A New Era in Youth Ministry at Baptist Temple

Baptist Temple has a long and storied history of ministry to young people. We have church members in their 70's who were part of Baptist Church's youth ministry.

In its heyday, our youth outreach efforts would pack the church on both Breckenridge and Highland High School days. Enrollment reached its high point when D. Ray Taylor was youth minister (1971-77). Peak enrollment reached 344 in 1974; Kay Richardson (who chairs the youth committee) and Melissa Baxter were youth during this era.

“I remember every Sunday evening we had training union and youth group which, I think, included choir. The parents would take turns fixing dinner for the youth on Sunday nights and we would meet in the youth lounge for dinner and Bible study. I remember the Bible studies that we did, especially the book of Ecclesiastes,” said Melissa.

Times have changed. Although we have fewer people of all ages at our worship service, our ministry to youth remains strong. We have 400 kids on the Baptist Temple Campus every day attending our charter school and early learning center. Nine youth basketball teams use our gym for practice and occasional games. These are vital with the limited resources of our community.

The Southside of San Antonio ranks as a very low opportunity area for children (according to DiversityDataKids.org.) This takes into account proximity to employment, public assistance rate, poverty rate, foreclosures, proximity to healthcare, proximity to fresh food markets and high school graduation rate. To counter this reality, government, business, church and non-profit groups are working to provide resources that will break the generational poverty that has trapped our youth. Baptist Temple's role is to help the children in our community access these resources to stay in school, stay at home and stay in church.

Our early learning center provides quality, Christ-centered care for the children of working families in our community; providing a strong foundation for success in school. Jubilee Highland Park provides a high quality education within a culture of excellence. The youth basketball leagues promote health, teamwork and other soft skills that lead to success in school and beyond.

It is possible for children from the Southside to succeed against the odds. Coby and John grew up attending Baptist Temple. Both graduated high school (Highlands and McCollum, respectively) and both received full scholarships to local colleges (Incarnate Word and Our Lady of the Lake, respectively). We want more success stories like these.

In times like these, Baptist Temple is providing essential ministries showing God's love to the next generation. Leading the to the abundant life Jesus promised.

The thief does not come 

except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.

I have come that they may have life,

and that they may have it more abundantly.

John 10:10

God, Change, and Baptist Temple

Guest blog by Kay Richardson

In 1993 I went on a youth mission trip as an adult sponsor to Washington DC. The church we stayed at and ministered to was very different than the Baptist Temple Church at that time. They had different groups worshiping at different times, they fed the community, they had a clothes closet, the homeless slept around the building. Little did I know that experience would prepare me for what Baptist Temple’s mission is today.

In the past few years, members of BTC have experienced a lot of change. Five different churches rent space and worship on our campus. Some of our activities and times of worship include those churches on our campus. VBS is now a campus-wide/community event. Our gym is rented nightly by different sports organizations. In recent days, a funeral planning service has set up an office area and added their signs to our building. We now have solar panels all across our roof.

Through these different churches and organizations, God has blessed us financially along with the tithes and gifts from our own members. And because of that, we can continue to minister to our members and to the community!

 

The BTC of 2018 is very different from the BTC of years gone by. We can either lament what was, or we can rejoice in what is and is to come! I believe God wants us to embrace the times of change. Look around—God is at work in many different ways!

Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

It's Time Grant Helps a Church Find a Place in a Transitioning Community

Our gym stood vacant; a sad reminder of a day when the church was thriving. The 80,000 square campus that once had 1500 enrolled in Sunday School was now mostly silent during the week and not very active during the three hours it was open on Sunday.

A $21,000 grant would change the course of this inner-city church in a transitional neighborhood.

When I arrived at Baptist Temple almost ten years ago, we were on the verge of celebrating our 100^th anniversary and in search of a vision for the future. The It's Time, with an accompanying grant, was how the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship was helping churches like ours find ways to be on mission for God.

In 2009, San Antonio led the nation in diabetes and obesity. At the same time, we had a gym no one was using. The answer was simple. We decided that we were going to help our church and our community become healthier by developing programs for all ages. We used the grant dollars to purchase fitness and recreation equipment and turn a forgotten recreation room into a weight room.

We offered karate, tumbling, chair aerobics, balance training, and open gym nights. During the summer, kids were introduce to golf, tennis, badminton and other non-traditional sports. Classes on healthy cooking, nutrition, diabetes management/prevention, and cancer awareness were offered in partnership with the YMCA, University of Texas San Antonio, Methodist Health Systems, Baptist Health Systems, and the San Antonio Metrohealth district.

Further grants from the Baptist Health Foundation and Texas Baptists have allowed us to hold annual health fairs and establish a community garden. For the last three years Baptist Temple has been a site for the city-wide Fit Family Challenge. We were the first church site. A second church was added based on our successful model.

This level of health awareness led to a campus-wide recycling program that keeps a dumpster full of items out of the landfill. Recently we have installed a solar array and are currently developing a plan to replace our current landscaping with water-saving hardscape and succulent plants.

We hope to provide a model for other churches to follow so they can help their congregation and community live the abundant life that Jesus brings. 

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy;

I have come that they may have life,
and have it to the full. 
John 10:10

What if worship is about God and not about us?

Everyone has a preference for what worship ought to be. There are preferences in music, preaching, programs, time, and length. There is probably a church out there that will satisfy your individual taste. But what satisfies God? What if worship is about God and not about us?

The Temple represented the presence of God. Its leaders fiercely defended the traditions that governed the rituals and sacrifices connected with Temple worship. Jesus told them that their rigid adherence to tradition was keeping people from God. In fact, he called these “holy” men “whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.” (Matthew 23:27)

At this holiest time of the year, Passover, Jesus cleared the crowded Temple in a spectacular way. There were animals running amok, coins rolling on the ground, merchants scrambling in every direction, people screaming, people laughing, a crowd gathering... Jesus definitely got everyone's attention. (John 2:13-25)

Jesus brought needed change to worship. He was the one that the prophets foretold, the Word made flesh. The Temple once contained God's presence but, now, Jesus was the presence of God. Fully God and fully man, his death paid for our sin, his resurrection brought us eternal life. This made it possible for God to be present in his people through the Holy Spirit. The church is who we are not where we go.

Many people today look for churches where their needs will be met. They want a certain style of music, programs for their kids, and to be around people who look like them. But Jesus said that we should be like him. He came to serve not to have his needs met. (Mark 10:45)

True worship moves us beyond our comfort zones. Jesus turns over the tables of our complacency, scatters the coins of self-interest, and chases away the animals of our preconceived notions. It takes us beyond what we believe to be the minimum requirements. Let's open our hearts to what God wants from us that we may be transformed.

We have 52 Sundays to gather together for worship. How many will you skip because of something more important? What things in your life take precedent over worshiping God?

Don't fear change

Neighborhoods change faster than the churches within their borders can adapt. Empty pews and a lighter offering plate lead to the congregation's demand that “something” be done. At the same time, churches, like all organizations, resist change. So, a tug of war begins between the fear too little change (reflected in the loss of members) and too much change (something of value is lost.) Conflict is unavoidable when a church faces change.

The awareness that things are not the way they were or could be brings pain. This pain must be processed if the church is to become healthier through positive, lasting change. Encourage dialog and position disagreements as different approaches to common goals. Listen to the fear and complaining. Do not try to win people over with a positive vision of a preferred vision.

Listening does not mean agreement. People will need understanding as they cope with their feelings of loss and fear of the unknown. Emotional language will dominate conversations during this time.

Although leaders may have already processed their feelings, it's important not to run ahead of the church. Wait for church members to catch up. Otherwise, a toxic atmosphere will be created that will have a negative impact on the church's witness.

A period of celebrating the past and understanding the church's initial vision can be followed by a time of quiet reflection. This can bring healing.

Discovering the neighborhood's needs and assets can be an exercise in doing “something” that is productive without making any changes. This time of analysis can be a wilderness experience of empty space where something new and wonderful emerges. We encounter God in the wilderness. 

To every thing there is a season, 

and a time to every purpose under the heaven

Ecclesiastes 3:1

Uncertain times call for entrepreneurial leaders

Molly Marshall's list of entrepreneurial qualities:

1. Welcome the nudge of the Spirit, who loves to subvert old patterns.
2. Be receptive to the chaos that is inevitable when innovating.
3. Learn to embrace calculated risk.
4. Take responsibility if an experiment fails.
5. Empower people to bring their best thinking and energy to a common goal.
6. Search continuously for new opportunities.
7. Steward resources wisely and trust there will be enough.
8. Give back a sense of calm and stability in the vortex of change.
9. Pay attention to personal resistance to change and the desire to repristinate the past.
10. Remain hopeful in the midst of unknowing, and walk by faith.
11. Carry a disposition of “why not?” rather than “why it won’t work.
12. Cultivate a life of prayer, and become ever more deeply rooted in faith.
13. Seek wise counsel. An isolated leader cannot impose vision; rather, vision arises out of thoughtful collaboration. Leadership entails being a “keeper” of the vision, however.
14. Find or construct a supportive professional network that can offer forthright perspective.
15. Focus on performance objectives that align with values and vision of the initiative
16. Understand critical tasks unique to discrete positions and require accountability for their accomplishment
17. Continue to practice discernment about strategic direction.

View the full article here.

A Church Adapting to a Community in Transition

Baptist Temple circa 1955, before construction of I-10.

In 1964 highway planners made a decision that had a profound impact on the history of Baptist Temple. The proposed route for Interstate 10 changed so that it would pass along Baptist Temple. The original route, planned in 1959, would have connected it further north to I-35 at S. New Braunfels.

More than 800 houses were demolished to clear a way for construction of the highway. The character of the neighborhood started to change as larger homes were converted to apartments and property values declined. The sixties and seventies saw Baptist Temple transition from a traditional suburban church to an inner-city community church witnessing to a neighborhood undergoing economic and social change.
 
The highway was completed in 1968 in time for HemisFair 68, San Antonio's world's fair. Venue construction on the 92 acre site of the fair also eliminated many houses including the house and street where Baptist Temple was born. Although the fair only lasted six months, it, along with highway construction, permanently changed the landscape and demographics of southeast San Antonio. It accelerated the growth in the north side of the city and white flight in the south.

Baptist Temple's response to neighborhood transition was outreach through a variety of conventional (bus ministry, food pantry, clothes closet) and unconventional (medical clinic, methadone program) ministries. The result was a more economically and ethnically diverse congregation and a sustainable church.

In 1972, Baptist Temple was selected as a model church for the transitional church conference at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. The Baptist Standard wrote, “No church in Texas has done a more beautiful job of reaching people in a transitional community than has Baptist Temple.”

This drew interest from numerous groups throughout the state including Bill Pinson's Christian ethics class at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Texas area missionaries and Women’s Missionary Union leaders.

The highway's impact on Baptist Temple is usually viewed as negative because many of the homes that were destroyed housed church members and it changed the neighborhood. On the other hand, the interstate's construction reflected the America's growing automobile culture. Fewer people walked to church. Many would drive further and further to attend the church of their choice.

The interstate system allowed folks who moved away from the neighborhood to return to Baptist Temple for worship. It also enabled people who were willing to travel a few miles to make Baptist Temple their church home. Baptist Temple's rate of decline was much slower than that of other large Baptist churches in the Southside. This is primarily attributed to its ability to connect with the community but the access provided by the I-10 (as well as nearby Interstates 410, 35, 37) put in position for success.

Megachurches often seek to build along a highway, knowing that folks will drive a bit to attend a church they like. So, as it turns out, I-10 was more of a blessing than a curse for Baptist Temple's gospel mission.