Healthy Church Work: Why Steve Bezner Loves UBA

There are so many reasons to love our association of churches—but we’re obviously partial. So, don’t just take our word for it. Watch or read as Pastor Steve Bezner of Houston Northwest highlights how the Union Baptist Association works to support healthy church work in every nook and cranny of the greater Houston area.

From a practical perspective, whenever we were looking at planting a church and sending out from our own church—This wasn’t through HCPN. This wasn’t as part of another network. We said we had someone who’s on staff, part of our congregation [that] we wanted to raise up and send out, and we wanted to send leaders with them.

UBA came to an elder meeting, sat there for hours, pored over maps and diagrams, gave us great insight, and had great conversation with us. They batted around all of the possibilities then helped us come to the conclusion the best place for this church to be is in X location, and they gave the reasons. That was just practical and helpful. And I think for us, it was really just a microcosm of what we know the UBA does day in and day out. 

So I think then if you just expand and think more globally, the reason we love UBA is that UBA doesn’t just care about Houston Northwest. They’re not just doing church plant consultant conversations. They’re not just doing that sort of thing. But they’re saying, “How can we sustain new works that reach the multi-varied layers of languages and cultures that we find in Houston?” 

So we talk about the 59 corridor. We talk about churches that need to be revitalized. We talk about churches that are in areas that are underserved—how we can start new works there, and how we can strengthen those works there. 

So it’s not simply about suburban, predominantly Anglo, predominately middle-class congregations, but it’s about finding ways that every nook and cranny of the city can have a healthy church that talks about Jesus, that preaches the gospel, and does so in a way that is effective and cooperative. 

If you want to learn more about sending out leaders from within your church, church renewal, or how we can support healthy gospel work in your church, we would love to connect with you!