Proclaim Weekend 2026

About four years ago I started talking incessantly with the pastors and leaders of Unity Baptist Association about the need for new church leaders in our association and across the world. There is a growing crisis of an aging leadership with no where near enough to fill their spots. Our association had started a 6 week School of Ministry that met twice a year, but we needed more. We needed more candidates. We needed more equipping. We needed more.

In November 2025 I was with Stephen Forrest from FBC, Zavalla. He had asked me to spend the morning with him at a career day at Broaddus High School. We were talking about an upcoming meeting I would have with John Mann the next week. John and I were meeting to talk about how UBA and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary could partner in the work of raising up the next generation of church leaders. I told Stephen that I needed something to bring to the meeting. I needed an idea, some suggestion of what we could do together. That conversation was the place where the Lord put the Proclaim Weekend on my heart.

The next week I met with John and suggested that we partner together to provide opportunities for SWBTS students to preach in churches in UBA. He was enthusiastic, but we both knew there was a long way to go before this could become reality. He talked with the leadership and preaching professors at SWBTS and they were on board immediately. The pastors in UBA were also enthusiastic about the possibilities. Our School of Ministry that Spring was focused on teaching the genres of scripture and that became another source of potential preachers with a record (for us) of 16 attending the class.

By the time we got to April we had 12 men from UBA and 10 students from SWBTS committed to preach in 22 different churches in our association. First Baptist Diboll volunteered to host the Saturday night dinner where the preachers and their host pastors were united. The did a fantastic job of showing off East Texas hospitality and relationships began to grow.

On Sunday, April 19th, we had 21 men preaching in 21 different churches across our association (1 of our UBA men was in the hospital and unable to participate though he and the church will make it happen in the future). Some of these guys were preaching for their first time in a church and several had preached less than 5 times. Every host church pastor was able to spend time pouring into an inexperienced preacher. Every host church was able to encourage a man who is seeking God’s will and discovering what God wants in their life.

Some of the comments we’ve gotten from pastors and preachers indicate that not only did the preachers do a good job preaching God’s Word, but the weekend may have done more for their walk than they anticipated. One pastor said, “I am not sure how you made assignments for Proclaim Weekend, but both we and they felt God’s hand in putting us together.  Amy and I were able to share so many points of connection with them.  We have exchanged numbers and plan on staying connected.  It was such a positive experience and I believe they will look back on this as a very significant step in their ministry journey.”

Another pastor said of the man who preached in his church, “I am excited about what God is doing and will do in his life.”

One of the men from Southwestern said this, “It was such a blessing and could not have been a better first preaching experience. I thoroughly enjoyed sharing the Word of God with the members of Shirley Creek Baptist Church. They were so loving and encouraging, and I left feeling truly affirmed in the calling God has placed on my life.”

We are thankful to our association churches whose contributions and involvement made this weekend possible. We are also thankful to the Baptist General Convention of Texas whose grant through the Mary Hill Davis Offering helped to make this possible.

This was not the pinnacle, there is more to come as the Lord uses the churches of Unity Baptist Association to prepare the next generation of church leaders.