MANSFIELD, Texas (ABP) — Patrick Moses has a long commute from his home in Mansfield, Texas, to his job with the Department of Homeland Security in Washington.
CBF church planter and Department of Homeland Security officer Patrick Moses poses with youngsters from Antioch Baptist Church in Mansfield, Texas.
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But that hasn’t stopped the former Cooperative Baptist Fellowship leadership scholar from starting and growing Antioch Baptist Church in Mansfield, a suburban community Moses described as “upwardly mobile and extremely progressive.”
Throw in a local barbershop and it’s a combination tailor-made for a church whose evangelistic approach focuses on using modern technology to communicate the good news.
The Mansfield area — located between Dallas and Fort Worth — is growing, and Moses said many of the families moving in are not connected to any congregation. Moses’ strategy is to use e-mail and text messaging as methods for attracting people who don’t attend church regularly.
That’s where the barbershop comes in. Most of the church’s electronic contacts come from two members who operate the hair-care facility.
“Patrick contacted me last year with the hope of starting something new in Mansfield, an area with no moderate African-American churches,” said David King, CBF’s church-starting assistant. “We worked with him to develop his plan and also put him in contact with the Baptist General Convention of Texas.”
Antioch was launched in December 2007 with support from BGCT, CBF, several local African-American Baptist churches and a group of pastors who serve as mentors to Moses.
CBF and CBF of Texas signed an official covenant of partnership with Antioch at the Fellowship’s General Assembly this past June. While there are some financial aspects to the partnership, it also involves connecting Moses with other CBF church planters in Texas and beyond.
“CBF is committed to developing a strategy of church starting that is a partnership between national and state CBF leadership as well as new church starts,” said Bo Prosser, the Fellowship’s coordinator for congregational life. “This new church start has certainly benefited from this strategy. Patrick’s energy for the work and his sensitivity to God’s spirit are evident. We are pleased to partner in such an exciting setting.”
Moses earned a bachelor of arts in political science and a master of public administration degree from Southern University. He was ordained in June 2005, just before he graduated from Texas Christian University’s Brite Divinity School with a master of divinity degree. He was introduced to CBF while attending Greater Saint Stephen’s First Church in Fort Worth, a connection that helped him become a CBF leadership scholar.
Pastoring isn’t Moses’ first — or only — career. He is an 18-year federal employee, having worked in several government agencies in the Fort Worth area. In May he was recruited to serve in the Homeland Security position, where he has responsibility for the physical security of federal facilities located in the Washington metropolitan area.
Moses’ wife, Ronda, is director of social services at Life Care Center of Haltom City, Texas, and recently earned a bachelor’s degree in social work at Texas Woman’s University. She is a part of the ministry team at Antioch.
“I love transforming people and I feel called to doing a church start,” Moses said. “It is exciting to watch God create a new church — a church with a new DNA.”
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— Sue Poss is a writer for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.