Author: Russell Lightner

A heart of gratitude

A few weeks ago, my wife and I were able to get away for a few days. It was an incredible time to rest and reflect on all God has done and continues to do. One morning as I sat on the patio of the place we were staying, all I could think about was how grateful I am for the churches that make up the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.

I first became acquainted with the SBTC in 2001 as I began serving in my first ministry position. I was immediately drawn to the mission and unity of this network of churches. I have always loved and appreciated being part of a convention that stands on the Word of God without compromise. In my wildest imagination, I could never have dreamed of God one day leading me to be the executive director of this incredible organization.

After these reflections, I want to simply thank the churches of the SBTC for a handful of things:

Commitment to the inerrancy of Scripture

I have never been more grateful to stand shoulder to shoulder with pastors and leaders who without a doubt believe in the inerrant and infallible Word of God. In a culture that always struggles to define things, the churches of the SBTC have always stood on the Word of God. I am thankful to stand with you and drive that stake in the ground.

Commitment to evangelism and missions

There are a lot of things that can distract churches and organizations from the mission. At the SBTC, we have always made missions and evangelism our top priorities. Whether through disaster relief, equipping churches to engage their communities with the gospel, mobilizing churches toward mission opportunities, or planting new churches, SBTC churches have always remained steadily focused on moving the needle forward. For that I am grateful.

Commitment to the Cooperative Program

Ever since our inception in 1998, SBTC churches have been extremely generous in CP giving. I believe this is because we truly understand we are better together. There is no better way to get the gospel to the ends of the earth than the Cooperative Program. As I sat on that porch and reflected, I was filled with gratitude for the consistent generosity of SBTC churches.

Commitment to the Baptist Faith and Message 2000

I have always believed our network is missionally unified because we are doctrinally unified. We are a confessional fellowship of churches. Our statement of faith guides us in our efforts to reach Texas and the world together.

Commitment to our mission focus

The SBTC’s mission focus is “Mobilizing churches to multiply disciple-making movements in Texas and around the world.” We realize we are not the local church—we serve the local church. You have been so gracious to allow us to serve and mobilize SBTC churches to change the world together.

While this list is certainly not exhaustive, these are things I am eternally grateful for. You have been kind, generous, and partnered with the SBTC so well. I want you to know you have a phenomenal staff who desires to serve you well. I love you and am so grateful to serve you.

Texan Q&A w/ Grant Byrd: Moment + Mission = Movement

A busy summer is providing opportunities for the SBTC to pour not only into students, but those who lead them

Grant Byrd sensed a call to ministry as a teen, but there was a problem: After God called him, he wasn’t quite sure what to do next. The Southern Baptists of Texas Convention’s student ministry associate says that’s what motivates him—to make sure students understand what it means to be called. Byrd recently spoke with the Texan about a busy summer, the importance of networking with other student leaders, and investing in the future of the church.

By the time people read this, you’ll be well into the middle of a busy summer leading M3 student camps that will minister to thousands of students. But your position as the student associate at the SBTC probably includes a lot more than that. Can you talk about your role?

Grant Byrd: Well, the part I enjoy most is shepherding our student ministers. They often get siloed, and it can be hard for them to meet other student ministers. So for me to get to come in and encourage them or maybe give them some insight from my experience and some of the mistakes I’ve made is important to me. I really feel like I’m in a great position to serve people and connect them to networks, because some of these guys just don’t get that a lot. Sometimes I feel like a salesman, but I’m not selling anything and I’m not saying I have better ideas. I just love being able to talk to guys because I know most of them are hungry for that kind of connection.

As far as M3 camps, right now we’re approaching 5,000 students and adults [registered to attend]. When you go back and talk to adults who are following God and ask them what impacted their lives the most, they’ll most often mention camps and retreats. Camps can provide one of those spiritual marker moments. When kids come to camp, we’re going to preach God’s Word. We’re going to be very clear that Jesus is the only way. We’re going to teach them what discipleship means and give them tools for that. We’re going to encourage and bless student ministers. And when they leave here, they’re going to remember this camp—not because of anything we’re doing, but because Jesus spoke to them. We’re just kind of setting the table. When they go back home, we believe they are going to make a difference for God.

You’re passionate about helping students understand what it means to be called to ministry. Where does that passion come from and how can you impact that particular area in your role at the SBTC?

GB: Man, that is my heart—the ones who are called to ministry. When I was called as a teen, I had a lot of people praying for me, a lot of people shaking my hand, but no real guidance. Nobody really knew how to help me or give me any wisdom about it. So what we’ve got to do is offer more training to our students about it. We have no problem asking them if God wants them to be a teacher or a doctor or a lawyer, but what about a minister? That needs to be a part of their thought process rather than something we never mention when we’re having those kinds of conversations.

For a long time, I taught a “Called to Ministry” group track when our students went to camp. But however we address it … I just think if we don’t start talking about calling with our kids, we’re going to soon be in a bind. We’ve got to talk about it more. It’s got to be an option for our kids. I’m not talking about talking them into thinking they’re called—that would not only be completely wrong, but it could mess up their whole life. But if God calls you, you’re not going to be happy doing anything else, and that is amazing.

We’re going to be offering a “Following Your Calling” retreat Aug. 1-2 at Southwestern Seminary. It’s going to be a great opportunity for high school and college students who feel like they may be called to understand a little bit more about it. It will include great speakers and breakouts about different ministry areas that kids can attend—16 or 17 ministry areas—and we’ll have interactive table talks. I believe it will be great.

"Camps can provide one of those spiritual marker moments. When kids come to camp, we’re going to preach God’s Word. We’re going to be very clear that Jesus is the only way."

Grant Byrd Tweet

You’ve got a team of leaders from across the state helping churches advance the mission through student ministries. Who does that team consist of and how does it help you?

GB: That team consists of Brandon Pittman (Great Hills Baptist Church, Austin), Cameron Crow (First Baptist Church, Farmersville), Corbin Hill (Paramount Baptist Church, Amarillo), Derek Husband (Emmanual Baptist Church, New Caney), Drew Bowsher (Spring Baptist Church), Hayden Gilliam (First Baptist Church, Glen Rose), Jason and Shanna Daniels (First Baptist Church, Friona), T.J. Lewis (Lake Church, Arlington), Tim Rose (First Baptist Church, Odessa), Trent Murray (First Baptist Church, Iowa Park), Thomas Causey (East Paris Baptist Church), and Zach Whitlow (Nolan River Road Baptist Church, Cleburne).

This team brings so much to the table. They’re made up of people of various ages, from various size churches, and they’re from all over the state. We have some who are just starting out and some who are [ministry] veterans. We talk a lot on the phone and text all the time, and we get together on a monthly Zoom call. We talk about things that are coming up and share all kinds of insights—“Hey, what about this? What if I tried that? What about these ideas?” When we need a great breakout speaker or a worship band, they give me names and suggestions and I can ask them for [breakout] topics based on what their kids are needing or what they may be going through. But they don’t just help me—they help each other. And beyond that, it gives us access not only to them, but to the student ministers across the state they’re networking with. Boy, they’re such a big help to us.

What kinds of networking opportunities do you offer for those who are not on your lead team?

GB: Well, those on the lead team will rotate on and off, so we’ll have chances to connect with different people over time. And I’m always available on an individual basis to help with training, encouragement, a little consulting, and things like that. But we also do something called ReZoom, which gives any student minister anywhere in the state a place to connect. Every Thursday morning at 9:30—except for the summer, when youth ministers are busy with camps and trips and things like that—we jump on a Zoom call and talk about ministry. My first question is always, “OK, what went well last night?” because Wednesday nights are big nights for our youth. Then we talk about things that maybe didn’t go so well, and then I’ll ask how people in the group can help. That could be help through prayer or just help figuring out what to do about something. [Student ministers and leaders] are just giving, giving, giving all the time, and sometimes they just want someone to listen to them, but sometimes they don’t want to talk at all—they just want to listen. We absolutely welcome that. I believe that as long as you’re willing to laugh at yourself and you’re willing to learn, you’re gonna love it.

Reaching for the stars together

Editor’s note: In celebration of the Cooperative Program’s 100th anniversary, each issue of the Texan this year will include a testimony from a pastor explaining why his church gives through and believes in CP.

Wally Schirra was one of the Mercury Seven, NASA’s first crop of astronauts who tackled the new frontier of space. Decades later, we continue to benefit from their achievements in countless areas—material sciences, engineering, communications, biomedical developments, and beyond. Our lives would look much different without the early contributions of the Mercury Seven and the later lunar missions.

However, Schirra recalled a different—but perhaps even more impressive—contribution of the space program. Writing in the late 1980s, he said, “I’d go so far as to say that the most significant achievement of the space program was [the] concept of teamwork.”

Teamwork.

Seven astronauts, each of them highly decorated and respected, came together for a mission none of them could accomplish alone.

As believers, we have a call and commission that dwarfs the efforts of NASA in the 20th century. We have been tasked with making disciples for the glory of Jesus from our neighbors to the nations. Thankfully, 100 years ago Southern Baptists devised their own significant achievement—a tool of teamwork for this very mission: the Cooperative Program. Of course, it’s not the only avenue for gospel advance, but it is an incredibly accessible, vetted, and fruitful one. And it’s one my church is glad to participate in as we mobilize our financial resources alongside other Southern Baptist Convention churches to reach, serve, equip, and disciple those beyond our specific context.

This, of course, is no excuse to believe the work of disciple-making ends with the writing of a check. Not at all. Be committed to your local church. Lean in during sermons. Make the first move to introduce yourself to someone new at church. Read the gospel of Mark with a new believer. Share the gospel with that coworker. Encourage those young parents. Pick up that elderly saint who can’t drive to services. Pray fervently. Sing loudly.

But God also calls each of us to be interested and invested in the spiritual good of those beyond our immediate locale. What does this look like? And how can you be involved?

One way is by giving to your local church so your local church can give through CP. In doing so, you are immediately invested in ministries and efforts beyond you and your church’s individual capacity. Like the Mercury Seven coming together to pool resources and expertise for their mission, CP allows churches to do the same for ours.

Jesus did not institute the Cooperative Program, but He did institute the Great Commission, and we are compelled to carry this mission out under His authority and by His power until the end of the age. The scale is massive, but together, through teamwork, it’s our moonshot to tackle by the grace and the power of our risen Lord. The Cooperative Program is a fantastic tool that helps get us closer.

After dark valleys and a dry season of ministry, FBC Mexia is experiencing a wave of new life

When dirt becomes a deluge

Earlier this year, there was dirt in the baptistery at FBC Mexia. That’s how long it had been since it had been used.

The church had lost about 100 people per decade since the 1990s, and they were down to about 115 when Robert Blackmon arrived to pastor the church last fall. All the ministerial staff had left, as well as the audio/visual team and the praise team.

The search committee chairman was honest about the church’s situation, but Blackmon saw potential.

“I had read a lot about churches in this situation and done a lot of case studies and written about church revitalization,” Blackmon said, “but the reason I came here was because it seemed like God was giving me an opportunity to put that study into practice and see if God’s Word could actually do what I thought it could.”

Over the past few months, God’s movement at FBC Mexia has been no more evident than inside that same baptistery—where a custodian recently spent three hours vacuuming and scrubbing to prepare for what would become 12 successive weeks of baptisms at the newly revived church.

“It reminded them that even though they’d gone through a dark valley, God hadn’t left them in the process and He still had a plan for them and they could still make a difference in their community.”

—Robert Blackmon Tweet

‘We just want somebody to love us’

There were still people in the congregation who remembered the church’s better days, and Blackmon said they did not want to see that completely fade away. At the same time, some expressed to Blackmon that they “kind of felt like God had abandoned them a little bit, or that He had removed the lampstand, if you want to use Revelation language,” he said.

“Preacher,” someone in the congregation told him upon his arrival, “we just want somebody to love us.”

“To have somebody here who was excited about what God could do, it reminded them that even though they’d gone through a dark valley, God hadn’t left them in the process and He still had a plan for them and they could still make a difference in their community,” Blackmon said.

Nathan Lino, senior pastor of First Baptist Church Forney, mentored Blackmon through the North American Mission Board Leadership Institute for five years and sent his resume to the FBC Mexia pastor search team. Blackmon graduated from Southwestern Seminary in 2024 with a doctorate in church revitalization.

He started with a commitment to pray, preach the Word, and love God’s people, he said. A monthlong sermon series through Haggai tackled the topic of church revitalization.

“I was really honest about where I thought the church was and what some of [the] issues were and how God’s Word could address those things,” Blackmon said.

People who had been hurt by recent conflict in the church needed their new shepherd to listen to them as they processed what had happened. They loved their church and wanted to move forward, but pain was a hindrance at first.

The church began praying together more faithfully, and Blackmon started making a lot of hospital visits. “People have responded well to that because they know that I love and care about them,” Blackmon said. “I think they feel God’s love and care through that kind of attention.”

A brighter future

About 200 people now worship at FBC Mexia each Sunday, and the children’s ministry has grown from around five to more than 30. On Easter Sunday, the 350 people who attended marked the largest attendance at any service since the 1990s, the pastor was told.

“To have somebody here who could lay out a plan and say, ‘You’re not the only ones who have ever gone through this, this is really common, even in Southern Baptist churches, and God has turned those churches around and He can do the same thing here,’ that gave them a lot of hope that was lost over the last few years,” Blackmon said.

Church members have begun the image repair needed in the community, now spreading excitement about FBC Mexia, as well as sharing the Three Circles evangelism method to spread the name of Jesus. It has become unusual for the church to have a worship service that doesn’t include a baptism.

“My job is really to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, and they are the ones who are out there doing it.”

—Robert Blackmon Tweet

“We had a young man in his 20s who was coming from a life of sin, and he started coming on Sunday mornings and felt the conviction of the Holy Spirit,” Blackmon said. “He was baptized. I started a discipleship group with young men in the church, and he meets with us every week, goes through a Bible reading plan, keeps a journal, prays with us.”

Giving has increased enough for the church to consider hiring additional staff members.

“I think a lot of people have been faithful here for a very long time and just needed a little bit of direction and vision, but now that they have that, they are the ones jumping in and making ministry happen,” Blackmon said. “My job is really to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, and they are the ones who are out there doing it.”

The Cooperative Program isn’t just a funnel for financial resources, but a ‘facilitator of relationships,’ pastor says

More than money

United City Church has been known by a few names over the years.

“They had three different names for the church in a period of 15 years, and each one of those names kind of carried with it different levels of baggage or expectations or positives,” United City Lead Pastor Chris Kouba said.

But the church that started in 1906 as First Baptist Church in this Northeast Houston suburb now carries a name that fits not only its mission, but the mission of Southern Baptists everywhere. To effectively spread the gospel both locally and across the world, a united effort is needed.

Through cooperative work, United City has developed partnerships with at least six church plants in Send Cities through the North American Mission Board and the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, and it has started a Spanish-language service on campus with the help of such contacts.

“The Cooperative Program is not only a facilitator of money, but we’ve found it’s a facilitator of relationships,” Kouba said.

United City has been able to have the impact it does, in part, by standing on its legacy as one of the top state and national CP supporters.

Weathering the storm

United City—like many churches in the region—fell on hard times in 2018 when Hurricane Harvey flooded the campus, as well as up to half the homes of church members. Those members remember that it was Southern Baptist Disaster Relief that set up on its campus after Harvey and got to work—yet another example of cooperation that helped the church recover and reach a new season of health.

By Easter Sunday 2020, the church had gone through a yearlong study that included the planned rollout of another name change, updated core values, and a new mission statement to correspond with the unveiling of a building renovation. Then came COVID.

“We were able to make some adjustments, and the church is unrecognizable now,” Kouba said. “The name change was over five years ago, and now it’s not about what it used to be. The church is more about what it’s becoming.”

Baptisms are a high point, with United City on track to “shatter our record that we shattered the year before,” said Kouba, who has been pastor since 2019. About 250 people were baptized at United City last year, and this year the church is on pace to reach 300. Sunday attendance is about 2,200.

“It’s a lot of true life-change that’s happening everywhere, from our prison ministry to our men’s ministry to our kids and youth,” Kouba said.

A priority for the church has been involvement in local schools, which has become a strong connection point with the community. The church provides a chaplain for four football teams, and several coaches, teachers, and administrators attend United City.

“In Houston, there’s a church on every corner and there’s a Mexican food restaurant on every corner,” the pastor said. “What we’ve found is there are a lot of people who have a place they may write down if they’re asked on a form what church they go to, but there’s not a lot of people that necessarily go to church.”

Another inroad to the lost is the prison ministry, which includes streaming worship services on the PandoApp—“the first Christian app available behind bars”—as well as sending volunteers to engage in evangelism.

“It’s a lot of true life-change that’s happening everywhere, from our prison ministry to our men’s ministry to our kids and youth.”

—Chris Kouba, United City Lead Pastor Tweet

Diversity on display

“My prayer for the first few years of being here was that we would have unity and diversity—unity in our vision, unity in our mission, unity in where we’re going, but diversity in the sense that we would look a lot more like our community,” Kouba said. “I was thinking in my head racially, but what I think the Lord has done is really answered that in so many different ways.”

Racial diversity has been part of the progress, but age has been another.

“We are very young, but we’re not only young,” he said. “We get grandparents who join our church all the time. We’ve got prisoners, and we’ve got executives. It’s not uncommon for us to meet someone who watched us online in prison, got out, and showed up a month later.”

The Spanish service on campus averages 175 on Sundays two years after its start. United City partnered with Champion Forest Baptist Church in Houston to gain a Spanish pastor who “is as much a part” of the church staff as anyone, Kouba said.

“I threw a vision out there three years ago that I wanted to have the largest growing Spanish ministry in Northeast Houston, and I asked the church to pray with me because I had no idea how to do that,” Kouba said.

One of United City’s core values is “better together,” and that means participation in small groups, but it also includes planting churches and sending missionaries.

“I’ve found no other organization, no other program that does it more effectively than the Cooperative Program,” Kouba said. “If I find one, I’ll go to that, but at the end of the day, I don’t think there’s anything close.

“There are a lot of trendy things out there that get attention, but they all kind of rise up and then they all kind of fall down,” he added. “I’ve just found the consistency of the Cooperative Program to be something that is worthy of not only the investment, but it’s also something that will pay a lot of dividends through the relationships.”

Iglesia Redes está lanzando una gran red para alcanzar a tantos como sea posible para Jesús en Lewisville

La historia de Orbe Pérez es una de redención, fe persistente y una vida profundamente impactada por la misión de Dios.

A lo largo de 33 años de matrimonio y casi tres décadas en el ministerio, él y su esposa, Lázara Sosa, han visto la fidelidad de Dios manifestarse desde su natal Cuba hasta Texas.

“Conocí a Jesús gracias a una mujer de fe: mi abuela,” dijo Pérez. “Ella me llevaba a la iglesia hasta que tenía cinco años, pero después de eso, [otras personas] me dijeron que no hablara más de Dios.”

Al crecer en Cuba, su educación fue intencionalmente atea. Ese entorno eventualmente marcó su vida.

“Tomé decisiones que me alejaron mucho de Dios,” contó, “pero mi abuela nunca dejó de recordarme que Jesús me ama.”

Quebrantado por su pecado y enfrentando una crisis que amenazaba su matrimonio, Pérez se encontró una noche sentado en su sala, mirando al techo.

“Dios,” dijo, mirando hacia arriba, “si eres real, te necesito.”

Esa noche él la recuerda que fue como un nuevo comienzo.

Poco después, su abuela invitó a Pérez y a Lázara a un evento evangelístico.

“Cuando empezaron a cantar, todas las canciones de mi infancia volvieron a mi mente—no podía dejar de llorar,” dijo.

Él fue el primero en responder al evangelio esa noche, y poco después, también lo hizo Lázara. No pasó mucho tiempo hasta que descubrieron que esperaban a su hija, Elianys Beatriz, a quien ahora llaman su primer milagro.

Con un corazón renovado, Pérez se sumergió en el ministerio. Dijo que sirvió en todo lo que podía—barriendo, acomodando sillas, y ayudando en lo que hiciera falta. Seis meses después de entregar su vida a Cristo, fue llamado a servir como diácono en su iglesia.

“Comencé a sentir un fuego por predicar,” dijo Pérez. “Estaba en el trabajo, pero en mi mente, predicaba sermones a una congregación invisible.”

Un día, su pastor se le acercó en la calle con un desafío: “Necesito a alguien que predique en una misión. ¿Puedes ir?” Esa misión se convirtió en su primer campo ministerial.

En el 1995, Pérez ingresó al seminario y se graduó en el 1998. Durante su segundo año como estudiante, fue enviado a pastorear una iglesia en un pueblo espiritualmente oscuro.

“La gente estaba sumida en la idolatría y el sufrimiento. Fue uno de los lugares más difíciles en los que hemos servido, pero Dios obró allí,” contó Pérez.

Después de tres años, Pérez y su esposa se mudaron a otra iglesia en crisis. Pasaron siete años allí, plantando cinco iglesias misioneras. Luego, en el 2006, Dios los llevó a Placetas—el lugar donde nació la convención bautista en Cuba.

“Fue una etapa de gran crecimiento para nosotros y para la iglesia,” dijo Pérez.

Nueva etapa, nueva ubicación

Después de 17 años de servicio pastoral en Cuba, Dios abrió la puerta para que los Pérez Sosa vinieran a los Estados Unidos. En el 2012, se mudaron al área de Dallas-Fort Worth, y Pérez comenzó a servir como pastor asociado del ministerio hispano en Prestonwood Baptist Church en Plano.

Al año siguiente, una creciente carga por las comunidades no alcanzadas llevó a Pérez a comenzar a evangelizar en Lewisville.

“Empezamos caminando por las calles y orando,” dijo. “Un día, alguien abrió su casa para un estudio bíblico. Allí comenzó la visión.”

A pesar de no tener un lugar permanente para reunirse, ese estudio bíblico floreció y se convirtió en un servicio de iglesia completo en el 2017. Poco después, la iglesia encontró un hogar cuando Pérez se enteró de que una iglesia en Lewisville, Northview Baptist, quería iniciar un ministerio hispano.

En el 2024, Prestonwood comisionó a Pérez para lanzar una iglesia hispana autónoma en Lewisville. En colaboración con Northview Baptist Church y con el apoyo de Send Network SBTC a través de evaluaciones y mentoría para plantadores, Iglesia Redes fue oficialmente fundada en noviembre de 2024.

Iglesia Redes is casting a wide net to gather as many as possible to Jesus in Lewisville

Orbe Perez’s story is one of redemption, relentless faith, and a life deeply impacted by the mission of God.

Throughout 33 years of marriage and nearly three decades in ministry, he and his wife, Lázara Sosa, have seen the faithfulness of God unfold from their native Cuba all the way to Texas.

“I was introduced to Jesus by a woman of faith—my grandmother,” Perez said. “She took me to church until I was five years old, but after that, I was told [by others] not to talk about God anymore.”

Growing up in Cuba, his education was intentionally atheistic. That environment eventually impacted his life.

“I made decisions that led me far from God,” he said, “but my grandmother never stopped reminding me that Jesus loves me.”

Broken by his sin and facing a crisis that threatened his marriage, Perez found himself sitting in his living room staring at the ceiling one night.

“God,” he said, looking up, “if you’re real, I need you.”

That night, he now recalls, served as a new beginning.

His grandmother soon invited Orbe and Lázara to an evangelistic event.

“When they started singing, all the songs came back to me from my childhood—I couldn’t stop crying,” he said.

He was the first to respond to the gospel that night, and shortly after, Lázara did, too. Not long after that, they discovered they were expecting their daughter, Elianys Beatriz, whom they now call their first miracle.

Fresh off his new beginning, Perez dove into ministry. He said he served in every way he could—sweeping, setting up chairs, and doing anything else that was needed. Six months after giving his life to Christ, he was called to serve as a deacon at his church.

“I began to sense a fire to preach,” Perez said. “I would be at work, but in my mind, I was preaching sermons to an invisible congregation.”

One day, his pastor approached him on the street with a challenge: “I need someone to preach at a mission. Can you go?” That venue became Perez’s first mission field.

In 1995, Perez entered seminary and graduated in 1998. During his second year as a student, he was sent to pastor a church in a spiritually dark village.

“The people were steeped in idolatry and suffering. It was one of the hardest places we’ve ever served, but God worked there,” Perez said.

After three years, Perez and his wife moved to another church in crisis. They spent seven years there, planting five mission churches. Then, in 2006, God led them to Placetas—the birthplace of the Baptist convention in Cuba.

“It was a season of great growth for us and the church,” Perez said.

New season, new location

After 17 years of pastoral service in Cuba, God opened the door for the Perezes to come to the U.S. In 2012, they moved to the Dallas-Fort Worth area and Perez began serving as associate pastor of the Hispanic ministry at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano.

The next year, a growing burden for unreached communities led Perez to begin evangelizing in Lewisville.

“We started walking the streets and praying,” he said. “One day, someone opened their home for a Bible study. That’s where the vision began.”

Despite not having a permanent meeting place, the Bible study blossomed into a full-fledged church service by 2017. The church would soon find a home after Perez learned that a church in Lewisville, Northview Baptist, was looking to start a Hispanic ministry.

In 2024, Prestonwood commissioned Perez to launch an autonomous Hispanic church in Lewisville. Partnering with Northview Baptist Church and supported by Send Network SBTC through church planter assessments and coaching, Iglesia Redes was officially born in November 2024.

“Our vision is clear: relationships, evangelism, discipleship, sending, and serving. That’s why we’re called ‘Redes,’” Perez explained, noting the Spanish word for “networks.” “We want to cast our nets for people and disciple them into maturity.”

Iglesia Redes has grown into a thriving congregation with around 400 members and an average attendance of 200. During the first three months of this year, the church had 13 baptisms and 27 professions of faith. “We give all glory to God. We’re just available and obedient,” he said.

One of the ways Iglesia Redes connects with the community is through a ministry called Heart of the City, which provides people with food, clothing, prayer, and friendships. “It’s not just service,” Perez said. “It’s love in action.”

God is using the church’s faithfulness to transform lives. Perez recalls an encounter with a woman and her grandson while he was walking in a Lewisville park. The woman’s husband had been in an accident, and during the conversation, she asked for prayer. Later, Pérez and his wife visited her home to pray for her husband. They became the first family they led to Christ.

“That family opened their house to us,” Perez said, “and now they are leaders in the church. I recently had the joy of baptizing one of their daughters.”

Iglesia Redes meets often: Sunday worship services, Wednesday Bible studies, Thursday home groups, Tuesday morning intercession, and monthly prayer meetings on Friday nights. The church also offers Zoom Bible studies during the week.

“We just want to be present in the community,” Perez said. “Our model is Jesus—He walked with people, He listened, He loved, and then He spoke truth.”

A simple outreach. A kind gesture. An eternity gratefully redirected: ‘Jesus radically changed me’

Caroline Hardwick thought she was just out for a walk on the Clear Fork trail along the Trinity River that day. Along the way, a woman from Redemption City Church extended a simple act of kindness—a bottle of water and an invitation to church.

“We regularly send a team with a few cases of water to the Clear Fork, the most popular running trail in Fort Worth,” Redemption City Pastor Matt Kendrick said. “Most take the water and say thanks and keep going. Many turn back with questions about the church and what we believe.”

For Hardwick, that bottle of water portended the living water she soon would embrace.

Searching for truth in all the wrong places

Hardwick’s faith journey started long before that afternoon at Clear Fork. She grew up occasionally attending a mainline denominational church with her family, including four siblings.

“I went through confirmation class at 15, got baptized … just to be safe. I don’t think any of us [had] a relationship with Christ,” she said. “… We lived in America and that’s what we were: Christian”

At her private school, Hardwick found she enjoyed attending chapel daily. As a senior, she was nominated as prefect, a chapel leadership role. She read devotionals nightly and felt “kind of a relationship with Christ bubbling up.” Even so, something wasn’t clicking, she said. At least not yet.

With college came partying and drinking, Hardwick said. Her interest in Christian things fell to the wayside and her drinking habits continued beyond graduation. So did her spiritual search, which she initially satisfied by exploring “eastern esoteric practices,” dabbling in psychic phenomena, investigating Chakra alignments, and practicing yoga.

At 27, she found herself across the globe in Bali for a month, training to become a yoga instructor.

“I got into Hindu spiritualism, where there are all kinds of gods,” she recalled, adding that the world of eastern mysticism and yoga meant one was always searching for spiritual reality.

She hit bottom in 2020 when her mother was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. “I just drank for eight months on my couch,” Hardwick said. One day an internal voice spoke: “You have got to stop.”

“I listened,” Hardwick said. She began attending recovery meetings and has been sober since Nov. 1, 2020.

She was still practicing yoga and exploring Hinduism and Buddhism at the time, but as she started working through a spiritual 12-step program, she embraced the habit of praying: “Not my will, but God’s will.” She wasn’t quite sure who she was addressing when she was praying, but she recognized the need for the higher power the program stressed.

Sober, she returned to Bali in 2023 for five weeks to teach and practice yoga, agreeing to become a business partner in the yoga school.

“Hindu teachings emphasize a constant search for healing,” Hardwick said. “My partners wanted me to take the business to the United States and create a hybrid online and in-person school using their intellectual property,” she said. She was to teach the premise that people become their own healers as they connect with their bodies through yoga.

Yet the idea of self-healing didn’t quite resonate with her. During a social media scroll in Bali, Romans 8:28 came to her: “We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to His purpose.”

“That verse kept resonating in my mind,” Hardwick said.

Finally, she realized her recovery process was guiding her back to the Christianity of her youth. “I did grow up with a Christian God,” she admitted, and headed back to Texas.

“We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to His purpose. That verse kept resonating in my mind.”

—Caroline Hardwick Tweet

Nudges from the Spirit

Back home, she reconnected with a believing friend and started studying the Bible. Movies like the late Phil Robertson’s “The Blind,” concerning his salvation and recovery from alcoholism, affected her strongly. Christian radio stations seemed ubiquitous. One day she snapped a photo of a street sign, only to notice later that the words “Jesus Saves”
appeared in the background.

Small things. “But I felt the Holy Spirit nudging me,” she said. Even reading about the near-death experiences of others gave her pause as she realized a common denominator: “If people saw a religious figure, it was always Jesus.”

But would Jesus want her?

One Saturday morning, assailed by thoughts of unworthiness, she stopped during her walk along the Clear Fork. She recalled thinking, “I don’t think Christ would want me. I have been into all this yoga. I am not a Christian person.” In despair, she sat down to weep.

The offer of a bottled water made her look up.

“Are you thirsty?” a woman asked, handing her the water accompanied by a flyer with information about Redemption City Church. The woman invited her to visit on Sunday.

The following morning, Hardwick hesitated. Then she went.

“Everybody was so down to earth and nice,” she recalled. “It was not what I was expecting.”

When worship songs urged surrender to God’s will, the language was familiar to her, reminiscent of recovery.

“These are people just like me,” she realized. “Even if someone is not an alcoholic, they still have issues.”

She began attending Redemption City regularly in September 2023. That October, she remembers watching the evening rain from her kitchen window, meditating.

“I go to my heart center, and Jesus is there,” she recalled. “Jesus, what are you doing here?” she asked. And then she knew: “He is saving my soul.” She realized no one would ever love her like Jesus does. She cried. The peace of God descended. She understood.

“Everything downloaded. It made so much sense,” she said, describing the moment of her salvation. She realized that she did not have to teach a curriculum about becoming your own healer.

“Jesus did it for me,” she said. “Jesus did it all.”

Hardwick said the “scales fell off” her eyes as she experienced a huge epiphany, sleeping soundly that night after reading Colossians 3:15 and shaking while imploring Jesus to “drive any darkness out.”

She soon read Deuteronomy, and its warnings against idolatry and other forms of ungodliness forced her to reevaluate her career path. She left the yoga business.

“Jesus radically changed me,” Hardwick said of her now two years as a believer. She was baptized in February 2024 and became involved in recovery ministry and small groups at Redemption City. Her mom, a cancer survivor, is a strong believer also.

“Jesus was crucified at 33. I just started living at 33,” she said.

And, oh yes, she sometimes accompanies teams to the Clear Fork trail along the Trinity to pass out water … and hope.

‘You can’t be too lost to be found’

I remember that day. I’d been homeless for two years and weighed 90 pounds. My wife, Brenda, and my three kids were gone. As a 45-year-old alcoholic, I was the number one supplier of marijuana and the number one meth cook in Van Zandt County. But that day, I had no home and was walking down Interstate 20 on my way to another dope house.

Then the good Lord spoke to me, and I’ll never forget it. He just told me there was a better way of living than this. I argued with Him all the way to the dope house. When I got there, there was nobody there, so I felt like God was telling me to go home. I said, “I ain’t got no home.” I feel like He was still telling me to go home.

That came out of nowhere. In those days, I thought John 3:16 was a John Deere tractor. Growing up, there was no church or God mentioned in our family. There was a lot of love, though. My dad was a mechanic, and we had go-karts and all kinds of things to play with as kids. He would teach me sports like boxing. But I watched him die of cancer when I was 18, and I became homeless after that for about two years. My mom sold the house and just left me. So I was on the street and an alcoholic by the time I was 21. That’s where that lifestyle started.

So I went and knocked on Brenda’s door. Brenda was a Christian and the strong foundation who helped me get to where I’m supposed to be. She didn’t have to let me back in, but she did. I really think God gave me a chance that day—to either listen to Him and go His way or go another way. I chose to listen to a voice I’ve never heard in my life.

When I came in, she said, “Give me your phone.”

“I ain’t going to give you my phone,” I said.

“Then there’s the door,” she said. So I gave her my phone.

Then she said, “You’re going to go to church.”

“I’m not going to church.”

“Then there’s the door.”

“What time the doors open?” I said.

I was tired of that lifestyle, and my wife stood firm. So I started going to Crossroads Church, and Brother Mark [John Mark Robinson, Crossroads senior pastor] actually took two years of his life [to invest in me]. He took me and my son to play disc golf every Sunday afternoon after church. I ended up accepting Christ playing disc golf. So now in my ministry, I have a disc golf course at the church, and that’s what I do. I share the gospel while I play disc golf.

“I still run into people sometimes at church who remember me as I was. And after 17 years, they still know me in the prisons. They can’t believe where I’m at. I tell them, ‘Well, it can happen to you, too. You can’t be too lost to be found.’”

—Larry Rosemond Tweet

That was 17 years ago. I was six months clean when they put me in charge of running a Celebrate Recovery program there at the church. That same program has been going for 17 years now. For the last seven years, I’ve been the full-time outreach pastor at the church, running the program and other ministries of the church.

I also get to go into the courtrooms here—I’ve known judges all my life. They let me come in and share a testimony during court. I really got plugged into the various services for addicts, the probation office, and the jailhouses. God has probably saved over a hundred people through that program who have accepted Christ and been baptized.

We do a food distribution on the first of every month. I’m in charge of that, and I get to go out and pray with the people who come. About 100 cars come through that, so I go out and share the gospel with them on the weekend.

God has blessed me so much. I have my family back. I have a great church family that supports me, and I’ve come through surgeries and health scares, but He is faithful. My testimony is that if God can do it for me, He can do it for you. I’m nobody special. I was just a kid growing up in the countryside who knew nothing of God or the church or the Bible. I fell into the trenches, but somehow, God saw in the future that He was going to do something with me that nobody else saw. And when I look back at it, He’s been with me the whole time.

I still run into people sometimes at church who remember me as I was. And after 17 years, they still know me in the prisons. They can’t believe where I’m at. I tell them, “Well, it can happen to you, too. You can’t be too lost to be found.”

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Making good investments

The words “invest” and “investment” are popular words in our English vocabulary. Various thoughts come to mind when we hear them.

Perhaps the first thing to pop in your head is the investment of money for the future. In our faith, the word has a rich connotation of helping and discipling others.

Our church recently wrapped up a spring men’s Bible study on the book of Titus. We studied Josh Smith’s excellent and very practical book, The Titus Ten: Foundations for Godly Manhood. The last chapter is entitled “Investments.” In this chapter, he encourages and challenges men to have someone investing in them and they, in turn, should have others in whom they are investing.

Jesus was the master investor, as seen in the gospels and in books like Robert Coleman’s The Master Plan of Evangelism. This book literally changed my life and approach to ministry. Following Coleman’s advice, I began over 30 years ago pouring into and investing in other men to help them grow in their relationship with Jesus. What a wonderful journey it has been!

2 Timothy 2:2 states, “And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” The word “commit” can also be translated as “deposit,” “put forth,” or “set before.”

Here are a handful of practical principles for investing in others:

1. Ask the Lord to show you the person or people He wants you to invest in or disciple. That is a prayer God loves to answer in the affirmative. Jesus prayed all night before selecting the 12 apostles (Luke 6:12-13).

2. Be intentional. Do not wait for someone to ask you to disciple them. They may never ask.

3. Begin with the end in mind. Replication is the goal. Remember 2 Timothy 2:2—choose to invest in those “who will be able to teach others also.”

4. Disciple them to Jesus and the church—not to you. Of course, there will be a close bond formed with those you disciple, and that is fine. But our main goal is to help them grow closer to Jesus so that when God moves us on, they will be even stronger in their faith, not weaker.

5. Persevere in the process. It is not easy, but it is the best way to change the world.

As I begin to wrap up my two years of serving as president of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, I want to thank you for your faithfulness to Jesus. God has His hand on our convention of churches, and I am so grateful.

Every weekday our ministry, Danny Forshee Evangelistic Association, sends out a daily devotional and a weekly podcast. We have over 8,000 people receiving these resources for free, and I invite you to sign up and receive them as well by visiting dfea.com/devotions. It takes about five seconds to sign up.

I am praying for our SBTC, that we would be fully surrendered to King Jesus and make many disciples before He returns or takes us home.