TEBA CHURCH AND PASTOR SPOTLIGHT: Richard Rogers at University Heights Baptist Church
In this month’s Church and Pastor spotlight, we spoke with Richard Rogers, pastor of University Heights Baptist Church in Huntsville for the past 27 ½ years. Richard completed his undergraduate work at Baylor and both his graduate and doctoral work at Southwestern in Fort Worth, where he met his wife, Sarah, as she was completing her degree in Religious Education. They’ve been married for 36 years and have two adult children, Libby & Luke.
Tell us about your current ministry context.
Richard: Huntsville is a community in transition from an institutional identity (most people are employed by either SHSU or TDOCJ – not entrepreneurial) to a mixture of retirees or younger families commuting into The Woodlands/Conroe. Similarly, our church has changed significantly in the past 27 years. We value relationships at a high level and are very merciful to those hurting or in need. We’ve been good at harvesting college students and sending them out in ministry; much of their energy on the SHSU campus has been the lifeblood of the church.
We don’t necessarily want to address every issue in our community; we want to populate every area of the community with our people who see themselves as being on mission. Our church consists of strong retirement, family, and student communities – and all are wrapped around the mission of growing people up and sending them out.
What is God teaching you in this season?
Richard: Our church recently transitioned to 3 Sunday a.m. services. The church is trying to figure out how to settle into this new pattern. What God is teaching me is that the value of permeating every facet of a church’s programming with a baseline of discipling criteria/models is critical. Most churches find themselves in programs, hoping these programs do the discipling work but without any real criteria or targets about what that discipling work is. My heart is to permeate all small groups & ministries with basic minimum standards of what it means to be a healthy follower of Jesus Christ. God’s helping me think clearly about this right now.
What advice would you offer to other pastors or new church planters?
Richard: Draw near to Jesus on a daily basis and prioritize that personal walk. Because ministry can suck you into a system of business success that is called church. Every model, conference, or thing that’s celebrated drives you to think success looks like the megachurch/celebrity pastor. If you’ve got over 250 people, the only thing that’s going to guard you against being churned up & your family eaten up by the industry of church will be your personal walk and your family’s personal walk with Jesus.
How can the churches of the TEBA be praying for you?
Richard: Emerging out of a schedule change, everybody’s sorting themselves and figuring out where to land. But you have to move on and actually do the work of growing/reaching/sending people. So we would appreciate prayer for wise decisions and for the people doing the basic work of the church.
