He is in control: Pastor’s Common and Lamar BSM updates

This week, many of our students and educators are back to school. Some started last week. Others will start within the next two weeks or so. All of us are affected by the new school year. Change of routine for families. Morning traffic patterns. And ministry cycles beginning again.

In a rapidly changing world, we find ourselves with different settings and rhythms of life from a year ago, or even from the way things were before summer started.

How good it is to remind ourselves that the Lord is God and we are not. We are not in control. He is. We can be comforted by knowing that we are his people. We are his sheep, and he is our Shepherd. We can trust and follow him where he leads.

At our May executive board meeting, I announced that we were making the Pastor’s Common staff position full-time. David Miranda, who at the time was serving in our Center for Missional Engagement, launched this network in 2019 in collaboration with David Foster, Jordan Villanueva and Abraham Quiñones.

Up until this last spring, Miranda was the Texas Baptists staff member assigned to give leadership and support to this network as one of his responsibilities. The network has grown to include over 350 young ministers who participate in preaching labs, retreats, cohorts, podcasts and peer/mentoring relationships.

Based on the size of this ministry, we asked Brother Miranda to make this his full-time job as the director of Millennial/Gen Z Ministers Network. We also housed the role in the Center for Ministerial Health to facilitate collaboration and synergy with other pastor-focused initiatives.

Last week, David Miranda resigned his position with Texas Baptists to take a new job with GuideStone. We congratulate David on this new opportunity. We have also asked him to stay on contract to oversee the events that were already scheduled for 2024, and he has gladly accepted.

Last week, Pastor’s Common hosted a preaching lab at the Texas Baptists offices in Dallas with over 50 participants. The next preaching lab will be at Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio, where over 65 ministers are already registered. The El Paso preaching lab on September 5 already has more than 50 people registered.

Other upcoming Pastor’s Common events include a preaching lab at Hardin Simmons on September 23, a pastors retreat at Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas on October 14-15, a rally at the Texas Baptists Annual Meeting in Waco on November 10-12 and bimonthly luncheons in seven areas across the state.

While we will miss Miranda working from our offices, we are committed to supporting him, David Foster and Jordan Villanueva as they continue to provide leadership for these events. Our commitment as Texas Baptists to support Pastor’s Common in regard to staffing and finances is strong. I ask that you pray for this ministry as we ensure it has the best leadership possible.

In closing, I must share some sad news with you. This past weekend our BSM at Lamar University experienced a great tragedy. One of the students attending a leadership retreat — Noah Roden, aged 23 — drowned in a cove near the house where the group was staying. You can read the news release here.

We are heartbroken for the family of this young man, for the staff of the Lamar BSM and for the students who are grieving. The Texas Baptists family, including our Texas BSM family, grieves, prays and seeks to provide the support our Lamar BSM people need.

I am grateful to Mark Jones, director of our Center for Collegiate Ministry, Bill Noe, associate director, and Darin Ford, director of the Lamar BSM, for ministering amidst tremendous suffering these past few days.

Returning to classes will be easier for some than others. Would you pray for students, educators, churches and campus ministries as we enter this new season? May we remember “that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture” (Psalm 100:3, NIV).