Bayside Church Plant
Texas Baptists churches are at work strengthening churches to fulfill the Great Commandment and Great Commission every day in Texas and beyond. I wanted to share a story with you about a person who was recently impacted by your church’s gifts to the Cooperative Program.
Bayside Community Church is located in Olivia, Texas, a small town of around 200 people on the Gulf Coast. This small group of faithful believers, led by pastor Ruben Castillo, has grown from 18 to 120 in attendance on Sundays. The church reaches out to the community through its food pantry, ESL and homeschool resource center ministries. Now, Bayside is preparing to plant a new church campus in Ganado.
“God has us doing quite a lot in a community of 200 people, and we’re like, ‘Wow, where are these people coming from?’ But God keeps sending them,” said Castillo. “Now our little church in a cow pasture is planting a church in a community of 2,500 people!”
God opened the door for the church plant through Bayside’s food pantry ministry. While taking trailers of food to the fire department in Ganado to expand the ministry’s reach, Castillo learned about a recently dissolved church campus.
“They said, ‘You can have it if you have a ministry that would work out of this building’ … that is how it all blossomed,” said Castillo. “We went to the Texas Baptists church planting assessment in Kingwood. Now Texas Baptists is sponsoring monthly Bible studies for us … and they provided a sound system for worship.”
The Lord continued to confirm His call for a church plant through partnership with First Baptist Church in Devine.
“They provided a gift to help us move forward with our church plant,” said Castillo. “It allowed us to give the campus pastor a little salary and get bilingual Bibles and other needed materials. It has been amazing to partner with them … distance isn’t an issue with God. He has been so faithful!”
God answered prayer by sending a bilingual pastor, Ernesto Vuittonet, who has planted 18 churches in Mexico, to be Bayside Ganado’s campus pastor. The church plant is currently holding ESL classes and bilingual Bible studies and is planning a community cookout to share information about the new church.
“We are hoping to build a core team — people that can help us with worship, communion and whatever is needed. If the Lord assembles that, we are hoping to launch worship services in December,” said Castillo.
Castillo said his prayer for the church plant is that the Ganado community would embrace Jesus and that barriers would fall.
“Start in prayer,” he encouraged other pastors feeling called to church planting. “Ask God to send the right people, to give you the vision, and when that nudge is ready that you step out in faith, then follow exactly what God has asked you to do, because your plans will fail, but God’s plans will never fail. Nothing is impossible for God. Don’t limit God!”