2025 Annual Missions Report

In 1901, the Baptist Missionary Association of Texas was formed as a cooperative association made up of Texas Baptist churches. Immediately and naturally, this new organization set out on aggressively doing missions together. This was not debated. For these churches, the Great Commission work was as natural as breathing. There was no discussion of whether they should engage in missions together. They just aggressively set out to do it. Within a few years there were mission efforts across Texas, Mexico and in Portugal. There were Texas projects among English, Tejanos, Germans, Greeks and Czechoslovakians. BMA Missions was aggressively sharing the gospel among the settlements of west Texas. Many, maybe most, Baptist settlement churches in the west were BMA assisted.

In the early years of Texas Missions, Baptist people in settlement communities would engage disciplemaking and assemble a group. They seldom had a pastor. They would reach out to the Missions Department to help them organize. They would call a first pastor from within or recruit one. Usually, it would be someone from the new congregation. Over 75 new churches were started this way in the first decade.

Fifth Street, Levelland is an example of a mission from this era

During the 30s and 40s, BMA Missions employed evangelists. These evangelists would work beside local associations to start new churches. They would hold evangelistic meetings in a town assisted by local BMA churches. When enough people were gathered, a church was organized. The church I grew up in was a result of this method. Walnut Street Baptist Church in Winnsboro was the result of a lengthy evangelistic campaign sponsored by State Missions and the Wood County Association.

In the 50s and 60s, many urban BMA of Texas churches were begun by rural BMA Baptists moving to the city for employment. Just from my hometown, members of Sharon Baptist Church in Winnsboro moved to Dallas and formed Bethel Baptist Church in that city. So many moved that the pastor of Sharon, Winnsboro became the pastor of his people at Bethel.  Also, members of Smyrna Baptist Church in Winnsboro moved to Arlington and formed Grace Temple Baptist Church. This story was repeated all over the BMA as urbanization took hold.
​
In the 70s and 80s, the BMA of Texas began to buy land and build church buildings in new towns and suburbs. They would recruit a missionary pastor and support the new church for a season. The church was then responsible for paying back the costs of land and building to State Missions. The church in which I married my wife, Pine Brook Baptist Church in Tyler, was begun this way along with many others.

Walnut Street, Winnsboro began during this season

Sharon, Winnsboro started Bethel, Dallas, now part of Calvary First, Mesquite

Pinebrook, Tyler began during this season

In the 90s and 2000s, missionary systems were built for care and accountability like never before. A dedicated assessment process was established. Many of the successful churches that came from this season didn’t remain with the associations after formation. You see from this overview that seasons and methods have come and gone as the gospel has faithfully gone out through the efforts of cooperating BMA churches.

Today, your missions department is faithfully and aggressively seeking to engage in Great Commission work in this generation. Texas is growing and the need is great. We are staying away from specific methods and sticking to the scriptures with a complete focus on evangelism and discipleship. The Lord is building many churches among us from these efforts. In 2025, five churches stepped off support having formed as autonomous Baptist (BMA) churches.  We are currently supporting 19 mission churches together. We praise the Lord for 24 new established BMA churches since 2016. 
​
God has been gracious and faithful to the BMA of Texas Missions Department across its 125 years. We celebrate that today it is alive, well and about the Lord’s kingdom work. The idea of churches cooperating together in an association and doing mission work has been effective in Christ Jesus. All glory to God on this anniversary!

New Beginnings, Mansfield began during this season

BAPTIST PROGRESS
(Agency of BMA Texas Missions)
In 1901, the Missions Department began to produce a paper called The BMA News.  It focused on state and international missions. Since the late 1800s, there had been private papers promoting the ideas of Baptist association, equality of churches and local church control of cooperative ministries. Two such historic papers were Baptist Echo out of Jacksonville and Baptist Harold out of Dallas. In the 1910s, a new Dallas paper emerged called Baptist Progress.  In the 1912 BMA of Texas meeting, this paper was offered to the BMA and accepted. It merged with The BMA News and has been the news source of the BMA of Texas ever since.
​
Your Baptist Progress is in an exciting season of change as it expands to reach a new generation of BMA people. A podcast has launched that allows you to watch or listen to the news from all over the BMA. The historic BMA paper is still with us with no plans of it going anywhere. A new phone-scrollable Baptist Progress is coming to your email and soon will be available to come by phone.  Baptist Progress continues to offer training for local churches along with connections to trained interims when available. We praise the Lord that he sustains this valuable ministry and has equipped its expansion today.

Back to Issue