A generation ago, a group of people in the town Cheryl & I grew up in decided to start a new church. Their first service was held in the home of one of the members. The adult worship service met in the living room, and the class for children was in one of the bedrooms. One of the families had a little girl, who just could not get it in her mind that they were really “at church.”  In her little preschool voice, she protested: “This is not a chu’ch; this is Twoy’s house! A chu’ch doesn’t have a bed. A chu’ch doesn’t have a couch and a fireplace. This is NOT a chu’ch!”  People laughed at that little girl’s misunderstanding about what a church is — but the truth is, a lot of adults have similar misconceptions: many people think that the church is a building, when in fact the church is really not a “building” at all, but the PEOPLE God has saved and gathered, and the ministries they perform together.  

So today we begin Session 3 of “Discovering First Baptist Angleton”, and we want to familiarize everyone with our church ministries. And you will have an opportunity to fill out a survey sheet indicating how God has gifted and inclined you for service in the church. One of our most important goals today is for YOU to discover YOUR place of ministry here at FBCA! 

Our Pastors/Ministry Leaders

Senior Pastor:  Shawn Thomas

I was born in Pittsburgh, PA but grew up in Oklahoma. After graduation from Southwestern Baptist Seminary in Ft. Worth, I pastored churches in Oklahoma and Louisiana for 27 years before taking a medical leave from ministry due to illness (dysautonomia/POTS) in 2013. Two years later God restored my health, and I served as pastor in North Carolina for 4 years, and then was called here to FBCA right at 4 years ago, in 2019.   

I am married to my wife Cheryl, and together we have four children and (currently) ELEVEN grandchildren: and we had them ALL with us this year after Christmas!  We enjoy going on “Field Trip Fridays” together to sample the sights, shops and restaurants of Texas. My favorite pastime is reading; I also enjoy walking, watching OU football, and my personal website, www.shawnethomas.com, where I post my sermons, and Sunday School lesson overviews for teachers.  

Worship Pastor: Kyle Chamblin. Was born in OKC but grew up in Indiana, Louisiana and Texas. He came to Christ as a child, was called into ministry at age 20, and has served as a worship Pastor continually since that time! He is a graduate of SWBTS, and has been here at FBCA since 2014, and he says he has loved every minute of it!  Some of you know he served with me previously, at FBC Moss Bluff, Louisiana. Kyle’s daughter Crystal and her family also attend FBC Angleton; he also has a son, Steve, who is also a music minister in South Texas, and he has 4 grandchildren. Kyle has recently become engaged to Tresa Kneisel, and they will be married here on Sat. Feb. 11, and are looking forward to starting their new life together! Kyle says he loves leading God’s people “to find Him when they search for Him with all their heart.” (Jer. 29:11-13)

Student Pastor: Scott Mumper

Was born and raised in west St. Louis, MO where he began his ministry as a volunteer youth leader right out of college. It didn’t take long for God to tell me He wanted me in full-time vocational youth ministry. Since then I have been a part of churches in Illinois, Missouri, and Kentucky before coming to Texas. God called us to FBC Angleton in October of 2019, and he says: “I can honestly say that this is home.”

Scott is married to Tina, who is the children’s director, and together they have five children ranging in age from 24 to 7. We enjoy going to the beach together, and being with our family. I am an avid sports junky so I will play just about any sport at any time with anyone. I try to mix ministry and sports as much as possible which is why I help coach baseball and track at Angleton Christian School as well as Summer track camp at the Angleton Rec Center. I love to read, study, and to teach the Bible to students. Lord willing, he hopes to be doing that for a long time.

Children’s Ministry Director Tina Mumper (not “pastor”, as we talked about in our doctrine session!):

Tina was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. She always had a love for children, even long before she had any of her own, working with children in babysitting, childcare, after school program or volunteering in the children’s ministry at different churches. Her dream job has always been to be a teacher in a Christian School, which God has allowed her to do for the last three years at Angleton Christian School where she teaches PreK3. God brought us here to FBC Angleton in October of 2019 and I started the Children’s director position in August of 2021.

She is married to Scott Mumper, our Student Pastor, and they have five kids. Tina says: “I enjoy spending time with my family, helping people with their health, keeping organized, beach fun, frogs and Mexican food!”

Administrative Assistant Kami Brooks:

Kami was born and raised in Odessa, TX. She got her bachelor’s degree in communications at UT of the Permian Basin. After graduation I left the dry west Texas heat for humidity and hurricanes. I moved to Pearland, TX to marry and be with her college sweetheart, Derek. In 2016, we welcomed our son, Barron (6). In 2017, we moved to Angleton (a week before Harvey). In 2018, we welcomed our daughter, Brynlee (4) and became members of FBCA. She says: “I was blessed to stay home with my babies for 5 years before being led to serve my own church family, here at FBCA in 2021.”

Our Deacons

Acts 6 tells us that the early church elected some men to help with needs at the church, so the apostles could devote themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word. FBC has elected a group of men to follow in their steps in our church, our deacons. Like the early deacons of Acts 6, they are servants of the church. The word “deacon” literally means “servant”, and these men serve our church by ministering especially to our widows and homebound. Each deacon in our church is assigned a group of widows, elderly, and homebound to check on regularly.

I will say that the deacons of First Baptist Angleton are some of the finest men I have ever worked with, and they are encouragers and prayer warriors for me as their pastor. I appreciate them very much, and God has blessed me, and our church with them.  

Our Ministries

SUNDAY SCHOOL

The Sunday school/Life Groups/small group Bible studies are the basic, backbone organization of our church. It exists to “reach and teach and care” for people. It is the front line of assimilation, caring, ministry and teaching in our church.  

We want every church member to be a member of a Sunday School class.  If you only come to worship services on Sunday morning, you are missing out on the important things that happen in our small group ministries. This is where you really get to know people, where you can share your needs, have people pray for you; and where you can be accountable for your attendance and growth — and you can help OTHER people in those same ways as well. Honestly, it’s hard to really get to know and minister to people, if all you do is come to worship at 10:15 — you’re mostly just gonna see the back of people’s heads! It’s important to be in a small group — and our Sunday School is our church’s primary small group organization.  

(YOU CAN SEE A LIST OF OUR SS CLASSES ON YOUR handout)  

We would love for you to enroll in a SS class TODAY: use the card to sign up!

DISCIPLESHIP

One thing our church emphasizes is Discipleship. We do not exist to merely accumulate greater numbers of people to fill our worship center on Sunday mornings. We exist to “MAKE DISCIPLES” who will impact Brazoria County and the world.  

— But one of our primary “programming” times to emphasize discipleship happens on Sunday evenings at 6:00. Our church has set aside Sunday evenings to focus on Discipleship and spiritual growth. Each year in September and again in January we kick off a Discipleship class “semester” with one or more classes for spiritual growth. (This semester it is Bill Elliff’s Simply Prayer that we are beginning tonight — join us this evening at 6:00! We have classes for children and youth too.)

MUSIC

— Our choir is large for a church our size, and they are not just a “show choir”; they are worship leaders each week in our services. Bro. Kyle likes to tell them to “preach it” as they sing — and they do an amazing job at that!

— We appreciate our instrumentalists so much – and we would love to add some more instruments to our worship team. If you can play an instrument, be sure to fill out the survey card, and/or let Kyle know.

— Our choir leads in a Christmas musical each year — it is usually one of our largest services of the year — and sometimes they do other special musicals; they’ve ministered in the prison multiple times, and more.

The choir is actually one of the best “small groups” in the church. If you are a new member, joining the choir can be one of the best ways for you to get involved, meet people, and participate in a rewarding ministry. If you can sing (or even if you can’t!), we’d love to have you join. Sign up on the ministry card — and show up this Wednesday night at 6:30 and Kyle will get you started! 

YOUTH

For Middle & High School students led by Bro. Scott. Our youth department includes students from 6th grade through 12th. There are several opportunities for worship and discipleship:

–Sunday Morning:  age-graded Sunday School classes at 9:00AM that offer a time of bible study and life application.  Students then join our corporate worship service at 10:15AM in the worship center.

— Sunday Evening: the youth meet for discipleship at 6:00; right now Scott is leading them in the Simply Prayer study that we are all doing.

— Wednesday:  Wednesday evenings several of the youth come for dinner at 5:30, and then the youth “Aftershock” starts in the youth room at 6:00 where Scott shares a message with them.

— Additionally, throughout the year Scott offers various opportunities for spiritual growth and missions: (they just finished a Disciple Now last weekend). Every summer they go to a mission camp in Louisiana. And Scott is also leading an ESL trip to Bulgaria which older youth can go on — sharing English — and the gospel — with Jr. Hi students in Bulgaria! If you have students in grades 7-12, we would strongly encourage you to enroll them in those “extra” youth events so they can build relationships and grow spiritually.    

FBC KIDS

Directed by Tina Mumper. The Kids Ministry has several ongoing ministries:

— children’s Sunday School each Sunday morning at 9:15, 

— Kids activities WED PM from 6:30-7:30 for Bible Study and activities. 

— They meet on Sunday nights for Discipleship as well (currently studying prayer to be on theme with the adults & youth)

— Kids Ministry has various activities throughout the year: end of year and back to school parties, Christmas party, Trunk or Treat, Easter egg hunt — and in summer we’re planning for VBS — and working on getting Children’s Church started! 

(In Children’s Ministry, you always need workers: if you can work VBS this summer, let us know; we’d like to start a Children’s Church for the kids during this morning worship time, so if you can serve in something like that, sign up on the card! There are lots of opportunities to serve in the Children’s ministry!

Organization

FBCA also has a number of Ministry Committees to help accomplish the ministry and work of the church. Committee members are nominated by the church Committee on Committees, led by Paula Mutina, and they are then elected by the church during our annual business meeting. (And remember, a person needs to be a member at FBCA to serve on one of our ministry committees.)  

You can see the list of our church committees and members on the handout. If you have a question or a need that one of these committees might be able to address, you can contact the appropriate committee chairman.  And I hope that perhaps you’ll see in these committees a place where your gifts and talents might be plugged in for service in the future: sign up for a ministry the Lord lays on your heart.

We have a number of other ministries, including:

• Men’s Ministry,
• Women’s Ministry, which provides fellowship for our ladies. They also reach out to our community by providing backpacks and supplies for students and teachers, and more. 
• 55+ senior adult ministry/fellowship (meeting this Thursday, 5:30)
• And more! 

Missions

FBCA has a heart for missions giving and going. Some of our mission connections include:

— SBC Cooperative Program: One of the things that make us a “Southern Baptist” church is that we join together with the other 40,000 SBC churches across the country to support the Southern Baptist missions program called: “The Cooperative Program”, or “CP” for short.  I think a good, short, explanation of it would be that it is like the “United Way” of Southern Baptist missions:  each church decides how much they want to give to the CP, and they send that amount to the Baptist State Convention they are in: we are in the Baptist General Convention of Texas. That supports a variety of mission work right here in our state: like the Baptist colleges, children’s homes, and new church starts where they are needed in Texas. 

Then we also give to our national Southern Baptist Convention. Together with 40,000+ other SBC churches, we support 3500+ SBC missionaries in 185 countries all over the world; another 4000 North American missionaries who are starting churches for different language groups here in the US; and our 6 SBC seminaries. SO: if we did not do anything else for missions as a church, a part of every dollar we give in our budget supports missions starting here in Texas, to 185 nations around the world!  

But we DO indeed do more specific things for missions as well. We have several direct missions partnerships which PRBC also supports:

— Gulf Coast Baptist Association The GCBA is comprised of local Southern Baptist churches — roughly those SBC churches in Brazoria County, who cooperate together for ministry here here in the County. In fact, with all of the new people moving into the county, our pastors are already talking together about where new churches may need to be started north of Angleton, to help reach the thousands who are moving in. We need to be ready to do our part to help reach these new families. We hope that many of them will join our church, but we are going to need new churches as well, to reach them all. We have a great fellowship among the pastors of GCBA, and Chuck Beem, who has spoken here several times, is our director.

— Bulgaria Mission:  Several years ago, our Gulf Coast Baptist Association prayed about our churches cooperating together to adopt a previously unreached people group somewhere in the world. After prayer, God led our Association to the Muslim peoples in the Rhodope Mountains of Bulgaria. Most of them are “Muslim” in name only; they really don’t follow any faith. And virtually NONE of them know Jesus as their Lord & Savior. So for the past several years, GCBA churches have taken trips to Bulgaria to build relationships, teach English as a 2nd language, start a Special Needs Ministry Camp, to build relationships and witness for Christ. And a few years into it, we have now had several people saved (they baptized two people on the last trip!) And there is now a growing mission church in the mountain town of Smolyan, Bulgaria!  Our church is partnering with GCBA, and our youth minister Scott Mumper is leading the ESL trip to Bulgaria this June, to a Jr. High School, to teach English to those students, and continue to build relationships and witness. If you are interested in going, sign up on the card or see Bro. Scott!  ALSO: Grozdan Stoevski, the Bulgarian pastor who coordinates our mission work there, is going to be speaking here at FBCA in TWO WEEKS, Feb. 5, in our AM service, so don’t miss that!

— India: we have a connection with Acts India Missions (AIM), and Pastor Sanjay Charan. India has become more and more closed to missionaries coming in from the outside, but AIM is run by local Indian Christians. They train pastors to go out and start churches in Indian cities and villages. Their goal this year is to send out 80 new pastors. We doubled our budget to AIM this year, to help them reach that goal. I hope one day to have Pastor Sanjay visit here and report on the ministry we are helping support in India, where there are ONE BILLION people who need the gospel. I can’t think of a more needed ministry than that!

— Texas Port Ministry:  Ernie Davis shared recently how you can touch the world from right here in Brazoria County through our Texas Port Ministry in Freeport. Chris Moore is the director, and his motto is “Show up and love people.” They minister to port workers with a meal on Mondays; visit with truckers who are delivering to the Port; and visit ships and share the gospel with people from countries all over the world. Ernie said he got up one day in Brazoria County, and visited the Philippines, and several other countries (by visiting their ships) and still went to bed that night back in Brazoria County! Several of our men minister there, and it is an amazing way to get involved in missions without making a trip around the world!  

— Pregnancy Help Center The PHC is in Lake Jackson, just a couple of blocks off 288. They counsel women who are seeking help during a pregnancy, and help them with an ultrasound, with medical help and counseling, and seek to lead them to Christ. We have opportunities to get involved with counseling, teaching classes of various kinds, making them a meal, and more.  

— Angleton Christian School (ACS) FBCA started ACS back in 2005. And it has grown from the first class of about SIX to almost 400 in total enrollment today! ACS is literally bursting at the seams — many of the elementary level classes are totally full (they try to keep an enrollment of about 15 in each class, which is amazing in today’s educational climate!) It is one of the best ministries of this church! First Baptist supports ACS with our prayers, with our monthly giving (ACS is our biggest single monthly mission gift) and we have several opportunities throughout the year to minister there in other ways as well. 

— Back 2 Back: Dan Shuman grew up in this church, the son of Ralph & Waldene Shuman. Dan is a doctor, and serves with Back2Back’s ministry to children and families; he visits children and families all over the world. Before COVID hit we had a large group go on a mission trip with Dan to Mazatlan, Mexico and we ministered in some children’s homes there. 

— Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes! Over 200 last year through our church, a new record! We are now the regional Dropoff spot for OCC boxes; churches from around the area bring their OCC shoeboxes here 

— Mission TRIPS are also part of our church’s ministry: you can plug into a mission trip to virtually any of these missions through our church. 

So FBCA has a varied, and wide missions program: partnering with and supporting missions connections right here in Brazoria County, in our state, and to the ends of the earth with our connections in Bulgaria & India.

SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES

It is vital that every church member find a place of service.  I Peter 4:10 says, “As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”  The Bible teaches us that God has gifted each believer with abilities to serve Him, and it is vital for the functioning of the ministries of the church that everyone use their gifts.

I heard one person say that our attitude towards church comes down to what kind of “ship” do you see the church as: are we a “cruise ship” or a “battleship”?  If you think we’re on a cruise ship, then you feel like everyone is here to serve you, and please you. But if you’re on a battleship, then you understand that you are here to serve in an important cause: and everybody has a “battle station” — a place to serve. That’s a huge difference in mindset!

So our hope is that you come in with the expectation to join a “battleship.”  We are in a life-long war against “the world, the flesh & the devil”, and we need everyone to find a place of service — no “cruising” for anyone!

SO we have a gifts/service inventory sheet, so that you can indicate your gifts, abilities, and areas of interest, that will help us get you “plugged in” to the place of service that God has for you in the church.  

Take some time right now to fill that out, or get it back to us with your application if you decide to join.  This may be one of the most important steps you’ve taken towards God in some time: signup up for a potential place of ministry in the church/on mission. 

CONCLUSION:

Some time ago I saw a church sign that said, “Such-and-such Church MEETS HERE” — which I really liked, because too often, like the little girl I mentioned earlier, we think of the church as the “building.” The church is NOT the building. We LOVE the new building the Lord has given us here, in this strategic spot He has planted us in — but the truth is, If this building burned down today, the First Baptist Church of Angleton would still be alive & well, through the PEOPLE and the ministries God has raised up here — as we have shared with you this morning.

This concludes Session 3 of “Discovering The Ridge”; if you have been in attendance for these first 3, you need only finish the 4th session to move on to the next step toward church membership, and we’ll do Session 4 next week — “Discovering the Nuts & Bolts”: our Church Constitution, budget, and more. But for now, let’s bow our heads together …