ARLINGTON—For 38 years, Mission Arlington has existed to meet the needs of its community and “take church to the people,” founder and director of Mission Arlington Tillie Burgin explained.

Born in Arlington Aug. 24, 1936, Burgin recently celebrated her 88th birthday. But according to the Mission Arlington/Mission Metroplex Facebook page, she “still arrives early 7 days a week, and leaves late, passionate about serving her Lord and this precious community.”

Burgin does not see Mission Arlington as an organization. Instead, she said, “It is a way of life.” Other times she described it as “a church” or “a family.”

Burgin explained the idea for Mission Arlington grew out of a question she asked herself that she just couldn’t shake, “If you can do missions in Korea, why can’t you do it here?”

How it began

The history link on Mission Arlington’s website, explains the question goes back to before she and her late husband, Robert, served as missionaries with the Southern Baptist Convention Foreign Mission Board (now International Mission Board), teaching in South Korea.

Her father operated a gas station in Arlington, just around the corner from Mission Arlington. He was Methodist, but as he generally worked on Sundays, he rarely was in church.

He lived out his faith in serving his customers, but he was not on board with Tillie taking her two sons to move with her husband oversees.

He was the one who first posed the question, the mission’s history account explains. He saw no need for his daughter to head to South Korea. There was plenty to be done to care for people right in the family’s hometown of Arlington.

Burgin and her family went anyway. She said: “We didn’t fit then, either.” They were the first missionaries appointed through the Foreign Mission Board to serve as teachers, she explained.

Citing God’s hand in the process, Burgin said IMB hiring personnel told her they would not have considered the Burgins’ application to serve, had a request for teachers in South Korea not just come across the desk the day they received it.

Plans for medical growth

In May, Texas Baptists presented Mission Arlington/Mission Metroplex with $125,000 to expand their health clinic.

Burgin hopes the expanded clinic will make new types of care possible, but “the infrastructure has got to be strong, and that takes resources.”

Mission Arlington leaders are praying about how best to expand the clinic, Burgin said. They have had optometry equipment donated, but do not currently have an optometrist who can use it.

Hearing aid people come, but it’s only every six months. People are grateful when they can hear again after years of not being able to, but vision and hearing treatment are areas where they’d like to see an increase in their ability to provide care, Burgin said.

The clinic has an orthopedic doctor who regularly serves at Mission Arlington every Monday. She said no one goes through his office without hearing the gospel. “It could be me, and I’m going to hear it,” she laughed.

The holistic care Mission Arlington provides is a draw to interns and doctors, Burgin explained. Providers want to serve where they not only can treat a wound but can care for a whole person.

The health care providers are glad to serve knowing their patients’ nutritional and other needs also can be addressed through the mission’s other ministries, Burgin said. It just takes time, prayer and preparation to discern which expansions they are able to support best.

The clinic is always open six days a week and one evening.

Burgin told a story about a young man who came in for help wearing a hoodie in the heat of the summer. Under the hoodie, he had a large growth down to his shoulder that he didn’t want to show. It was interfering with his ability to have a job.

The doctor he saw through Mission Arlington’s clinic was able to remove the growth. With it gone, the young man was able to go back to school, complete school and find employment.

“People find themselves in that kind of trouble, and we always want to be that place for them,” their “home” health clinic. Burgin said.

Burgin explained she prayed about the vision God gave her about doing missions in Arlington for seven years, until she met a lady who needed help with her electricity bill.

“Standing in her apartment, I said: ‘Can we start a Bible study in your apartment? And we’ll get your electricity turned on.’” And the ministry has grown since then, Burgin explained.

There were more people outside the walls of the church than there were inside, Burgin explained. And she knew from their service in Korea that “hanging out” where the people were could lead to ministry opportunities, but she said: “I never had a vision for this. God had the vision, and he just said: ‘Come along.’”

‘God’s Timing. God’s ways.’

“You can’t explain it,” she added. “All you have to do is experience it—God’s timing, God’s ways.”

Burgin said God had protected them from “so many things she’d wanted to do” with Mission Arlington. And many times, they’d figured they’d “done all they could do,” then God would use the ministry in a new way.

For instance, they were given multiple pallets of bottled water a few weeks ago. She said they set it to the side.

“I said, ‘Something’s going to happen, if we’ve got all this water,’” she recalled.

On Sept. 4, they took 12 to 15 pallets of water to Grand Prairie to help when the city’s water was deemed unsafe due to a foaming agent.

“We are not an organization. It is a way of life,” Burgin said.

They’re still doing things the way they always have, she said—praying about the next ministry, giving people opportunities to serve and give back when they have been served, keeping John 3:16 front and center, taking church to the people.

“And our definition of church is what we do almost 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” she continued.

Then her cell phone rang.

“Excuse me. Let me answer this,” she said.

The young woman on the other end, frantic because she couldn’t get her car started, said she didn’t know if she should call.

“Always call me, OK? Yeah, we’ll send somebody to you,” she said.

Burgin said she tells them: “Always call. And that’s kind of what we do.”

“Whatever it takes,” she said, “that’s what we need to do” to follow God’s calling.

FORT WORTH (BP)—On Sept. 15, 1999, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary alumnus Jay Fannin was helping at a youth event he had organized at Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, where he had been named the youth minister 20 months previously.

But that time of prayer and worship that was attended by 14 area church youth groups quickly turned into a tragedy when an armed man walked into the sanctuary and began shooting.

Eight people were killed and seven injured in the Wedgwood shooting, reportedly motivated by anti-Christian hate. Among the victims were teenagers attending the See You at the Pole prayer event, church members and seminary students and alumni.

Victims included alumna Sydney Browning, 36; students Shawn Brown, 23, and Susan “Kim” Jones, 23, who was about to start her first semester; Kristi Beckel, 14, daughter of alumnus Robert Beckel; and teens Cassandra Griffin, 14, Joseph Ennis, 14, and Justin Ray, 17.

Alumni Jeff Laster and Kevin Galey, staff counselor at Wedgwood, were injured.

‘Hearing noise and yelling and screaming’

Chris Shirley, dean of the Jack D. Terry School of Educational Ministries at Southwestern Seminary, was on staff at Wedgwood overseeing the adult education and singles ministries. He recalls that Wednesday night when he suddenly heard screaming coming from outside his teachers’ meeting.

“Things were happening all around church,” Shirley said of what started as a normal Wednesday night. His 10- and 4-year-old children were in their normal classes, and his wife was at the youth event.

“We started hearing noise and yelling and screaming. … And about the time we got up to figure out what was going on there, somebody came into the room where we were and told us what was happening and that we needed to get out.”

Jeff Laster, who at the time was preparing to graduate with a diploma in Christian education and served at Wedgwood as the facilities manager, was the first to encounter shooter Larry Ashbrook when he entered the church building.

Laster approached him to welcome him to the church and asked him not to smoke in the building, his hand stretched out to shake hands with him, when Ashbrook pulled a weapon and shot Laster in the abdomen and the arm.

Even while Laster saw the shooter move past him and begin firing at others, he recalls thinking: “I’ve been shot. I may die from this.” But almost simultaneously, he said he felt a sudden warmth and peace and believes God told him, “You’re not going to die.”

After shooting others in the lobby area, including Browning, who Laster said was one of his best friends, Ashbrook entered the sanctuary.

Initially thought it was an ill-advised prank

Fannin said he had been running the PowerPoint for the band that evening from the sound booth located in the balcony, as the regular teen A/V worker had not come that night.

When he heard the popping from the gunfire, Fannin said his first thought was that he was going to need to confront a student pulling an ill-advised prank. Columbine was still fresh in his memory.

But when he reached the hallway outside of the sanctuary and smelled the smoke and saw blood, he realized it was a real event.

The next minutes were filled with confusion, as Fannin said the shooter continued shooting, students tried to run away, and rumors of a second shooter and a hostage situation spread. Fannin led a couple leaders, including Brown, toward an office with the goal of calling 911, and sent someone to warn people in the nursery and other areas of the church.

Fannin said Brown would not enter the office but remained outside the door. Witness reports say Brown tried to speak with and stop the shooter, but within moments, Fannin heard the shots that killed Brown.

When he made his way back to the sanctuary, Fannin was relieved to see his wife run out. Her first words were ones Fannin believes God gave her: “Jay, this wasn’t your fault.”

Entering the sanctuary less than a minute before the police did, Fannin finally saw the result of the event. He saw parents trying to remove their injured children and students trying to carry out a friend who had been killed. He checked on other students who had been killed.

Rejuvenated by unity and prayer

Once outside the church building, gathering with the teenagers in a place that now holds a memorial of the event, Fannin said the magnitude of what happened finally struck him.

“All the kids came up and just surrounded me,” Fannin said. “And kind of in that moment, everything just kind of hit. … We all went to the ground and some guy, to this day, I don’t know who he is, began praying over me.”

Rejuvenated by that moment of unity and prayer, Fannin turned his focus to helping those around him.

Tears still come to Shirley’s eyes, even 25 years later, when he remembers how he felt evacuating the building and going to an elementary school across the street, and the relief he felt when he found his wife and children. He began to look for how he could serve the people around him.

“I was just kind of there for pastoral care during that period of time—talking to people, helping people, you know, trying to relay messages and things to people, and just be whatever help I could,” Shirley said.

That same night, Shirley and others in his singles ministry visited Laster, who was a member of the singles community, at the hospital. Laster remained in the hospital a month, delaying his graduation until the next semester. His doctors later told him they were surprised he survived.

Kenneth S. Hemphill, Southwestern president at the time of the shooting, came to the church the night it happened.

“Distraught parents searched for their children,” Hemphill wrote in an article he penned for a special edition of the Southwestern News printed not long after the shooting. “I stumbled through the scene as if watching from a distance. Soon, I would learn how deeply Southwestern had been affected.”

Support through the healing process

Southwestern provided support during the healing process, hosting the funeral for alumna Browning, holding a chapel service to pray for those impacted, and providing counseling to Wedgwood staff and members.

In weeks following the shooting, Dan Crawford, who was a member of Wedgwood and Southwestern faculty at the time and is today the senior professor emeritus of evangelism and missions, was commissioned by the church to write the story of what had happened.

Crawford interviewed about 100 people who witnessed or were directly impacted by the shooting and used those interviews to write the book, Night of Tragedy, Dawning of Light.

By the 20th anniversary of the shooting, he wrote a follow-up book, The Light Shines On, relating the story of the healing that followed as told by 46 people he interviewed, saying it was “their testimony of God’s grace over the 20 years since the shooting.”

The impact of the event continues for each of those involved, though in a variety of ways.

“I still can remember that the biggest lesson I learned through it was the influence of the body of Christ, the realness of the body of Christ,” Shirley said, adding over the months and even years that followed, the unity of the church strengthened as they healed together.

The global church also united behind them as Wedgwood received messages of encouragement and prayers from people from every continent except Antarctica. The walls of their hallways soon were covered with those messages and other gifts. One such gift, a poster with an angelic image and a Bible verse, is framed and hangs on the wall of Shirley’s office today.

Laster went on to graduate from Southwestern and continues to serve on staff at Wedgwood, now as the associate pastor for administration and missions.

“God brought me through it,” Laster said, though he adds the shooting still has a physical impact on his body. But while his role in the event has become a part of his testimony, Laster said it did not change the fact that God had a calling for him, which had led him to quit a job and move to Fort Worth to attend seminary.

“People come up and say, ‘Well, God has a plan for you now.’ God had a plan for me before. God wasn’t waiting until I got shot to have a plan for me,” Laster said, adding this experience led him to further believe in God’s sovereignty over every circumstance.

Fannin, who ended up serving as youth minister at Wedgwood 22 years and now is pastor at Shady Oaks Baptist Church in Hurst, also said the tragedy has created opportunities for him around the nation, as he speaks with police officers, churches and radio and television stations. Recently, he said he spoke with pastors and youth ministers in Georgia after a recent shooting at a school there to share with them a message of hope and healing.

“God is so good,” Fannin said. “I look back at the shooting honestly with a lot more appreciation for who God is and how he gets us through things and … that he works all things for good, even though it doesn’t seem like that’s possible.”

WACO—Simultaneously leading two Chicago churches as pastor demands resilience rooted in biblical truth, Charlie Dates told participants at a Baylor University leadership conference.

Dates, senior pastor of both Salem Baptist Church and Progressive Baptist Church in Chicago, offered leadership lessons at the “Leadership for the Long Haul Conference,” sponsored by the Program for the Future Church at Baylor’s Truett Theological Seminary.

A resilient church leader must be a genuine servant who practices humility, Dates observed.

“I’ve come to see that servanthood has to be my identity, not my strategy,” he said.

The opening verses of the Old Testament book of Joshua identify Moses as “the servant of the Lord” and Joshua as “the servant of Moses,” he noted.

“It’s as if Joshua has to prove his person as a servant before he is called upon to be a leader,” Dates said.

People typically care little about the leadership courses a pastor has taken or the books on leadership he has read, he observed. But they care deeply when he shows up to provide comfort in their times of loss or bereavement.

“I’m learning that you’ve got to take the posture of a servant that kind of lets go of the cultural norms of greatness. … When it’s all said and done, only God is great,” Dates said.

Joshua’s call from God came when Moses died. While the man of God died, the mission of God continued, he noted.

“One of the pillars that helps us overcome our sense of inadequacy—my sense of inadequacy—is that while one major leader leaves, God has not left, and the work must continue forward,” Dates said.

Need ‘a prevailing commitment to truth’

A resilient leader must have “a prevailing commitment to truth,” he added.

God spoke to Joshua, and Joshua delivered that revealed truth to the people of Israel.

“There’s such a temptation to leave truth these days—to appeal to crowds,” Dates said. “I’m coming to discover that since we have a speaking God, I must speak for God the things God already has spoken.”

The opening chapter of Genesis reveals the power that is unleashed when God speaks, he noted. God spoke into being all of creation.

“There’s never been a moment in your life when God spoke and nothing happened,” Dates said. “When God speaks, things happen.”

When God spoke to Joshua, he offered assurance: “As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you.”

Resilience in pastoral leadership is made possible by “the undying, almost indefatigable realization that God is with me, even when I feel like I am by myself,” Dates said.

“Any leader who has ever been worth her or his salt has done so because God was with them.”

WACO—True leaders not only build trust, but also draw upon trust to bring about transformation, author Tod Bolsinger told church and nonprofit leaders during a conference at Baylor University.

“There is no transformation without trust,” Bolsinger told participants at the “Leadership for the Long Haul” conference, sponsored by the Program for the Future Church at Baylor’s Truett Theological Seminary.

However, if leaders want to produce transformation, they cannot just build a big “trust account” for the sake of securing their own positions, he emphasized.

“Leadership is engaging a community of people toward their own transformation so that they can accomplish a shared mission,” said Bolsinger, author of Canoeing the Mountains: Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory. “Transformation requires us to take risks.”

Invest trust in transformation

Adaptive leaders who guide their people through changing circumstances understand they must “invest trust in transformation,” he insisted.

Effective leaders build trust with an eye toward transformation, putting together teams who help identify the unique gifts of the organization and determine how those gifts can be used to meet the needs of the world beyond the organization, he stressed.

“Pay attention to the pain points,” Bolsinger urged.

Recently, Bolsinger worked with leaders at Baylor to develop the university’s new strategic plan, “Baylor in Deeds,” focusing on the question: “What does the world need Baylor for?”

The strategic planning team led 93 listening sessions with 2,300 participants, received and tabulated 310 listening group surveys, received 114 white papers from 521 individuals who offered proposals, and conducted 71 external interviews.

Bolsinger echoed advice he learned from a conversation with venture capitalists in Silicon Valley: “Nobody cares if your institution survives. They only care if your institution cares about them.”

Charting a leadership journey

He pointed to the recent history of Baylor University as a case study in transformational leadership, building on President Linda Livingstone’s presentation about her “leadership journey” at Baylor.

Livingstone began service as Baylor’s 15th president in June 2017 during what she candidly described as “a dark time” in the school’s history, after an “institutional failure” to respond appropriately to sexual assault and sexual misconduct by student athletes.

“Baylor lost a tremendous amount of trust,” she said.

Pointing out there was “no honeymoon” period when she arrived, Livingstone immediately went to work to regain trust with alumni, students and potential students, parents and donors.

She and the board of regents chair held listening sessions with the “Baylor family” to allow them to be heard.

“We learned from our mistakes and made significant changes,” she said.

Those efforts bore fruit. In 2022 and 2023, national surveys revealed Baylor was among the nation’s Top 10 Most Trusted Universities, scoring the highest marks in Texas and in the Big 12 Conference.

“God’s love can redeem and heal broken trust,” Livingstone said. “God is working in ways we may not even realize.”

Focus on a future anchored in hope

Rather than simply build a trust account for its own sake, Bolsinger noted, Livingstone invested trust in transformation by focusing on the future.

Under her leadership, the university developed its “Illuminate” strategic plan, set an ambitious fund-raising goal and cast a vision to see Baylor become “a preeminent Christian research university.”

“As a leader, you must anchor yourself in hope during challenging times,” Livingstone said.

Baylor attained Research 1 status in December 2021—three years earlier than expected—and surpassed the $1.1 billion giving goal for its Give Light philanthropic campaign, raising a record $1.5 billion.

At the same time Baylor was navigating the trust-rebuilding process following the sexual abuse scandal, the university also had to “pivot and change” due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, she noted.

Effective leaders and the teams they build must “be nimble and flexible,” communicate honestly and transparently, rely on experts for the best information available at a given time, and “signal hope for the future,” Livingstone said.

“Don’t shy away from difficult situations, even when you don’t feel prepared,” she urged. “Each experience prepares you for the next challenge. Recognize God has placed you in a position of leadership for such a time as this.”

For the second consecutive year, Texas had the second-highest rate of household food insecurity in the nation, a study from the U.S. Department of Agriculture revealed.

Food insecurity increased both at the state and national level last year, Household Food Security in the United States in 2023 reported.

A household is considered food-insecure if its members at some time during the year lack the resources to acquire adequate food for everyone in the home.

The USDA reported 18 million households—about 47 million people, including 13 million children—in the United States were food-insecure at some point in 2023.

The report from the USDA Economic Research Service showed the prevalence of food insecurity in Texas was 16.9 percent last year, second only to Arkansas at 18.9 percent. The rate of food insecurity in Texas increased 1.4 percent from the previous year.

In addition to Texas and Arkansas, the other states where the prevalence of food insecurity was higher than the national average were Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and South Carolina.

Texas has failed to prioritize food security

Texas ranks among the worst states in terms of hunger because “addressing food security among our low-income population has not been a comprehensive priority of the state,” said Jeremy Everett, founding executive director of the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty.

And it historically has not been a priority for most elected officials because Texas citizens largely have failed to see it that way, he added.

So, children and elderly individuals “go to bed hungry,” and available hunger-reduction programs are not utilized to their full capacity, he said.

Texas Health and Human Services Commission personnel are working hard to process SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) applications, but the agency has been understaffed and inadequately resourced since the COVID-19 pandemic, he noted. As a result, applicants often face long waiting periods before they are approved for food assistance.

In Texas, more than 1 household in 6 is food-insecure, which means 1.8 million families—about 5.1 million individuals—are at risk for hunger.

“These staggering numbers reflect the growing need food banks are seeing in communities across our state,” said Cecilia Cole, CEO of Feeding Texas, the state association of food banks.

“We have the tools and resources to end hunger, but our vision of a hunger-free Texas can only be realized through policy change and collective action from the public, private and charitable food sectors. Food banks alone cannot end hunger.”

Hunger relief ministries see the need

The statistics confirm the observations of people who serve with ministries across the state that receive funds from the Texas Baptist Hunger Offering.

“The new USDA report on the staggering food insecurity rates in Texas affirms the sounding alarm that the Texas Baptist Hunger Offering has been responding to from hunger relief ministries across the state,” said Irene Gallegos, director of hunger and care ministries with Texas Baptists’ Christian Life Commission.

“In recent visits to Hunger Offering-supported ministries in Decatur, Edinburg, Palestine and Abilene, the resounding echo among ministry leaders is the limited food in area food banks and the new faces accessing food resources.

“I hear hunger relief heroes across the state sharing that the face of poverty is changing and families with employment simply do not earn enough wages to pay for basic household expenses.”

She pointed to some ministries that receive Texas Baptist Hunger Offering funds—specifically Azle Community Caring Center, Heart of the City in Lewisville and Brother Bill’s Helping Hands in Dallas—that serve more than 800 families a week.

“Another Hunger Offering-supported ministry—The Mustard Seed Cafe in El Paso—once served an average of 50 meals daily and made space accommodations to now serve 400 to 500 meals daily,” Gallegos said.

The offering strategically partners with ministries in some South Texas counties that have significantly high food-insecurity rates, such as Cameron County at 21.9 percent and Hidalgo County at 22.9 percent, she added.

Fighting hunger an ‘essential element’ of faith

Christians should take the lead in meeting needs and fighting hunger, Everett insisted.

“I don’t think we always realize that alleviating hunger is an essential element of our faith expression as Christians,” he said.

Too often, Christians see it as an optional “extra credit” activity rather than as a central component of their faith, he asserted.

“We should see hunger as a litmus test issue, because it is a symptom of other broken systems,” Everett said.

Christians can advocate for public policy initiatives that address issues of hunger and poverty, he said. He pointed particularly to the need for Congress to pass a bipartisan Farm Bill package that strengthens SNAP and international food aid programs.

Individual Christians can promote summer meal programs in their communities and urge local schools to participate in breakfast programs and after-school nutrition programs, he added.

Churches also can play an important role locally by participating in coalitions of nonprofit organizations, social service agencies and businesses to build hunger-free communities.

So far, the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty has helped to form hunger-free community coalitions in 27 Texas counties.

“That’s significant, but we have 254 counties in Texas,” Everett said. “We have a long way to go.”

For more information about food insecurity and the Texas Baptist Hunger Offering, access the “What is Good?” podcast here.

Conclave NextGen conference will return to First Baptist Church in San Antonio Oct. 7-8 for two days of worship, breakout sessions, training and networking with NextGen, family ministers and church leaders.

Cory Liebrum, youth and family ministry specialist at Texas Baptists, said Conclave is a gathering for ministry leaders to feel fed and ministered to without interruption.

“We want Conclave to be a place where they can come, and they can worship. They can fellowship. They can find community with other people, and they don’t have to worry about [anything],” Liebrum said.

“It’s their time to be fed because they feed people in their churches all year round. So, for two days, if we can give them that, then that’s the goal.”

Jennifer Howington, childhood ministry specialist at Texas Baptists, said the desire for Conclave is for NextGen ministers to come together to learn and grow in their ministry area.

“We’ve heard of silos in ministry, and we tend to, as children’s ministers, work with just children and student ministers … But we’re seeing the value of integrating those ministries together, and we’re trying to model that on the convention level.

“That happens through Conclave to say, ‘Come together as a team, we’re learning and growing together as a team,’” Howington said. “It just creates that synergy that they can take home with them and implement in their churches.”

Howington advised first-time attendees to “come expecting to find community, because you will.”

Connecting with others in ministry

Attendees will have the opportunity to attend four main worship sessions and four breakout sessions.

These sessions will include content and resources for preschool, children, students and college ministers—sponsored by the Texas Baptist Student Ministry. Attendees can treat their sessions as a track within each of these areas or go to whichever breakout interests them.

There also will be a “Pastor’s Track” for senior church leaders to learn from and form community with others who are dealing with matters unique to their role.

“We’re very intentional about the keynotes and the breakout session topics because we want full representation of all age-graded ministries, and we want there to be something for everybody, but also generalized topics that apply to everybody as well,” Howington said.

“We put a lot of thought into who we invite to be those leaders, and so far, it’s gone well, and we’ve had such a great response.”

Diverse keynote speakers

The four main sessions feature keynote messages from Ed Newton, lead pastor of Community Bible Church in San Antonio; Mike Satterfield, founder of Field of Grace Ministries in Arlington; and Justin Whitmel Earley, writer and speaker from Richmond, Va.

Liebrum said the diversity of keynotes is the “secret sauce” of the conference as they try to match the unique needs of attendees. He said he especially is excited to have Earley address one of the primary motivations behind the conference—community and the importance of connecting with others in ministry.

“Right now, what we see across the state is a lot of ministers and pastors that feel really isolated and don’t feel connected,” Liebrum said.

“For us, [Conclave is] two days where you can get connected, and you don’t have to be youth minister those two days. You don’t have to be children’s pastor those two days. You can just be you and connect with other people. So, I’m excited about Justin coming to be a part of that.”

To fit the needs of individual attendees, Conclave provides an “On Your Own” group for the conference. The “On Your Own” group is designed for attendees who didn’t come with a church group to have an opportunity to connect and build relationships.

Conclave also is hosting approximately 80 exhibitors, showcasing their ministries and what resources they have to offer.

Building momentum 

In addition to breakout sessions, Conclave will hold luncheons on Monday for youth ministers and Tuesday for children’s ministers to advance those connections. Luncheon attendees will share a meal and hear from a speaker in their ministry area.

Howington said she was encouraged by the increased attendance of preschool and children’s ministers at last year’s Conclave and looks forward to building on that momentum this year.

“We had a lot of momentum coming out of last year,” she continued. “Last year was the year we really pushed to have preschool and children’s ministers come with their student ministers and pastors, and we saw the fruit of that.”

Register here for the 2024 Conclave NextGen conference.

West Texas A&M Baptist Student Ministry in Canyon celebrated 104 years of reaching, equipping and mobilizing students for the sake of the gospel on West Texas A&M University’s campus.

West Texas A&M President Walter Wendler expressed his gratitude for the BSM’s intentionality in modeling Christ on campus.

“The job of the BSM at West Texas A&M is to teach and to model and to project Christ in their day-to-day comings and goings on West Texas A&M’s campus, and we are thankful for that,” said Wendler.

“God’s word is at work on our campus because of the West Texas A&M University BSM and other ministerial organizations. The boldness and the confidence that students get through this ministry is very important.”

Testimonies of faith and lasting legacy

Tirzah Miranda, a current West Texas A&M student and BSM student leader, described how God has used the BSM to model Christ in her life and challenge her faith.

“I’ve been able to effectively learn how to share the gospel, tools of how to share the gospel and how to transition conversations to the gospel,” she said. “I’ve seen a lot of fruit from that.”

Malaki Deatherage, current campus missionary and future coordinator at West Texas A&M BSM, said he came to Christ during his freshman year at West Texas A&M because of the kindness of BSM students. He talked about how God used the ministry to cultivate his faith.

“People at the BSM loved on me whenever I was a wreck,” Deatherage said, noting BSM Director Eric Hunter “discipled me and taught me what it meant to be a believer, taught me what it meant to share the gospel.”

Hunter celebrates BSM’s reach

West Texas A&M BSM exists to love the campus, lead students into a relationship with Christ and launch students from the campus, students and alumni agreed. It serves as a ministry to nearby Amarillo College, Clarendon College and Frank Phillips College, in addition to West Texas A&M. Hunter has been the director of the school’s BSM since 2022 and is an alumnus of the university and organization himself.

The West Texas A&M BSM connected with more than 1,200 students in the last year, with 14 students placing their faith in Christ and being discipled.

Last spring, when students gathered for the last “806 Worship Night” of the semester in the current building, Hunterdiscussed Hebrews 12 and reminded them of the “great cloud of witnesses” that built the ministry’s legacy.

“They stand on your shoulders, the pathway that you paved,” he said.

“All the students here are benefactors of you and your legacy and your faithfulness in BSM over the decades. And as we see God move, a lot of it is because of your prayers and your support.”

New building builds on Kingdom legacy

The existing West Texas A&M BSM building, which has housed the ministry since 1952, soon will face demolition due to foundation problems and other structural issues.

Plans for a new facility have been drafted, and an adjacent property will serve as the BSM’s ministry headquarters until the new facility is ready.

West Texas A&M BSM leaders believe a new BSM building will help fulfill their love, lead and launch vision by providing a space for students to form community, hear and respond to the gospel, become equipped and be mobilized as disciple-makers.

“The needs of college students have never changed. Students need to hear the life-changing message of the gospel,” Hunter said.

Hunter is grateful for God’s provision that Texas Baptists “strategically purchased adjacent property to the BSM” to house the BSM as its historic facility is torn down and a new one built in its place.

“We’re so thankful that God in his sovereignty, in his providential wisdom, has provided us with a place, while we have to close this down, that we can still be here on campus,” he said.

Deatherage said the BSM’s legacy is not confined to the building but is based on the kingdom work being done through the ministry within it.

“Everyone is sad to see [this building] go, but we’re still building on that legacy even though this building is going away. So, I want to encourage you, don’t stop investing in the legacy. People like me, we needed this,” said Deatherage.

Campaign seeks to raise $5.5 million

West Texas A&M BSM launched its fundraising campaign for its new building in May. According to Hunter, the price tag for the new BSM building is $5.5 million.

Hunter explained the construction phase will begin once 80 percent of the funds are raised, which is expected to be within the next two years. The new building is expected to be constructed and ready for use for the freshman class of 2027.

Miranda noted the foundation of WTAMU BSM is not a building.

“The reason that the BSM is so special is because of the name of Jesus, and that’s our foundation,” Miranda said.

Bill Arnold, who led the Texas Baptist Missions Foundation more than three and a half decades, will be nominated for the Baptist General Convention of Texas secretary of the corporation.

Steve Vernon, director of church relations at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, announced his plans to nominate Arnold at Texas Baptists’ annual meeting in Waco, Nov. 10-12.

Arnold “carries the credentials applicable to the position,” said Vernon, who worked 11 years as associate executive director of Texas Baptists.

Arnold served four decades on the BGCT staff, including 36 years as president of the Texas Baptist Missions Foundation.

“Nobody knows the convention better than Bill Arnold,” Vernon said. “He knows the ins and outs of the BGCT. Bill has the expertise and experience to do the job.”

If elected, Arnold will fill a post occupied for two decades by the late Bernie Spooner, who Arnold nominated for secretary of the corporation on several occasions.

“I have great admiration for Bernie and for all his work on behalf of the convention and local churches. It would be an honor to follow him as secretary of the corporation,” he said.

Decades of experience in BGCT life

Arnold noted he has attended more than 50 consecutive BGCT annual meetings and spent most of his career serving Texas Baptists.

“I appreciate what the BGCT does and see this position as a good way to serve after retiring,” he said.

Arnold spent his early years at a small town in northern Mississippi until his family moved to Memphis, Tenn. He earned his undergraduate degree in economics at Mississippi College and a master’s degree in religious education from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

After he graduated from seminary, he served as minister of youth at Willow Meadows Baptist Church in Houston. He went on to work seven years at Dallas Baptist Association before joining the BGCT staff, initially serving in the Sunday School Division.

As part of the Mission Texas emphasis in the mid-1980s—a five-year effort to begin 2,000 new churches in the state—Arnold worked on a fundraising effort to triple giving to state missions two consecutive years.

That effort gave birth to the Texas Baptist Missions Foundation, and Arnold served as its founding president.

Under his leadership, the foundation raised more than $180 million to support missions and ministries, including the construction of Baptist Student Ministry buildings on five university campuses.

Arnold and his wife Margaret have two adult children and four grandsons.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Emmanuel Baptist Church in Waco temporarily closed its doors for the safety of its congregation, but had considered the possibility of permanent closure because of its dwindling numbers and lack of a lead pastor.

When the holiday season approached, the church decided to gather for a Christmas service. In hopes of finding someone to come preach a sermon, a deacon at Emmanuel reached out to Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary. The seminary connected him with Marcelo De Oliveira, who gladly accepted.

“I was going to Truett at the time, and I went and preached that sermon. And Charles McLain, one of the deacons at the church who contacted me, at the end of the service said: ‘Well, are you free this coming Sunday?’

“I said, ‘Sure,’” Oliveira continued.

He returned to preach the following Sunday.

Replant inspired by the Holy Spirit

In late January 2021, after several more weeks of being invited back to preach at Emmanuel, Oliveira said he and the church agreed he should stay to pastor their congregation.

Oliveira led the church through an intentional replant process. Since then, the church body has grown from 17 members in 2020 to 72 active members today. He said the church’s inspiration to replant came from the Holy Spirit.

“God, for sure, is the one who inspired us. His Spirit, his life, being brought to life as a church,” Oliveira said.

One member, who Oliveira said had a profound impact on his ministry, told him the church constantly was urged to shut down before his arrival, because there was nothing left of it.

But, she was encouraged by his faith that the church would be restored. She told him she believed his proclamation of that faith to the congregation spurred them on to believe the same.

“[She said] ‘You are the first pastor … that in the service from the pulpit, you said ‘I believe in this church, and I believe God will bring us back,’” Oliveira said.

“I would say that God is bringing us back because he’s not through with us yet.”

A heart for reaching people

Involving themselves in international missions through prayer and financial offerings, Oliveira said the church also has developed a heart for reaching the people in their neighborhood.

“It’s becoming like a mission field, so to speak, and I think it’s coming into the hearts and minds of the people who are in the church.

“That they prayed, and they sent offerings and prayers and love and cards to missionaries around the world, and now God placed them here and their new mission field is their neighborhood,” Oliveira said.

“This is encouraging us to grow back up and to see God working.”

Lee Williams, Texas Baptists’ church starting strategist for Central Texas, said the church is expecting growth due to their heart for evangelism in their community.

“It’s becoming a younger congregation. So, we’re expecting some potential future growth due to the fact that they have such a heart for the community and a heart for evangelism. And because of that, it’s drawing fresh faces and perspectives and opportunities to their church,” Williams said.

Williams said upon first meeting with Oliveira about Emmanuel’s replant, he was encouraged by his heart for the next generation and meeting people where they are. He said Oliveira’s passion for people has played a significant role in Emmanuel’s regrowth.

“To replant, a church has to be willing to rethink everything about their vision, strategy and implementation of that strategy,” said Tom Howe, associate director for Texas Baptists’ Center for Missional Engagement. “Everything has to be on the table.”

According to Williams, other churches looking to replant could learn from Emmanuel how to do this well—how to bring some positivity and fresh perspective and opportunities—trying new things in their replant process, without dwelling on what the culture once was.

“You could tell his heart was for sharing the love of Christ and introducing people to Christ,” Williams said of Oliveira, “because his passion was more for the people instead of for the preaching. I really think that’s what’s helped Emmanuel become as great as it is.”

Upcoming milestone anniversary

On Sept. 15, Emmanuel is set to celebrate its 94th anniversary and with it, the revitalization of its church body. The church will hold a celebration service on that day and will celebrate four new believers coming forward to be baptized on Nov. 10.

“Baptism always represents life, new life, transformation of life. A life that was going one direction but has turned around and is now going in a different direction,” said Oliveira.

“To the church it means ‘Hey, God is at work here in this place.’ It also means to the church, ‘Hey, God is using us and our church to reach out.’ So, it means to us as a church, God is not through with us yet.”

God has cultivated an international body within the church. Today, fourteen different countries and eleven nationalities are represented at Emmanuel—four countries in Asia, five countries in Africa, two countries in South America and three countries in Central America.

The church also shares their space with the Waco Chinese Church.

Looking forward to celebrating 94 years, Oliveira said, has been particularly special to the older generations of the church as they reflect on their 90th anniversary in 2020.

“When we had our 90th anniversary, they were like ‘Well, this is it,’ and now we’re four years beyond it and we are already beginning to plan and pray for our 100th anniversary,” said Oliveira.

“[So], they’re already able to see ‘hey, the church will stay here beyond us, and it’s okay. And we can plan and leave this legacy, and the church will not die with us.’”

Fulfilling the Great Commission

Williams said sometimes replanting a church just means it needs “a facelift and fresh opportunity,” to continue to have life and create new life within it.

One way Emmanuel plans to cultivate new life within their church is by working with Texas Baptists to get some translation equipment to be able to host trilingual services. This way, the Waco Chinese Church, Emmanuel and Spanish speakers in the community can come and worship together.

“If there’s an opportunity for a church to replant, versus being closed down completely, again, that means we still have a mission to fulfill,” Williams said.

Replanting is a great way to fulfill the great commission, he said, without losing one of our great Baptist churches.

CEDAR HILL—As a room full of preteen campers saw a big, beautiful birthday cake come onto the stage during the final week of children’s camp at Mount Lebanon Baptist Encampment in Cedar Hill, they couldn’t wait to devour a piece for themselves.

That is, they couldn’t wait until camp pastor Logan Meek added a few extra ingredients—ketchup, mustard and salad dressing.

Suddenly, the cake wasn’t appealing to them anymore. Just as the cake was ruined, Meek shared with kids about the ugliness of sin and how it messes up everything.

By using visual illustrations and object lessons to coordinate with Bible lessons, Meek hopes audiences of all ages will connect with the gospel on a personal level as he speaks at a variety of camps, retreats and ministry events around the country.

In addition to his speaking ministry, Meek also serves as the minister to college students and young adults at Immanuel Baptist Church in Lexington, Ky.

For Meek, the opportunity to minister full-time at his home church has brought his ministry full circle as the Lord placed him in various ministry roles and settings through the years, which has allowed him to learn and grow as a leader.

“I definitely see the value of kids and youth ministry, and I’m grateful for the impact it had in my life,” Meek said.

After he graduated from college, Meek participated in the Teach for America program, teaching sixth grade at a public school in Tulsa, Okla.

“God used that time in my life to really help me own my faith for myself,” he said. “I got connected with a great church that helped me find community and purpose. That’s one of the reasons I’m so passionate about college and young adult ministry, as well.

While teaching in Tulsa and serving at his church, Meek felt God’s calling to ministry.

“I remember having a moment where I realized in myself that my favorite part of my week was serving at church, and I began to pray, ‘God if you would allow me to use my job to serve you, I would say, yes,’” he recalled.

At that time, he also was serving in the summer with Student Life Camp. At the end of summer 2014, he joined Student Life’s full-time ministry team and moved to Birmingham, Ala.

“God has been teaching me more and more to speak, act and live without being concerned about what other people might think,” he said. “We have no reason to be ashamed, because God has adopted us as his children through Christ.

“I am always looking for new ideas. It’s such a blessing to be able to learn from others.”

Joy in seeing ‘breakthrough moments’

While speaking at ministry events across the country, Meek enjoys spending time off-stage connecting with ministry leaders and their groups.

“I love to watch when leaders from a church have breakthrough moments with the students or kids from their church,” Meek said. “It’s an honor to be part of what God is doing in those moments.

“It’s also really a wonderful thing to be part of the rich heritage of many camps, conference centers or churches. This summer at Mount Lebanon, I was really amazed at the history of life-change that’s taken place there.

This summer, one of the church groups at Mount Lebanon invited Meek to join them for their morning quiet time after breakfast.

“Starting with the leaders, they went around the circle and talked about how they all were learning what it looks like to have hope in difficult situations,” he said.

“One leader asked for prayer for his daughter, who was expected to be born soon and not live long after birth. Another leader shared about the stress that comes with searching for a new job.

“I was so encouraged to hear that even in the middle of these difficult things, they were all choosing to seek God and trust him more. I’ve seen over and over how God uses camp in our lives to help us reconnect to him like this. I am always reminded that it is God working in our lives that really matters.”

‘We have a calling that is urgent’

Today, as Meek travels around the country speaking in a variety of settings, he realizes the desperation, hurt and pain many students are struggling with and desires to see them changed by the gospel message.

“I enjoy the opportunity to share the gospel with people of all ages,” Meek said. “Students today are desperate for something real, and we have a calling that is urgent.

“I think about Romans 10:14, and it inspires me to just do my best to do something. God can use anyone to share the gospel, and he can use anyone to impact the life of a teenager or a kid. I think it’s too often that people can falsely believe that a certain ‘cool factor’ is needed to be a difference maker for a student. That’s just not true. I see students responding to the truth of the gospel.

“So many people are searching for solutions to anxiety and loneliness, looking for a deeper purpose and seeking community. The answer to all of these things at every stage of our lives is found in the truth of the good news of Jesus.

“Romans 1:16 reminds us that the gospel is the power of God for the salvation of all who would believe. I love to find creative and fresh ways to share that truth with anyone who will listen.”

Pastor Michael Evans of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Mansfield will be nominated for registration secretary of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Pastor Edward Wagner of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Harker Heights announced his intention to nominate Evans at Texas Baptists’ annual meeting in Waco, Nov. 10-12.

Saying Evans’ “character is impeccable,” Wagner said his election would “set a wonderful example.”

“Given the religious climate of our time, we need men of integrity to step forward and be of service in high-profile positions,” he said. “Michael Evans is a man of unquestionable moral integrity.”

Evans, who was BGCT president from 2018 to 2020, has served Bethlehem Baptist Church as senior pastor more than three decades and was elected mayor of Mansfield in December 2020. He is the first African American to serve the city in that leadership role.

In spite of his other responsibilities, Evans agreed to accept the additional role as BGCT registration secretary if elected out of his commitment to Texas Baptists.

“I love the BGCT and appreciate the work of Texas Baptists,” he said. “It’s an opportunity to serve, to stay connected to the lifeblood of Texas Baptists, and to encourage others to participate in our annual meeting.”

Evans is a Houston native who served nine years in the U.S. Navy as a reserve chaplain, and he also worked in chaplaincy at Dallas Children’s Hospital.

He served on the BGCT Executive Board staff as director of African-American ministries from 2001 to 2006, while continuing to serve Bethlehem Baptist Church.

Evans earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Arlington, a Master of Divinity degree from Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University and a Doctor of Ministry degree from Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary.

He founded several community service organizations—the BBC Educational Enrichment Corporation, the Hope House Community Service Network and the Historic West Mansfield Texas Community Development Corporation.

He previously served as president of the board of trustees of the Mansfield Independent School District and was an administrator with the Tarrant County College District.

He and his wife Lisa have two adult children.

WACO—Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary returned to its birthplace at First Baptist Church in Waco for an Aug. 27 convocation marking 30 years of spiritual formation and preparing students for ministry.

“In 1994, in this very room, a handful of Truett Seminary administrators, faculty and staff, along with 51 students and a goodly number of stalwart supporters, began the story of which we are now a part, started the stream in which we now stand, sang the song we now sing,” Dean Todd Still said.

Truett Seminary classes met in the facility of First Baptist Church in Waco until 2002, when the seminary moved to its Baugh Reynolds Campus on the grounds of Baylor University.

Seminary ‘still on mission’

Brad Creed, the seminary’s second dean, reflected on the days preceding the seminary’s birth.

“I was there when Truett Seminary was a concept, a hope and a dream,” said Creed, now president of Campbell University in Buies Creek, N.C.

“I was there when it was two people, a legal pad and a pencil for sketching out those hopes and dreams. And look at you now, making those compelling ideas incarnate on a continuing basis.”

The seminary launched during a “time of denominational turmoil and unrest” in Baptist life, he acknowledged. While some other institutions created at that time did not survive, Truett Seminary persevered.

“Truett Seminary is visible. It is virile. It is viable. It is vibrant and still on mission to ‘equip God-called people for gospel ministry in and alongside Christ’s church by the power of the Holy Spirit,’” he said.

Creed offered thanks for the vision of the late former Baylor President Herbert Reynolds and former provost Donald Schmeltekopf and for the support of founding dean—and later university president—Robert Sloan, early faculty and donors who made Truett Seminary possible.

Pro Ecclesia, Pro Texana, Pro Mundo

Since its founding, Truett Seminary has exemplified Baylor University’s recently expanded motto, Pro Ecclesia, Pro Texana, Pro Mundo—“for the church, for Texas, for the world,” Baylor President Linda Livingstone said.

She particularly noted the partnerships Truett Seminary and Baylor University have with the Baptist General Convention of Texas and the Baptist World Alliance.

“Truett celebrates the diversity of the BGCT while also contributing to that diversity,” Livingstone said. “This includes racial diversity, with students from all backgrounds and walks of life, and it includes gender diversity.

“Truett plays an important role in fully affirming women in their call to ministry. And in this increasingly polarized theological landscape, Truett’s affirmation of women in ministry is more important than ever.”

After looking at Truett’s past and present, Still raised the question, “Where do we go from here?”

Truett Seminary will continue to embrace its identity as “an orthodox, evangelical multidenominational school in the historic Baptist tradition embedded in a Christian R1 university,” he said.

The seminary will seek to train “thoughtful, faithful Christian ministers for a 21st century church and world” by providing “quality theological education that is accessible, affordable and achievable,” he added.

“More than lofty—much less, empty—rhetoric, these are erstwhile commitments that ground us and guide us day in and day out, week in and week out, year in and year out. … We are all in—committed to being both humble and hungry, gritty and graceful, resolutely refusing to rest on our self-fashioned laurels,” Still said.

At a luncheon following the convocation, Truett Seminary announced church historian Alan Lefever as the inaugural Russell H. Dilday Endowed Visiting Professor in Baptist Life and Leadership.

Lefever, director of the Texas Baptist Historical Collection, has taught as an adjunct at Truett Seminary for 25 years. He expressed appreciation for the opportunity to serve at a seminary that “takes academics seriously,” while also creating a “culture of fellowship” and a “community of joy.”