Missions Banquet celebrates 10 years of BOUNCE; introduces new staff and Worldwide Partners

The Center for Missional Engagement hosted their annual Missions Team Banquet on Nov. 11 at the 2024 Texas Baptists Annual Meeting, highlighting and celebrating BOUNCE. Attendees heard from Scott Stevens, vice president of Texas Baptist Missions Foundation and former BOUNCE coordinator, and a panel of ministers on the impact of BOUNCE. 

BOUNCE offers student ministry leaders the opportunity to mobilize their middle school, high school and college students to be engaged in challenging mission service and inspiring times of worship.

Julio Guarneri, executive director of Texas Baptists, welcomed attendees to the luncheon and introduced Noe Treviño as the new director of the Center for Missional Engagement. He encouraged attendees that “the reason that we exist is to be on mission with God.”

“When we talk about our work as a convention, there are a lot of things we enjoy doing together as the Baptist General Convention of Texas, but … the reason we cooperate as local churches who value our autonomy, who are diverse in multiple ways, we come together not to be uniform, but we come together to be on mission with God,” said Guarneri. 

A video was shown showcasing testimonials of students who have served and those they have served through BOUNCE. 

Stevens introduced a panel of three ministers to share their experiences with BOUNCE: Jeffrey Brown, youth minister at the Cowboy Church of Collin County, Johnny Gonzalez, NextGen pastor at Hunters Glen Baptist Church in Plano and Jason Burden, pastor of First Baptist Church Lubbock. 

Brown said he got involved with BOUNCE after deciding it was time for his students to step into serving others. 

“We actually made the decision this year to not take our students to camp. We felt like .. it was time for us to serve somebody else. [So], that really laid the foundation for change [in our youth ministry],” said Brown.  

Gonzales said it is inspiring to see his students have a transformational experience at BOUNCE.

“It’s hard to be a teenager these days and just for a few days, to see them lay all that down and trust and follow Jesus, and at church group time at the end, when they look at you say ‘The Holy Spirit’s real, he’s actually working in our youth group,’ that’s inspiring,” said Gonzalez. “Then I know we’re making a tremendous investment in the next generation.” 

Burden, who pastored First Baptist Church Nederland prior to his transition to First Baptist Church Lubbock, said his church was on the receiving end of BOUNCE’s ministry after Hurricane Harvey in 2017. He said the ministry brought legitimacy to the community.

“[When Scott reached out and] said, ‘Hey, we're getting our schedule firmed up. We want to send a group to your church,’ [we] just thank[ed] the Lord because when David and company come to your location, it gives legitimacy to your district, to the community,” said Burden. “When they see that your church is being used to improve the situation on the ground and we go out and tell people ‘Jesus loves you,’ they know we’re serious because of the ministry of BOUNCE.”

At the conclusion of the panel, Stevens gave attendees three ways to pray for BOUNCE; pray for the communities where they will serve, pray that churches would register their students and encourage them to engage in hands-on missions and pray for God’s wisdom and favor as Scott leads the ministry. He also encouraged attendees to give and encourage their churches to support BOUNCE financially. 

The Center for Missional Engagement celebrated 10 years of BOUNCE this summer. 

“This past summer, BOUNCE celebrated its 10th birthday, so that’s 10 years of restoring hope, rebuilding communities and reflecting Christ,” said Stevens. “May the Lord continue to lead and bless the ministry of BOUNCE.”

Treviño closed the time by introducing Texas Baptists’ Worldwide Partners who were in attendance at the banquet. These partners were recognized in the final worship session on Tuesday morning. 

To learn more about BOUNCE and how it can be a resource to you and your church, or to register your students for 2025 mission opportunities, visit txb.org/bounce.