Shores to lead Buckner ministry to Mexico, Border

Posted: 7/20/07

Shores to lead Buckner ministry to Mexico, Border

DALLAS—Dexton Shores, who has led Border/Mexico Missions and the Rio Grande River Ministry for the Baptist General Convention of Texas since 1999, has been named director of ministry development for Mexico and the Border for Buckner International, effective Aug.1.

As director of ministry development, Shores will lead Buckner International’s existing ministries along the United States-Mexico border as well as develop new ministries in the Mexican interior.

Shores will “immediately bring years of relationship-building, kingdom-building legitimacy to our work in Mexico,” said Randy Daniels, director of Global Initiatives for Buckner. “We’ve been seeking ways to provide ministry, but had not, until Dexton, found the right person to carry that through. Dexton is the person to take us into Mexico.”

Shores’ abilities and passion for Mexico and the border region is a “natural next step” for Buckner Border Ministries, added Albert Reyes, president of Buckner Children and Family Services.

“Buckner has provided ministry along the border many years, and we have enjoyed a good working relationship with Dexton and the River Ministry,” Reyes noted. “Over the past few years, we have received an increasing number of requests to provide support to children in the interior of Mexico as well. Dexton’s focus on indigenous people groups in Mexico and the mobilization of border churches to engage this focus has uncovered a vast array of needs that could be met by Buckner Children and Family Services in collaboration with American and Mexican congregations.”

BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade praised Shores’ ministry with the convention and believes he is an ideal fit for his new position at Buckner.

“Dexton Shores has given remarkable leadership to our River Ministry, helping us make the transition from ministry only along the border to a strategy of cooperation with the National Baptist Convention of Mexico,” Wade said. “I can think of no one more qualified to do what Buckner wants to do to care for the needs of children in Mexico than Dexton Shores.

“We will continue to make Border/Mexico Missions one of the high commitments of Texas Baptists, advancing God’s kingdom in amazing ways.”

The push into Mexico is part of Buckner’s larger  initiative to serve orphans and at-risk children globally, Reyes said. “Mexico is part of a new initiative to develop ministry throughout the Americas. Since we have ministry presence in Guatemala and Peru, starting with Mexico and moving toward Argentina, we are providing the kind of reach I envision for the Americas.”

Along the border, he added, Buckner is also in a position to extend Buckner Border Ministries “to impact the entire U.S.-Mexico Border, from San Diego to Brownsville and Tijuana to Matamoros. We have the expertise, the resources, and the passion to bring hope to ‘the least of these’ along this international boundary and we have ministries like ISAAC—Immigration Service and Aid Center—to complement this kind of reach.”

Shores will develop ministries by focusing on the four primary ministry goals Buckner applies when working in the United States and in other countries—developing and supporting foster care ministries, supporting children’s homes, establishing ongoing transitional programming for children and families, and helping churches develop effective community ministries, Daniels said.

“We want to take those same ministries into Mexico and work with the churches in Mexico to develop ministries,” he said, “And we want to wrap all that up in a supportive, missional relationship where churches can go and give to help children and families, including connection through mission trips.”

Shores said his decision to move was emotional. “I grew up on the River Ministry. Both my parents …poured their lives into it,” he noted.

But despite leaving the BGCT position he has held for eight years, he said he sees his move to Buckner “as a win-win” for ministry in Mexico.

“The BGCT has had a strong background in planting churches and equipping leaders, and I see the new Buckner position as being on a parallel track with the River Ministry,” he said. “With Buckner’s vision for targeting Mexico, the BGCT can continue to strengthen churches and equip leadership, while at the same time Buckner can develop community and children’s ministries and the result is a lot of people come to Christ and they’re going to need to be churched. We’ll work with the BGCT to help them find those churches.”

The BGCT will continue its mission work along the Texas-Mexico border and throughout Mexico, including its efforts to evangelize unreached people groups, Wade said.

Individuals can continue to find information about BGCT Border/Mexico Missions by calling (888) 333-2363

Shores estimated there are “a million-plus children on the streets of Mexico City, and in many villages, dads have immigrated and left mom and kids to fend for themselves. There are so many needs, we’re going to have to figure out where to start, but they are needs no one has met.”

A native of Winters, Shores is a graduate of Baylor University and completed his classwork for the master of arts degree in missiology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Prior to his service with the BGCT’s Border/Mexico Missions, he served as a church extension coordinator for the San Antonio Baptist Association, associate director of missions for Dogwood Trails Baptist Area, and as pastor and interim pastor of several English- and Spanish-language churches in Texas. He and his wife, Deborah, have three children.

Shores’ office will be located on the campus of Baptist University of the Americas in San Antonio. He can be reached at dshores@buckner.org .