Monday Mission Fields: Granbury, Texas

The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is still growing rapidly, despite the current economic climate. Though some business are shutting down and loft/office space is becoming available in the downtown areas, Dallas and Fort Worth are still attracting more residents and companies to town. As a result, the suburban areas are sprouting up.

Granbury is one of those areas. Though the town itself only has 5,700 residents, Hood County is home to more than 41,000. If you are a history buff, you'll love Granbury because it was the home of Davy Crockett's wife, Elizabeth. Other local legends include that John Wilkes-Booth and Jesse James didn't really die as according to mainstream history, but instead settled in Granbury.

The addition of Lake Granbury has also fueled economic growth. So, you have the best of both worlds. History and culture, but progress and growth. Granbury is an excellent opportunity for a church planter. All we need is someone to answer the call and go to the field. Is God calling you to Granbury? If so, answer!

Monday Mission Fields - Waco, TX

Waco, Texas, (pronounced WAY-co not WACK-oh) sits in the center of the Texas population. A short drive to the north will land one in the DFW Metroplex, a short drive to the south lands one in Austin and San Antonio. Just a few hours to the southeast is College Station, Houston and Galveston. To the west, Brownwood.

The Waco metro area is home to more than 228,000 people, and is rapidly growing. Cities like Woodway, Bellmeade, and even McGregor are springing up and developing places where previously there were corn or cotton fields.

The rapid rise in population is due partly to the favorable Texas economic climate as well as the proximity to Fort Hood. Expect that trend to continue as the Federal Government continues to consolidate military installations. Fort Hood will gain soldiers, who bring family with them. Often, merchants also set up shop nearby hoping to make a fortune selling wares to American Soldiers. Face it, U.S. Military and economic prosperity go hand in hand. Look at the prosperity that surrounds our bases in Colorado Springs, San Diego, Irvine (CA), and even overseas. Yes, the presence of the military brings prosperity to areas in the Middle East (just look at Saudi Arabia and the nations surrounding Afghanistan.) So, the presence of the military, the favorable economic climate (Texas has fewer taxes and employer fees than many states in the union), and low cost of living will continue to fuel growth in Waco.

Waco and the surrounding areas are well populated by people, but are home to relatively few ABA churches. While the area is home to Baylor University (another driving force for economic development), we can not just sit back and assume the Southern Baptist Convention will handle all the evangelism, discipleship and mission work in Central Texas.

So, with all that in mind, will you consider Waco, Texas as a state/interstate mission field?

Monday Mission Fields on Friday (yeah, how's that for punctuality) - San Marcos, Texas

The Missionary Baptist Association of Texas is missing the state missions boat. The Texas Hill Country, along with all of the areas between the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, Houston, San Antonio, Austin and Waco, are among the fastest growing places in America... even in the midst of this recession/depression that we are in.

My first experience with San Marcos came in the summer of 1994, when my high school debate coach sent me to a two-week debate camp at Texas State University (then called Southwest Texas State). Evidently, my 3-14 record as a sophomore didn't impress her. At that time, San Marcos boasted a population of 28,000, with the university boasting an enrollment of 20,000. Today, San Marcos has a population that exceeds 50,000, with the university having almost 30,000 students enrolled, for a total of 80,000 souls that can be reached for Christ (plus or minus, these are estimates).

The rapid growth of San Marcos is typical of Hill Country/Southwest Texas cities. Check out New Braunfels, Marble Falls, Round Rock, and of course, Austin and San Antonio. In fact, it is getting to where you can drive I-35 from Austin to San Antonio without leaving "the city."

San Marcos, like other Hill Country cities, is a tourist stop. Visitors can rent inner tubes and float the San Marcos river for just a few dollars. (Access to the river is free, the tube rental is what cost money.) San Marcos is also a destination for those taking jobs at Apple Computer in Austin, Toyota in San Antonio (who is opening a new plant there), or one of the many local school districts who can not afford Austin or San Antonio housing.

So, why is the San Marcos population and economy growing exponentially without the presence of a Gospel preaching ABA church? It's not the money. The Missionary Baptist Association of Texas already has the fund balance to finance a missionary's endeavor there. Is it the lack of sponsoring churches? Probably not. I know of one church that is getting serious about Hill Country Missions, while another is looking to plant sister churches in the same area. No, the lack of an associated work in San Marcos is due to one reason, and one reason only. Few men are answering the call to go to the state mission fields.

So, I'm going to pray for God to call men to these fields, and that these men will man-up and go whole heartedly.

Monday Mission Fields: Austin, Texas

One or two trips down to the Texas Hill Country will convince anyone that the Austin area is one of the most rapidly growing metro areas in America. This premonition is backed up by U.S. Census data that shows that Austin is the third fastest growing city in the U.S. This, along with an absence of ABA-associated Missionary Baptist Churches should motivate any prospective church planter to at least consider Austin as a field.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates Austin's population at 757,000 people. It serves as the state capital of Texas, is home to the University of Texas (T-u for my Aggie friends), is the second most influencial city in Country Music (second only to Nashville) and a major influence on music and pop-culture nationwide. Austin is known as the live-music capital of the world, which gives rise to night clubs, drinking and drug problems. Crime is increasingly becoming a problem in Austin.

Austin is home to politicians, musicians, actors, state employees and high-tech employees. In fact, it is even home to Apple computer. Many high-tech firms migrated from Silicone Valley, Calif., to Austin during the brown-outs of 2001, seeking more stable power supplies and better economic climates than California.

People from all walks of life, and I do mean all walks of life are flocking to Austin for education (UT has an enrollment of more than 150,000 undergrads), job opportunities, and new leases on life. They bring with them just about any type of philosophy and world view imaginable. Evangelism in this area should be interesting to say the least.

Acquiring property and building facilities will be difficult. Austin is very big on environmental protection, so expect there to be numerous environmental impact studies, and expect to have to include "green" features on any facility you plan to build. This may actually be cost-prohibitive, but who knows what God will provide for you.

Renting space will also be costly, but may prove to be a viable option for meeting space. There are also schools, conference centers, convention halls, and so on... but expect some resistance when you disclose that you are renting for church meetings.

Apartment ministries may be the most cost-effective, highest evangelical return rate method to use here, but I have not thoroughly researched this.

The bad news is that Austin is a difficult field. ABA mission works and church plants have failed here before.

The good news is that mission work can be successful in Austin. One church organized a few years ago in Round Rock, a northern sub-urb of Austin. The Missionary Baptist Association of Texas (the Texas state association) provides a generous salary structure, provided that you are sent out by a member church. Texas Mission Development is unrivaled in its ability to raise funds for buildings and land. SO, you do have resources to work with. Plus, you have sister churches to fellowship with in nearby Rockdale, Round Rock, and even as far as San Antonio.

Still interested and want to learn more, click here.

Monday Mission Fields - Fort Worth, Texas

Despite the presence of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, First Baptist Church (the church pastored by Independent Baptist leader and partial founder J. Frank Norris), and numerous Christian insitutions and entities, Fort Worth is still a city that needs to be reached with the Gospel.

Fort Worth has a population of 720,250 people. If the city holds to the national average of 87% being unchurched, a ripe harvest exists there. The preacher who grew up in a rural area need not worry about Fort Worth being a "big city" as the city prides itself to being a large city with a small town atmosphere (despite the presence of the Texas Motor Speedway and other major attractions.)

Fort Worth's culture is largely tied to its days as a stop on the Chisolm Trail, a trail cattlemen used to drive their herds to market in Kansas. The Fort Worth Stockyards was a place where local merchants could separate the traveling cowboys from their money. Today, the stockyards are a tourist trap, er, attraction where visitors can watch a real cattle drive, see a rodeo, visit a museum, ride a train, and purchase souveniers, goodies, food and beverages. In fact, alcoholic beverages are served at an outdoor bar. It is not uncommon to see tourists consuming beer as they walk down the sidewalk at the stockyards.

Fort Worth is also home to Billy Bob's Texas, a huge dancehall/bar complete with a 4,000 seat concert venue which hosts some of the biggest names in Country Music and an indoor bull-riding arena (where I'm told visitors can give the ride a try.)

The culture and history of the stockyards and Billy Bob's drives much of the mindset of Fort Worth residents, but aside from the tourism aspect of Fort Worth, mission work just makes sense here. It is populous, it is unchurched, it is the fifth largest city in Texas, twice annually more than 125,000 people converge on the city to see the NASCAR races, and it is home to only one ABA church (CrossRoads Mission moved to Crowley.) I tend to gravitate toward economic centers when I research mission fields, hoping that a new church in that particular city would lead to sister churches being planted in the neighboring cities. I believe the same could happen for Fort Worth. Cowtown could very well be the gateway to further evangelism in the DFW Metroplex.

The Missionary Baptist Association of Texas has well supported missionaries to Fort Worth in the past. Bro. W.S. Taylor was the missionary to Fort Worth for more than 11 years, working to plant Cross Roads mission. The exhorbitant cost of land and building construction hampered his efforts to get Cross Roads to become a self-supporting organized church. Any missionary who goes to Fort Worth should be prepared to work without land and buildings for many years (of course, the Lord could still provide those.) There is a large number of apartment complexes in Fort Worth. Perhaps using the tried and proven method of evangelizing those communities (as has been practiced in Houston and Brownwood) could be the key to gathering and organizing a congregation.

Funding is available through the MBA of Texas, or the ABA Interstate Mission Fund. The Central Texas Mission Council (which covers the DFW area) has also been known to support missions very well. Please consider Fort Worth as a viable mission field.

Texas

In celebration of Texas Independence Day (which was yesterday. I celebrated Christ yesterday and will celebrate Texas today), I thought we'd look at our great state with a missions point of view.

Texas spans 268,820 square miles, with a population of 23.5 million people. The Texas population grows at a rate of 1,000 people per day.

To reach these masses, we have 318 ABA churches. That's 73,899 people per ABA church.

Texas is a wonderful state, with a culture, background and people like no other. Want to partner with me to reach them? Email me at gracepointembc@aol.com.