New Zion San Marcos sees young adults living out their faith, encouraging multigenerational culture

When Pastor Colby Cotton returned to San Marcos to serve as the new pastor at the church he grew up in, he discovered that the church’s decline was significant. He recognized the need for restarting and breathing new life into the congregation in San Marcos.

“I came in and said, ‘You know what? We’re starting over,’ and we did just that. We changed the name of the church to New Zion San Marcos… [and] immediately got to work,” said Cotton. 

In the beginning stages of restarting New Zion in 2023, Cotton reconnected the church with the Guadalupe District Missionary Baptist Association, where he began to serve in its youth and young adult department. There, he met Lee Williams, Central Texas church starting strategist for Texas Baptists. 

“[Williams] came to my church [at] six o'clock that evening and they didn't leave till about midnight. We were just fellowshipping. They were covering us in prayer, pouring into us and he got us set up to do the [church starting] assessments for Texas Baptists,” Cotton said.

Cotton and his wife, Ashley, took the church starting assessment in 2024 and learned new ways to revitalize the church body. 

“[Taking the assessment] was one of the greatest, fulfilling experiences I've ever gone through. It brought so many things to light, and my wife and I definitely benefited from it, and took so many tools back with us. We learned about discipleship, we took that back and implemented it into our church immediately,” Cotton said. 

Utilizing resources that he received during the church starting assessment, Cotton developed a four-week discipleship class for all new believers at New Zion to help them understand their salvation and next step in baptism. The class is offered in-person or online, through the church app. 

Participants must either complete the book and scripture reading in the app or attend four Saturday sessions to learn the material. To graduate from the class, each participant has to take a test indicating that they understand the gospel and what it looks like to follow Jesus. 

Living for Jesus out loud

Cotton said since implementing the discipleship class, he has seen an increase in baptisms across the multigenerational church. He said New Zion’s young adult ministry, Livin’ Out Loud, is a driving force in increased young adult attendance and baptisms. 

While serving as the youth pastor, Cotton was inspired to establish a young adult ministry called Livin’ Out Loud, with the focus of equipping young leaders to lead boldly in their faith. 

During the restarting process, he revived the ministry with seven young adults and held Bible study every Thursday. In less than a year, the ministry grew to 103 and moved Bible study to Wednesday nights with the rest of the midweek programs. Cotton said he knew he had to pass the leadership to someone else.

Cotton placed two Texas State University students in the leadership roles for Livin’ Out Loud who embraced the university’s student organization leadership structure of establishing an executive board. This allowed young adults to take ownership of events as chairs. Cotton said he saw the ministry flourish from this structure. 

“[The executive board] established such a level of structure that plays a role in the growth because young people like structure just as much as an older person,” Cotton said. “To establish something with structure that gives them the point A, B, C, D [and] they know where to get plugged in, how to get plugged in, it keeps them engaged.” 

Cotton said Livin’ Out Loud hosts monthly events strategically outside of New Zion, with the purpose of both spending time together and creating gospel opportunities in the community. 

“They're so vocal. They are not afraid to talk to people [about Jesus]. They're leaders,” Cotton said. “I believe that they're going to help take this church to another level, [which] is going to change this community for the better.”

Bridging the gap between generations

Cotton said the young adults have been vocal about bridging the gap between generations in the church and preserving their legacy. 

“The young adults’ focus has been, ‘We love our senior saints. We want to make sure they feel a part of everything that we're doing,’” Cotton said. “They want to take in wisdom from our older saints. They're asking them questions. ‘How did y'all do it back then? How can we honor that and take it further?’ None of them has ever tried to erase legacy or history. If anything, they've tried to put it back in its rightful place.”

Williams said the way Cotton has created space for young adults while strengthening a culture of discipleship he has been especially encouraging to witness. 

“[Cotton] understands that reaching a new generation is not about abandoning the church’s legacy, but about building a bridge between that legacy and the people God is calling the church to reach next,” Williams said.”I believe the work happening at New Zion is evidence of what can happen when a pastor is willing to honor the past, engage the present, and courageously build toward the future.”

Cotton said he believes God has positioned and equipped the church to meet people where they are and live out their missional focus to reach, restore and release God’s people back out into the world to share the gospel.

Churches like New Zion San Marcos are able to receive training and resources for replanting and revitalization because of Texas Baptists churches’ generous and faithful giving to the Cooperative Program. 

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