Written by Ben Cox – One of the many churches lining Coggin Avenue is the First Christian Church. Lead by pastor Sterling Lentz, First Christian is an accepting and safe house of worship for those who are searching.
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Lentz says he doesn’t know of a time in his history where church was not an integral part of his life. “I was born, raised, theologically educated Southern Baptist. My grandmother kept the nursery at the 7th and James Baptist Church in Waco, so from the time I was 2 years old I was in the church.”
According to Lentz, his family’s whole weekend revolved around the family’s church attendance on Sundays. “I don’t ever remember a conversation about whether we were gonna go to church. That’s just what you did, I mean, what else do you do on a Sunday? You sat in front of the TV shining shoes on Saturday night and watched Gunsmoke, then went to Sunday School the next morning, that’s just what you did!”
An a month before he took advantage of an unusual employment opportunity during his first year of college the first showed Lentz for his future as a pastor. “I had the opportunity to go live and work in a funeral home. But about a month before then I was woken up in the middle of the night and called me to ministry.”
The outward signs of Christianity were made apparent to Lentz during the preparations for a funeral, when a “couple walked up and Mr Weatherford says to me ‘those people are Christians’.” Despite never having seen them, the director replied to Lentz questioning of how he knew by saying “I can tell by the way they carry themselves.”
A detour into the military changed the course of Lentz life, despite it being 1968 and in the middle of the Vietnam war. After volunteering for the Air Force Lentz says “I got a draft notice my second week of Basic Training. That was the difference of four years at Dyess Air Force Base and two years tromping though the rice paddies of Vietnam!”
After several years, Lentz found himself singing in the choir at a televised church in Oklahoma, looking at the congregation. “And they all looked miserable! I remember saying to myself, ya gotta go a long way to find this many miserable looking folks in one spot. And it hit me, I’m one of those folks, I’m just like them.”
After telling God he “didn’t need to put on a choir robe and sit under hot TV lights to be miserable”, he heard God say to him “Do you remember when I woke you up 16 years ago and called you to ministry?” That revelation lead him to quit his job, move his family to Grand Prairie and start seminary.
Not a quick study, Lentz “managed to cram four years of seminary into ten” while working full time and commuting from Stamford where he was preaching at a small Baptist church. After a divorce, Lentz made a change to avoid any issues that can arise because of a divorced preacher in the Baptist church.
A pamphlet that he had read many years back from a Christian Church in Odessa made its way back into his hands, and he went to Central Christian Church of Burnett in 1997, before landing in Brownwood in 2002. “This is my spot, I’m kinda like Sheldon Cooper! This is my spot! I love this group of folks here, I love my people!”
Founded in 1887, First Christian Church was at one time housed in a building that is now “inside the music building at Howard Payne. In 1958 or so, they approached the church about acquiring the building. If you’ve ever been in there and you notice it’s got a odd, that’s why. It’s got a church inside there!”
The current building was dedicated in January of 1960 and has been expanded only once since then. Sunday Services are fairly typical, according to Lentz, with hymns, children church, a noisy offering where the kids of the church gather change for local charities, as well as weekly Communion.
The church is located at 2411 Coggin, and can be reached through their Facebook page, or by visiting Sunday services starting at 9 and 11.
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