2022 Cooperative Program Annual Report

BUT AS FOR YOU, CONTINUE

The Apostle Paul said, “But as for you, CONTINUE in what you have learned and firmly believed” (2 Timothy 3:14a).

Through your gifts to the Cooperative Program, Texas Baptists continues to make a significant impact in our state and around the world through the expansive ministries backed by the over 5,300 churches who are dedicated to sharing Christ and showing love.

Through innovative methods and dedicated service to the Lord, Texas Baptists actively and passionately continues to share the good news of the gospel. We continue to see expansive growth in church starts and baptisms. Our Baptist Student Ministries (BSM) continue to reach the next generation of leaders on 130 college campuses across the Lone Star State. And we continue to support our Baptist universities as they train the next generation.

Many Texas Baptists churches have an ongoing overseas ministry by adopting a missionary through our Missionary Adoption Program (MAP). Many church families focused their mission trips to one location of the world and developed partnerships with our faithful missionaries. Together, they continue to win

more people to Christ and find great joy in building upon their ministries and the strong relationships that grow from this kind of gospel innovation.

Texas Baptists shares a strong conviction to expand multicultural ministries with African Americans, Hispanics and Asians, as the nations continue to move into Texas. God has called us to reach all people for Christ. Whether it is being salt and light in the public square, strengthening churches, encouraging ministers or supporting missionaries in remote outposts, Texas Baptists continues to work together to share Christ and show love.

214.828.5306

214.828.5239

We’ve experienced an amazing year in the Center for Church Health. We’ve expanded in some new ways, including some of the ministries that are part of our center. The data you see on the following pages gives a quantitative representation of our work, but there is much more than just the numbers. If it were possible, I’d love to take you with me to churches, universities, BSMs and so many other places where God has opened the door for us to not only go and teach but to listen and learn. We continue to change as we listen to what God is telling us and engage with so many outstanding church leaders to hear what God is doing in local churches.

ministries

Church Health

Evangelism

Discipleship

Music & Worship

Church Architecture

GC2 Press

Women’s Ministry

Single & Young

Adult Ministry

A FEW RESULTS FROM CP INVESTMENT OF :

$

2.64 million

62,689

ministers and lay leaders were trained through special events, consultations and speaking engagements trained through discipleship events trained through evangelism events participants trained through Super Summer events

2,410 773

1,682

Women ministers and lay leaders were impacted through trainings and consulting sessions pastors and church leaders participated in training, consulting and coaching sessions with Church Health Strategy participated in Congreso Experiences

churchhealth@texasbaptists.org | txb.org/church CENTER

FUTURE CHURCH 2030 CONFERENCE

Highlights from the sessions

Director of Church Health Strategy Jonathan Smith reminded church leaders that “the gospel is unstoppable and will come out in unexpected ways at an unexpected time through unexpected people.”

Steve Bezner, pastor of Northwest Church

Over 300 church leaders attended the Future Church Conference, which focused on preparing church leaders for the year 2030 and the cultural, technological and demographic changes that will happen in the coming years.

A variety of nationally-recognized speakers, local pastors and Texas Baptists ministry leaders spoke on subjects such as leading through a crisis and incorporating technology into your church’s operations. Each session ended with a question and answer portion, where attendees could ask session leaders to speak more in-depth on certain topics.

Houston, explained that the future church needs to be a Kingdom-first church, focusing on creating a Kingdom community, not a community of consumers. “There’s something about each of us that comes alive when we decide to look beyond ourselves and wash the feet of our neighbors,” he said.

Beto Gonzalez and Oscar Perez, Global Compassion & Spanish Ministry pastor and campus pastor at Del Sol Church in El Paso, respectively, spoke about engaging the growing Hispanic demographic in Texas. They urged churches to make a space for Hispanic people in their church and to help raise up Hispanic church leaders.

Eric Mason, founder and pastor of Epiphany Fellowship, shared a powerful word about the future of the Black church, reaching millennials and Gen Z and the mission of the gospel. Young people are struggling to find places where they can lead in the church and asking questions about what the church is doing to better the community. Mason encouraged churches to reflect on those issues and be deliberate about making a space for young believers.

Director of the Center for Cultural Engagement

Katie Frugé spoke on issues of identity, presence and purpose facing the future church. She explained there has been an increase in anonymity on the Internet. “If the future is pushing disconnectivity in real life, then where are we connecting?” Frugé asked conference attendees.

The Center for Ministerial Health exists to assist pastors in being as strong and healthy as possible. We take a holistic approach that includes Counseling, Financial Services, Area Representatives and specialized ministry consultants for areas such as Bivocational Pastors and Western Heritage Ministry. There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to ministry so we do all we can to support and care for each pastor in their unique ministry context.

ministries

Minister Connection

Area Representatives

Counseling Services

Financial Health

Western Heritage

Bivocational Pastors

Interim Church Services

Pastor Strong Initiative

MINISTERS FINANCIAL HEALTH GRANT HELPS PASTOR FOCUS ON CHURCH EFFORTS RATHER THAN FINANCIAL BURDENS

By Emily Ahrens

Brad Newman and his wife, Sarah, have been married for 16 years and have five kids. They’ve called Amarillo, Texas, their home since 2007. Newman began serving at South Georgia Baptist Church in 2011 in various roles such as student minister, family pastor and eventually the church planting pastor.

In a nearby growing area of Amarillo, both Brad and Sarah could see it was lacking the presence of the gospel. There was new construction and new families moving in at a rapid speed, but it did not offer families a spiritual home.

So, they decided to plant Tradewind Community Church in the heart of this developing neighborhood about six months before the COVID-19 pandemic entered the U.S. In the last three years, they have seen many challenges.

To help with some of those challenges, Brad applied for the Minister's Financial Health Grant through Texas Baptists, where eligible Texas Baptists pastors and church staff can apply for a grant that can provide much-needed relief from financial pressures.

Tradewind Community Church was paired with the Highlands Christian Industries Foundation to match the grant. Alongside the grant, the church also received courses on financial literacy from Texas Baptists. Not only did they learn new ways to steward their gifts, but also how to teach their congregation the importance of generosity and continuing to give.

“It reshaped how we do our church budget,” Brad explained.

“Through this gift from the Texas Baptists, it has helped stabilize us and give us the encouragement we really needed.

According to the Ministers Financial Health team, 90% of pastors feel some level of financial stress in their family and church work. On top of that, over 30% of pastors work a second job to make ends meet. Both Brad and Sarah were filled with gratitude for the grant, not only for the financial relief, but also the ability to refocus from their finances to the church.

“We can now put our attitude and our efforts into the ministry and the church and focus on what God has given us to do,” Brad said. “It took that extra burden off and made a huge difference.”

The Center for Cultural Engagement helps equip Texas Baptists to engage in our respective communities. God calls us to be salt and light. We help bring others into community with God’s people through building bridges between groups, seeking justice, healing brokenness, confronting systemic evils, and speaking truth to power. We do this to bring the secular toward the sacred. The Center for Cultural Engagement is thankful for the support provided through the Cooperative Program.

Christian Life Commission

Texas Baptist en Español

African American Ministries

Intercultural Ministries

Chaplaincy Relations

ministries

A FEW RESULTS FROM CP INVESTMENT OF :

$ 1.87 million

35,071

333,002

volunteers served collective community ministries individuals served through collective community outreach programs

18,980

300+

African American church pastors and leaders trained in evangelism, discipleship, worship, mental health and church growth

$439,049

8M

Bibles and tracks handed out through collective community outreach programs in hunger grants approved by Texas Baptist Hunger Offering meals served by Texas Baptist Hunger Offering

CENTER FOR CULTURAL ENGAGEMENT

34 300+ 2,048

new chaplains endorsed intercultural pastors and congregations strengthened in their language and cultural context

NEW BELIEVERS

culturalengagement@texasbaptists.org | txb.org/culture

40 YEARS OF IMPACT

struggle because we are in a strange season, but it’s no stranger than it was 40 years ago when we made our presence known.”

Members of the African American Fellowship of Texas (AAFT), along with Texas Baptists staff and churches, gathered together for a time of worship to celebrate 40 years of impact through Texas Baptists African American Ministries.

Dr. Joe Ratcliff, the first president of AAFT, reflected on 40 years of ministry to African Americans in Texas and shared a word of encouragement: “Don’t ever lose your identity. This Convention needs you … I’m proud, so proud, that you must continue the

In 2022, African American Ministries brought 47 new churches into the Baptist General Convention of Texas (BGCT), including 12 churches from out of state — bringing the total number of African American churches partnered with the ministry to over 1,000.

Dr. Edward Wagner, the 15th and current president of AAFT taught from Psalm 42:1-11 about thirsting for God in times of trouble. He shared that if believers are to be salt to the world, they should be thirsty for the Lord and also create thirst in others. He reminded attendees that the answer to spiritual thirst is the Holy Spirit.

“When a Christian is filled with the Holy Spirit, God can bring down strongholds in his heart; when a church is filled with the Holy Spirit, God can turn the world upside down,” Wagner said. The evening closed with a prayer over Texas Baptists staff by Pastor George Effiom of United Christian Fellowship of Arlington.

“We ask that You will encourage them, that You will be a source of strength for them,” Effiom prayed. “Father, join their hearts together, that they may work in unity to glorify Your name … May greater and greater things come for us as a fellowship, in the ministry and in our respective churches, until You have all the glory, all the honor and all the praise."

BAPTIST FOOTPRINT ACROSS TEXAS

Your cooperative dollars make it possible to cover the state with health and human care, Baptist Student Ministries, River Ministry, new churches and countless other efforts to meet the physical and spiritual needs of our growing state.

INSTITUTION KEY

Health and human care

Educational partners

Baptist Student Ministry

River Ministry

New churches planted

* Although not funded directly by CP, these visionary ministries are supported through the work of Texas Baptists.

* * Proceeds from the Mary Hill Davis Offering provide the budget for WMU

EL PASO

LUBBOCK

SAN ANTONIO

MCALLEN

HOUSTON

$ 9.93 million

of your Texas Baptists Cooperative Program giving was used to support these outstanding ministries. Their work in Christian education, health, and human care reached more than 2,000,000 Texans in 2022.

EDUCATION

Baptist University of the Américas

Baylor University

Dallas Baptist University

East Texas Baptist

University

Hardin-Simmons

University

Houston Baptist

University

Howard Payne

University

San Marcos Academy

Stark College & Seminary

Truett Seminary

University of Mary

Hardin-Baylor

Valley Baptist

Missions Education

Center

Wayland Baptist

University

HEALTH AND HUMAN CARE PARTNER MINISTRIES*

Baptist Community Services

Baptist Hospitals of Southeast

Texas

Baptist Memorials Ministries

Baylor Scott & White Health

Baylor Scott & White Medical Center-Hillcrest

Buckner International Children At Heart Ministries

Hendrick Health System

STCH Ministries

Valley Baptist Health System

Baptist Health Foundation of San Antonio

The Baptist Standard

BCLC Church Lending

HighGround Advisors

Texas Baptist Men

WMU of Texas **

WHERE DOES IT GO?

MINISTRIES (34%)

Evangelism

Discipleship

Bible study

Music & Worship

Church Architecture

Student Ministry

Interim Church Services

1,000+ endorsed chaplains

Counseling

MISSIONS (25%)

3,000+ worldwide missionaries

240 BSM missionaries

River Ministry/Mexico

Texas Baptists missionaries

410 Go Now missionaries

Texas Baptist Men

BOUNCE (Student Disaster Recovery)

Hispanic Ministries

African American Ministries

Intercultural Ministries

Church Starting

EDUCATION & HUMAN CARE MINISTRIES (27%)

13 Texas Baptists universities and Schools

7 Baptist hospitals & health foundations

4 Child/elder care ministries

ADMINISTRATION (8%)

Accounting Technology

Human Resources

CHRISTIAN LIFE COMMISSION (2%)

Ethics & Justice

Social Issues Advocacy

Public Policy

Hunger & Community Care

COMMUNICATION (4%)

News & media

Design & print

Web

Marketing

For a complete listing of Texas Baptists missions and ministries and detailed 2022 Budget and Reports, including the CP Annual Report, please go to txb.org/cp

72,449

200,00+

volunteer hours served meals provided

594

Bibles distributed showers provided

5,201

42% loads of laundry washed, dried and folded

TEXAS BAPTIST MEN of TBM Disaster Relief volunteers are women

2,850

57

professions of faith

The Center for Missional Engagement connects churches with missional opportunities, whether that is in their community, the city, the state, the US or internationally. From a practitioner perspective, this is not just praying, giving and going, but also the development of a different way of thinking— a missional lifestyle.

ministries

Church Starting & Replanting

River Ministry & Mexico Missions

BOUNCE Student Disaster Recovery

Missionary Adoption Program

Minister of Missions

Texas Baptist Missionaries

House Churches & Philippi Churches

Minister’s Development & Missional Networks

Urban Partnerships

National Conventions & Unions

$ 2.89 million

REACHING ACROSS GENERATIONS THROUGH NEW CHURCH START

“There are a lot of people moving to DFW alone, and we believe, that in that moment of their transition, a good, solid church plant can help reach those people and plug them into a church, into a body, and really bless them,” Torres said.

Torres explained that being part of the state convention helped Revive Zoe connect to resources and a network of support.

Revive Zoe, a church start in Grand Prairie, celebrated its two-year anniversary in September 2022. What started as a small group of 30 people meeting in Pastor Luis Torres’ living room has expanded to 125 worshippers, split between two worship services each week.

Since its launch on Easter 2020, Revive Zoe has seen 30 baptisms and 40 people give their lives to Christ. Torres credits the church’s growth to following the Lord’s will and creating a unique, bilingual space for worship. Torres noticed that, while the older generations preferred speaking and worshiping in Spanish, many of the younger congregants preferred English. Torres saw a need to bridge the gap between the two generations, providing a space for both to come together and feel included.

“It’s been a true blessing for us to be a part of what God is doing here in the city,” Torres said.

With new residents coming to Texas by the thousands, new church plants are essential to keep up with the growing spiritual demands.

“We got connected with Texas Baptists because we know we cannot do this alone … we’ve been able to go farther, faster because of Texas Baptists,” Torres said.

The Texas Baptists Church Starting ministry is supported by the Cooperative Program. These funds allow church-starting strategists to connect with church starters across Texas, providing support and resources as they begin their ministries.

As Revive Zoe celebrates two years of ministry and looks ahead, Torres has started a new series, “Rise Up,” to help the congregation catch and carry the vision of the leadership. Torres challenged church members to “rise up” and do what the Lord is calling them to do.

“Our vision is for people to be revived and our mission is for people to rise,” he said. “There are lives at stake in this community, and they need to be reached.”

The Center for Collegiate Ministry engages 1.6 million Texas college students with the Gospel to follow Christ and transform the world. This is a model focused on engagement, discipleship and mobilization through partnership with local churches to develop future leaders.

ministries

Baptist Student Ministry

Go Now Missions

TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH

When Anna Clark, a premed biology student at East Texas Baptist University, tested positive for COVID-19 just days before she was scheduled to leave on a Go Now mission trip in January 2022, she didn’t know God would equip her for something bigger.

Later in the year, Clark attended Discovery Weekend, a retreat for students to help them discover the next steps God has for them in missions. She was interested in a medical mission trip to the Amazon, but she was hesitant to sign up.

“I am a licensed vocational nurse, but being back at school, I hadn’t worked in the medical field in a little over a year,” Clark said. “That and past experiences made me nervous to jump back in. It’s a hard line of work. But then, I heard the Lord say, ‘Anna, you need to give me this. I want to redeem this in your life and show you what it’s like when I’m the focus.’ And so I responded, ‘OK, Lord. I

want to be where You want me to be.’”

Clark followed God’s call and joined a team of six students and volunteers to share the gospel through medical missions in Brazil.

For a portion of the trip, Clark’s team operated a clinic in an indigenous community in the Amazon — a unique opportunity as special permission from the government is usually required to enter indigenous villages. However, this one was open to missionaries.

While there, the team treated over 300 patients. They helped diagnose physical ailments like irregular heartbeats and abdominal aortic aneurysms, as well as helped their patients understand basic medical education. They also sought to diagnose their patients' spiritual life.

One day, Clark was able to share the gospel with a woman who said she didn’t know who Jesus was.

“She wasn’t ready to respond, but I prayed over her. I felt the Holy Spirit speak to me, and I prayed that someone else would come along and share the gospel with her again today,” Clark said.

Later that day, Clark found out the woman had received the gospel message again during her visit with the doctor, and she accepted Christ.

“It was so amazing that Dr. Lee ended up sharing the gospel with her again. I was the sower planting those seeds,” Clark said.

When asked why she recommends other students take a Go Now mission trip, Clark said, “It’s a wonderful experience to learn about different cultures and the people God created. It is also a chance to join in and see God’s view instead of ours and grow in your faith. You also get to meet so many other missionaries. You learn who the body of Christ is and how God uses each of us."

HONORING DAVID HARDAGE

THANK YOU FOR SERVING TEXAS BAPTISTS!

Hardage retired from his role as Executive Director after 11 years of faithful service in December 2022

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S OFFICE

Through the office of Executive Director David Hardage, we continued to support Disaster Relief through Texas Baptist Men, grew our Texas Baptist Ambassador program, and expanded awareness of all that can be done through cooperative giving.

ASSOCIATE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S OFFICE

If your church gives through Texas Baptists CP, you impact millions of lives of all ages and cultures every year through the Office of the Associate Executive Director. One out of every 12 Texans is impacted by our education and human care institutions.

A FEW RESULTS FROM CP INVESTMENT OF : A FEW RESULTS FROM CP INVESTMENT OF :

$ 2.17 million

$ .52 million

124

linear feet of historical material has been acquired by the Texas Baptist Historical Collection, including the personal papers of Bill Tillman, artifacts of T.B. Maston and the records of Second Baptist Church in Dallas

5,005

donors made 31,142 gifts providing $7,290,730 in ministry support. Recorded 114 new bequests totaling $7,549,600.00 for Texas Baptists ministries and $1,814,000 for affiliated churches

$101M

distributed to 30,127 Baptist university students in aid

$91,600

distributed in grants to 18 churches

1,682 33

lives impacted through child and human care services

new chaplains endorsed

341,140 $500,500 $1.7M

GC2 Press literature users

contributed to ministers' retirement

distributed to 1,091 ministry students by Ministerial Financial Assistance

In 2022, Texas Baptists churches, through the BGCT, contributed...

$ 21,841,416

to the SBC to reach the lost around the world for generations to come full and part-time missionaries

67,187 *

3,530 future and current ministers training at six SBC seminaries

* Approved CP Funding

Resulting in...

176,795

NEW BELIEVERS

Connect with Us

Contact 888-244-9400

bruce.mccoy@txb.org

7557 Rambler Road, Suite 1200 Dallas, TX 75231

Social Media

TexasBaptists

@TexasBaptists

@TexasBaptists

The stories shared in the Annual Report are from CP Stories. Sign up to receive CP stories every month in your inbox at txb.org/cpstories

This report is available online at txb.org/cpannualreport