ATLANTA – Patrick Moses has a long commute from his home in Mansfield, Texas, to his job with Homeland Security in Washington, D.C. But that hasn’t stopped the former Cooperative Baptist Fellowship leadership scholar from starting and growing Antioch Baptist Church in Mansfield, a community Moses described as “upwardly mobile and extremely progressive.”

Throw in a local barbershop and it’s a combination tailor-made for a church whose evangelistic approach focuses on using modern technology to communicate the good news.

The Mansfield area is growing, and Moses said many of the families are not connected to a church. Moses’ strategy is to use emails and text messaging as a means to attract people who don’t attend church regularly. Most of their contacts come from two church members who operate a barbershop.

Antioch held its first worship service in December 2007, targeting families moving into the Mansfield/South Arlington/Grand Prairie area of north central Texas. It has quickly become a close-knit fellowship with several families vacationing together in Washington, D.C., this past summer. A tour of colleges is planned this fall so that children and teenagers in the congregation will have the opportunity to visit the campuses of all colleges in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area.

“Patrick contacted me last year with the hope of starting something new in Mansfield, an area with no moderate African American churches,” David King, CBF’s church start assistant. “We worked with him to develop his plan and also put him in contact with the Baptist General Convention of Texas (BGCT).”

Antioch was launched with support from BGCT, CBF, several local African American Baptist churches and a group of pastors serving as mentors to Moses.

CBF and CBF of Texas signed an official covenant of partnership with Antioch at this year’s General Assembly in Memphis. While there are some financial aspects to the partnership, it also involves connecting Moses with other CBF church planters in Texas and beyond. The church will hold a “block party” this fall, sponsored by BGCT, another way to connect people with Antioch.

“CBF is committed to developing a strategy of church starting that is a partnership between national and state CBF leadership as well as new church starts,” said Bo Prosser, the Fellowship’s coordinator of congregational life. “This new church start has certainly benefited from this strategy. Patrick’s energy for the work and his sensitivity to God’s spirit are evident. We are pleased to partner in such an exciting setting.”

Moses earned a bachelor of arts in political science and a master of public administration degree from Southern University. He was ordained in June 2005, just before he graduated from Texas Christian University’s Brite Divinity School with a master of divinity degree. He was introduced to CBF while attending Greater Saint Stephen’s First Church in Fort Worth, a connection that helped him become a CBF leadership scholar.

A bi-vocational pastor, Moses is an 18-year federal employee, having worked in several government agencies in the Fort Worth area. In May, he was recruited to serve in a position in Washington, D.C., with the Department of Homeland Security. He is responsible for the law enforcement and physical security of federal facilities located in the Washington metropolitan area.

Moses’ wife, Ronda, is director of social services at Life Care Center of Haltom, and recently earned a bachelor of social work at Texas Woman’s University. She is a part of the ministry team at Antioch.

“I love transforming people and I feel called to doing a church start,” Moses said. “It is exciting to watch God create a new church - a church with a new DNA.”

To learn more about CBF church start resources, contact David King at dking@thefellowship.info or (800) 352-8741.

CBF is a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.