Author: Jayson Larson

AM23: SBTC messengers conduct significant business at meeting

EULESS—The Southern Baptists of Texas Convention met for its annual meeting Nov. 13-14 at Cross City Church in Euless. The event drew 925 registered messengers and 247 registered guests, a total of 1,172 people. Messengers conducted significant business that facilitates the convention’s ministry for the coming year:

Forshee, Lopez, Cooper elected to serve as officers

Austin pastor Danny Forshee was elected SBTC president by acclamation on Nov. 14, the final day of the meeting.

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

Rounding out the convention’s elected leadership is Eddie Lopez, pastor of First Baptist Forney En Español, who was elected as vice president, and Sharonda Cooper of Emmaus Church of Georgetown, who was elected convention secretary. Both were also elected by acclamation.

$27.8 million budget approved

Messengers approved a $27,833,488 budget for the next year. This amount is the same as the 2023 budget. The convention’s business and financial plan prohibits raising a budget for the next fiscal year above the current year, beyond receipts in the prior year.

Sexual abuse awareness, prevention resources made available to churches

Messengers were informed of resources being made available to raise awareness and help prevent sexual abuse at SBTC churches during the Nov. 14 afternoon session.

A membership to MinistrySafe—an organization whose mission is to protect children and those who serve them through training and resourcing—will be provided at no cost for the first 500 churches (first-time users) that sign up. SBTC churches interested in learning more are being urged to text PROTECT to 469-727-7272.

Additionally, SBTC Executive Board Chairman Caleb Turner reported to messengers that a licensed therapist specializing in trauma and sexual abuse has been retained by the convention as a resource for churches.

Effective date for 2022 motion extended

At the 2022 annual meeting in Corpus Christi, messengers approved a motion to interpret the SBTC’s constitutional affiliation requirement that the “office of pastor be limited to men” to apply “not only to the titles of senior pastor or lead pastor, but to any role designated by the noun ‘pastor.’”

Referencing a request by SBC President Bart Barber that state conventions “pause” actions they may be considering that involve the nature of cooperation, the SBTC Executive Board recommended the date for implementation of the 2022 motion for presently affiliated churches be moved to Jan. 1, 2025. After a time of discussion at this year’s annual meeting, the board’s recommendation was approved by a hand vote of messengers.

Messenger intends to propose constitutional amendment in 2024

Messenger Rob Collingsworth of Redemption Story Church in Fort Worth reported his intent, in accordance with Article IX of the SBTC Constitution, to propose two constitutional amendments at next year’s annual meeting. Collingsworth is proposing the following amendments (in bold):

Article III. Doctrinal Statement

“The Baptist Faith and Message, adopted in 2000 and amended in 2023 by the Southern Baptist Convention, shall be the doctrinal statement for the Convention.”

Article IV. Affiliation

Section 1 “(d) affirms the church-wide authority and oversight office of pastor/elder/overseer to be limited to men.”

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: Send Network SBTC planters sent out with encouragement, prayer

EULESS—Julio Arriola, director of Send Network SBTC, opened the church planter commissioning ceremony at the 2023 SBTC Annual Meeting Tuesday morning (Nov. 14) with a reminder of Luke 10:2: “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.”

The number of church planters, family members, and Send Network SBTC staff who joined Arriola onstage at Cross City Church for the commissioning service was hardly few, however. Dozens filled the worship center stage, representing the 36 churches planted since the beginning of the partnership between the SBTC and the North American Mission Board begun in 2022. Those churches, Arriola said, represent all corners and communities across the state: “from East Texas to West Texas, north to south, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio,” representing “different languages, different ethnicities, different cultures.”

Arriola welcomed not only planters who have worked through Send Network SBTC, but also asked other planters in attendance to come forward. “The Lord is using you. We are grateful for you,” Arriola said. Speaking to the messengers, he added, “Your faithfulness in Cooperative Program giving and [the annual Annie Armstrong Easter Offering] has made this possible.”

Arriola invited SBTC Executive Director Nathan Lorick to the stage to pray for the group.

Thanking God for His goodness in sending planters, Lorick said in his prayer that God is “bringing the world to Texas.” He prayed for God’s favor and provision for the planters, plants, and their communities, and for churches and pastors to come alongside to assist planters.”

Jason Crandall, Send Network SBTC church plant lead, also prayed for the planters, with Arriola translating in Spanish. Crandall thanked God for sending the workers to respond to the “lostness of 19 million people [in Texas] who are far” from Christ.

During his report Monday evening, Lorick reported encouraging numbers related to the convention’s recent church planting efforts. In 2022, Send Network SBTC planted 36 churches—more than double the number planted the year before. Projections indicate the number of 2023 church plants may rise to 50, the most planted in a single year since 2005, he added.

“In 2024, we are dreaming of planting more churches than we ever have in one single year,” Lorick said.

Said Arriola: “We firmly believe that our current cohort of church planters will be at the forefront of a revival within our family of churches, pioneering a transformative era of church planting and evangelism.”

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: Longtime Sherman pastor honored with Leaders Legacy Award

EULESS—Mike Lawson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Sherman the past 24 years, was awarded the Leaders Legacy Award by the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Executive Board on Tuesday (Nov. 14) during the 2023 SBTC Annual Meeting.

The Southern Baptists of Texas Foundation created the Leaders Legacy Endowment to fund an award “to honor individuals who have distinguished themselves by their service to Christ through the SBTC or the SBC.” Candidates are considered by the SBTC Executive Board and recipients are recognized during the board’s report during the annual meeting each year.

Lawson called the honor “special.”

“I am honored and humbled to be considered for this recognition and will treasure the blessing of it all of my days,” Lawson said. “I’m particularly grateful for opportunities to support and serve in this fine convention of churches called the SBTC.”

Lawson has been a leader at all levels of denominational service. In addition to pastoring Texas churches for nearly 40 years, he has served extensively on committees and boards for the denomination. Nationally, he was a member of the Southern Baptist Convention’s executive and credentials committees. His service to the SBTC includes time on the resolutions, nominations, and evangelism committees. More locally, Lawson has been a leader within Grayson Baptist Association as a seminary extension instructor and as a member of various associational committees.

He holds degrees from East Texas Baptist University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, including a Doctor of Ministry degree from Southwestern.

“Mike Lawson is a faithful pastor who has consistently modeled grace, humility, and integrity,” SBTC Executive Director Nathan Lorick said. “It is a joy to highlight faithful men like Mike who have selflessly served the Lord with excellence.”

Mike has been married to Kim, who serves as the church pianist, since 1990.

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.

Tending to your sheep by tending to your membership roll

Inattention.

I’d guess it’s the reason your church rolls are five, six, even seven times larger than your average Sunday attendance. Everything in life gravitates toward disorder and deterioration without attention. If you need evidence, look at your lawn. Healthy grass is a product of attention. You must pull weeds. Water in the morning. Mow often. Spray and fertilize. Neglect the yard and entropy follows.

Likely, pastor, you inherited a decade or more of inattention to the rolls and, by this point, have probably added to it. As my high school coach used to tell me, “Josh it’s really not about where you are … it’s about where you’re going.” I find that encouragement helpful and hopeful as we think through this essential area of membership that has been neglected in Baptist life.

Before you begin evaluating your membership roll, here are three words of caution:

1. Be patient

Love is patient (1 Corinthians 13:4a). It takes years to build relational trust in a church. Take time to build trust by preaching God’s Word and loving God’s people. Tackle books of the Bible and never skip hard passages. Live out what you preach by loving your people. Answer phone calls. Attend different Sunday school classes. Counsel struggling couples. Visit the sick. Volunteer in the children’s and student ministries. Disciple faithful men. Equip leaders. Pray for your people. Be patient.

2. Work within your system

You (most likely) aren’t the first pastor of your church. Godly men, women, and children have prayed, served, taught, evangelized, worshiped, and systematically organized your church into the coherent and vibrant body it is today. The coherence you experience flows from your constitution and bylaws.

Before you start skipping merrily on your way in an effort to trim the rolls, get to know your system. Learn how your autonomous congregation organizes herself. Talk to seasoned saints who can give you greater insight into why certain structures are in place. Don’t break your constitution and bylaws to get to the finish line sooner—that will lead to discord and a loss in confidence.

3. Practice regenerate membership

Managing the rolls is deeply doctrinal. According to Article 6 of the Baptist Faith & Message 2000, we confess: “A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel ….”

Membership is for baptized believers, which means we must have practices in place that support our doctrine. This may mean tending to your constitution and bylaws. Make candidates take a class on membership essentials. Have them sit with a pastor to share their understanding of the gospel and personal testimony. In most cases, don’t baptize anyone who isn’t moving into membership. Cleaning the rolls without having meaningful practices that support regenerate membership is like mowing a yard full of weeds. It only appears to have solved the problem. The weeds continue to spread.

Now that you have prepped the ground, here’s a few practical tips to help you get started:

Recruit a team

When I began trimming, I began with a team. I looked for people who had four characteristics: They understood and supported the vision; they were knowledgeable about the history of our members; they were willing and hardworking; and they possessed wisdom in handling potentially difficult or awkward conversations. Get like-minded people around you to help share the load.

Set priorities

Teach the team the basics of church membership. Guide them through the doctrine of church discipline. Coach them on how the roll is a tool to identify who the pastors are to lead. Encourage them with the tremendous opportunity of reclaiming straying members.

Think concentric circles

Our team started with non-resident members before we moved to resident members. Not only will this keep your efforts organized, but it prepares your team for more difficult cases later in the process.

Get to work

It’s much easier to talk about removing members from church membership rolls than actually doing it. But do it we must. Pastor, go after your sheep.

Our team spent hours finding good contact information, drafting countless emails, making hundreds of phone calls, messaging dozens of people on social media platforms, and having face-to-face conversations with local relatives. Then we took all our work to member meeting after member meeting and had the church look over our recommendations and vote. Our hope through it all was to reclaim as many sheep back to the fold as possible and give the pastors clarity on who they were to shepherd.

Peter writes to the elders of the persecuted church, “So I exhort the elders among you … shepherd the flock of God that is among you ….” (1 Peter 5:1-2). The membership roll is your flock. Pastor, you will give an account for how you shepherd them (Hebrews 13:17). Get to work.

But remember, member care is never finished. It’s a lot like a lawn. It will always need attention. When you cultivate a healthy lawn, in time, weeds become the exception. You notice them and it takes less effort to remove them. So, begin the good work—the hard work—of tending to your member rolls.

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.

SBTC DR relieves Baptist teams to serve Florida hurricane survivors

PERRY, Fla.—Though national media attention regarding Hurricane Idalia has ceased, recovery from the disaster continues. The category 4 storm slammed into Florida’s Big Bend region on Aug. 30. Southern Baptists of Texas Disaster Relief teams answered the state’s call for assistance in late September and remained working in Taylor County in early October.

“We were on alert status even before Idalia hit,” SBTC DR Director Scottie Stice said. “On out-of-state deployments, we don’t respond until the host state requests us. Our deployment was put on hold until Florida and Southeast Baptist DR teams cycled through. We came in and relieved them the last week of September.”

The Big Bend—also known as Florida’s Nature Coast, where the panhandle meets the peninsula—is an eight-county area densely forested and rural, far removed from big cities and popular tourist attractions, according to FloridaNatureCoast.org.

Taylor County, the southernmost county in the Big Bend, has a population of about 22,000, ranking it 54th in population out of the state’s 67 counties. In 2021, about 18% of the residents lived below the poverty line, USA Today reported.

Serving disaster survivors in rural areas such as Taylor County presents challenges. Homes are far apart and rural roads sometimes difficult to clear.

An SBTC DR chainsaw team under the direction of Monte Furrh of Bonham arrived in the Perry area first. Six volunteers worked 10-hour days for a week and completed seven time-consuming chainsaw jobs. That task included removing large limbs—known as widow-makers due to their dangerous potential to harm if left in place—from damaged trees or helping homeowners with downed trees.

“The work is with massive live oaks. It takes time,” Stice said.

Furrh’s team was relieved by another North Texas team directed by Jesse Hauptrief of Anna on Oct. 1. The team is scheduled to work through week’s end, Stice said. SBTC DR team volunteers come from across Texas, he added.

Florida homeowner Randy Newman posted his thanks for the SBTC DR team’s help on Facebook. “Them showing up to our house was a godsend,” Newman wrote. “They worked all day cutting trees, most of them ‘widow-makers.’ They started the day with a prayer for safety, our community, and for me and [my wife] personally. I can’t explain the true compassion they have for all of us involved in the storm.”

Thus far, SBTC DR teams have recorded one salvation, many spiritual contacts, and many Bibles distributed, Stice said.