Texas Baptists churches see relationships restored, culture shift, pray for neighbors with BLESS App

At the 2025 Texas Baptists Annual Meeting and in a December edition of his weekly newsletter,  Texas Baptists Executive Director Julio Guarneri announced that Texas Baptists had purchased a subscription to the Bless App to invite churches to join the effort of praying for the lost in Texas. 

“What if members of Texas Baptists churches would pray for their neighbors by name during 2026? We could potentially pray for every single person in Texas and in the communities beyond Texas where there are affiliated churches!” wrote Guarneri.

When affiliated churches sign up for the BLESS App, they will receive a free one-year subscription, and members of their congregation will be provided with 50 names of their neighbors based on their home address, along with prayer prompts for those neighbors. 

Since its launch, 53 Texas Baptists churches have joined the effort and adopted 646,833 homes in prayer. Three churches in particular have seen this prayer effort make an impact on their congregations.

Cowboy Fellowship Church in Jourdanton joined the effort and has had 311 of its members sign up and commit to pray for 9,715 homes in their communities. 

Pete Pawelek, pastor of Cowboy Fellowship Church, said his team has put a digital dashboard on the church’s website and on TVs around campus to display the church’s BLESS App statistics as they pray. He said these displays have helped his congregation see the fruit of their efforts in praying together. 

“This has allowed our congregation to be able to celebrate together since we can all have a picture of what the Lord is doing in our community,” said Pawelek. “Through these prayers, we have already started to see relationships being restored and doors being opened for our church to serve and share Christ with their neighbors.” 

In February, Valley Ranch Baptist Church in Coppell launched a month-long emphasis they called “Love Where You Live,” where every church member was encouraged to use the BLESS App to pray for their neighbors by name. Senior Pastor John Hewlett walked through the steps of downloading the app and getting started during a Sunday service, and gave members ways to serve and share the gospel with their neighbors using BLESS as an acronym. 

Amy Wilkins, associate pastor at Valley Ranch Baptist Church, said by the end of the month, 1,500 neighbors had been prayed for. She said several members have shared stories of how their relationships with their neighbors have already been impacted by the “Love Where You Live” emphasis to pray with the BLESS App. 

“Our hope is that this would not be just a one-month emphasis but a culture shift, where our people can see themselves as everyday chaplains in the neighborhoods where God has placed them,” said Wilkins. 

For more information or to sign your church up for the BLESS App, visit txb.org/bless.