STBC was started by the Baptist Convention of New Mexico in the early 1990s. Its origins were traditional Southern Baptist. The BCNM sent Mission Service Corp volunteers, Wes and Linda Barnett, to Santa Teresa as church planters. The earliest extant record shows a post office box opened at the Santa Teresa Post Office Annex on August 28, 1992.
In September 1996, Dave Hendrickx and his wife Cathy, then members of FBC, El Paso, were invited by the church planter to come and assist him in the work when his wife entered the terminal stage of cancer. Shortly after she died the planter suddenly abandoned the work. With no prior ministerial training and with no one else in the fledgling congregation capable, Dave assumed the duties of pastor. With the approval of the sponsoring church, the congregation officially called him to be their pastor and ordained him in February 1997. STBC constituted in February 2002 as a Southern Baptist Church.
Meanwhile, by the grace of God, Pastor Dave, reading good books by reformed authors was slowing coming to understand the Doctrines of Grace and early English Baptist history. Through a very slow and trying process, fraught with many errors along the way, he led the church to a confessional Baptist position in 2004. Sadly, after losing over half the church membership, STBC unanimously adopted the LBCF1689 in December 2005.
Today STBC is still a very small but thriving congregation of predominantly young couples with small children. Set in a Hispanic community, we consider ourselves a neighborhood church. Pastor Dave is currently our only elder. We recently ordained Jonathan Phillips to be our deacon and Frank Gonzales is a gifted man prepared to assist with the preaching responsibilities when needed. Located on the international border with Juarez, Mexico, STBC strives to be a true multicultural church. Our location strategically positions us to function as a reformed Baptist gateway to Latin America. Over half of our membership is bilingual and we are able to offer simultaneous translation of all our sermons into Spanish for Spanish-only speaking guests.
STBC supports a reformed Baptist church plant in Juarez that meets weekly on Sunday afternoons for teaching and preaching. The Lord has blessed us with a number of committed young men. Beginning in January we plan to meet mid-week for a study through the 1689. STBC has also been host to Building Tomorrow’s Mission (BTM) since 2012 – a nationwide ministry designed to inculcate a dynamic mission-mindedness in young single and married adults that they can carry with them into the churches they serve.
Iglesia Bautista Emmanuel is a Southern Baptist Spanish-speaking congregation served by Pastor Carlos Pino that meets in our church facilities. Our Sunday school hour overlaps allowing us to provide concurrent English and Spanish-speaking Bible study and ministry.
STBC is a member of ARBCA, the Reformed Baptist Network (RBNet), the Texas Association of Reformed Baptist Churches (TAARBC), and retains membership in the SBC.
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