Killeen Church Plant makes discipleship pathway, Great Commission “a part of our DNA,” looks ahead to church planting network

Planting Encounter City Church in Killeen was the first time Pastor Louis Crooks ever considered church planting. 

“I loved my job at my mother church. I'd been there already for five or six years. One day, as I'm praying through [my sermon] – I started preaching on Sundays and filling in the pulpit for our lead pastor – he was like, "Hey, have you ever considered planting a church?... I think God's called you for a little more,’” explained Crooks. 

Crooks began fasting and praying until God put the calling on his heart to plant a church.  

“God had just revealed to me that it's time to move on… it's time to plant. So I go back to my pastor, and I tell him, "Okay, it's time to plant,” and then he tells me, “No.” I’m like, "Wait a minute. You just told me [to consider church planting], and then you tell me ‘no?’” So I just said, "’Okay, I'm waiting for affirmation, confirmation from my lead pastor,’ who I adore and love dearly,” explained Crooks. 

Five years of fasting, praying and discerning with his pastor later, Crooks got the green light to begin the church planting process. His first step in the planting journey was finding a Texas Baptists church to partner with as his covenant church. After being declined partnership from 10 to 12 churches, he enlisted the help of Former Bell Baptist Association Executive Director Tom Henderson, who set up a meeting with Vista Community Church in Temple. 

Crooks shared the church’s mission and vision statement with Vista’s Former Missions Pastor Jonah Fox, which says, “Love God, love others and make disciples.” 

“Our mission and vision statement is very simple… We take the two greatest commands and the great commission, and we said, ‘We won't do anything in this church unless it helps people fall deeply in love with God or meet God. We won't do anything in this church unless it displays a love for people, orphans, widows, prisons,’” said Crooks. 

Crooks said he embeds Encounter City’s mission statement into most Sunday services and aligns every event with either loving God, loving others or making disciples, to keep their mission ahead of them.

Crooks said Fox resonated with Crook’s mission and vision statement and agreed to partner with him as Encounter City’s covenant church. 

“When he heard [the mission statement] from me, he's like, ‘You're the first pastor who came with this kind of mission and vision statement. Most have these fancy long visions,’ and I said, ‘Why can't we just keep it simple and just do what Jesus asked us to do, right?’” explained Crooks. “[So], they planted with us, and they signed up to be our covenant church.”

Establishing Encounter City Church  

Encounter City Church began as a house church at Crooks’ home with 20 people. When the congregation grew to 50, Crooks recognized they had outgrown the space, but not having enough funds to rent a space stunted his search. 

“The president of a local club here says, ‘We have a 100-year lease for around 2,000 square feet at the Boys and Girls Club. You can have that space.’ I said, ‘We don't have any money,’ and he said, ‘Let me talk to our board and find out what we would charge you for rent.’” explained Crooks. “He comes back with a lease, and I'm looking through the pages, and I said, ‘How much is the rent?’ And he said, ‘$0. You guys can rent our space for free.’” 

In September 2022, Encounter City Church launched with 121 attendees in their first Sunday service, in a room that had a 100-person occupancy. Because of the church’s rapid growth, the Boys and Girls Club director approached Crooks about finding another space.  

From November 2022 to August 2023, Lifeway Fellowship Church in Killeen rented some of its space to Encounter City. In that season, Encounter City saw 60 professions of faith and baptized 70. As their time with Lifeway Fellowship came to an end, Crooks began searching for the church’s permanent residence. 

“[During our search], I get this call from my niece, and she's like, ‘Hey, uncle, I think I found the church.’ She's 12 or 13 years old at this time, and I was like, ‘How did you find our church?’ It was the old abandoned Salvation Army building that we're currently in today,” said Crooks. 

Crooks’ first thought was that the church couldn’t afford the space, but Fox reminded him of a text message he sent him a year prior while praying for Encounter City’s permanent space.

“I went back one year ago to this date. He sent me this address, and he said, ‘This will be your church in a couple of years.’ The exact address [of the Salvation Army building], and I didn't look at it [at the time] because it was 20,000 plus square feet. I was like, ‘There's no way!’” said Crooks. “So, I met with the realtor. The rent is $8,000 a month, and I'm like, ‘There's no way. How are we going to do this?’ And, we prayed, and we fasted, and God just said, ‘Trust me in this process.’” 

After much fasting, praying and discussion, Crooks and the Encounter City Church elders decided to lease the building and fundraised for the first month’s rent and remodel. He said church members with backgrounds in HVAC, electricity, construction and plumbing were willing to pool their expertise and resources to help with the remodel. 

“They all gathered together and said, ‘We'll do all of the work if you buy the materials,’” said Crooks. “I went back to the city 28 days later, and I said, ‘We're done.’ And they were like, "There's no way you guys are done… It is impossible for you to get the building up to code and get a certificate of occupancy in 28 days.’ I looked at the inspector, and I said, ‘You don't know how big my God is,’” explained Crooks. 

Following the first inspection, Crooks and his team painted fire lanes, put in a ventilation system and installed exit signs and invited the inspector back for a final inspection. 

“He walks in, and he says, ‘I don't know how you did this, but your God is a big God,’ and he hands us a certificate of occupancy,” said Crooks. 

Encounter City Church held their first worship service in the building the following Sunday. 

Discipleship pathway is “a part of our DNA”  

Crooks said Encounter City has a clear discipleship pathway for every member who enters the church. 

“[The pathway outlines] where we want to see you 3 to 5 years from now. It's a very slow, long process. It takes 3 to 5 years to finish our discipleship pathway so that you end [as] a disciplemaker who makes disciples,” explained Crooks. 

The discipleship pathway takes churchgoers and members through five stages: learning about the mission, vision and theology of Encounter City; Biblical theology; apologetics; evaluating where to serve based on gifts and serving in that ministry area; and one-on-one discipleship.

At the end of their discipleship pathway, members are trained on how to fulfill the Great Commission by going and making disciples. Members then have the opportunity to go through “Encounter University” where those who feel a call to ministry can intentionally learn systematic theology and preaching techniques before participating in a three-year residency program. 

“We're a three-and-a-half, almost four-year-old church, but we already have planned a way in the future for this. We have two guys in pastoral residency now with a plan to plant churches. We're already sending a church planter to Canada… We've just made [this pathway] a part of our DNA,” said Crooks. 

Since its launch, Encounter City Church has seen 110 professions of faith and 129 baptisms, and averages 500 in attendance at Sunday services. He said a significant contributing factor to this is their “Beyond the Walls” ministry, where a team prepares and delivers 100 meals to the homeless every Thursday. The team spends from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Thursday mornings at “The Pavilion” in Killeen, praying over and eating with them. 

“In Killeen, we have a very high homeless population because we're one of the only cities with a government-funded shelter… So on any given Sunday, we will have multiple homeless people [attend church],” said Crooks. “What's so beautiful about that is we have doctors, and we have a guy who owns a car dealership, and we have a home builder, and then we have the homeless. That's how diverse our range is. The doctors sit with the homeless and love on them. The guy who owns a car dealership, he actually heads our [Beyond the Walls] outreach… these are people who are so attached to the kingdom and the mission and vision of the church.” 

Planting church networks, raising up the next generation 

Crooks said in the three and a half years of Encounter City’s ministry, he has worked with three church starters who gave him support and resources for three different aspects of church planting. 

“Where I got the most value from Texas Baptists is that they were the most amazing resource for me,” said Crooks. “When I needed help with figuring out how to purchase the [church] building, somebody at Texas Baptists knew the process. When I needed to figure out how to help with church planting and setting up structure for that, they helped me with that. I've been at the church planting conference in Galveston for multiple years. To have a network that is so available [has been so] encouraging.” 

He said his long-term vision for Encounter City Church is that it would become a mother church for a network of church plants. 

“[The] statistics show that in your first five years of your church plant, you will have the most salvations and baptisms. We need to get the gospel out quicker, faster. I believe that this generation is hungry, and if churches wait and delay, we're going to miss something [so big] that God has [planned],” said Crooks. “I'd rather have 10 locations with 500 or 600 people than one location with 5,000 people.”

Crooks said church planting has taught him the importance of discipleship in a multigenerational church and the value of starting a church where everything is fresh. He encouraged church planters to plant with the mindset that their church is not theirs, but God’s. 

“When you set good culture and tone and good DNA, you can have a church with generational leaders. That's been our journey. I cannot wait to plant these [leaders]. I cannot wait to give this church to the 25-year-olds,” said Crooks. 

For more information about Texas Baptists Church Starting, visit txb.org/churchstarting.