LEWISVILLE—Joseph Fields, founding pastor of New Beginnings Baptist Church in Lewisville, will be nominated for a second term as first vice president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas at its annual meeting, Nov. 12-14 in Waco.
‘Heart for missions and for serving God’
“Joe Fields has a heart for missions and for serving God,” said Craig Christina, pastor of Shiloh Terrace Baptist Church in Dallas, when he announced his intention to nominate Fields. “He is pastor of missions-minded church that is supportive of the Cooperative Program through the BGCT.”
Fields grew New Beginnings from a group of six people who met in his living room in 2009 to a congregation of 900 members and an average attendance of 400, and he continues to have a heart for church planting and cooperative missions, Christina noted.
New Beginnings is one of the top African-American Texas Baptist churches in terms of missions giving through the BGCT Cooperative Program, he added.
“Joe has represented Texas Baptists well,” he said, and his re-election helps ensure the voices of all ethnic and racial groups in Texas Baptist life are heard.
Serving Texas Baptists the past year has been “an honor and a privilege,” Fields said.
“I feel this is an assignment I was called to do,” he said, explaining he agreed to allow his nomination for a second term out of obedience to God’s leadership.
“I love the Lord, and I love Texas Baptists,” he said. “It is a privilege to be able to listen to groups of people around the state, as well as to help initiatives and policies of the convention.”
‘A sleeping giant’
Fields hopes to continue to let Texas Baptist churches and their leaders know about the resources available through the BGCT.
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“My goal is to share across the state the vast resources we have as a convention,” he said. “I believe we are a sleeping giant as far as being a resource to churches.”
Fields also wants to encourage congregations to support Texas Baptists’ ministries through giving to the Cooperative Program unified budget.
“Together, we can do so much more, and the Cooperative Program is at the heart of that,” he said.
New Beginnings benefited from Texas Baptists’ support, he noted.
“Cooperation is in my DNA,” Fields said. “It’s a model that I believe is biblical, and I want to express the value of what we can do by cooperating together.”
Before he started New Beginnings, Fields was youth minister at Westside Baptist Church in Lewisville, and he was director of Camp Exalted, a BGCT-sponsored camp for African-American youth.
He earned both a diploma in theology and an advanced diploma in theology from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
He and his wife Shanta have two children, Austen and Courtney.
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