Eggs, Gasoline and Storybooks
By Kyle Reese
Pastor, First Baptist Church San Angelo, TX.

What do Easter eggs, gasoline, and children’s storybooks have in common? If you’ve been around the First Baptist Church of San Angelo recently, you know that these, as well as many other items, were used in missions and ministry to our community.

First Baptist Church of San Angelo enjoys a rich missions history, partnering in mission endeavors with other Christians in Peru, Brazil, Venezuela, and the Ukraine. Recently, our congregation took the opportunity to ignite passion for local missions with its passion for global partnerships.

Church members gathered on a Saturday in April coinciding with the city’s Christmas in April celebration. Two teams of church members worked on Christmas in April projects doing home repairs for citizens in the community.

In addition to the Christmas in April projects, a variety of ministry opportunities were provided for every member of the congregation. A group of people, from children to senior adults, filled over 5,000 Easter eggs with candy. The eggs were used for a citywide Easter egg hunt held in one of the city parks a few weeks later.

Another group of volunteers met at a filling station in the church’s downtown neighborhood. For two hours the cost of gasoline was discounted twenty-five cents per gallon. Church members pumped gasoline, washed windshields, and distributed information for the community Easter egg hunt. Customers were informed that the discounted gas was provided by First Baptist Church. The discounted gas was a simple way to show kindness to our neighbors.

In conjunction with the numerous mission activities, the church was privileged to host Charles Wade, executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas at both services on Sunday. Wade spoke on the biblical command to love God and love our neighbor.

Bo Prosser, coordinator of Congregational Life for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, spoke on Monday and Tuesday regarding the missional church.

used children’s storybooks as a way of guiding the congregation’s thinking about its life together.

The combination of mission action and mission reflection proved to be an effective way to engage church members in reflection on new ways to do missions and evangelism.

The various mission action projects reintroduced First Baptist Church to the community. The intentional acts of kindness were well received, and the congregation has continued to find ways of interacting with residents of the city. The mission projects had a reciprocal effect upon the church members. In embracing these projects, church members placed themselves in the traffic patterns and lives of those outside the church. In these mission acts, transformation occurs in all areas.

June 2003