Tag: Featured

AM23: Great Hills’ Forshee elected next SBTC president

EULESS—Danny Forshee was elected president of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention by acclamation during the Tuesday morning session of the 2023 SBTC Annual Meeting held at Cross City Church.

Forshee has served as lead pastor at Great Hills Baptist Church in Austin more than 13 years and as president of the Danny Forshee Evangelistic Association nearly 20 years. From 2018-2020, he served as chairman of the SBTC’s Executive Committee.

In his nominating speech, Houston’s First Pastor Gregg Matte said two words typify Forshee: joyful and prayerful. “[His presidency] will done from his knees in prayer,” Matte said.

Great Hills gave $233,730.08 through the Cooperative Program in 2022 and $244,799.41 in 2021.

Forshee holds a doctoral degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, where he has served as a professor. He also served as a professor of evangelism at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C.

He has written four books: For the One; Modern Family Vintage Values; Jesus and the Church; and Winning the Battle in Your Mind. He writes a daily devotional and records a weekly podcast called REvangelical: Rethinking Christian Living.

Forshee and his wife, Ashley, have three grown children and four granddaughters.

AM23: Annual meeting messengers called to prayer, thanksgiving

EULESS—Prayer permeated the opening session of the 26th annual meeting of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Monday evening (Nov. 13) at Cross City Church.

For the second consecutive year, the culmination of Monday’s proceedings was a prayer meeting led by SBTC President Todd Kaunitz, lead pastor of New Beginnings Baptist Church, and Nathan Lino, senior pastor of First Baptist Church Forney. Both churches have hosted prayer retreats over the past year aimed at reconnecting the hearts of their fellow pastors and church leaders across the state to prayer.

Kaunitz helped set the prayer tone earlier Monday evening as he delivered his president’s message rooted in Luke 24 and Acts 1. Kaunitz noted how Luke emphasizes the prayer life of Jesus more than any of the other gospels. That prayer focus continues into Acts, where Luke depicts the first church born out of a prayer meeting and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

“The same power that fueled the power of Jesus is also supposed to be the power that fuels the church,” Kaunitz said. He urged a return to prayer, noting there is an epidemic of prayerless pastors and churches across the country today. “Revival doesn’t start outside the church. It starts inside the church on our knees.”

Continuing into the prayer meeting, Kaunitz called upon messengers to practice what he had just preached. As the lights dimmed, the congregation sang “Lord, I Need You” and “This Is the Air I Breathe,” led by the praise team and worship leader Kyle Grizzard of New Beginnings. Individuals stood, knelt, raised hands, or bowed their heads throughout the worship center.

“Part of drawing near to God is singing and part is giving thanks to the Father,” Lino said, guiding the audience to pray in thanksgiving to Jehovah Rapha, the God who heals, and to praise Jesus, our advocate before the Father. Spoken prayers rippled across the auditorium.

Lino next led the crowd in a time of prayerful, personal consecration in which they meditated upon the first four Beatitudes and asked God for a spirit of humility—one that mourns sin, submits to the leadership of Christ, and hungers for righteousness. Many came forward while others knelt or stood in their places, heads bowed.

“Lord, is there anything you want to say to me? Is there anything I can do for you?” Lino urged the audience to ask. He prayed for blessings upon the convention as a whole and the next day’s gathering in particular.

Kaunitz returned to the stage, asking messengers to pray through the five markers of a mobilized church unveiled earlier in the evening by SBTC Executive Director Nathan Lorick. Five prayer leaders—Kaunitz, Danny Forshee, Caleb Turner, James Jordan, and Eddie Lopez—took turns guiding the group in asking the Lord for strength and power so that SBTC churches would be prayer-energized, evangelism-prioritized, disciple-making normalized, sending maximized, and partnerships synchronized.

Before closing, Kaunitz called upon individuals who were in trying circumstances to stand as others surrounded and prayed for them.

“There is no better way to begin a gathering of churches,” Kaunitz said in closing, “ … or to launch our next 25 years than with a prayer meeting.”

AM23: Lorick casts new vision for SBTC to attack growing lostness in Texas: ‘We must move forward together’

EULESS—When the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention was founded 25 years ago, Texas had a population of 19 million people. A quarter-century later, it’s estimated that’s how many lost people there are—19 million—among the state’s 30 million residents.

SBTC Executive Director Nathan Lorick likens it to a mountain of lostness—one of Mount Everest-sized proportions—but one that can be scaled as convention churches strategically work together.

On Monday, during the opening night of the SBTC Annual Meeting at Cross City Church, Lorick cast a new vision that aims to reverse the growth rate of lostness in Texas and the world. That vision, developed over the past year through a prayerful collaboration between SBTC leaders across the state, calls for a united front among the convention’s 2,700-plus churches.

“This is a daunting reality—one that ought to move our hearts to action,” Lorick said of the growing number of lost people in Texas. “What we’ve seen time and time again over the past 25 years as a convention [is this]: what seems like an insurmountable mountain to the world becomes a God-sized opportunity to reach every person and place God sends us.

“So how do we climb this mountain and reverse the rate of lostness in our state and the world? Just as we have for the past 25 years … we must move forward together.”

Lorick described the new vision as a “refocus” for the SBTC, one anchored upon its longstanding core values of being biblically based, missionally driven, and kingdom focused. The refocus provides a framework to drive the SBTC’s mission over the next 25 years: to mobilize churches to multiply disciple-making movements in Texas and around the world.

These disciple-making movements can be identified and measured by five markers: prayer-energized, evangelism-prioritized, disciple-making normalized, sending-maximized, and partnerships-synergized. Lorick noted all five markers are found throughout the New Testament.

“Knowing that God multiplies these markers, we want to mobilize churches toward them,” he said.

Mobilization of the markers will take place on three strategic pathways that resource churches with tools and training, network leaders with relationships and partnerships, and advance mission through giving and sending opportunities. As examples, Lorick noted continued growth among SBTC networks including the Black Church Network, Young Pastors Network, and Bivocational Pastors Network. He also lauded Regenesis, a revitalization process SBTC leaders project will have been completed by 500 pastors and leaders from 72 churches by May 2024.

Lorick said implementation of the convention’s new vision “won’t happen overnight,” noting it will begin to be integrated into the SBTC’s ministries and marketing objectives over the next year. The vision will be “fully optimized” in three years, he said, leading the SBTC to resource 1,000 churches, revitalize 350 churches, connect 1,000 leaders to 75 networks, and connect 1,200 churches to support 120 church plants. In 2023, Send Network SBTC, the convention’s church planting partnership with the North American Mission Board, expects to start 50 churches—which would be the most in a single year for the SBTC since 2005.

“No hill is too great for climbers like us,” Lorick said, “ … Let us move forward together and take our first steps on our path up that seemingly unscalable mountain as a family of churches. This challenge is too massive to go alone, but also one we cannot afford to walk away from.”

SBTC founding board member remembered as ‘champion, warrior’ for Christ

LUBBOCK—Almeida “Skeet” Workman, a founding Southern Baptists of Texas Convention board member, died Nov. 3. She was 85.

Visitation will be at Southcrest Baptist Church in Lubbock on Wednesday, Nov. 8, at 8:30 a.m. Her funeral will follow at 10 a.m.

Workman was a board member for the convention’s precursor group, the Southern Baptists of Texas, Inc., and then joined the new convention’s executive board in 1998. She also served the Southern Baptist Convention in key roles during and after the denomination’s Conservative Resurgence (1979-1995). She was a member of the SBC denominational calendar committee when that body debated adding a Sanctity of Human Life Sunday to the convention’s list of emphasis Sundays. In what she later described as her most memorable role in the SBC, she cast the deciding vote in favor of the addition. She was later a member of the boards for the Christian Life Commission (now called the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission) and the International Mission Board.

SBTC Executive Director Emeritus Jim Richards served alongside Workman during her time on the Christian Life Commission and from the beginning as she served the SBTC.

“We have lost a champion for salt and light in this world in the passing of Skeet Workman,” Richards said. “She was indefatigable in her stand for the Word of God. Skeet was a voice for the unborn and the model of a prayer warrior. We have few of her courage today. She eschewed the trends of feminism yet was one of the strongest women I have ever known. She heard, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant,’ from Jesus when she entered heaven.”

Skeet and her husband, Don, were married in 1961. They were longtime members of Southcrest Baptist Church in Lubbock and active advocates for pro-family issues in Texas. Skeet was part of the Texas Eagle Forum and formed a Lubbock chapter of Pray America, an effort to mobilize prayer for the nation and its leaders.

Her love for God and country continued through the end of her life. In an article printed in the November 2023 issue of Southern Baptist Texan magazine, Skeet said, “Prayer is more important than [anything], and right now, God is the only one who can save America. I guess we just pray for America. That’s what we do.”

In addition to Don, she is survived by two sons and four grandchildren.

5 minutes with Jack Graham

Jack Graham is senior pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church, one of the nation’s largest congregations with more than 57,000 members and three locations in North Texas. He is the author of numerous books, and his passionate, biblical teaching is seen and heard worldwide on PowerPoint Ministries. The Bible in a Year with Jack Graham podcast, in partnership with pray.com, launched in October 2022 and has now reached more than 30 million downloads. He and his wife, Deb, have three married children and eight grandchildren.

What is something you’ve been able to celebrate at Prestonwood recently?

I truly believe there’s a sense of revival happening at Prestonwood. Our North Campus in Prosper, under the leadership of Connor Bales, has been growing exponentially, so we recently expanded and renovated to keep up with the growing needs. We’ve celebrated our Prestonwood en Español ministry, led by Gilberto Corredera, which is thriving and reaching the Hispanic community throughout North Texas. We’ve celebrated our Prestonwood Pregnancy Center, as we have witnessed nearly 7,000 women who were abortion-minded choose life for their babies since the overturning of Roe v. Wade. We continue to work and pray that abortion will be unthinkable. We celebrated nearly 500 professions of faith among children and students through our summer activities. And we’re expecting more than 1,100 baptisms this church year. To God be the glory!

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

One of the lessons I learned very early in my ministry was to balance life between the church and home. I always made time for my family. I made sure Deb and I spent time together, and I spent time with our kids, attending whatever events or sports they were participating in while growing up. This is a lesson I try to instill in our ministers and the young pastors and leaders we train through our Prestonwood Network.

What’s one thing you want to see God do specifically at or through Prestonwood in 2024?

In this tumultuous world we live in with its increasingly hostile and secular culture, we want our church family to stand firm as believers of Christ. We want them to be equipped and confident in the solid foundation on which they stand. We are more and more intentional about this through our teaching and discipleship and evangelism training, from our youngest to our oldest members. Our church family has always had a heart for reaching people—locally, nationally, and internationally—with the transforming message of the gospel. Evangelism is more critical than ever for our church and every church.

What are some of the biggest challenges facing the church in 2023?

Too many churches are throwing in the towel when it comes to the culture wars and social issues—especially on the sanctity of life. Too many pastors are compromising their calling in the pulpit, watering down their messages from the infallible Word of God for fear of offending. Number one, people are offended too easily these days; and number two, the Bible is offensive because it speaks truth. Now, more than ever, we must not relent. We must be bold and courageous and stand strong for the Lord. We are to fight the good fight of faith, because if we lose the church, we lose everything.

Richardson pastor with football dreams instead follows God’s call into ministry

Calling an Audible

Jose Arzate had a clear vision for his life as a young man: he wanted to play professional football in the U.S. and possibly even coach.

The next step on that journey would be a stop at West Texas A&M, where he received a scholarship offer to play football in 2013. Arzate, along with his parents and siblings, made the 14-hour move to Amarillo so he could pursue his dream in nearby Canyon.

The transition was harder than they could have imagined. His family was unable to find housing or jobs and often had to depend on the generosity of others to eat. Then it got worse. The coach who wanted Arzate to play football at the university left and a new coach was brought in.

That closed the door for Arzate to play football there. He felt like he had let his family down and that his world was falling apart. Two years later, in the midst of continued uncertainty, he called his former pastor, Rolando Aguirre.

“Things didn’t work out the way I planned,” Arzate told Aguirre.

“I’m glad they didn’t work out,” Aguirre replied, “because I could see that wasn’t for you because you have a call to [pastoral] ministry.”

Being a pastor had never crossed Arzate’s mind. But after the conversation, he began to see his life through a different lens and sense God moving him in a new direction.

“If I hadn’t gone through that desert, I wouldn’t have understood that I had a pastoral calling.”

—Jose Arzate Tweet

“If I hadn’t gone through that desert,” Arzate said, “I wouldn’t have understood that I had a pastoral calling.”

God was now opening new doors. Arzate enrolled at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and answered a call to serve as an interim youth pastor at a church in Amarillo. It was at this church he met his wife, Natalie, who was active in worship and missions. As they served the church together, they saw a need in their community for a Christ-centered, biblical Hispanic congregation. Since God had put it on his heart to start such a work, Arzate volunteered to help his church start a Hispanic ministry.

Little did he know, God would soon change Arzate’s path once again.

‘Planting is a long-distance race’

Before long, another Amarillo pastor, Andrew Hébert of Paramount Baptist Church (who now pastors Mobberly Baptist Church in Longview), reached out to ask Arzate advice about how to start a Hispanic ministry at his own church. The two made a strong connection that day, and eventually Paramount invited Arzate to lead that new Hispanic ministry.

God blessed the ministry greatly. In less than six months, 20-30 people were attending the church’s Hispanic service. By the time it hit its one-year anniversary, 100 people were attending. The Arzates remained there for two years before answering a call to lead the En Español ministry at Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth.

It was at Travis Avenue that God would begin to guide Arzate in a new direction. Though his call to ministry had led him mostly to Spanish congregations and efforts, he and Natalie began to see the need to minister to overlooked populations in multicultural settings.

What followed was another call—a literal one, from Northrich Baptist Church in Richardson. Church leaders reached out to Arzate to share with him their vision of reaching a more diverse population. They told Arzate that the church, once strong and well-known in the community, was in decline. It struggled to reach younger people. A new vision was needed, and they asked Arzate if he would come and lead the church.

Once again, he answered the call. Only this time, rather than starting a church from scratch, he and church leaders at Northrich were faced with a decision: replant, revitalize, or relocate? Ultimately, he reached out to the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, which helped the church make the decision to replant.

Working with the SBTC brought valuable benefits, Arzate said. He and his wife both began to receive church planter training. He also began to develop a close relationship with Julio Arriola, who directs Send Network SBTC—a planting partnership between the SBTC and the North American Mission Board. Arzate said Arriola has served as one of his mentors.

“Jose has a deep-rooted passion for multicultural church planting,” Arriola said. “He recognizes the significance of preaching and serving a community that encompasses a variety of ethnicities, not limited to Hispanics or Anglos, but embracing a multitude of ethnic groups.”

Because of its heart to reach its community, Northrich took on a new name during the replant process—The Bridge Church. As its name implies, the church wants to be a bridge between the nations and the gospel of Jesus Christ. It desires to connect people to the Word of God, to other people, and to their God-given purpose.

Arzate knows the work won’t be easy. He feels like another part of his ministry is to encourage other planters who may get discouraged when they don’t see progress as soon as they’d like—just as other people have encouraged him along the way.

“Every week I’ve considered throwing in the towel because it’s hard,” Arzate says. “Planting is a long-distance race. It is for the one who endures, and not for the one who [wants to see] fruit quickly. When a vision is about reaching the nations and the next generations, the enemy gets restless and attacks to bring discouragement, but God gives us the strength to persevere and fulfill His purpose through prayer.”

East Texas church has one explanation for the renewal it’s experiencing—Jesus

Making the impossible possible

very morning, Scott and Brandi Plemons get on their knees and say a prayer like this: “Lord, thank you for our blessings. Thank you for our struggles. We are nothing without you. Please keep us from our addictions.”

Drugs and alcohol have been a part of their lives almost as long as they’ve been part of each other’s. They grew up in Arlington (in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex) and met several decades ago as teenagers. Both grew up in the church and both ended up walking away from God.

Scott’s destructive path began around college, when he said he began to take advantage of the freedom most teens discover after high school. But his choices didn’t liberate him; they shackled him—literally—landing him in prison.

Brandi began to stray from the Lord after a crushing series of deaths in her family, including the loss of her mother when she was 13. Angry at what she perceived God had taken from her, she ran as far from Him as she thought she could.

“I just kind of went left and didn’t stop,” she said.

After trips in and out of jail and numerous failed attempts to shake their addictions, Scott and Brandi decided to flee the city and, on the advice of a family member, move to rural East Texas—where they thought they’d have a far better chance to stabilize their lives. Before long, they began attending a church, where they were saved and baptized.

But the hooks of addiction were still deep within them, so much so that they began to fear they were on a path to certain death. Scott said he has always felt like he and Brandi were meant to help others, but as they wallowed in the mire of addiction, they couldn’t even help themselves.

“I kept telling Brandi, ‘This isn’t how life’s supposed to be,’” Scott said. “‘God’s got something greater for us.’”

In their quest to get help, Scott felt led by God to find the man who had pastored him at the Arlington church he grew up in. He was Scott’s pastor from grade school through high school, until he left the church to answer God’s call to lead the First Baptist Church in Malakoff. Scott, who now lived a short drive away from FBC Malakoff, learned from a friend that his former pastor was still at the church, though no longer as the senior pastor.

So, on a Sunday morning Scott and Brandi set out for FBC Malakoff to find his former pastor, to see if maybe—just maybe—he might be able to help them break away from the bondage of addiction. When they pulled into the drive that morning, they were met by one of the church’s parking lot greeters. They explained to the greeter they were looking for a man they were told would be inside.

The man’s name was Casey Perry.

‘I was praying without ceasing’

Casey Perry doesn’t have a go-to place when it comes to his prayer life. He prays everywhere. He prays in his bedroom. He prays in his truck. He prays in public places. He prays for people he knows. He prays for strangers. The sum of all this is that he can’t begin to tell you all the places he prays or all the faces he prays for—for the most part.

Perry, who will turn 90 next April, clearly remembers the two things he was praying for most fervently as the calendar flipped to 2020: He was praying the Lord would allow him to live long enough to care for his wife, Lettie, who was struggling with Alzheimer’s disease, and he was also praying for the First Baptist Church in Malakoff.

Perry served as FBC Malakoff’s pastor from 1992 until 2000. Those were good years. Among other blessings, he recalls how FBC Malakoff started eight new churches during those eight years. It was also a time of tremendous growth fueled by young families bringing their kids, who, in turn, invited their school friends.

But as 2020 wound down, and with Perry now a member having long ago stepped away from full-time pastoring, the church found itself without a senior pastor and in decline. Salvations and baptisms slumped. Attendance followed suit. There was a general sense in the congregation that the movements of God so fondly remembered by its longest-standing members were just that—memories.

“Every time I’d think of it—and I thought of it often—I’d breathe a prayer for the Malakoff church.”

—Casey perry Tweet

Watching the church struggle grieved Perry’s heart, so he did all that he knew to do. He prayed.

“It wasn’t just daily,” Perry said. “It was kind of like Paul said—I was praying without ceasing. It was a constant time of prayer. Every time I’d think of it—and I thought of it often—I’d breathe a prayer for the Malakoff church.”

Perry wasn’t praying for a return to better days. That, in a sense, would be praying backward. Instead, he prayed forward—for God to move in a fresh way, opening new doors to reach the lost through the ministry of the church. He also prayed for the man he was certain God already knew would be the next pastor to lead the church into that season.

Yes, God knew precisely who that man was. But Perry didn’t, and as the time for accepting resumes ticked down, neither did the pastor search team prayerfully sorting through them.

As it turns out, one resume made it onto the stack toward the end of the process. It was from a worship pastor with no senior pastor experience serving at a sister church 30 miles down the road. His name was familiar to some on the search team, as he had previously served as FBC Malakoff’s worship pastor.

The man’s name was Ed Fenton.

Undeniably Him

In May 2022, Ed Fenton began keeping a prayer journal. He doesn’t remember exactly what prompted him to start, other than he wanted some kind of record to help him identify and remember the work of God resulting from his own prayers and those lifted up corporately at FBC Malakoff.

The first entry is dated May 2, 2022: “Last week was one worth remembering. For seven months, we’ve been praying for God to work and move among us, and the Lord blessed in some unique ways. On Wednesday (April 27), the church celebrated its first baptism since June 2021—my first baptism as a senior pastor. On Sunday (May 1), we celebrated our second baptism. … On top of that, on Wednesday (April 27), my youngest daughter, Brenna, trusted Christ to be her Savior and Lord. He is doing a work that’s undeniably Him.”

Undeniably Him. He’s not sure, but Fenton feels like that phrase is starting to resonate with church members. Not only because it is spoken often at worship services and during Wednesday night prayer meetings, but also because members are seeing—no, experiencing—things that seem to happen only because God made it so.

After two people were baptized following nearly a year of stilled baptistry waters, three more would follow before year’s end. So far in 2023, 24 have been baptized. Worship attendance has grown from about 160 in the fall of 2022 to 250-300 this fall. The next gen departments are blossoming, with the kids ministry more than doubling and the youth growing from fewer than 10 regular attenders to 35-40 students showing up for midweek services. Weekly visitation—spearheaded by Perry and Stan Smith, the church’s missions team leader—is thriving. The church is reaching people who are subsequently joining the visitation team to reach others with the saving message of Christ that once reached them.

New leaders often bring with them a renewed sense of hope and excitement, which, in turn, can boost attendance. New ideas and textbook church growth strategies can be effective in bringing people outside the circle in. Fenton credits none of those things—nor the preaching, nor the music—for what is happening at FBC Malakoff. The church, he says, is experiencing what it is experiencing only because people are desperately and more frequently calling out to God in prayer.

Fenton the worship pastor turned to prayer before answering God’s call to leave nearby Rock Hill Baptist Church to accept a new role as senior pastor. Fenton, the new senior pastor, turned to prayer when trying to figure out how to lead the church in Malakoff.

“If it’s going to happen here,” Fenton said, “it’s going to happen because our people have been on their knees praying and asking God to do it. … We have staked the success of the ministry of this church on God answering the prayers of His people.”

For Fenton, pastoring has been an emotional tightrope—one of learning how to balance the celebratory shouts lobbed from the congregation as a new follower of Christ takes the baptism plunge with the tears of hopelessness he sees on the faces of people in crisis. It’s seeing a sanctuary filled to near capacity most Sunday mornings but knowing that same room faces no such threat during Wednesday night prayer meetings.

There is still so much Fenton feels like can happen—needs to happen—at this church.

Even so, FBC Malakoff has come a long way.

“I just believe this so much—God can take 20 serious people who are desperate for Him in prayer and He can do the impossible,” he added. “He has done that and He is doing that.”

One way God is doing that is through transforming the lives of those desperately seeking Him.

‘He can do the impossible’

It’s a Tuesday night and Scott and Brandi are sitting inside a Dairy Queen, staring across the table at a young couple they invited to dinner. A few minutes earlier, Scott and Brandi had gone to the young couple’s house during FBC Malakoff’s regular weekly visitation. Their own history of substance abuse helped them quickly recognize the tell-tale signs of addiction displayed by the young couple now sitting in front of them. As the young couple bickered, a thought ran through Brandi’s mind:

“We’re looking in a mirror at our former selves.”

Only months earlier, it was Scott and Brandi sitting in a rural diner across the table Smith and Perry—who met them for breakfast days after the pair were reunited with Perry after decades that first Sunday morning at FBC Malakoff.

“Tell me what’s going on,” Perry inquired.

“Brother Perry, we’re both struggling with alcohol,” Scott replied.

“Well,” Perry matter-of-factly shot back, “we’re going to whoop that.”

God has transformed Scott and Brandi in so many ways, not the least of which is this: they who once had a great need to be ministered to are now ministering to others as members of FBC Malakoff. Even as they minister alongside people who feel like family and under a pastor in Fenton who they say has been there for them anytime they’ve needed him, Scott and Brandi readily admit they have not conquered all their struggles.

But they’ve come a long way.

What’s your story? Never give up … God can do anything!

attended my first Southern Baptist Convention meeting in 1980 and served on the denominational calendar committee. Even though I attended the next 20 SBC meetings and served on [what is now the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission] and then the International Mission Board in later years, that was my most memorable time in the convention.

The big issue that year had to do with whether the convention would adopt a sanctity of human life Sunday on our calendar. We had never done that before, and I was surprised to find that some of our denominational leaders were opposed to it. It was my pleasure to cast the deciding vote to recommend that pro-life commemoration be added to the calendar. Convention messengers approved it in 1980.

My husband, Don, and I were also involved in the early days of starting a new, more conservative, convention in Texas. The Southern Baptists of Texas, Inc. was the predecessor to the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, and I was on the board for that. In fact, I had accumulated a mailing list for my work with various causes and we used that list to help build a newspaper list for the conservative Texas group. I also edited the Plumbline [the newspaper for the Southern Baptists of Texas, Inc.] for a while. When the new convention launched in 1998, I was one of those who became part of the new executive board.

“I just love seeing how prayer is the most important thing we can do. Nothing compares to it. We just ought to be thankful God gave it to us.”

—skeet workman Tweet

I’ve been very involved in issues and public policy over the years. Don has been, as well. I’ve walked neighborhoods in support of candidates and policies. Don has lobbied in Austin to support facilities for young people who get in trouble. But none of those have turned out to be the most important thing we’ve done.

For years, Don and I have been involved in Pray America. Our group meets at our church, and we’ve had as many as 48 come to pray. We’ve had people from 11 churches involved and sometimes we have strangers come, sometimes candidates for local office come—they are starving for prayer. I’m sure not all of them are Christians so I always give them a Four Spiritual Laws tract. We just think America’s got some real problems. I was reading recently the things that Israel and Judah did when they rejected God. And the list in the prophets is exactly what we’re seeing in America. I don’t think if God judged Israel He’s going to just let us get away with the same things. We’re praying right now that God will tell us who to vote for the president. And He has a way of really showing us. We’ve seen so many miracles in this prayer group. God loves it.

Our pastor was driving with his brother from fishing late one night when someone shot at them. The bullet went right between them through the truck. He [David Wilson, pastor of Southcrest Baptist Church, Lubbock] came to our meeting and he just was so pleased. He said, “I believe y’all’s prayers saved our lives.”

Prayer is more important than [anything], and right now, God is the only one who can save America. I guess we just pray for America. That’s what we do.

I thought after my knee surgery that I might retire. And then a whole bunch of people showed up for our weekly prayer meeting and I knew I couldn’t retire. God doesn’t want it to end yet. So I’ve never told Him I was going to retire. Don and I are just going to keep on keeping on.

I guess that’s my story: Never give up! God has a time schedule, and I have seen enough miracles through this prayer group and the SBC that when it comes to God, He can do anything. And when we ask Him in faith, He may answer at a different time and in a different way, but I’ve seen Him answer many prayers. I just love seeing how prayer is the most important thing we can do. Nothing compares to it. We just ought to be thankful God gave it to us.

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

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Renewed commitment to crying out to God is leading to transformation at FBC Troup

Prayer before progress

Preston Lindsey has worn a lot of hats in his lifetime. He’s been a logger, pipe-fitter, oil field roughneck, telephone lineman, and a shipping manager and transportation director for a grocery chain. He spent 15 years as an agriculture teacher with the Troup Independent School District before becoming its director of support services, a position he holds today.

One thing the 65-year-old never expected to be was a pastor. Yet, since January 2023, he has worn that hat as well, pastoring at First Baptist Church in Troup—where, through an emphasis on prayer, the church is experiencing new life.

A native East Texan, Lindsey was raised in Mixon—a tiny community with fewer than 100 residents located seven miles southwest of Troup—trusting Christ at age 10. He married his high school sweetheart, Kelli, attended Kilgore College, and later earned a degree from the University of Texas at Tyler. Lindsey still resides near Mixon on 50 acres with Kelli and two adult children, both with special needs. Another daughter and her family also live nearby.

“He was leading me to be a pastor somewhere. It pretty much scared me to death.”

—Preston Lindsey Tweet

No stranger to church work, Lindsey served 40 years as a deacon at FBC Mixon, where he led dozens of mission trips. Following a mission trip to Mexico two decades ago, he realized he was serving himself more than serving God.

“I realized then I wanted to serve Christ with all my heart,” he recalled. As he reached his 60s, he “really began to feel the call.” God was doing something. “He was leading me to be a pastor somewhere,” Lindsey said. “It pretty much scared me to death.”

Meanwhile, FBC Troup lost its pastor in June 2022. Lindsey understood some of the circumstances. He knew many people at the church and was saddened by its struggles. One Monday morning, Lindsey drove by FBC Troup as usual on his way to work at the school district. He pulled into the church parking lot to pray for the church, its members, and the community.

Within 30 minutes, he received a call from one of the FBC Troup deacons asking him to fill the pulpit the following Sunday. He agreed, thinking the Lord might use him to help the deacons reorganize. He preached that Sunday and met with the deacons about the church’s issues.

The next Monday morning, he once again found himself praying in the FBC Troup parking lot.

“Lord, what are you asking me to do?” Lindsey recalled praying. Within 15 minutes, another FBC Troup deacon called to ask him to preach again the following Sunday. Lindsey agreed. The deacons then asked him to serve as interim pastor until things could be “straightened out.”

Lindsey was astonished. Yes, he was a lifelong Bible student, but he had no formal seminary training. He had just gotten through studying Moses with the youth group at FBC Mixon. Was it time to step out in faith?

“I wanted to serve the Lord,” he said.

So he said yes.

What followed is a “crazy story of what God’s doing,” Lindsey noted.

A matter of prayer

If his ministry at FBC Troup was to honor God, Lindsey knew it had to begin in prayer—a truth he had learned at the 2021 Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Annual Meeting in nearby Flint. At that gathering, he said he heard “preacher after preacher” talking about how prayer had changed their lives and their churches.

“I brought that focus to Troup,” he said. If his involvement at the church began with prayer in the parking lot, his time as pastor would also start with prayer.

Whereas FBC Troup had once averaged around 120 in services, only 35-40 attended during the new pastor’s first month. The four deacons and Lindsey committed to pray, a commitment the church body, though small, also embraced.

They focused on 2 Chronicles 7:14-16, Lindsey said, spending weeks on that passage.

“We prayed in church services. We prayed as a deacon group. We really wanted to understand what humbling ourselves meant,” he recalled. The church held a 12-hour prayer vigil in 2022 and again in fall 2023, with people signing up for time slots and coming to the church to pray.

“After our church fell on our knees and asked the Lord for His direction, things happened,” Lindsey said.

It started in the youth department.

“We’ve had 60 baptisms so far this year. We’ve seen amazing things through our youth and the leadership. All that is of the Holy Spirit.”

—Preston Lindsey Tweet

Tragedy brings unity

“Our youth exploded,” said Lindsey, crediting youth director Matt Ranshaw and his wife, Brooke, for bringing new life to the group and encouraging mission trips. Like Lindsey, Ranshaw is bivocational, serving also as a policeman for Tyler ISD.

Students started sharing Christ with their friends. The youth brought their parents, friends, and family to church. More than 170 kids and 35 volunteer workers participated in a mid-October Wednesday night youth group meeting, Lindsey said. That increase has spilled over into the church, which now averages 200 on Sundays.

“We’ve had 60 baptisms so far this year,” Lindsey said. “We’ve seen amazing things through our youth and the leadership. All that is of the Holy Spirit.”

Some of those amazing things started after a tragedy.

Youth camp at Piney Woods in July 2022 started out as a struggle, Ranshaw said. Kids were not gelling. Groups kept to themselves. Ranshaw was discouraged. Wednesday of camp week, he called Lindsey and learned that the congregation had prayed for youth camp that evening.

“After our church fell on our knees and asked the Lord for His direction, things happened.”

—Preston Lindsey Tweet

Things started changing quickly. Kids at camp started opening up that same night: students shared their struggles, some admitted to needing salvation, and others revealed brokenness. Camp ended on a spiritual mountaintop for many, and the students wanted to continue that when they got home.

The youth group started growing in numbers and spiritual maturity, which would soon be tested. On Sept. 9, 2022, during the Troup homecoming football game, junior player Cooper Reid—Lindsey’s cousin’s son—collapsed on the field. Cooper had gone to camp with the FBC Troup kids, although he attended another church.

Instead of the planned homecoming the following night, the school held a community prayer vigil for Cooper. FBC Troup kids attended, as did pastors, kids from other schools, and community members.

Ranshaw saw his students’ faith in action.

“Sometimes you can teach kids all you want. Until they experience it, they won’t buy in,” he said, adding that he told his youth group, “Now you understand intercessory prayer.”

The youth and church continued to pray for Cooper, who has since returned home and continues to make progress.

Progress is real for Ranshaw, Lindsey, and FBC Troup. And all the progress has come as God has continued to show Himself faithful through their continued prayers.

Reach Texas giving for 2022-23 campaign sets record

GRAPEVINE—With the 2023-2024 Reach Texas State Missions Offering in full swing, the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention is celebrating the generosity of its churches stemming from last year’s campaign.

SBTC churches gave $1,673,560 to Reach Texas—the most ever collected in a single year for the offering. The offering period covers September 2022 to August 2023. It marked the second time in three years a record Reach Texas offering was collected. The second-highest offering came during the 2020-2021 campaign, when $1,527,969 was given by SBTC churches.

SBTC Executive Director Nathan Lorick said giving to Reach Texas is critical for the advancement of missions and evangelism strategies across the state and expressed gratitude for yet another year of sacrificial giving on the part of convention churches.

“I am so grateful for the generosity of SBTC churches and their common desire to reach Texas and impact the world together,” Lorick said.

Reach Texas funds a variety of gospel-fueled efforts, including church planting, disaster relief, missions mobilization, and the annual Empower Conference, which emphasizes evangelism. Data indicates that an estimated 20 million of Texas’ 28 million residents are lost.

The 2023-2024 statewide challenge goal is $1.6 million. For more information or to give, visit sbtexas.com/reachtexas.