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October Is
TwoTri-Area Churches Welcome Their New Pastors This Week
First Baptist Church Logan and Central Baptist Clovis are both welcoming their new pastors to their pulpits October 4, 2026.
Cody Brown has been called to be the next pastor at FBC Logan. He has spent more than twenty years in pastoral ministry in eastern New Mexico. He served as Senior Pastor of Arch Baptist Church and later planted and pastored The Porch Church in Portales. Those years were marked by preaching, shepherding, discipleship, and building relationships in the community. He also loves working with young people—he directed youth sports for Portales Municipal Schools and has coached basketball for fifteen years, from junior high through college.
Cody is a graduate of Eastern New Mexico University and carries a clear love for teaching the Bible. His desire is simple and steady: open God’s Word, care for people, and help the church follow Jesus.
Cody is shown above with his wife, Shawna (far left), and daughters Abby, Jenna, and Josephine.
Taylor J Wood comes to the area as the Senior Pastor of Central Baptist Church, Clovis. He has faithfully served as Pastor of First Baptist Church O'Donnell, TX since 2013. He and his wife, Sarah, have been married for 17 years and have three daughters.
Taylor gave his life to Christ when he was nine years old, and shortly after that moved with his family to central and eastern Europe as IMB missionaries. It was while in college, at Texas Tech University, that Taylor surrendered to the ministry and began serving in the local church. He received a Master of Divinity at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary with a concentration in Biblical Studies. He has spoken at numerous camps and evangelism events. He has served on foreign mission trips, including co-leading a preaching conference in the Philippines. He also serves as an instructor at the Leadership Development Center in Lubbock, Texas, a ministry school training the next generation of church leaders.
Taylor's heart lies in the local church, to serve, shepherd, and preach so that God would be glorified, and people would find abundant life by walking in Christ. Taylor and his family are excited to follow the Lord as he leads in the days to come.
Taylor is shown with his wife, Sarah, and their 3 daughters: Lydia, Tabitha, and Johanna.
After 7 years of faithful service to First Baptist Church Portales, the Lord is leading the David Aguirre family to full-time missionary service with the International Mission Board (IMB).
They will begin 7 weeks of IMB training on October 26 and then go to the field in January.
First Baptist Church Portales
Invites You To Join Them:
Notes From Our
Director of Missions
Bonnie and I had the joy of worshipping with three of our congregations this past Sunday morning in two services. We started the day at Central Baptist in Clovis and heard a great message from their Interim Pastor, Jim Brown, who is completing his nine-month ministry there. Central's new pastor, Taylor Wood, will begin his ministry on October 4. Then we went to Portales where Calvary Baptist and GracePointe church were having a joint worship service. GracePointe's worship team led in a great time of celebration followed by a message from Anthony Griffith of Calvary Baptist. They then had a meal together. It was a wonderful day.
The month of October is a big one in Baptist life - first of all, it is Pastor Appreciation Month. Throughout my ministry I was always blessed by the acts of kindness and generosity shown to me during October. I encourage our churches to find creative, sincere ways to let your pastor and his family know how much you appreciate them throughout the year, but especially during October. There are many ways to do this. Here are a few suggestions from an article written by Baptist author and scholar Chuck Lawless a few years ago:
* Prepare an album of thank you notes - write notes expressing specific ways you appreciate your pastor and the things he has done for you, and bind them together into an album that he can not only enjoy now, but draw strength from in the years to come.
* Offer a few nights of child care over the month or even longer - prepare certificates for a night out for him and his wife, redeemable at their convenience, and allow them to enjoy whatever they want to do together with the kids being taken care of.
* Set aside a special day to honor your pastor's wife - if you really want to bless him, honor her for the contributions she makes to his ministry, many of them unseen and unrecognized. Nothing lifts a pastor up more than having their wife blessed.
If you would like more ideas you may read Chuck Lawless's list at this link: Pastor Appreciation Suggestions As a Pastor I was so blessed during October in every church that I served, particularly by the small gifts that demonstrated thorough and sincere appreciation. It was often the smallest things that meant the most. Don't miss the opportunity to encourage your pastor in October. It will strengthen him all the rest of the year.
This coming Tuesday is our monthly Kingdom Conversations Zoom call for Pastors. We have a lot to visit about this month, but we will be focusing on our 2027 Mission Project in Honduras. The deadline to sign up for the Pastor's Vision Trip (scheduled to be in April 2027) is the Association's Annual Meeting on October 24. Mario Navarro and CJ Garrett will be on the Zoom call to share this vision again and to answer questions. I hope you will join us Tuesday morning via zoom to hear about this ministry opportunity. If you do not want to join by computer, you are welcome to join me in my office that morning to participate. The zoom link is shown above.
The BCNM State Convention is coming up in Albuquerque in a few weeks, and I thought it would be fun for our Tri-Area pastors and messengers who are attending the convention to have a time to eat and fellowship together. We have a room reserved on Tuesday evening at El Patron restaurant on Montgomery, which is not far from Eastern Hills Baptist Church where the convention is being held. If you would like to join us send me a text or email so I can have an accurate head count There is not a lot of time between sessions on Tuesday, but we've got to eat somewhere so why not together. I hope you will be able to join us!
As we prepare for our 2026 Association Annual Meeting, we will be sharing a guide for a Week of Prayer for Associational Missions during the week of October 18-24. We will have a daily emphasis for prayers each day leading up to the Annual Meeting. We will share this guide as a PDF next week so you can print it yourself, or we will have some printed and available to distribute for those who need it. Remember also our weekly Churches praying for Churches emphasis.
There is nothing that we can do that will strengthen our Associational mission efforts and our churches more than focused prayer. Only the Lord knows what would happen if each of us spent time praying each day for Associational missions, and if our churches spent time specifically praying for each other every Sunday. Please consider making this a priority as we prepare for the Annual Meeting.
Registration is open for the Annual Meeting on Saturday, October 24 at FBC Melrose. We are completing the schedule and preparations in the days ahead, but you can go ahead and register on the Tri-Area Web Site using this link: Annual Meeting Registration
The Tri-Area Disaster Relief Team is responding to flooding victims in Clovis over the last week, and is preparing for greater state-wide needs anticipated for later this week. Pray for them as they minister to folks in our community and beyond with compassionate ministry during these natural disasters.
October is a crazy month for meetings, so we have had to move our area Pastors/Wives Fellowships around. Here is a listing with the dates and locations.
October is a busy month, but also a time full of opportunities to celebrate and strengthen our cooperative ministries to reach our neighborhoods, communities, region and state with the Gospel of Christ. Everything we do to encourage pastors, equip churches and engage missions is to fulfill the Great Commission. You may not be able to join for all of these projects in the coming weeks, but I hope you will PARTICIPATE when you can. Your continued PROVISION for the budget of our Association makes these works possible. Please continue to PRAY for us as we work and serve together.
Please call if I can help you in any way.
Damon
Members from Tri-Area Association have been actively representing NM Baptist Disaster Relief in the Clovis area after last and this week's rainfall.
Jim Hogg, a NMBDR Blue Hat, has been interacting with Clovis and Curry County officials and will be contacting the Roosevelt/Portales leaders, as well, to see how this ministry can assist our communities.
Sandia Baptist Clovis has graciously opened their doors for the NMBDR Incident Command and Intake Center.
If you, or someone you know, had home damage from the storms and would like to see if NMBDR could help, contact Jim at 575-799-7873 or Elaine at 575-749-0231 for more information.
JOIN OUR PRAYER TEAM
If you would like to join our Tri-Area Prayer Team, text your first and last name to Elaine at 575-714-7788. She will pass along prayer needs that are submitted by our churches via a text to the team.
You can see a list of the items above that the New Mexico Baptist Children's Home are requesting from our association for their Fall Food Drive. You may bring these to our association's annual meeting on October 24 at FBC Melrose. And, as always, you may provide a financial donation by clicking this LINK.
Emmanuel Baptist Church in Portales is inviting men, sons, and grandsons to join them on Saturday, October 10th for their quarterly men's breakfast. Coffee will be on by 6:30 am and breakfast served at 8:00 am. Bring yourself and someone else!
PRAY FOR MISSIONARIES WITH
NEW MEXICO TIES
Would you like to receive monthly updates from IMB missionaries with NM ties? Emily Taigaafi prepares the WMU prayer update newsletter. You can sign up to receive the newsletter by clicking on thisLINK.
ClickHEREto check out the Good Books section of our website. We also have a Spanish version called Buenos Libros which you can check out by clicking HERE.
The Book of the Week isThe Power of Positive Praying by John Bisagno. It is listed under the Prayer tab which is under the Theology tab of the Good Books section on our website.
Jesus was our model and teacher in prayer. By His life and His lips our Lord's constant fellowship with the Father pointed to the necessity of ours. But Jesus didn’t pray merely as an example to us. For thirty-three years, He lived as a man, tempted in all points like as are we. He prayed because He had to pray. He prayed because He must.
In this 50th anniversary edition of The Power of Positive Praying, Dr. Bisagno expands this classic work with eight new chapters on prayer.
If the Son of God prioritized prayer, how more must we? And His prayers were answered as will be ours, if like Him we pray in His Will, in His Word and in Faith. For that’s the power of positive praying.
CLICK if you want to purchase this resource from Amazon.com. It may be available through other sources as well.
Ministerial Staff Searches
Submit a résumé and cover letter by sending it to the following address:
Iglesia Bautista Belen Senior Pastor Position
820 N. Reid
PO Box 2046
Clovis, New Mexico 88102
Central Baptist Church
Central is seeking their next Worship Pastor and Student Pastor. Learn more about applying for these positions HERE. You can mail application/résumé to:
Central Baptist Church
Worship Pastor Position
Youth Pastor Position
2501 N Norris
Clovis NM 88101
First Hispanic Baptist Church - Tucumcari
Senor Pastor Search - Bi-lingual andBi-vocational
PO BX 972
Tucumcari, NM 88401
Emmanuel Baptist Church in Portales, is seeking a parttime Children’s Director. Duties include planning and supervising the Children’s Sunday School Department, and supervising Wednesday evening activities for children.
This church is also seeking a parttime Music Director. Includes selecting and leading music for Sunday service and leading/directing a praise team. Must consider these positions as a ministry rather than a job! Contact ebc@yucca.net or phone at 575-356-8275 for information and/or an application.
First Baptist Albuquerque is seeking a youth/families pastor. Contact Pastor Steven Ball at 214-541-4640 for additional information.
AUGUST FINANCIAL REPORT
Beginning August $ 69,980.14
Receipts 11,410.50
Disbursals 10,825.78
Balance August 31 $70.564.86
Please make any checks you send payable to: Tri-Area Baptist Association and mail them to 1100 W. Mañana Blvd, Clovis NM 88101
Got a question about any of the above events? Call Elaine at 575-714-7788.
PRAY FOR NEEDS
IN OUR ASSOCIATION
New or updated requests appear below in bold type.
Pray for the potential mission work in Honduras.
Pray for potential Kenya mission trip.
Pray for Ronna Jordan and the ministry to provide water wells in Kenya.
Pray for the potential new ministry between Oklahoma Baptist University and the prison at Santa Rosa.
Pray for Foundations of Faith Dairy Ministry.
Pray for our pastorless churches: Iglesia Bautista Belen in Clovis, First Hispanic Tucumcari, and GracePointe Portales. FBC Portales has called their next pastors but he will not be in place until later in October.
Pray for the Christian Challenge ministry at Eastern.
Pray for all our pastors and other ministerial staff and leaders.
Pray for Joel Castro and his wife, Sara, from Honduras, that they might be able to secure the necessary visas to come to the U.S.
Pray for Carlos Cervantes and his wife, Adrianna, from Mexico, that they might be able to secure the necessary visas to come to the U.S.
