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.
About eighteen months ago, the opportunity to serve our conference of churches in a different way was presented to me. I was thrilled to come onboard as the part-time US director of Advancement while still pastoring Salt Creek Baptist Church.
What’s ministry like for you?
Salt Creek is a farming community just outside the small city of Dallas, Oregon. Many of our members own and operate their own farms, while others work in town or commute into the city. This creates challenging rhythms for ministry, as many of our members travel twenty miles or more to get to the church from surrounding communities and farms.
We are also embedded in an extremely liberal environment on the West Coast. Outreach and evangelism must be done with wisdom and grace while still maintaining our theological integrity. Because of the progressive influences in the schools, we have seen a significant shift in many of our families to choose home schooling or private schooling over the past several years. This makes for unique challenges for our student and children’s ministries during the week. We are still learning how to serve our families well.
As a multigenerational church, we are in a season of growing young families and yet very few teens and young adults. It is exciting to have new families, and yet the need for volunteers in our children’s ministry has never been more urgent.
What are you learning?
I am continually being drawn back to issues of identity. Ministry always presents us with the temptation to find our identity in the tasks we perform or the titles we are given. The challenge is to resist the temptation to find my identity in the tasks of preaching or shepherding or in the title of pastor. I am first and foremost a beloved child of the King. That is my identity. How I get to serve King Jesus will vary from season to season. Whether I am serving as a lead pastor or an Advancement director, my core identity does not change. This truth I continually coming back to keeps me grounded, helping me not to think too high or too low of myself based on my current title, role, or success in ministry.
What a blessing it is to be part of the great North American Baptist Conference community. Would you please take a moment to pray for David Curtis and Salt Creek Baptist Church?