Message from Pastor
Greetings,
I want to thank you for visiting Joy Baptist Church's
website. My name is Keith
Laude and I am the pastor here at Joy Baptist Church.
My family and I are very excited about what God has
done, is doing, and will do here at Joy. Here is some
information I hope will make you more familiar with me
and my family as we seek to minister alongside of you.
I was born and raised on a dairy farm about 40
minutes outside of Green Bay, WI. Yes, I am a Yankee
and a Packer fan, but I have come to love the southern
hospitality down here in Texas and I'll even root for
the Cowboys (so long as they are not playing the
Packers). I came to know Jesus Christ as my Lord and
Savior at age seventeen while I was milking cows one
night listening to Dr. David Jeremiah on the radio.
After I graduated from high school I joined the Air
Force and got to serve our country in the Middle East
as an aircraft technician on the F-117 Stealth Fighter
during Operation Enduring Freedom.
It was during my time in the Air Force that I met
Julie at Trinity Baptist Church in Wichita Falls, TX.
A native born Texan, Julie was saved and baptized
there at the same church at the age of seven. I also
was baptized at TBC (albeit much later than she) on
Easter Sunday of 2001. It became quite obvious that
Julie was the one for me and we were married in July, 2001. God blessed us with our first child:
Allyson, in 2002. God called me into the
ministry shortly before Allyson was born and so we
decided to get out of the Air Force after my contract
was up.
The three of us moved from Holloman AFB, NM back to
Wichita Falls, TX and Julie and I both attended
Wayland Baptist University. Julie graduated in the
spring of 2006 and I graduated the following fall. In
between graduations the Lord blessed us with our
second child Dominic in 2006.
Later that year I started attending Southwestern
Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, TX and I
became the pastor of Verona Baptist Church in Blue
Ridge, TX. I was ordained for the Gospel Ministry
there in February of 2007. The Lord led us away from
VBC in January of 2008 and we have been here at Joy
Baptist Church since June 2008.
Since we have been at Joy the LORD has blessed us
with two more children: Collin in 2009
and Elizabeth Joy in 2012. I also
graduated from SWBTS in December of 2012.
I am very conservative theologically. I believe the
entire Bible is inspired by God and is totally true
and trustworthy. I affirm everything stated in the
Baptist Faith and Message 2000. Evangelism and
discipleship are very important as teaching is the
center of my calling. If you are a child of God who
seeks to serve Him then I encourage you to come and
worship our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ along with us
here at Joy Baptist Church.
If you do not consider yourself a child of God then I
encourage you to consider a few things. God created
you. You are not the blind result of random chance
processes; you are specially made in the image and
likeness of God. You are extremely valuable in His
eyes. Because God made you He has authority over you
and because of His great love for you He is deeply
concerned about your wellbeing. The universe was
created to be very good with no disease or death, but
the bad news is we have rebelled against God's
authority by lying, stealing, dishonoring our parents,
and a whole host of other things. We thought we could
do better without God by sinning against Him and by
doing so we have only brought great troubles upon
ourselves. Because of our rebellion the world is
cursed and we deserve to die both physically here on
earth and spiritually in the eternal fires of hell.
The good news is that God loves us so much that He
decided to save us from our sins and the punishment we
deserve. God became a man named Jesus Christ and He
lived the perfect life. He didn't sin even once and
because He didn't sin He didn't have to die, but He
chose to die on the cross to take our punishment upon
Himself. After three days Jesus came back to life and
defeated death itself. The Bible teaches that if we
repent by confessing our sins and we trust in Jesus as
our God and Savior then we can be saved from the hell
we deserve and live forever in the paradise of heaven
where death and disease will be no more. If you are
not a child of God I plead with you to pray to Him
about these things and I also encourage you to come
worship Him with us here at Joy Baptist Church.
May God bless you,
Pastor Keith Laude
|
