Get Connected

By Analiz G. Schremmer, Contributing Writer The Impact Center at Christian Family Baptist Church in San Antonio ministers to local military members and their families each month through a feeding center. “We work with veterans and active duty military - those are our primary clients,” said Christian Family Baptist Church Pastor Rob Johnson, a retired military veteran. “That’s always been the DNA of our ministry going on 15 years.” "from the beginning, the key focus was to meet the needs in the community and make disciples" The Impact Center, which is a Texas Baptist Hunger Offering ministry recipient, aims to feed clients and share the Gospel with them, he explained. They distribute approximately 20,000 lbs. of food per month, purchased through the San Antonio Food Bank, which feeds about 400-500 people. “It’s more than just a food pantry,” he said, adding that his wife, Victoria shares the same conviction. “What we do is help families. We equip families to share Jesus Christ and we teach them to use their Bibles. We are mentors to them and we are developing people into Christ-centered followers.” Johnson said that when he returned from military service in Korea, he felt the Lord telling him to get involved in the community. “My wife and I started working with ex-convicts and their families and inviting them out to our home. We would try to show them how to use the Bible, and help them know Christ. We started to invite them over for Bible studies and we would also feed them, so that turned into what is our church now.” Johnson said that from the beginning, the key focus was to meet the needs in the community and make disciples. While the Impact Center does not currently have a building for operations, the church has improvised to meet needs.

SAN ANTONIO—Pastor Rob Johnson sees the food-distribution program at Christian Family Baptist Church in San Antonio as a vital community ministry—not only to the 1,300 clients it serves, but also to the volunteers who make it possible. Christian Family Baptist Church averages about 40 people in attendance each Sunday, but the multi-ethnic congregation’s food-distribution program involves about 120 volunteers each month, including many military personnel and others who are not church members. “We have about a 90 percent turnover in terms of our volunteers, and it’s quite a mixture of people,” Johnson said, noting many workers are personnel from nearby Lackland Air Force Base and other San Antonio-area military installations. Opens doors to the community Johnson and other workers from the church have the opportunity to interact both with the volunteers and with neighbors who receive groceries. “It’s opening up doors for us, because we’re in constant contact with the community,” Johnson said. He mentioned one man who started attending worship services and Bible study at the church, accompanied by his wife and daughter. Both husband and wife are in the military, and it marked the first time she attended church with him since they married. “One young man I’ve been mentoring the last three months is getting ready to take classes at Baptist University of the Américas,” Johnson said. Provides a place for meaningful service The church’s involvement in the community also draws Christians who are eager to find a place where their service can make a difference. David Young lives in the area of far-western San Antonio near Christian Family Baptist Church, but for years his membership was at a church about 20 miles away, on the city’s north side. “I decided I needed to get more involved in the community here,” Young said. “I met Pastor Rob at a fund-raiser at a shooting range, and I told him I was ready to come serve. “The name ‘Christian Family’ attracted me. It really is a good family atmosphere, with a real sense of community.” Young, who worked more than 30 years in public safety before he retired on medical disability, oversees the volunteers who direct traffic on food-distribution days. On a typical distribution day, vehicles line the shoulder of the rural road that leads to the church property, and some clients arrive hours in advance. Offer prayer for any who want it Recipients of the food-distribution ministry are not required to attend a worship service or listen to an evangelistic presentation. But church members at the distribution site wear buttons that ask, “How can I pray for you?” “When people come out to get food, they ask for prayer,” Johnson said. “We take down phone numbers and follow up with them. “These are opportunities we look forward to. Christ-centered relationships are being built.” Ministry to the whole person Veronica Johnson, the pastor’s wife, appreciates the way the church ministers to the “whole person.” “It’s so good to be able to reach out to meet the needs of people in our community, both physically and spiritually,” she said. “It’s hard work, but it’s worth it. When you see how what we do is meeting the needs not just of individuals but of whole families, it’s a joy.” The San Antonio Food Bank presented its Hunger Fighting Team of the Year award to Christian Family Baptist Church for its food-distribution ministry, which receives support from the Texas Baptist Hunger Offering. Trusting God to provide Rob Johnson expects the church to give away more than 400,000 pounds of food this year. “We are committed to fighting hunger and malnutrition in this community,” he said. With that goal in mind, the church eventually hopes to extend its food-distribution ministry beyond once a month. “We are trusting God will provide the resources,” Johnson said. God already proved faithful, he added. The ministry developed after his mother, Pearlie Johnson, and one of her friends prayed about it for about six months. “Our seniors started it all. They were 65 and older, and there was no covered pavilion out there then,” he said. “Those senior adults were picking up 40-pound turkeys and loading them.” Since the church launched the food-distribution ministry, Pearlie said she has missed volunteering “maybe two times.” Most distribution days, she distributes water bottles to clients as they wait their turn for volunteers to load groceries into their vehicles. “Jesus said whoever gives a cool drink of water in his name will not lose their reward,” she said. “It’s so nice to be able to meet the people. It’s surprising to see so many people come out. It’s amazing to find out there are so many hungry people.”

Hello, Texas Baptists. I have had the privilege of preaching at two wonderful churches recently. I was blessed to worship with Christian Family Baptist Church in San Antonio. Then I worshipped with First Baptist Church of Carrollton. Both are strong churches, and I feel fortunate to have spent time with them. I also was honored with the invitation to be Pastor of the Day for the Texas Senate. The Christian Life Commission organized that opportunity, and I was beyond grateful to participate. My prayers are with our Austin family during this legislative session. Your Texas Baptist staff toured our future home at Rambler Park. I feel the excitement as we approach our move this fall. We covet your prayers as we continue in this transition. The Lord is leading us into a new chapter. We look forward to what is ahead. I returned from South Padre Island after getting a glimpse into what our Baptist Student Ministry is doing during Beach Reach. The Lord is active in the ministry going on through Beach Reach. Please keep these students in your prayers as they finish out their Spring Break. If you are ever in the Dallas area, please stop by our offices! My door is always open. David Hardage is executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board. Source: https://www.baptiststandard.com/opinion/bgct/in-touch-presiding-over-prayer-in-the-texas-senate/

SAN ANTONIO—As members of Christian Family Baptist Church in San Antonio began praying for ways to connect to the surrounding middle-to-upper class community, they discovered a need for food, which caught many by surprise. "In an area like ours (the need for food) is not apparent. It does not stick out like a sore thumb," said Rob Johnson, pastor of CFBC. "But the economy has forced people to move in with their parents. Some are students with degrees and are just between jobs. They just have this temporary need for food." The church began to realize that providing food would not only meet nutritional needs, but it would provide opportunities to show Christ's love in a tangible way and connect with the community—an answer to their prayers. "What we're doing is trying to help them through a temporary period where we can help people have hope during a time when they need to be loved the most," Johnson said. In early 2014, the church raised the first $350 needed to host a food distribution. Around 140 community residents came. Through trainings, funded by the Christian Life Commission, the CFBC leaders learned how to develop and strengthen the food distribution ministry in their community. By the end of the year, CFBC hosted 11 distributions, providing a total of 110,000 lbs. of food to 1,485 families with the help of 600 volunteers. The church makes it a goal to come up with $350 each month to purchase the food from the San Antonio Food Bank and invites volunteers from the military to serve alongside them. Johnson reaches out to military personnel in San Antonio, knowing firsthand, as a veteran himself, that serving the community also helps meet a need for the military volunteers who are mostly based at Lackland Air Force Base and Fort Sam Houston. It is a nurturing ministry that also helps people who have a need to reach out to other people, Johnson explained. Military, for instance, is more about guns and warfare. It is also about compassion, and they strongly desire to serve the public. Johnson said the church family has no doubt God's hand is in the ministry as He continues to provide finances and volunteers each month. As a new year has begun, they look forward to growing the ministry to run five to six days a week. While it meets a physical need in the community that was unapparent before the ministry began, Johnson said they are most enthusiastic about the relationships being built. "We're moving just at a pace where we can build healthy, Christ-centered relationships where you're constantly connecting with the needs of the people," he explained.