Lifepoint Baptist Church is a church in transition, meeting in Early Consolidated Business Complex building while their new home on Sunrise Dr is being completed. Leland Acker, known locally for his morning radio show, has been the pastor for LifePoint since the church’s founding over 10 years ago.
Ackers sermons are traditionally based on interpreting scripture and trying to find the meaning in it. “When you interpret scripture there are four questions you ask yourself: Who’s talking, who are they talking to, what are they talking about, and what’s the occasion for the discussion that’s taking place.” Acker also tries to find the cultural context of bible stories to better relate it to modern times.
Meeting in the Acker’s home initially, Lifepoint is what brought Leland and his wife Jessica to the area. “The Lord called me here to start this church. Back in 2007, my wife and I made a few trips out here, visited the town, met some people and we felt this was the community that The Lord wanted us in.”
“Our first ministerial activity took place in August of 2008, we began by holding vacation bible school at the brownwood housing authority over at SunSet Terrace.” Acker says the meetings were a success “We did that five consecutive weekends…and we saw three people saved during the course of those vacation bible schools.”
Services began in the community room of the Brownwood Apartments Phase 2 in November the same year. In May of the following year the church moved into an old church across from the Law Enforcement Center, where they stayed until 2014 when they decided to make the transition to Early’s Small Business Incubator to save on rent and utilities so they could plan for a brand new building of their own.
Building materials sit in what will eventually be the new church sanctuary
Acker describes the church as a tight knit family. “We’ll have a church member go into the hospital, and when I go to call that church member I find out that two or three others have gotten to them before I did.”
Acker says that the church shouldn’t be limited to a day on a calendar or a building. “Often times in church culture, church becomes something you go to, and here church is something that you’re a part of.”
The land on Sunrise Drive was purchased in 2013 with plans to incrementally work on a new building. The church hopes to be moved into their building by June of this year.
On a personal note, one of the church’s ministries has taken Acker’s family in a direction they hadn’t planned on going. “The Wednesday night Youth Ministry was really a turning point.”
Acker says he and his wife “decided that it wasn’t just enough to go pick kids up for church Wednesday night, spend an hour with them at church, feed ‘em some pizza, give ‘em a bible lesson and drop ‘em back off.” This realization led the couple to begin the process of fostering kids and eventually adopting four siblings into their family.
Acker baptizing new believers at Lake Brownwood last year
Acker wants people to know that the walls of the church are sturdy, and will not cave in regardless of who walks in. “I know there are a lot of people who have had bad experiences in churches but the thing is, we’re humans. And once you start getting humans in a church, that messes it all up because we’re all sinners and none of us are perfect. But there is definitely blessing to being a part of a local church.”
He ends by saying “We’d love to have you here at LifePoint, but if not with us, please get plugged in somewhere. There are a lot of great churches here in the Brown county area, and we just encourage everybody to be a part of one of them.”
Sunday school is at 10 a.m. with Worship at 11. They can be reached through their Facebook page.
