Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Farmington Baptist Growing
Missions Will Remain Important To Congregation
FARMINGTON — Farmington Baptist Church on Main Street is seeing new growth and is making plans to be poised for the future, said the Rev. Preston Beeks, pastor.
“We’re looking forward to what God’s going to do in the next year and the next decade.”
Church leaders and a long range committee have been considering a five-year plan, called the 2020 Plan.
A main emphasis will be an identity change, Beeks said. While the church will keep the name Farmington Baptist, it will use another name, the Main Street Church, in helping people to identify and know the church by its location.
Another goal is to have more of a regional approach in reaching people locally.
“We are more of a regional church,” Beeks said, noting many members and visitors come from Prairie Grove, West Fork and Fayetteville, in addition to the Farmington area.
In looking at recent church growth, Beeks said the church’s adult ministry is more vibrant. The
children’s ministry has always been active and growing but Beeks said he is seeing more participation and excitement from the church’s adult membership.
Other goals are to develop a recreational lot on church land located behind O’Reilly Auto Parts and to look for ways to provide more parking. Church members are creating a coffee shop area in the church’s former worship room for members to meet and visit with each other.
“Within the last year, we’ve grown by 20 percent,” Beeks said. “We’re thrilled by the growth. It’s really exciting times for us with this new surge of membership.”
One key element of the church will not change. The church will continue as an Acts 1:8 church, which places emphasis on missions outreach, whether it is local missions, state, national or international. Acts 1:8 in the Bible calls for Jesus’ followers to go and tell others about him throughout the world.
Beeks said missions is very important to the church and it seeks to have at least one person involved in all areas of missions, from local missions to international missions. More people are able to be involved in local missions but the church still sponsors members to serve statewide and internationally, he said.
Farmington Baptist Church was formed 22 years ago on July 18, 1993, when about 56 people came together and voted to orga- nize a new church on Main Street. The original building, though, was first established as a church in 1949.
The history of the church is sometimes confusing, Beeks said. The name of the original church in 1949 was Farmington Baptist. At some point in the 1980s, the name changed to First Baptist Church. To make room for everyone, the church was holding three services on a Sunday.
“It was the main church in town,” Beeks said.
First Baptist then vacated the building and relocated to Rheas Mill Road with a more contemporary style of service. Some of the members preferred a more traditional worship style and a group decided to start a new church in the Main Street building. They bought the structure from First Baptist, named it Farmington Baptist and held their first service in 1993, with an interim pastor.
About the same time, Beeks and his wife, Irene, felt led to start a church in Farmington.
“We saw the need in Farmington for a Southern Baptist church that had a more traditional style and it was a perfect match,” Beeks said.
Since coming to Farmington Baptist, Beeks has served as the church’s only pastor. Prior to Farmington, Beeks led three other churches in west Texas for 25 years.
He said he believed God called him to be a church pastor as an older teenager and followed that call.
“I figured I couldn’t fight that because you can’t fight the Lord,” Beeks said, smiling.
Farmington Baptist started with about 56 people and by the end of the first year had 120 members. In five years, the church remodeled its sanctuary. By time that project was finished, the church had about 200 people coming to its worship service and needed to build again.
The current auditorium was built in 2003. Other changes in the past 22 years include more classroom space, land acquisitions and additional remodels. Church membership is more than 400 now and attendance is about 120 people.
Worship services are traditional with a “country gospel” flavor, Beeks said. The church has a diverse range of ages, has many fellowships for members and visitors to get together and focuses on relationships with God, each other and those outside the church.
Some of its annual events include a community Trunk or Treat, children’s camps, Main Street Kids on Wednesday nights, ladies’ and men’s outreach activities, community and state mission projects, overseas mission trips and partnerships with other churches.
“The key no matter how you do it is that churches are built on relationships,” Beeks said. “Relationships are made and commitments to the Lord are made.”
Church structure includes pastor, church staff, deacons, committees and teams. Along with Beeks, other church staff are Dan Morrison as music minister and Granville Lynn as student pastor.
For more information on Farmington Baptist, go to farmingtonsbc.org.