Big Sandy:
a tradition continues

Ambassador University closed in Big Sandy in 1997,
but the WCG congregation there maintains an
active presence in the city.

By Sonny Parsons
Big Sandy pastor

BIG SANDY, Texas—In WCG congregations around the world, Big Sandy is a recognizable name. Many of us have fond memories of church beginnings here in the 1950s, annual gatherings in the Piney Woods, and the Ambassador campus, which served as a home for many students.

Big Sandy—Big Helper of Men! is the title of a book about the city of Big Sandy written by WCG member Shirley West. The title is appropriate for the WCG congregation in Big Sandy. The church has over the years helped in many ways to be a good example of a caring Christian body.

Over the years the church has been located in Gladewater, the Ambassador campus, and now in Big Sandy. Many of you remember the only traffic light on Highway 80. Turning south on South Tyler at the light just across the street from the police station, you will find the present home of the church.

By choosing the name New Beginnings Christian Fellowship we want the community to know that we have a new beginning and would like to offer the same to the citizens. We are in a small town, and everyone knows about the church, and more than a tenth of the population attends. One of our mottos is: "We care, we share, we bear." You have to let a person know you care for them before they will let you share Christ with them.

The congregation sets a wonderful example in the community, and the citizens are responding. With our new meeting place we can share with the congregation and community in many ways. Following are the types of activities that the WCG participates in on a weekly basis:

Mondays: Office open for counseling.

Tuesdays: Teen Prodigals’ group practices praise band, drama and singing. Music lessons by William Stenger.

Wednesdays: Evening praise and worship.

Thursdays: Men’s prayer breakfast for community. Silver Ambassadors weekly Bible study and monthly potluck meal. Prayer meeting in evening led by Vernon Rogers.

Fridays: Fifth Quarter teen get- together for food, fun and fellowship after home football games. This is announced at halftime. On one evening more than 50 teens and adults from Big Sandy, Hawkins and Gladewater attended.

Saturday: Morning service and a praise and worship evening service twice a month.

Sunday: Morning service and teen evening program.

The Big Sandy congregation, after a day of prayer and several town hall meetings, chose New Beginnings Christian Fellowship as its local name.

The congregation also voted on a mission statement that we feel is the direction God wants us to follow. We believe the great commandments (Matthew 22:36-37) and the great commission (Matthew 28:19-20) are principles and realities worth living and sacrificing for. Since these are the words of Christ and his final command, we feel that we are on the right track.

God has continued to open doors for us. After the day of prayer, when we had members praying from 6 a.m. till 6 p.m. in 20-minute time slots beseeching God to show us where he would like for us to be, he answered our prayer and opened up a facility in downtown Big Sandy.

Members, using the motto T.E.A.M.—Together Everyone Achieves Much, jumped in and reconstructed the interior of the building and converted it into a wonderful church facility.

Already the community is responding to our name and building. We were hosts for a Sept. 11 service for the city. The other churches in town canceled their Wednesday evening services and joined us. Various pastors participated. Mayor Lynda Childress spoke, and city council members and the fire, sheriff and police departments, along with a sanctuary filled with citizens, joined in memory of the day.

In September we began offering a Sunday service, and already visitors are coming. We are excited about the opportunity that Christ is giving us to witness for him in our town. One of our slogans is "Come and See," and people are.

The annual Christmas parade took place Saturday evening, Dec. 7, with more than 30 floats and bands. New Beginnings entered a float designed by Rick Peterson and built by members picturing Joy to the World! The mayor and city council gave our church the first place award. The city of Winona asked if we would put it in their parade.

As the parade ended in downtown for the lighting of the city tree, the mayor asked if I would lead those gathered in a prayer for the community and the churches. I felt honored to do this. I asked the large group gathered there to join hands, and we prayed.

On Dec. 19 we have scheduled a Christmas Walk among five churches including one of the African-American churches. We will have songs in each participating church and as a group the members of each church will walk to the next church. All will conclude at New Beginnings where we will have songs and provide refreshments. We hope this will start a community tradition to draw the Christian community together and to invite many others who may not be attending a church now.

Sunday, Dec. 15, after church, we honored First Baptist Church and its pastor with a potluck meal to thank them for letting us use their building for several months before we had our own building. We also invited First United Methodist Church since they let us use their building for our Wednesday evening praise and worship services before we moved into our new building.

On the first Tuesday of August we asked the mayor about the city participating in the National Night Out, an annual event conducted across the nation. Citizens come together on their streets to get to know one another better. We arranged for the police, fire department and mayor to visit each location.

At the end of the evening we asked all the groups to gather at city hall as a sign of unity. The mayor agreed and called on me to pray over the city.

On the evening before the first day of school we joined with members of First Baptist Church to go on a prayer walk around the school and pray about the students, teachers, staff and problems they face.

The Prodigals, the teen ministry, has a praise band, singers, drama team and conducts a worship service each month for the congregation.

Gretchen Garey, youth minister, and her husband, Dale, are doing an excellent job in leading the teens to higher spiritual goals. The teens are on fire for serving Jesus Christ. A teen room in our new building is set aside for their weekly meetings. They decorated it, and it looks great. On Sunday evenings they are going through the 12 week Song of Solomon series regarding dating, romance, sex and marriage. The class keeps growing in size as the teens invite others to visit with us.

A teen discipleship class is conducted on Sunday mornings using the David C. Cook "Bible in Life" series. They have prayer times together, and it is encouraging to see and hear 15 to 20 teens praying for the needs of others and also praising God for his blessings.

Our Silver Ambassadors conduct a weekly Sunday service in the Gladewater Nursing Home, which they have been doing for five years.

The congregation submits one article a week to the Big Sandy Journal about what is going on in the church and runs an advertisement for worship services.

Several WCG members serve as Fire Department officers. The building is available to the city for any emergency or disaster needs.

Ten men spent a day, Nov. 9, visiting prisoners in the Tennessee Colony prison unit in Palestine, Texas, as part of the Bill Glass Prison Ministry. They ate with the prisoners, visited them in their cells, spent time with them in "The Yard," and often were just there to lend a listening ear to the lonely prisoners and then offered Christ to the prisoners as the only true way to happiness. Our men were bubbling over with enthusiasm as they saw how the harvest was ready for them.

Big Sandy members served as counselors for the Billy Graham crusade in Irving, Texas, Oct. 17 to 20. Dwayne and Marilyn Canup and David and Lynn Leach drove to Dallas for several weeks to receive intense training for this event.

On Saturday evening, Oct. 19, around 50,000 teens heard from Dr. Graham and the musical talents of dc Talk and Jars of Clay. The Prodigals, the Big Sandy WCG teen group, attended.

PRODIGALS—Teen praise band and
drama team. [Photos by Sonny Parsons]

SILVER AMBASSADORS—Active senior
citizens serve the community.

CHRISTMAS PARADE—Prize-winning float designed
by Rick Peterson and built by New Beginnings members.
[Photo by Danielle Dupree, Big Sandy Journal]

Copyright © Grace Communion International, 2002