted. Though he works full time in the oil field industry, Hobbs “gives himself as much as he absolutely can to these teens,” Marnejon said. “[He is] dogged about preaching and teaching God’s Word.”
“For this school year, he’s been just slowly working through the gospel of John with the teens on Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings,” Marnejon said. “Just systematically going through the Bible has been reaping dividends, as well as I just think he loves the teens genuinely, and they’re responding to that.”
Most of the influx of new teens is from the local school through connections, the pastor said: “Most of our kids are either non-Christian or maybe grew up Catholic or have some type of Catholic influence.”
Wednesday nights take on an evangelistic feel with “lots of kids coming who don’t know Jesus yet,” Marnejon said. They’ve done See You at the Pole, and Hobbs spoke at a worship night at the school organized by a student and attends as many football games as possible.
A force for good
As for Marnejon, he grew up in Ohio in a Baptist church that changed to nondenominational during his teenage years. After earning his master’s degree, he moved to Seattle to serve as a youth pastor for six years. It was a healthy church, and he grew a lot there, he said. He met his wife in Washington, and his pastor trained him by including him on pastoral visits, giving him funeral and wedding opportunities, and generally teaching him how to shepherd a flock.
Ultimately sensing God’s call to serve as a lead pastor himself, Marnejon found Somerset through the Southern Baptist Convention’s job board. He said he has been encouraged by his involvement in the SBC, agreeing with SBC Executive Committee President Jeff Iorg that “Southern Baptists are a force for good.”
“On the whole, I’ve been just thoroughly impressed, and I’ve enjoyed getting into Southern Baptist life,” Marnejon said. “I’m really impressed with their seminaries—thriving seminaries. I’m looking at them for my Ph.D. in this coming year. I feel good and happy about being a part of the Southern Baptist Convention.”
What he particularly likes about the Cooperative Program—Southern Baptists’ primary giving model—is that until Somerset can “put some missionary faces to our dollars too someday,” their 5% already supports missions through the North American Mission Board and International Mission Board.
Said Marnejon: “It’s encouraging to know that the thousands of dollars that we’re sending every year are going to really tangible things that I can see as a Southern Baptist.”
