A large church in a small town, Mobberly Baptist Church in Longview, Texas, suffered a tragedy in 2020 when their pastor died in a car accident. The congregation was still reeling from that loss when COVID-19 hit. They ended up going 28 months without a leader before Andrew Hébert was called as pastor in August 2022.
Many people think the pandemic served as a pruning season for Mobberly Baptist, bringing both pain and new growth.
“The church has endured a lot over the last three years, but the people have developed a resilience and strength as a result,” says Hébert. “We have seen lots of people bring their lost friends to church. There is a renewed hope for the future and excitement about what God is doing.”
He estimates that in 2023 alone, they will baptize well over 100 new believers. “When you experience evangelism like that, it brings life into the church,” he says.
While it can be tempting to gauge success by numerical growth alone, Hébert says the focus should be on spiritual growth.
“If we’re helping people grow deeper in their walk with Christ, we’re succeeding,” he says. “If we’re not doing that, we’re failing, regardless of what the numbers say.”
In the last year, a sense of reinvigorated unity in the congregation has encouraged them to embrace their mission of leading people into an ever-growing relationship with Christ via prayer, people and purpose.
“I have never experienced a church that prays as much as Mobberly does,” says Hébert. This includes prayer behind-the-scenes where groups gather to pray over the pulpit, the seats in the auditorium, the needs of the church and for those who don’t know Jesus yet.
Hébert recalls reading a book once in which the author talked about training his soldiers to be brilliant in the basics. The phrase has stuck with Hébert over the years.
“There’s not a lot of flash and sizzle here at Mobberly, but there is a lot of focus on doing the basics well. This includes prayer, preaching, evangelism and discipleship,” he says, noting that they are not so much an innovative church as they are an intentional one.
“Millennials and Gen Z are much less interested in the bells and whistles, and much more interested in nuts and bolts,” he explains, adding that they want the Bible, crave relationships and long to know God. They also want to be loved. Therefore, Mobberly Baptist doesn’t use people to help the church grow. Instead, they optimize the church to help the people grow.
“There is a world of difference between those two things,” Hébert says.
Eric McCrory, who volunteers in worship and youth ministry, has embraced the caring, committed faith community at Mobberly.
“As a church, we are experiencing a renewed emphasis on discipleship,” says McCrory, who is also a deacon. “We reach out to our community, our neighborhoods, our schools and our workplaces to live out our faith and invite others to join in the work that God is doing at Mobberly.”
According to Hébert, a good metaphor for ministry is gardening because it can be a slow process.
“You have to weed, plant, water, weed some more, endure seasons of dryness when the sun beats down and scorches, and then you have to start all over again,” he says. “You have to tend to the garden well.”