Three Questions is a semi-regular series introducing individuals across the NAB by asking them about their story, their ministry, and what they are learning. These features on members of our NAB family also provide great opportunities to pray for them as we get to know more of their story. This week, we hear from David Curtis, lead pastor of Salt Creek Baptist Church in Dallas, Oregon.
What’s your story?
I grew up in Oregon and have been in the Pacific Northwest my entire life. I was raised in a Christian home and can probably count on one hand the number of times I missed church as a kid. Faith in Jesus was just part of my life. I formally accepted Jesus as Savior at a Good News Club meeting one day after school. Growing up included a regular rhythm of church, AWANA, sports, and family. In high school, I was still involved with church, as well as youth group, but sports became my focus, and my life was not focused on following Jesus.
My college years presented me with a crisis of faith. Much to my dismay, my athletic career had peaked in high school, and so a significant part of my identity was gone. As I looked at my life, I came to the realization that if I was going to identify as a Christian, then I needed to actually follow Jesus with my life. I grew in my faith through participation in Campus Crusade for Christ, went on a mission trip, and ultimately felt called to ministry.
After getting married halfway through our undergrad degrees, my wife and I prayed about ministry and felt led to serve the local church. After several years of youth ministry and earning a degree from Western Seminary, I found myself as a 31-year-old senior pastor in an isolated community on the outer coast of the state of Washington.
Feeling the need for support and community, I reached out to the NAB Northwest regional minister at the time, Rick Weber, and over the course of a couple years, our church joined the NAB family. Six years later, and with my mother’s health failing, I took a call to pastor Salt Creek Baptist Church just outside Dallas, Oregon, which was about twenty minutes from my parents’ home. Ten years later, I am still here and loving being a part of the NAB. . . .
For more than 50 years, Church Investors Fund has partnered with local churches in Canada and the US for facilities development. And it is often through these new buildings and additions that NAB churches are able to proclaim the inbreaking of God’s Kingdom in their communities.
On a recent trip to New York, CIF was able to meet with a number of NAB churches in various stages of expansion, growth that CIF is helping facilitate.
Victor Community Church is in the middle of expansion, part of which includes plans to develop a soccer field and baseball diamond to serve the community by providing a place for kids to take part in sports in a Christian environment. CIF also visited theWELLbuffalo, which recently finished an expansion on their Bethel campus, and they were able to use that new space to partner with an international organization to pack food for starving children around the world.
You can read the full stories from CIF – and find out more about their ministry – by following the links below.
Every three years, youth, young adults, and leaders from across the NAB come together in Orange County, California, for an experience unlike any other. The Gathering is a week of of powerful worship, impactful service projects, and tons of fun. The next Gathering is taking place July 2025.
If your groups has registered, or plans to register, the deadline for final payment is May 12, 2025, which can be made via the NAB online platform or by mail. (Please notify us if you have mailed payments by emailing us youth@nabconf.org.)
We are hard at work finalizing the next issue of Onward, the free NAB magazine full of news, stories, and updates from the North American Baptist family. If you don’t receive this biannual publication and would like to, simply follow the link below, select the box for Onward, and fill out your name and address.
The next issue should arrive in mailboxes across Canada and the US in mid-June.