Warm hearts amidst cold days: Our February executive board meeting

Oh my! It is cold in Texas y’all! I hope you are staying warm. I am staying physically warm as I attend meetings this week. But more significantly, my heart is being kept warm by interacting with other leaders in our Texas Baptists family.

On Monday and Tuesday of this week, our BGCT executive board met. Sunday night, I had the opportunity to meet our incoming class of executive board members. What a blessing it is to have committed pastors and lay leaders from the various churches around our state serve on our board!

The board meets on Monday evening and Tuesday morning. Prior to the Monday evening session, board members meet in various committees and councils. They get to hear reports and make decisions regarding what God is doing in evangelism, church starting and collegiate ministry, in our colleges, universities and seminaries, and through our human care institutions and our missions engagement, among other things. God is moving among and through Texas Baptists!

On Monday, I delivered my report to the board. Grounding my comments on the book of Acts, I reminded those present that the book of Acts follows the outline and strategy prescribed by Jesus in Acts 1:8. The story of Acts is the story of the church giving witness of Jesus in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth.

Texas Baptists' story has been the same, and it needs to continue to be so. Our churches and institutions give witness of Christ in their cities, in Texas, in North America and around the world. As the global church looks to the 2,000th anniversary of the Great Commission in 2033, we need to remain faithful to this commitment and be strategic in our partnership.

In clarifying our call as Texas Baptists during this season, we have stated that our missional focus will be “strengthening a multiplying movement of churches to live out the Great Commandment and Great Commission in Texas and beyond.”

I have also shared the seven values that will guide our decisions and work under the Lordship of Christ. Texas Baptists are biblically-faithful, gospel-centered, historically-rooted, future-thinking, beautifully-diverse, servant-hearted and kingdom-collaborative.

Furthermore, I shared with the board that in this next season, our focus will be to strengthen churches, connect ministers and partner for missions. We want to see a movement of multiplying churches, ministerial development that strengthens pastors and leaders, and missional engagement by every church and every disciple.

Our GC2 process will be designed to come alongside churches who want to live out the Great Commandment and Great Commission, helping them to connect with resources, other churches, leaders, and kingdom ministries so they can live out their call to the fullest.

As Texas continues to grow in population and diversity, we want to win Texas for Christ, and from Texas, the rest of the world! Under the Lordship of Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit, God can do supernatural work through us if we submit to Him and obey Him.

On Tuesday morning, we heard reports and acted on several important items, including the naming of officers for our new property insurance company for churches, affirming our practice of receiving churches in our fellowship that hold to traditional Baptist confessions of faith and the new working agreement with NAMB for church starting in Texas. You can read the full recap here and learn about the new Apartment Life/Texas Baptists Evangelism partnership here.

For the rest of this week and the first part of next week, I am meeting with staff leadership to talk about how we can do this work with even greater effectiveness. Stay tuned to see how you and your church can be a part of all that God is doing. Thank you for your partnership!